Anyone do any investing? Options, day trading, currency trading....

[TubStain]

This is an interesting thread indeed.

I trade as well, though I'm a newcomer, sicne I started in November. I'm still learning the ropes. I trade on pure technical analysis as well, and find that most of the comments mentioned here are similar to my principles that I have learned.

I think one of the most important is knowing when to sell, what percentage margin are you willing to take a loss on. Kind of like an insurance for the money you do have. I have a question though, given that I trade with around $6,000 and I tend to play high risk and invest all in one stock, I am usually done with just one trade per day, since it doesnt credit the profit into my account until the next morning. Is there any way around that or do I HAVE to get a margin account?


EDIT: I'm on Ameritrade too

 

[Miramonti]

A friend of mine was trading for a while and like to brag that he was right about 9 out of 10 times, but he never ever liked to use stops to protect his position from becoming too much of a loser. Needless to say he's not trading anymore.

I guess you may have to use margin to be at risk of being labeled "daytrader" but you should talk to ameritrade to be sure. In fact talk to them a couple times until you get the same story twice. A margin account won't reduce your risk tho, usually only increase it if you put more money into one position, unless you use it to spread your positions out into other stocks, altho if they are all long positions and the market goes down for all of them at the same time, then you will increase your loses that much quicker. Margins are risky, and I don't think I've ever maxed out since the limit was raised from 2x to 4x...I don't want to risk that much at any given time.

 

[TubStain]

I need to know when to pull out of stocks. I'm currently toying with a strategy of 5% loss = get out. Its like an insurance amount for my own money. But I'm not yet sure when to get out when making money. The closer I get to my goal the more I feel I should hold on in case I lose out. I once managed about $900 in 3 days, before not selling and falling back to just $300 or so.

It's very hard to not let emotions get entwined with your purchasing/selling decisions. I think thats one of the hardest lessons to learn for a new investor.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: TranceGOD
I need to know when to pull out of stocks. I'm currently toying with a strategy of 5% loss = get out. Its like an insurance amount for my own money. But I'm not yet sure when to get out when making money. The closer I get to my goal the more I feel I should hold on in case I lose out. I once managed about $900 in 3 days, before not selling and falling back to just $300 or so.

It's very hard to not let emotions get entwined with your purchasing/selling decisions. I think thats one of the hardest lessons to learn for a new investor.

The last sentence is so very true....at least you are astute enough to realize it.

What's so wrong with being labeled a daytrader by the SEC?


BTW, is Datek supposed to change any of their services as they are merged into Ameritrade?

 

[Miramonti]

getting labeled just means that you must keep 25k in the account to trade everyday.

I'm not sure what ameritrade offers, since I still have the datek interface. Dateks technology is far superior to ameritrades tho - those customers are getting the best improvements. Hopefully they will add more features but I just hope that it doesn't become unstable or unreliable as they change over. I trade alot of small stocks (<$5) so the flat commision rate works for me because I trade alot of shares but for people who trade less shares but higher dollar value like the ibm's and msft's, Interactive Brokers is an excellent deal, where you pay 1cent a share up to 500 shares, .05 a share beyond that per trade.

 

[drewshin]

hey you all, i used to work on the psx options floor. if you're interested in options, the required reading book was sheldon natenberg's "option volatility and pricing" (this was four years ago though, dont know about now).

i trade futures now (the eminis), because i love the leverage.

make sure you papertrade stuff first before you start trading if you find a system that seems to be working. however, papertrading is not a substitute for real trading. i papertraded well for two months, but my first two months of real trading were hell. it's easy to deviate and get greedy, or get out too quickly. that's why i go for a set target each day and if i hit it, im done for the day, it's smoothed out my equity curve very well 🙂

a great site for questions/answers is elitetrader.com

 

[TubStain]

Originally posted by: jjsole
getting labeled just means that you must keep 25k in the account to trade everyday.

I'm not sure what ameritrade offers, since I still have the datek interface. Dateks technology is far superior to ameritrades tho - those customers are getting the best improvements. Hopefully they will add more features but I just hope that it doesn't become unstable or unreliable as they change over. I trade alot of small stocks (<$5) so the flat commision rate works for me because I trade alot of shares but for people who trade less shares but higher dollar value like the ibm's and msft's, <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.interactivebrokers.com" target=blank>Interactive Brokers</A> is an excellent deal, where you pay 1cent a share up to 500 shares, .05 a share beyond that per trade.

Ameritrade has the same streaming quotes from Datek (atleast I think so, coz they say it is datek technology) Overall I dont like the Ameritrade interface too much, I feel it is too clunky, but I'm managing fine. I like the realtime quote updates, since I depend so heavily on them, and I havent had too many problems with it yet. Soemtime the Java interface hangs on me when first starting up, so I just close out of IE and get back in.

I trade in stocks <$3 right now.

anyways, its 5pm....I'm off. This is a good thread.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: drewshin
hey you all, i used to work on the psx options floor. if you're interested in options, the required reading book was sheldon natenberg's "option volatility and pricing" (this was four years ago though, dont know about now). i trade futures now (the eminis), because i love the leverage. make sure you papertrade stuff first before you start trading if you find a system that seems to be working. however, papertrading is not a substitute for real trading. i papertraded well for two months, but my first two months of real trading were hell. a great site for questions/answers is elitetrader.com

I don't think I'd ever be able to handle the psx...I'm not a morning person and never was, and I'd just come home early and take a nap anyways. 😱

I tried reading another option book by McMillan or something rather, which was good at the time (years ago), but truthfully I couldn't understand it to save my life until people started explaining everything to me over and over. I eventually got them down pretty well but will never trade them again tho...very difficult to manage positions and pricing in volatile markets imo, particularly as a solo trader.

