The key to success as a trader is to get yourself into a routine. Boring, predictable. The same stuff over and over again. Once all the hype is gone, trading is a job and the only way to be successful is to treat it like a serious business. We are our own bosses, and we have to be the biggest assholes that we have ever been employed by or success will be fleeting if it is seen at all.
Because there is a ton of money on the line, and race, sex or family background will have nothing to do with making it tends to attract the brightest and most motivated people in the world. Great traders are in a word, hungry. All of these people are after the same money you are I are trying to make. So, prep work is key. In the following paragraphs I will show you what I do to prepair for the following day.
Market Analysis
The very first thing I do is look at the most popular cash indexes (Dow Industreals, Transports, Ultilities, SP500, SP400, Russell 2000, Biotech, Semiconductors etc) on
http://www.tradingscans.com . I also look at some key market statistics such as the VIX, 5 day and 10 day moving average of the TRIN, high and low of day for the TICKs, Volume, Advance vs Decliners etc. This helps to give me a good idea of where the market sits. I also note any sectors that are producing setups.
Futures
Next I look at the four key futures contracts that I feel are important in moving the market. The CBOT's Dow (/YM) and 30 Year Bond (/US) and the CME's SP500 (/SP) and Nasdaq100 (/ND). I look at daily and longer term intraday timeframes to note key area's of support and resistence. This gives me a good idea of what price levels to be aware of the following day. The market analysis and futures analysis takes about 40 to 60 minutes.
Individual Stocks
I feel that it is very important for a trader to get a good look at the top stocks each and every day. This is true whether you trade stocks or futures for a living. I can not recall how many times I have gotten key insights just by scanning the various components of the SP500, Nasdaq100 and the top 200 volume stocks of the day. I look for classical setups such as pullbacks, breakouts, head and shoulders, flags, double tops and bottoms etc. The 90 or so minutes I spend each night on this has made and saved me more money then I care to count. Again, all of these can be found on
http://www.tradingscans.com. Next I go back to my sector list. As you will recall I write down the sectors which themselves are producing good setups. What I will now do is go and look at each of the stocks in this group and analyize them for a trade. I look for setups and relative strength. This takes between 10 and 60 minutes depending on how many sectors are setting up.
Setups:
I next go to the various setups and scans that are programed into
http://www.tradingscans.com. The first one I always go to are the Oops setups. This is the one setup that I believe a daytrader could stake his or her career on and always come out ahead. It is by far the best setup I know of for stock traders. I next go to the trending section of tradingscans and look at the all uptrending (A) and all downtrending (A) stocks. As when I look at the database in the large indexes I am looking for classical pattens that can key me in to the next big move. All of this takes another 90 to 120 minutes.
When my analysis is done I tend to have a large number of stocks written down on a piece of paper to look at further (sometimes up to 50). I try to get this down to a managable number (15/20) by looking deeper at these stocks. I will go over the weekly and key intraday timeframes to clue me in as to which ones might be offer the best opportunties. Finally, I look at my list from the prior day and see if there where any large movers on it that did not make it to my final list. When this occurs I will go back and study this chart to see if there is anything I missed would have had me putting this stock on the final list. I always have learned more by my mistakes then triamphs, so don't cheat yourself by avoiding this critical phase of your nightly study. This final sporting takes another 30 to 45 minutes.
All told I spend 4 to 6 hours each night market analysis. This is in line with all the most successful traders I know. Trading is a lot of time and a lot of work. It is something that you must have a passion for in order to continue on. I think it's also important to realize that your real work is done at night. Most traders make the mistake of thinking they work between 9:30AM and 4:00PM. This is like saying a professional football player works for 60 minutes on Sunday. That is riduclous, the 60 minutes on Sunday is the cummulation of years of hard work and practice. Sunday is when he gets to put it all together, let loose and play. If your trading is to be successful, that is how 9:30 to 4:00 has to be.
Brandon