AbeSmith

Hey Paul. The first book I started was Toni Turner's beginner's guide to day trading online. I read about 100 pages of it but it wasn't going smoothly, so I dropped that book and picked up The Complete Idiot's Guide to Daytrading Like a Pro. At first I shunned that book because I have a bias against these Idiot's books as "fake books" and also didn't like them calling me idiot. But I bought it and after finishing it I have to say it was an excellent beginner's book that made sense to me. Very straightforward and lacking the motivational green tea mumbo jumbo of Toni's book. Then I read this neat little book which I don't remember the name of it, I think it was called sticky charts or something. I read that at barne's and nobles without purchasing it. It was very good beginner's book about trendlines, chart patterns, and reading volume. I also read at barne's and nobles this 50$ book, I don't remember the name, I think it was Tricks of Daytrading or something. It was ok. Then I bought The Market Maker's Edge by Josh Lukeman. I'm still reading that but it seems like a good book. After I finish that I will go back to Toni's book. I'm also reading the beginner's forum from the beginning to the present. I got 2 more pages to go on that. I have to say it is very excellent. To answer your question about Sierra Charts, I did look at them for a moment and did install their software but I was not very impressed. It seemed a bit crude, but I will look at them again because I did not spend much time looking at it.

You are right. I just want to clarify that I looked at the monthly and weekly chart, then the 2 day chart. Are you saying I should do 5 minute candles instead of 15minutes. I tried that but on the 2 day chart the 5minute looked too smooshed. And I prefered the 2 day chart because I could compare yesterday's moves and because it added an extra pivot which was significant today but did not show on the 1 day chart.

Hello. Today was a bad trading day for me. So I was thinking I would show my chart and describe the trades I made and perhaps some of you more experienced traders might be able to fill me in on what I’m doing wrong. So here it goes: I’m using the 2 day chart, 15 minute candles, and pivot points. I’m not using stop loss. Here is an image of my executions today. Notice the lables B(X) and S(X), B for buys and S for sells, and X representing the order of the execution. The orange B(X) or S(X)’s are longs and the purples are shorts. As you can see I made a total of 12 trades = 6 roundtrips. 2 roundtrips were shorts and 4 roundtrips were long. And here is the chart: The first trade B1, at 9:15 central time occurred on the candle where the B1 arrow is pointing to. Notice the arrow only shows the time frame, not the price. The price for B1 was 13688. I bought it right after seeing the previous candle print a green overlapping the previous red. It was a bullish signal which I remembered from my readings. So I bought 2 contracts quickly at 13688. But I should have paid more attention to the brown pivot point right above, at 13690. It was a resistance point only 2 point above my entry point. A bearish signal, which should have alerted me to not buy or buy with a tight trail. And sure enough, the price dropped around that point and I ended up selling at S1, 13676, a 12 point loss. The next trade, B2, at 10.01 C.T., and 13696 price occurred after I saw a lot of buying volume pushing the price through the pivot at 13690 and I quickly jumped on that trade, thinking back to things I heard about going with the trend and buying high and selling higher. But after just 2 minutes I got the jitters and sold at a loss, from 13696 to 13688. But I was wrong because the price fluctuation was short term and the price rose higher and higher breaking 13700. So at B3 I bought at 13700 at 10:24 C.T., but sold by 10:38 for 13701, a 1 point gain. Some reasons I sold this time was because: 1. The volume trend of that price move was downward. I read in a book that a price move up that has down moving volume trend is a weak move. 2. The price was reaching the red pivot point which I figured would be a resistance point. I don’t know exactly how pivot points are calculated, but I know they are strong support and resistance signals. Then I got an idea that it would be a good time to short. I had never shorted before but I decided that because of the lowering volume trend, potential resistance pivot point at 13710, and peak of lunch time which I hear is not a good trading time, that these factors were a high probability setup for a short. So I decided to short around 13710. So I shorted at S4, 13707, 11:04 C.T. But I got really nervous. One reason is that my IB workstation was acting up. I had to press the transmit button several times until the transmit window popped up and I remembered that shorting carries infinite loss potential, probably irrelevant but that thought coupled with what if my connection goes out or what if TWS F's up made me anxious. And also, because it broke through the pivot point I got scared of the potential of a breakout. So I sold quickly at B4 for a 2 point profit. Then shorted again at S5 and sold at B5 for a 1 point profit. But I wish I had more patience because the price dropped all the way down to 13680. At 13680 I noticed the green pivot which was a strong support signal and the price bounced off of that. So I thought it was going up again so this time I bought at B6 for 13689, but the price was not going up so I sold at S6. Fed up with the stock market and having a total loss of $200 I called it a day and was planning on going to see transformers but decided to write this log. The lessons I learned are: 1. Not having confidence in your hardware and software can make you jittery. My unreliable internet connection, unreliable TWS software which has acted up more than once, and lack of general experience in stocks were making me very anxious. Also, lack of very specific trading plan made me anxious and unprepared. Some greed was also probably getting in the way, becuase he greed made me jump into a trade without thinking of a plan but instead thinking about not losing potential profit. 2. Pivot points are powerful support and resistance indicators. And I have a question I was hoping someone could help me: How does short selling affect the price? Any help, as always, would be very appreciated.

