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Undercapitalization is the number one reason most traders fail. It takes time to understand the market mechanics. When to buy/sell, how to ride the waves, and feel the roll. How to get filled best. Those are the things that you can never learn while papertrading. You are obviously successful...

I more or less agree with the first few points. If you have doubled your account in the last year, then you ARE successful. One day in the not so distant future, you'll have a few hundred k's in your account, and you'll be able to trade for a living. I would assume that you'd be then in favor of...

Wet- You make good points. You may be profitable, and we definately have different opinions on what is successful. I'm looking to trade mainly to increase my account size to the point that I can live off just the gains of my account by the time I'm out of college. I consider any day that I don't...

There are so many exceptions it is really difficult. I use them a lot to show fake size mainly. Lots of times, if I'm not sure what the specialist is doin, I'll put a 20k bid a dime under the bid. If he runs it, he's afraid i'll up my bid. If he drops the bid cause that's good size to sell to...

I'm sorry to post here, I guess it was intended for those under 25k, but I wanted to reply to WET. I did start with 6k. I blew it all. I was unable to trade with that little. I then was given [daddy's] money, and lost half of that before I was able to recover. I was able to recover mainly by...

I really don't mind the new rules at all. The changes in margin and Reg T are awsome. It sux if you are under 25k, but I doubt that most people under that ammount can trade profitably anyway. The commission will eat you up. If you do want to trade, try options or e mini's. Liquidity will drop...

I use them to fade moves and pullbacks into the bands. They usually control the range, so buying on the bands and pyramiding when it goes under almost always works.

Dis has like a half dozen plays, he just cycles through. Big size would be 60k, but I don't think he uses size to bluff. Liquidity concerns means that I won't buy more than 5-8c above the low. And there are rarely more than a few k there. Most trades in those hour long intraday bands.

It depends a lot. Really big size is fake on mo. Especially if you see a lot of little trades going off on the bid. It's really hard for me to answer and not tell you too much. Liquidity is a problem. I watch the intraday charts and daily ones. But I use the t/s and the specialist's posturing...

You won't make much on dis either. Just a bit more than F. But it's reliable. If you take 3-8k positions, and you usually get 3-10 setups a week, you can make 2-5k a day. I can't describe my strategy, just b/c of liquidity concerns. If I could buy 15k at the bottom each day, I would. Usually I...

Trade DIS. I am seriously contemplating giving up most other trading but DIS. It is just too easy.

Since I am fading extrem moves that are contra the main trend. I know I must scale out on the exit. I am often too big to do it all at once anyway. I usually start scaling out about half way towards my profit goal, and just use a trailing stop as I scale out should it continue the main trend.

I think that although only 5% are successful (and I debate that figure, cause I believe it to be much higher when you exclude those who dont really give it the effort necessary) almost 30% of the population has the mental capability to trade successfully if he wants to. Most starting traders...

I think tailspin makes a few good points. Particularly for the need to have some longer term threads for those who can't be pattern daytraders. They need a resource to learn how to trade better in a longer context so they can get their accounts above the minimum. Tradermike- The main reason I...

Wow, I just got back from the bars/clubs, and my entire email was filled up with replys. Why don't you guys leave the market at the office and enjoy the weekend. I also think about the market almost 24/7, but I know when to give it a break so I can enjoy myself. Trust me, some R&R will make you...

I disagree about the time frame comment. The shorter your timeframe is, the better your odds of success are. There is a sweet spot so to speak. I can't predict the next tick. No one can. I can't predict where it will be 30 or 90 seconds from now. As time goes out, I can say with some certainty...

hubby, we're in http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/elitetradinginaction see ya there. My sn is hkuppy.

Keep it really simple. I have no idea what a stoch, or any other fancy charting stuff is. I find trading is best done with less info. Most of that stuff just lags the move anyway. I use 3, 5, 15 min charts depending on what i'm looking at. A moving average couldn't hurt just to see how...

I don't trade liquid names. I find l2 invaluable. IF you don't have l2, you're really missing something. There is no other way to see who's doin what, and no other way to make money. In the liquid names, I guess it doesn't matter, but let someone who trades those try and explain it. On the NYSE...

BAsically, I trade illiquid things. I'll take a few k, then super snet stuff out of my way, break it out above the resistance point. Usually on something trading a half million shares, 5k in snets all at once clears em out. Then I just sell into the buying pressure and scalp the half. If I know...