i heard about some ppl don't use charts and trade based on tape reading. what do they mean by tape reading? on my td ameritrade think or swim platform, i have a column where it shows "times and sales" price of a stonk. is that tape reading by looking at the "times and sales?"
tape reading...
- Thread starter vincentnyc
- Start date
I could be wrong on this, but....
Long ago stock quotes were provide by a ticker tape (now we have a few electronic thingys doing the same thing). One could watch that tape and observe repeat transactions in high-volume stocks to get a notion of price momentum of that stock.
Nowdays we have real-time charting, making tape reading obsolete. (??)
You'd have to have damn near-photographic memory and instant recall for number going back days if not weeks. Do you have that? Then by all means ignore charts.
i understand what you saying. but my question is "times and sales" what you called tape reading?
I think that's what it was.... same as on the electronic tickers today... you see the price, price change, and at what time.
Personally, I've never found that information valuable... and certainly not as relevant as the price chart. If you were to ask me about my opinion of tape reading, I'd say FUGGETABOUIT!
KISS, baby.
You need a couple of windows to increase signal-to-noise. Filter your tapes on order size depending on market. For ES 100-50, 1. The fast tape captures everything. The larger filter/s captures the levels that larger accounts are interested in.
What's important that isn't seen in the above but only when streaming live data is the pace.
With that said, there are a lot more tools to add to the quiver.
i heard that just by looking at level 2 quote is not enough. some market maker will try to trick ppl and mask what they are doing. and you will need to look at "times and sales" to see the real deal.
Tape reading is exactly what it has always been going back to the days of Livermore and Wyckoff. If you were to read Wyckoff's Studies in Tape Reading you'd find out what it is, and that it is primarily focused on what the leading stocks and secondary leaders are doing. I include high volume active speculative issues in the list. The primary leaders are are the FAANNG + MT currently. I include SPY and QQQ as well as some of the more active IBD 50 and FinTwit favs.
Here is a screen shot of the current tape:
Tape is running very red and the last ticker I show making a new high of day is MRNA at 11:23:54. In very basic terms, until the tape turns from red to green, buy signals are to be shunned and sell signals embraced with a bear hug.
What you will find here at ET and elsewhere is most people have not a clue as to how to trade the tape. But if you learn it, you'll never stop.
Yes
A tape reader may utilize level 2 when trading an individual issue. Level 2 and time and sales is NOT tape reading.