Trading based purely off Nasdaq L2.

[lescor]

Originally posted by Vinny1
RTharp,does Echo have any monthly volume minimums before they boot you out?

Rob must have missed your comment- Hey Tharpy, wake up!

There is no volume minimum at Echotrade, whether in office or remote.

Corey

 

[rtharp]

Corey I did answer him but through a private message because this is getting off topic. The thread was about Level 2 and what others offices are like. Not questions about Echo. Thnks though for making sure I don't miss questions.

Robert

 

[360modena]

Yelling out....? Each trader has his/her own style & entry/exit points....there is no yelling out, that's for jokers trading from their living rooms, which definitely isn't what I'm doing. My point is simply that if you're a scalper, or even a momentum trader, you cannot ignore that being well versed with L2 is a neccesity, if you're not, you'll get crushed all day...unless you're swing or position trading.....

 

[DATTrader]

Originally posted by MACD_addy
Asteroids, Misslecommand......?? Whoa... showing your age there brother!

I knew I would but the anology was good and they were classics werent they. Regarding the other game...perhaps Defender?

 

[MACD_addy]

I do not know what it is like at other firms but at the firm I traded at previously it was incredibly noisy. Constant banter and shouting about what guys were seeing. It was a great team atmosphere and a lot of us were trading the same stocks so it was helpful to know when guys were having there bids or offers hit and when guys who were trading other stocks were sharing info on what was happening with their stocks. It was like our own on floor 'squawk' type of info.
Unfortunately, I now trade remotely and I don't have the advantage of that floor chatter, just the info from the 'futures squawk'. I truly miss that trading floor banter, I personally found it helpful.

So the answer to your question Shortee is YES! Kids screaming all day, and it can be a very intense environment and I loved it. As for making a living scalping like that for the next decade or two.... sure hope so.

MACD

 

[MACD_addy]

DATTrader, you nailed it thanks buddy, it was driving me crazy.

 

[shneed]

I often wondered why certain stocks trade 100's of thousand of shares with a 1 or 1/2 cent spread, until I found out that some prop firms encourage their trades to sit on the bid and sell on the offer or very close to the bid so that they can get the rebates offered by the ecn's. Let's say you are bidding 10.01 for a stock then you are offering 10.011 or 10.012 on certain ecn's, even though you are not making anything on the trade itself, you are getting a rebate for providing liquidity. All those shares add up to a lot of money from rebates.


shneed

 

[DATTrader]

Originally posted by shneed
Let's say you are bidding 10.01 for a stock then you are offering 10.011 or 10.012 on certain ecn's, even though you are not making anything on the trade itself, you are getting a rebate for providing liquidity. All those shares add up to a lot of money from rebates.

Very interesting concept. You'd have to do a done of shares though and think of all the wiggles you would have to endure-and the resultant heat from the huge positions- waiting for all those shares to fill passively.

 

[Shorteee]

It was a great team atmosphere and a lot of us were trading the same stocks so it was helpful to know when guys were having there bids or offers hit and when guys who were trading other stocks were sharing info on what was happening with their stocks--MACD addy


Now this sounds to me like the pre-decimal era. Where are all these guys now? Still there, but are they making money day in and day out trading solely on the L2. Are they still screaming out or is it more like crying out loud. Why are you remote now since you stated you loved that team atmosphere?

 

[momotrader]

Originally posted by limitdown

Personally, finding before a move, those <1mil share trading stocks is vastly easier, after they've made a move, and show up on the Gainers/Losers listing, than before they show up. Using stock screening software based on a pattern produces so many candidates, that its still like shooting fish in a barrel.

The great part is, even after these stocks show up on the gainers/losers list, they usually still have the momentum to continue on the trend, and if not, they usually have a strong counter-trend move. Rarely, if ever, do these illiquid stocks happen to show up on the gainers/losers and *not* do a single thing.

What I've seen others do is get a harmonic on a stock or a sector (Jay Yu of www.undergroundtraders.com), I believe, suggests that basket/sector trading is good. Perhaps that will help.

I think I mentioned this before, but I would like to trade a basket of stocks... but since I rely *solely* on L2 without any form of charting, it's hard to just jump into a basket of stocks. It's tough enough trying to concentrate on reading just one stock based on L2 much less a basket of stocks. I think I'm going to need to integrate intraday candlestick charts into my trading. Certainly, when SuperMontage gets rolled out, L2 trading will become even more difficult, if not impossible. Charts will be a practical necessity then.

In these markets, with thinning volume, minimal public/retail confidence/participation, every trick in the book is going thin, so perhaps what we're seeing is/are market noise coupled with a draught of fundamental news. Earnings season is upon us, and coming out the backside of the recession, it appears that these thin companies (in reference to skeleton staff levels) should all be making/exceeding their lowered whisper numbers. Some other market guru was proferring that Tech is passe' and should not/would not recover its luster, and that most of those "change the way we live stocks" won't recover but do an Enron nosedive. Who's to really say?

I personally don't think the tech stocks will be "easier" to trade anytime soon. That's why I'm trying to adapt to the way the market is "now" and looking for better ways to trade.