Day Trading Methods
- Thread starter sfunds
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Quote from sulong:
The best tool is education.
You can begin by looking at the top of this page, see where it says training? Click on that, and start reading.
Good luck
Very right sulong!
None are given away for free. What's sold usually won't work.
SOLUTION: develop good methods yourself.
Good luck!
nononsense
Zero sum mechanics/dynamics have been debated before at ET.
To repeat the best day trading method, here is my answer again.
Strategy: zero sum play
Market: DOW or another index futures
And I'll add the approach needed.
Tools: do your research and assemble your back data. Set up zero sum trading model. Back test. Play.
To repeat the best day trading method, here is my answer again.
Strategy: zero sum play
Market: DOW or another index futures
And I'll add the approach needed.
Tools: do your research and assemble your back data. Set up zero sum trading model. Back test. Play.
Pretty broad question. There are two basic approaches to all trading, trend trading and countertrend trading. In the former you try to hop on an established trend, either on a breakout or pullback typically. With the latter, you are basically picking tops and bottoms. There are many wrinkles to each, but that is the basic idea.
Many daytraders use a scalping technique, which means they try to buy at the bid and turn around and either sell at the offer or sell for a quick profit. Other popular techniques include trading opening gaps, trading off news events and taking signals off a broader index such as the S&P 500.
For a good discussion of short term trading, often called swing trading, look at www.hardrightedge.com.
In all trading, risk control is far more crucial than the actual method used to enter and exit trades. While you're learning keep your size small. It is easier to make up for lost opportunities than lost money.
IMHO...one of the better methods for day trading (having all positions closed at the end of the day) is just trading off intraday support and resistance levels. (not to be confused with traditional pivot levels) Now, whether you want to go with the flow or trade against it (fade it) or both, is up to you.
And as AAA mentioned, the pullback is also a good choice, but to me is more of an art form.
I never hold positions overnight, but, if I was going to trade daily bars and hold for a couple of weeks, I'd probably look for what Trader Vic calls 2Bs'. You can learn about them from his book. Trader Vic Methods of a Wall Street Master
Good Luck!
Hello:
When you get down to it, it is all about testing levels. If you look at any tradeable instrument, you will be able to see it trade up to and test various levels. What happens at these levels, and how you use what you know, determines whether you make a profit or not. For instance, I look at the big trend (daily market) and then I compare it to the last few intraday charts. Is the market trending up, down or consolidating? When the market opens, (I trade the Emini) I like to take its "temperature" by watching the first 30 minutes. During that time I am looking at how volume affects the movement of price as it approaches and tests certain levels. Examples of important test levels are "pivots" the open and close, the previous day's open, high and close, and then any price point where previously you have seen unusual activity like gaps up or down. The art of trading is how you play it when price is near these levels. For example, one play I like to make is to wait for price to move up through a pivot and then fail, falling back. As price falls back through the pivot point, I will jump on with small size, waiting for price to accelerate down. If it does I scale in bigger hoping that I have found a trending market. If it doesn't, I get out with a small loss because my initial bet size was small. Hope this is of some help. Good luck. Steve46
When you get down to it, it is all about testing levels. If you look at any tradeable instrument, you will be able to see it trade up to and test various levels. What happens at these levels, and how you use what you know, determines whether you make a profit or not. For instance, I look at the big trend (daily market) and then I compare it to the last few intraday charts. Is the market trending up, down or consolidating? When the market opens, (I trade the Emini) I like to take its "temperature" by watching the first 30 minutes. During that time I am looking at how volume affects the movement of price as it approaches and tests certain levels. Examples of important test levels are "pivots" the open and close, the previous day's open, high and close, and then any price point where previously you have seen unusual activity like gaps up or down. The art of trading is how you play it when price is near these levels. For example, one play I like to make is to wait for price to move up through a pivot and then fail, falling back. As price falls back through the pivot point, I will jump on with small size, waiting for price to accelerate down. If it does I scale in bigger hoping that I have found a trending market. If it doesn't, I get out with a small loss because my initial bet size was small. Hope this is of some help. Good luck. Steve46
This is one strategy I use too. I see it analogous to Poker. The set-up is my inital hand, if it is strong enough I place the bet. Then the flop comes and if that is good I check or bet some more. If it isn't I get out.
What is key is having the discpline to get out , instead of holding onto a weak hand. This is hard to do because as soon as the bet is placed powerful 'hope' emotions twist objectivity.
On the hand, in poker when you have a strong hand you need to take advantage and increase size and see the hand through. If you fold too often to the bluffs you won't succeed . And this also applies to trading where we are tempted to take a few ticks instead of sticking out for larger gains.