How many cents can I expect to take out of the market?

[Steve Tvardek]

The kid been trading for a few months and obviously is looking to improve himself. Why be a dick and post this sort of message?

Quote from Cheese:

Well there are those who are very smart and are very very few who know how to take money from the market. There are those who are smart enough not to join the 95% who fail.

Then there is you; one of the many dummies with an unrealizable fantasy of becoming a winner.
Next step: just face up to it.

 

[Steve Tvardek]

Fatrat,

I have posted this advice many times on multiple threads but i think this may apply to you as well. To be honest, stocks like DNA and BA are not for new traders to learn from. They are filled with tons of experienced pros whose goal it is to build big positions and whipsaw inexperienced daytraders in and out at various "critical levels". I believe it would do you very good to scan through many NYSE issues, look for stocks trading less than a million shares a day, and learn to read the tape in them. They are slower and do have less action but trading these will help you develop your tape reading skills and will be easier to identify when a floor broker or trader is working an order.
I dont know, thats just something I feel strongly about because I have seen many traders come and go b/c they tried to trade the more volitile stocks right off the bat and lost their cap before they've given themselves a fair shot at trading.

Quote from fatrat:

So, here's my dilemma:

I trade only 100 shares at a time on the NYSE. I'm trying to build up some consistency, but I'm still a losing trader -- but barely. I've lost about $3000 since I started, but the loss rate has been slowing down for the most part. I'm starting to see winning days, but they are still scattered and not very strong.

Most days, I am up at least $25-$40 after commissions at the peak. (Key word is "peak.") At the end of the day, I usually have taken out about 40-70 cents from the market -- this is from mid-August to September, since that is roughly around when I started sticking to 1 strategy.

At the end of the day, usually that $25 to $40 might become < $15 or even negative, because I'll overtrade and piss away all the profits in commissions. Now, I know what my problem is -- I overtrade. I'm damn good about cutting losses, but the losses do add up.

However, I can't seem to figure out what my expectations should be like. I trade the same exact NYSE stock over and over during the day. (I'm looking for another NYSE stock to trade. I like stocks that trade from 1-4 mil in volume, are under $80, and flat out MOVE at least 3-4 days a week. Got recommendations?)

Can someone make some suggestions on how I can correct my behavior? Are there other people who went through this problem? How many trades should I make, or how many cents can I expect from 1 stock?

Also, I have developed an eye for when the specialist or floor brokers are involved in a particular stock. Lately, in the stock I have been trading, there hasn't been much activity on behalf of the floor brokers or the specialist. Is this a sign that I should be looking for other stocks to trade?

I hit a solid 25 cent move today when I saw floor broker/specialist activity on the tape. But there was only 1 such opportunity. I assume that these opportunities might be more prevalent in other stocks?

Comments would be appreciated.

 

[FuturesTrader71]

Quote from Cheese:

Well there are those who are very smart and are very very few who know how to take money from the market. There are those who are smart enough not to join the 95% who fail.

Then there is you; one of the many dummies with an unrealizable fantasy of becoming a winner.
Next step: just face up to it.

Sorry, but you have to cut this out. You have been a member since 2003 and have not figured out how useless such replies are? Amazing....

I'm sure you can be more constuctive with your time.

 

[Bitstream]

Quote from Steve Tvardek:

Fatrat,

I have posted this advice many times on multiple threads but i think this may apply to you as well. To be honest, stocks like DNA and BA are not for new traders to learn from. They are filled with tons of experienced pros whose goal it is to build big positions and whipsaw inexperienced daytraders in and out at various "critical levels". I believe it would do you very good to scan through many NYSE issues, look for stocks trading less than a million shares a day, and learn to read the tape in them. They are slower and do have less action but trading these will help you develop your tape reading skills and will be easier to identify when a floor broker or trader is working an order.
I dont know, thats just something I feel strongly about because I have seen many traders come and go b/c they tried to trade the more volitile stocks right off the bat and lost their cap before they've given themselves a fair shot at trading.

I disagree with the pontential for trading stocks off the bat.
If it wasn't for the many trade I made at the open I would have blown out.
As a matter of fact that's where I made the most money: you can expect massive moves in the space of a few sec. and of course the risks increase but the rewards are simply huge.
Also you are enetring in a trade with better setup that you might find scanning the market all day long, where you can make a bigger than expected loss all the same.

 

[fatrat]

If you have any NYSE stocks you can recommend, I will be willing to look at them for the academic exercise.

Another question: Are you STRICTLY waiting for opportunities to take when you see floor brokers/specialist activities, or are you trading other setups as well?

Quote from Steve Tvardek:

Fatrat,

I have posted this advice many times on multiple threads but i think this may apply to you as well. To be honest, stocks like DNA and BA are not for new traders to learn from. They are filled with tons of experienced pros whose goal it is to build big positions and whipsaw inexperienced daytraders in and out at various "critical levels". I believe it would do you very good to scan through many NYSE issues, look for stocks trading less than a million shares a day, and learn to read the tape in them. They are slower and do have less action but trading these will help you develop your tape reading skills and will be easier to identify when a floor broker or trader is working an order.
I dont know, thats just something I feel strongly about because I have seen many traders come and go b/c they tried to trade the more volitile stocks right off the bat and lost their cap before they've given themselves a fair shot at trading.

 

[Mike805]

Quote from fatrat:

If you have any NYSE stocks you can recommend, I will be willing to look at them for the academic exercise.

Another question: Are you STRICTLY waiting for opportunities to take when you see floor brokers/specialist activities, or are you trading other setups as well?

Here's a good "academic exercise".

One of my best day trades of the year.

 

[Cheese]

Quote from FuturesTrader71:

Sorry, but you have to cut this out. You have been a member since 2003 and have not figured out how useless such replies are? Amazing....

I'm sure you can be more constuctive with your time.

Well you know that the entire plethora of humpty dumpty dummy do-gooders come in on thread like this and encourage the poor sucker to carry on and jack away the rest of his money until there is none left. How sensible is that?