Is Tapereading dead?

Quote from CalTrader:

It still works. You dont need a blackbox to trade: I know quite a few people that simply watch the market and their current issues of interest and refer to a chart. They do very well. I also know others that use huge amounts of computing power and surround themselves with monitors and TV's: Funny thing is, they both make money and the experienced person with a simple chart and quote feed often makes more than the people that invested tens or hundreds of thousands on "smart" systems and overcapacity hardware.

Experience still counts in this business and cant be completely replaced by programming: just keep that in mind .....
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So true,

The best trader I know looks at a simple 10 min candlestick chart and thats basically it. His profit to volume ratio is just INSANE. In my book, he blows away any trader I have heard about, even the SD guys.
He has 6 years experience and is very good at his strategy which is actually quite simple. But it requires good intuition and insticts which he has built up over the years.

Tape reading takes time to develop. I happened to catch good runs on a few stocks a few times in a row and hence kept watching them and trading them. Some of the tape reading signs can be used for most of the NYSE stocks. Sectors seem to trade similiarly. A lot of specialists have the same way of signalling they have buyers. Sometimes it's just the institutional buyers that have certain patterns.

It can still bite you in the ass. Specialists do create fake set ups when there is not a damn thing going on (like the past 3 weeks for example). Do not rely on it exclusively.
 
i have yet to see a black box that makes money. eventually they all blow up. tapereadin is defiantely the way to go. if you are disciplined enough you can combine it with macreconomics and it will give you an excellent tool for etry and exit points. combine the 2 stategies and you can make a killing!

dont believe the hype on black boxes
 
Here is a newer book that has some useful info:
Techniques of Tape Reading by Vadym Graifer and Christopher Schumacher.
IMO, watching the tape can add alot of value when making decisions. The tape/prints are the roots for all of those canned indicators and oscillators.
 
Quote from NEO-Trader:

i have yet to see a black box that makes money. eventually they all blow up. tapereadin is defiantely the way to go. if you are disciplined enough you can combine it with macreconomics and it will give you an excellent tool for etry and exit points. combine the 2 stategies and you can make a killing!

dont believe the hype on black boxes
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Hehe,

Well I figure if I was a specialist, MM or a big time super trader and I detected a black box, I would blow that box out of the trading game forever. Black Boxes do not adjust to the market, the trader has to come and reprogram them. Well then he might as well trade instead of expecting some program to make money for him.
 
Quote from plumlazy:

I think that decimals instead of fractions has led to more crotch groping. Just my opinion.
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I nominate plumlazy for the quote of the month.

:cool:
 
Quote from CTXStrdr:

Here is a newer book that has some useful info:
Techniques of Tape Reading by Vadym Graifer and Christopher Schumacher.
IMO, watching the tape can add alot of value when making decisions. The tape/prints are the roots for all of those canned indicators and oscillators.
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Yes this is a good look at intraday tape reading (via the price and volume charts)
 
Quote from easyguru:

<font color=green>From Livermore Market Key by Jesse Livermore
Many years of my life had been devoted to speculation before it dawned upon me that nothing new was happening in the stock market, that price movement were simply being repeated, that while there were variation in different stocks the general price pattern was the same.
The urge fell upon me, as I have said to keep price records that might be a guide to price movements. This I undertook with some zest. Then I began striving to find a point to start from in helping me to anticipate future movements. That was no easy task.
Now I can look back on those initial efforts and understand why they were not immediately fruitful. Having then a purely speculative mind, I was trying to devise a policy for trading in and out of the market all the time, catching the small intermediate moves. This was wrong, and in time I clearly recognized the fact.
I continued keeping records, confident that they had a genuine value which only awaited my discovery. At length the secret unfolded. The records told me plainly that they would do nothing for me in the way of intermediate movements. But if I would but use my eyes, I would see the formation of patterns that would foretell major movement..................</font>
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easyguru,

I understand what Mr. Livermore said and it seems logical enough. Certainly it is worth noting. However, what I referred to in my prior post is the eventual, unfortunate outcome in his trading career. The question then arises, was the outcome (his financial disasters) the result of his NOT following his own rules regarding major moves, or because he DID follow them? Again, his downfall may have had absolutely nothing to do with following major moves (and potentially being blinded to the gathering force of a countermove). I just thought I would play devil's advocate because there is no harm in putting old truisms into question. You will recall that his earlier career, when he did not focus on major moves, was characterized by lesser but more stable profitability. Just a thought.
 
Quote from listedguru:

Anyone left out there who tapereads nyse stocks and makes a living at it? It seems I'm hearing more and more each day about people and their fancy blackboxes. Starting to think that most of the trading is just between computers these days?

-Guru
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Tapereading still works with Naz stocks, and to some degree on listed…

It is my opinion that those who operate in the smaller timeframes (1,5 & 15min.) and do not read the tape, will be consumed by those that print and read it. Volume dictates price.

Three questions I ask whenever I read the tape:

- “Where is the stock trading?” (Price)
- “How much stock is trading there?” (Volume)
- “How fast is it trading there?” (Momentum)

Remember the old show “Quantum Leap”? Imagine yourself going back to the year 1867 (when the Edison ticker was first used on Wall Street). There was no:

- CNBC
- Delayed or real-time charts. Runners (were named after people who ran to relay points to deliver quotes) were the closest thing to real time quotes.
- Charts
- Black boxes

How would you make money? As the ticker spewed prices traders read the tape and drew a chart in their heads. With all of the major changes in Level II trading, time and sales becomes even more important. For me, the tape became a necessary tool to get passed all of the crap that goes on in Level II these days.

However, with black boxes, late prints and ECN consolidation the tape can offer a conundrum, especially with listed stocks. There's way too many antics taking place down there at our expense. That's why 90% of my "trading stable" is Naz...more transparency. The only transparent thing on the listed floors is the specialist him/herself.

Don’t lose faith in the tape…it is the basis of the market!

Just my two “ and 1/10th” cents.
:D
 
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