Hi Walter. I have a ATI Radeon 9550 i believe. 256MB. It has two monitor slots, one for DVI and one for VGA. But since I have 2 VGAs I attached at DVI to VGA converter to the DVI. I purchased this video card on EBAY as a 512MB card from someone that was in Dallas. When I got the box I noticed a 512MB sticker on top of the 256MB box, so I got suspicious. But when I plugged it in it said 512MB so I didn't think about it too much. Later when I had to reinstall my operating system I noticed that it read 256MB. Turned out that there is a trick to overclock the 256MB and that's probably what that seller did. But it's not worth it now to go after the seller.

Wow. Some of you guys are really lucky. I just have a humble 2 monitor system. AMD Athelon 64, 2GHZ, 2.5 GB Ram, and a backup Vaio Laptop with Intel Core Duo, 2GHZ, 2 GB Ram, and wireless wan or I don't know the name of it but it can use cellphone networks for internet with a subscription. I use the main system for trading, research, email, etc. The laptop is mainly a backup at home, but it is on during trading hours because I also have the Slingbox AV, which allows me to watch my TV from my computer and also from any internet connection. So let's say I'm out of town or in a coffee shop and I want to trade, well, all I got to do is turn on the program and it will access my TV and even allow me to change the channels. I also have a UPS which is backing up my main computer's power supply with 1300VA. I also have my cable modem and wireless router which is in the other room backed up with a 500VA system in case the power goes out I have some time to close my work.

Hey everyone. I wasn't sure where to place this topic, so please forgive me if it is in the wrong area. This thread is about Multi Monitor Software. Currently I use this software: http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm It is freeware, very stable, and works with up to 3 monitors. Basically what it does is give the option to have a taskbar on each additional monitor. So lets say you move a window to monitor 2...then the taskbar window information will also move from the main taskbar to monitor 2's taskbar. On the MultiMon taskbar there is also a clock, and also a drop down menue that is really a clipboard of the things you have cut and pasted, so you can easily go back and reselect an earlier cut or copy. And what I like most about this software is that it places a button on the top right corner of the open windows, and if you click it the window will automatically move to and open in the other monitor. I don't know how that button would work with 3 monitors though since I only have 2 monitors. Anyways, hope this is useful information.

Yeah rock. That is exactly the situation I find myself. I have family here, and that is a lot of support that I would not have living in some other state. Free food, help in case of emergency, and a free roof over my head, which is exceptionally great because I don't have to work a full time job and learn how to trade at the same time. That could be so difficult. Once school season starts I will be substitute teaching from time to time to take care of some expenses, but for now I am covered. My goal is to learn how to trade, but I'm not under any severe pressure or fatigue, and that is exactly the situation that I need to succeed. But enough about me. Tell me more about you.

Well, I'm disappointed to hear that Colorado doesn't have cool weather in the Summer. Maybe higher up in the mountains it's cooler. Dry is good though, compared to humid. When it's humid the hot feels much hotter than usual. But you know, what makes a place good is also the weather. No, I mean the people. LOL.

Hey Brownsfan. Thank you so much for the advice. And thanks again for the advice earlier. It is much appreaciated. It's good to know that there are good people here who are so kind and helpful.

