carter

Yes, they should be able to give you a heads up as they are leading sectors. I assume you are trading stocks. Perhaps you should take note of this and observe to see if it works? Also, I do think it depends on the stock you are trading. If you are trading a stock that moves inversley with the financial sector than it will probably not budge.

That's like asking someone to hold your hand for you when you cross the street dtx. If you are familiar with excel, you should be able to make your own. If you are not willing to put in the time to make a simple spreadsheet, you are probably jumping into the wrong career.

Decided to start a poll on our experiences as a trader. How long did it take you guys to reach a point where you can trade for a living? It took me 2 years just to know what I was doing and another year before I became consistent.

I am sure all traders can admit to committing this mistake. Boredom can be an enemy to trading. I don't recommend sitting in front of your screens all day. I try to avoid this by trading in the morning and afternoon session only. I usually hit the gym during lunch hours.

Averaging down? Bad, bad, bad. Thats what happened to alot of Enron employees. Until they no longer owned a stock but a piece of scrap paper.

Very interesting jperl. Not excatly sure when electronic trading came into play... but you must be trading for quite some time now. Do you find the futures market an easier market to trade? What would you say the biggest difference is in terms of market concept. Thank you

People are more familiar with stocks to begin with. Also alot of traders use futures as a leading indicator. I also think there is a smaller percentage of successful futures traders compared to stocks.

I would have to say the exit is more important. A profit is a profit but you can never get rich that way. Here's a good quote: "You'll never grow poor taking profits... If taking one-point profit in five or siz years is a way to keep out of the poorhouse why not sell apples on the street corner? It ties up less capital." - Wyckoff

I have never been much of a momentum trader. But the funny thing is, every now and then I will visit free day trading chat rooms. Its entertaining to hear the new traders play any stock on the fly. Regardless of the float and spread, these traders have no clue what they are doing. If you mentioned a penny stock XYZ is on the move, they will blindly buy it. I think anyone can make money in a bull market. But with the way things are now, having a strategy is important. Amateur traders fuel the end of the trend. Dumping it when the momentum is at its peak makes more sense to me.

$1000 is enough to buy you some decent trading books. If you want to start trading seriously, you need to be looking at minimum $30k - $40k plus living expenses.

Prior to the NASDAQ bubble burst, momentum trading would of made you alot of money. Entry timing did not matter... you could simply get in anywhere you want and the market would move in your favor. (to the upside) Nowadays entry has become alot more important. I would like to hear traders opinion on momentum trading. Is it now considered a newbie trading method? Has it now come down to entry based on setups? Carter

There is money to be made in these emerging markets but if you don't know what you are doing, you better stick with the markets you know. Also, I am sure there are ways to get reliable information on a company. Why don't you contact their investor relations department?

I am sure if you went through a hundred charts of illiquid stocks you will find cases where TA has workd and cases where TA has not. I don't think its 100% correct to say TA works in every market. Afterall you trying to point out patterns from a chart and even by coincidence you will find a pattern that resembles technical analysis. Pure technical analysists will probably argue that TA works even in nonliquid markets. But they fail to bring out the cases where it didnt work. If you are planning on trading nonliquid markets with strictly TA, my advice is go for it. Just keep your losses minimal and ride out your winners.

awhoa99, Just because a trader sticks to one methodology does not mean he is trading emotionally. Trading emotionally means not having a strategy or method and relying on feeling. Do not mistake this for intuition. New traders trade emotionally without a plan. If a trader trades strictly of off pivots, this is a plan. Having setups will help eliminate emotionaly trading as long as you follow your rules. You may been confusing the term "emotional trading". Do you have setups that you follow religiously? Do you have rules that determine your entry and exits?

Hello Michael, I am somewhat confused about your methodology. Is it necessary to identify the wave when intraday trading? I agree that one needs to see the bigger trend. Perhaps I am not quite understanding what you mean by wave. Would you mind sharing and explaining it? Regards, Carter

30-40 trades a day as a new trader shows that you do not have a strategy. It looks to me that you are buying or selling just because it feels right. My advice is to drop whatever you are doing right now and just observe. How many different stocks do you trade? Do you know the stocks personality? The market makers behind it? etc... Would you buy a car without test driving it first? This is the same as trading. If you don't mind I would like to hear more about your strategies that you are using. How are you basing your buy and sell decisions?

I see the concept, but how would you create a trading setup based on it?

Learning to control risk. This is the only way you can possibly profit from trading.

Base your trading on a pivot level. If price is above it trade from the long side. If price is below it trade from the short side. This pivot can be the opening price, daily pivot, or any other level you may consider significant.

Just realized I need to study more of market profile. I know of a bond trader who trades using a MP chart only. Is this what you do as well? Or do you combine both a candlestick or bart chart with a market profile chart?

Index futures.

Scary isnt it?

Good stuff Antonio. Market profile is indeed a good trading method. I am no market profile master as I do not use it in my trading. I want to ask you a question regarding your methods. What do you mean by this? Are you referring to the initial balance? Or are you watching a profile chart of several days?

Great theory, great book. I wonder if this guys still trades using the box theoy. But I agree the theory can be expanded in so many different ways. Im quite amazed that you decided to apply it to tape reading. Which kind of makes sense.

Very professional approach Antonio. Well done! Not many traders are able to follow their trading plan. It seems like you also adjust your plan accordingly to market conditions. You seem to have a method that works for you. Believe it or not, trading is very simple. However, in order to get to that level of simplicity takes tremendous work. I am not familiar with the currency market but judging from your trading methodology, you should have no problem trading interest rate futures as well. You are also right about the indicators. Alot of traders step into a whole new level of trading once they realize that technical indicators are pointless and useless. Trading is so much more efficient without them. Your methodology interests me alot and would love to hear more about it if there is a chance. I am more of a scalper using market internals and tape. I also don't really devise a trading plan but just trade market action based on where price is relative to the opening,etc... Regards, Carter