Could someone take a look at this?

[chiefraven]

Hi guys, i'm trying to figure out a few concepts for the time and sales table, mainly, limit, cross, etc

1) When is there actually a limit? and why is there a limit? I've heard people talking about limit, limit at the quarter, limit at the half, but i have no idea what that means.....all i know is that it's a good sign to leave the short sell when you see a limit. Anyone care to explain ?

(please use a format like this): below i have pasted a short sell situation: if you could demonstrate the concepts in this format, by changing the numbers, it would really help me understand a few of these concepts.
3.28 NYSE 3.27 3x300
NYSE V 3.26

3.28 NYSE 3.28 3x300
NYSE V 3.27

3.28 NYSE 3.29 3x300
NYSE V 3.28

so how would a limit, limit at the half, limit at the quarter, limit at the figure look like? and what are some conditions that need to exists for this to happen.

2)What exactly is a cross, and how do i spot them? why are they important?

is a cross just whenever there is a bid and a ask whose price are the same...

like an openbook showing

ASK ASKSIZE || BID BIDSIZE
30.5 200 || 30.5 300

??

LASTLY, i was wondering if anyone could show me their top down approach in finding a good stock to short, what to look for initially... For example, 1st, find a decent price range indicated by the chart, see if the chart is moving instead of staying in a straight line, make sure the spread is not too big(so it's hard to enter and exit out of a trade when need to) see that there are some good sizes on the sell side? What are some of the things you look for?

And when looking at the openbook to see if a stock is suitable for a short sell strategy... What should the table look like?
something like this?

BID BIDSIZE || ASK ASKSIZE
30.5 1 || 30.6 500
30.4 2 30.7 400
30.2 1 30.9 600
30.1 3 31 700


is it better to have a STACK of bigsizes on the right one after another? or just one on top and low numbers on the bottom?

What are some ideal openbook displays are you guys looking for...

 

[murray t turtle]

Quote from chiefraven:

Hi guys, i'm trying to figure out a few concepts for the time and sales table, mainly, limit, cross, etc

1) When is there actually a limit? and why is there a limit?

LASTLY, i was wondering if anyone could show me their top down approach in finding a good stock to short, what to look for initially... For example, 1st, find a decent price range indicated by the chart, see if the chart is moving instead of staying in a straight line, make sure the spread is not too big(so it's hard to enter and exit out of a trade when need to) see that there are some good sizes on the sell side? What are some of the things you look for?



.

ChiefR;
The last are first and there are many ways to do it right;
i have a preference for optionable stocks reguardless of whether i sell or buy the option, because of plenty of liquidity.

On a swing trade, like a nice long downtrend, like we have seen in DAL[no longer with us@NYSE] and not quite as orderly, but nice polar bear trends , earlier in year,MSFT.

Good liquid companies to be sure, good brand name companies to be sure ;
and while i love to observe hawks
mainly want to see plenty of polar bear tracks for days, months, years if possible , in underlying stock.

LASTLY} Also like Jeff Hirsch 2001 Stock Traders Almanac;
and Jeff Hirsch is kind enough to send me free magazine updates. However like IBD said we our own research also.