Hey James. Nice to see you again. As you might know, I'm not really a trader. I want to be. LOL. I have only traded stocks until now, and have done horrible. As you might know I lost lots of money in NMX when I could have just accepted the loss. But I was a newbie and so I held on to the stock a few days until I accepted the loss. Then I traded the Blackstone IPO, and made a cool $400, probably 2-4%, but also because I was so inexperienced I lost it all by failing to take a profit when it was showing signs of slowdown. Got too greedy, and also put the wrong command into Traderworkstation. But this is all probably very boring to you. But to answer your question, yes, I've been trading some stocks, but now the nice people here have turned me on to YM. I would trade YM tomorrow but my internet connection is very unreliable right now with Road Runner, so I must wait until Friday for Verizon Fios 5mbps installation. Answer me this James, why do you love Texas? There are nice places in Texas, like Austin. Even Dallas is nice. But the weather is so humid. And there is not much beautiful natural scenery, unless you are in Austin or some other places I don't know about. As for Colorado, I don't know much about it. I know it has mountains, cool weather, lots of trees. But home prices must be more expensive there. Also, I wonder if it is in the kill zone of Yosemite or was it something in the Midwest. They say it might blow up one day. I'm not sure about that.

That's so great. I'm so glad that there is a fellow Texas, and Dallasite on board. Maybe we can start a Dallas Daytrading Chapter. Just a thought. Anyways, tell me about yourself...if you dont mind ofcourse. I will tell you and everyone here more about myself: I am very new to trading. I was joking about the professional trader bit, but you probably know that already. Anyways, I am 31 years old. Graduated from law school 2 years ago. Oh how much I hate law. I tried studying for the bar and really disliked it. So I decided to forget about it and do something that is more pleasant and fits my personality. So on 7/7/07 I bought a lottery ticket, but it was not a high probability setup...lol. For the past month or so, but more so for the past couple of weeks I have been researching about trading. I think if I can master it it would be so good for me because I can maybe then move away from Texas to somewhere cooler...Colorado maybe. Anyhow, nice to meet you, and thank you again for all the nice advice. I do appreciate it. Thanks again.

Hey MrPaul. How is it going? Where in Texas do you live? Tell me...

Hi everyone. How are you doing today? I am good. Let me introduce myselfe. My name isn Abe Smith. That's not my real name. I am a professional trader. I live for trading. That's all I know. Good day.

That sounds horrible. Hopefully that will not happen to me. Oh...nevermind. It did. LOL. It was NMX a few weeks ago when there was a report that they were being bought...turned out to be a rumor and I got stuck with the stock and held on to it thinking that it would rebound, and lost alot of money. Classic newbie mistake. You read about these things in books, but they don't make as much sense until you actually make the mistake. Later when I reread some of the advice I read before in other books it made perfect sense.

Thanks for the good advice torero. What you say about the news makes perfect sense. But you know, I was curious since when I see on CNBC when they report on a breaking news for a company and the stock has gone up and I wonder about the people who got the information before others and were able to trade the stock before the crowd. I was just wondering how they get this info so quickly. But not to take away from your statement of caution. Because as a newbie, I can see how difficult it can be to determine what the effect of a breaking news is on a particular stock and also when it is too late to trade a breaking news stock, and how long to hold on to a position or risk the stock changing direction. Also, to clarify about my statement of "there is no limit to how many eminis I can trade per day" I didn't mean using the max potential of margin, but rather, to be able to do more trades than I can do now due to the daytrading restriction of 3 roundtrip trades in a 5 day period. I feel that I need more trading opportunities.

Now I see that eminis seems to be the answer to my question. Thus, as I understand, there is no limit to how many eminis I can trade per day. Thank you all for the very warm welcome and for answering my question. I'm so glad that I found such a good forum. Now, I remembered another question that was bugging me. The question is, is it practical to trade the news? What I mean is, is there a way to get breaking news very fast so I can trade a stock right before or during the time it is going up initially. I found a site that seems to be suggesting that: http://www.tradethenews.com/

I'm glad you asked me that. Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't know why. It just sort of happened I guess. Now, to be less honest, the reason is, that I feel safer daytrading because of the volitility of the marketplace, especially these days with the high potential of terrorist attacks.

Oh, I just remembered some more questions if you don't mind. I'm wondering, is there a way to trade the news. I mean to have a system in place that gives you breaking news quickly so you can be one of the first to trade a specific stock? This site seems to be saying something to that effect: http://www.tradethenews.com/

Hello. I'm new to this site and new to trading. I particularly enjoy the trading videos and awesome advice I have been reading in this forum. Just wanted to say thank you for providing such an awesome site, and how much I appreciate the very nice and helpful people here. Now to my question. I'm new to trading as you know and I just wanted to get some advice and also just to share my experience with people who are in the same field. I have so many question, so please excuse my ignorance. 1. I don't have the minimum day trading requirement and so I keep getting blocked by IB's daytrading algorithm. What I'm wondering is what instrument I should trade that allows me to daytrade without having 25k minimum. 2. I have so many more questions but now I cannot think of them. So, thank you again very much for the nice help.