I imagine the eminis must be a heck of a lot more enjoyable than options too. I've never traded them but sometimes its very appealing to trade just one instrument, except I've always feared that there would be too many slow days at times to generate enough opportunities/trades for the kinds of things I like to do.

it's easy to deviate and get greedy, or get out too quickly. that's why i go for a set target each day and if i hit it, im done for the day, it's smoothed out my equity curve very well 🙂

great idea!

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: TranceGOD
Soemtime the Java interface hangs on me when first starting up, so I just close out of IE and get back in. I trade in stocks <$3 right now. anyways, its 5pm....I'm off. This is a good thread.

Same thing here. It just goes all white in part of the window and I have to close out of everything and log back in. :frown: The Command Center with the level2 and quick order entry is great tho, not to mention the streaming dow jones headline news also.

 

[TubStain]

I havent paid for level 2 quotes yet, Is it really that much more helpful? What about he dow jones news, is it a big help in knowing when to get in and out?

 

[RU482]

I use this site for commodities trading

 

[dafatha00]

i want to get started in investing but frankly, i don't really know much 😱 ... is there a book i can read or a site i can visit that explains all that?

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: jjsole
getting labeled just means that you must keep 25k in the account to trade everyday.

I'm not sure what ameritrade offers, since I still have the datek interface. Dateks technology is far superior to ameritrades tho - those customers are getting the best improvements. Hopefully they will add more features but I just hope that it doesn't become unstable or unreliable as they change over. I trade alot of small stocks (<$5) so the flat commision rate works for me because I trade alot of shares but for people who trade less shares but higher dollar value like the ibm's and msft's, <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.interactivebrokers.com" target=blank>Interactive Brokers</A> is an excellent deal, where you pay 1cent a share up to 500 shares, .05 a share beyond that per trade.

i tried IB for those limit trails. i couldnt get it to work. and the online help was CLUELESS 🙁 i could have tried IB's forums, but i figure if they dont know their own system on default trades...

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: TranceGOD
I havent paid for level 2 quotes yet, Is it really that much more helpful? What about he dow jones news, is it a big help in knowing when to get in and out?

I use them when placing orders in stocks that aren't very liquid. i.e. if there is a big offer near where I want to sell, but its a littel lower, I might put my order in a little lower to help get filled. It seems like the island is the last to get filled when a stock trades a certain price relative to other market maker orders.

The realtime news is helpful because I have a ton of stocks that the computer watches for selloffs, but I don't want to get caught buying into a disaster because the ceo just got arrested or something. When there's a selloff that looks news related I back off. Having lost alot of $ getting into positions not knowing the news' true impact, its just better safe than sorry for me.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: redly1
I use this site for commodities trading

And I hear this guy is sort of a guru too. 😛

i want to get started in investing but frankly, i don't really know much ... is there a book i can read or a site i can visit that explains all that?

Not sure what would be good to start with. I like The disciplined trader (mostly discusses the psycologic aspect), but you might want to check in with elitetrader.com as ref'd above, they would have some suggestions for you.

i tried IB for those limit trails. i couldnt get it to work. and the online help was CLUELESS i could have tried IB's forums, but i figure if they dont know their own system on default trades...

Datek added those too altho I've never tried them. I wish there could be a stop order you could enter based on time tho so the order could be entered to hit the bid or whatever, based on a certain time, to help keep from holding the position too long.

 

[AgentZap]

I use Tradestation for stock trading www.tradestation.com and next month they are coming out with their next version which should include an options trading platform

 

[aux]

jjsole: are there any good forums on the topic?

 

[Rudee]

I don't day trade but I do mostly swing trades and intermediate trades, holding positions for upwards of a week or two at most. I use typical technical analysis methods such as 20 day and 200 day MA's, keying on stocks that are moving through resistance with high volume. I have a seperate $10000 margin account I use for this type of investing. My other investments are held for a longer term, with trailing stops to keep me safe.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: AgentZap
I use Tradestation for stock trading www.tradestation.com and next month they are coming out with their next version which should include an options trading platform

I thought tradestation was going to shoot themselves in the foot when they went to level2 trading and required a user to use its own brokerage as well as datafeed, or else pay $300 a month to use the software😕. At the time, I listened in on their quarterly analysts call and heard them almost giddy about the money they would be making soon on the brokerage commissions, and that made me a little sick. Whats happening with them right now, can you buy the software outright again?

jjsole: are there any good forums on the topic?

what drewshin suggested, elitetrader.com. If you go there and by chance ask what other good trading forums there are as well, please post 'em here. 😉

I don't day trade but I do mostly swing trades and intermediate trades, holding positions for upwards of a week or two at most.

What exactly is 'swing trading', buying something that looks like its reversing? I hear that often but never really inquired and am pretty illiterate when it comes to technical analysis approaches.

 

[Rudee]

Swing trading is just a term for holding positions for two to five days. In typical 3 day cycles, you catch the rise off momentum to points just short of resistance levels, then take profits.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: Rudee
I don't day trade but I do mostly swing trades and intermediate trades, holding positions for upwards of a week or two at most. I use typical technical analysis methods such as 20 day and 200 day MA's, keying on stocks that are moving through resistance with high volume. I have a seperate $10000 margin account I use for this type of investing. My other investments are held for a longer term, with trailing stops to keep me safe.

What software do you use for your technical analysis?

Thanks.