Quote from Duref Mudgins:
Eusdaiki, the former thread proprietor was inquiring as to the source of the DOM data, e.g., your broker. Also he inquired as to whether or not you are in a formal professional trading training program, if you are at liberty to say. I think he was in the process of trying to determine if you are an autodidact, as you do not appear to be mentored. It is your choice whether you wish to be mentored here, and by whom. If you choose Socrates, you will inevitably be on the receiving end of the Socratic method (so dull), and if you already know it, why do you need him? If you choose me, be prepared for a lengthy, and possibly endless, trading psychoanalysis (which will improve more than just your trading). Should neither of us be satisfactory to you, perhaps you would like Dr. Arthur Deco. His methods are brutal, but they obtain fast results. Consider his style the "your insurance only covers sixteen sessions of therapy" approach. If you need a woman's touch, Cassandra is available, but she charges by the fifteen minutes, plus the room, and I doubt that you can afford her, but I myself do take some comfort there when the hydrostatic pressure of trading becomes unbearable. Kindest regards, Duref.
Ohh ok. My broker is swift, I started working for them about a year and a half ago as a trader in the CR branch.
Im pretty much autodidact but I always got plenty of feedback from fellow traders at the branch, a couple of friends, forums, etc. So Im not purely self taught.
I started trading NYSE stocks {GE, GLW, XOM, PFE, C, mostly} which I did for some time, mostly at a scalping level. At that time none of us in the firm knew how to get money off the markets, after about three months one of the guys started making money on rebates and we just followed him on his method. So I graduated swift´s trading course by doing rebates.
The problem is, I dont like the rebate game, I need my stock to be bloody active! Even when pulling 200+ trades per day in JDSU, SUNW, CMGI {back when the subpenny game was still around}. So I tried the swing approach, {NVDA, QQQ, MSFT, AAPL, YHOO} I also made some money there but I didnt like it either. I feel anoyed by the idea of going in once or twice a day... is intolerable to me. But I sucked it up, and traded with that approach until recently.
About three months ago I became branch manager at the office, so Im now in charge of the whole recluiting and training process... I discovered that I like teaching others about the markets even better than I like the markets.
At this point I was able to teach em at least three different aproaches to tradin, intraday-swing, rebates, and a combination of both.
Until one day one of the students started to scalp profitably, and I realize there was an approach to the markets I could really dig, at first I didn´t really understand how he made his money, but then I studied it and it look quite interesting. So I started scalping on QQQ, but the SEC fees where eating me alive.
So I found this thread and caught some interest on the NQ. Ultimately my interest is not only to scalp it profitably but to learn it´s workings at such level that I can teach others how to scalp it too.
I agree with you that one cannot trade efficiently without first working on the psyc side, I´ve been doing that for many years, since I was 8... {thats about 17 years... perhaps not that many to yall but is plenty from my point of view

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Then again I always welcome help and a good advice from wherever it may come, specially on the psyc side of trading.