Trading conditions

C

candletrader

CURRENT LIST OF MEMBERS WHO I SUGGEST SERIOUS PARTICIPANTS MAY WISH TO IGNORE AT THEIR OWN DISCRETION:
1) mistermark
2) shortnfool (confirmed to have the same IP address as TradeRX)
3) tradeRX

NOTE ON THE IGNORE FUNCTION:
To keep this thread sensible, all serious users please use the ignore facility for any idiot who decides to venture here. I will not be responding to anyone who I believe is a trouble-maker. Periodically I will post my opinions on who is trouble-making on this thread, and I will leave it to the discretion of the serious participants to use the Ignore facility on these people.
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To ignore an idiot, simply add their name to your personal ignore list.
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THREAD OVERVIEW

This is a continuation of the previous Difficult Trading Conditions thread.

As we near the tail-end of Summer, conditions will hopefully improve, as a result of the return of institutional money from its Summer holiday. This injection of volume should, we would all hope, result in greater intraday follow through, resulting in more intraday scalp and swing opportunities.

We are primarily intraday traders, so we do not care too much about daily trends. What we care about is the sustainability of intraday trends, and such a condition can only prevail when volume exists to cause a trend follow through.

This thread should serve as a forum for people's views on trading conditions, their reviews of the trading day and any thoughts on trading strategies.

In my opinion, this thread is complementary to Hitman's excellent thread, which shows his daily progression from rookie daytrader to (hopefully) a highly successful professional trader.
 
great topic of course -

after watching the markets for several years and trying different styles of trading (in various markets) i started out daytrading nasdaq-stocks in may this year - obviously i grew up in a pretty tough environment - this should be an advantage for me at the end of the day.

anyway - for what i as a (semi-)rookie have seen so far is, that the market imo is very nervous (one can feel that every single day) - nasdaq is again (or still) on a very critical point (dow of course too) - volume is rather low - spreads sometimes tend to be too wide - also in liquid stocks. intraday moves show little determination. -> that's how i feel it. nevertheless - there are opportunities to trade.

my conclusion - if you can make it now - you (should) make it any time.
 
Before starting the thread properly, I would like to make a few comments on the state of play with the new SEC margin rules.

I am concerned about them, because I believe they are inequitable and will prevent less well capitalised people participating in pure capitalism.

I have made some enquiries, which may be of help to those with less than $25k.

The SEC rules are margin based, so people may conclude that they are not totally applicable for those in cash accounts. People may assume that it is going to be alright to trade from the longside in a cash account without having to wait (as per Regulation T) for 3 days for funds clearance, once the value of the trading account has been turned over but a single time in a day.

Well, in my discussions with a representative from one brokerage, I have concluded that those direct access brokerages that come under Nasdaq guidelines - Cybertrader and Datek come to mind - will (for regulatory reasons that I have not as yet been able to identify) be allowed to offer their less well capitalised customers cash accounts with real-time buying power. This will enable the (generally younger, less well-funded) customer to daytrade to his heart's content from the longside, as long as he remains within his means. For example, a guy with a $20k account would (at current prices) be able to trade CIEN in lots of 1000 all day long.

On the other hand, brokers that come under NYSE guidelines (for example IB) seem to have a regulatory difficulty with offering cash accounts with real-time buying power.

These are my findings so far... I may be totally wrong about them (and I apologise if this proves to be the case). But there still remains some hope for the younger and/or less well-capitalised trader to participate in this game.
 
Wednesday 29th August

The day started well, with the market breaking to the downside and through prior day support. Subsequently, volume died down and the intraday range contracted. I didn't have the energy or inclination to go for range plays, full-well knowing that in one of the lowest volume weeks of the year, follow thru could be a major issue. I did manage a few nice trades today (and had some inevitable stop-outs too :( ); two of the better trades are shown here:

http://www.geocities.com/rangecontraction/aug29.html

For those of you with a single monitor, you will need to scroll across to see the second trade.

 
Originally posted by gerry875

my conclusion - if you can make it now - you (should) make it any time.
More...

I agree with this. You started your career at the right time i.e. you have started at the WORST possible time, which provides the BEST possible training ground.
 
If you can just break even now, when we get a meaty time, you should be able to clean up. Lots of people became arrogant cause they made tons a few years ago, but they never learned how to be good at it.
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I had one and only one winning trade today out of about 40 trades. Funny thing is that I made 13k on that one trade (2k is still in open positions and not "banked"). I pretty much got reamed all day. I suffered through a bad hangover in the first 2 hours which probably contributed to it, but when I came out of my daze, I very clearly saw the bottom in HOMS (I'd like to formally give credit to Catalite in my room for finding it, it was his call). Anyway, I made 85c avg on 17k shares. (I still have a few)
On the other hand, I lost about 8k on my other trades today (mainly dis and cry which has yet to bounce, and I'm still long a nice slug of dis).
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Today we had a nice drop in the first hour (It would have been nicer had I not been long already from the night before). We then settled into a 4 pt sp range for the rest of the day. Not exactly my idea of fun....... We're so oversold now short term, that I'd be surprised if we didn't bounce soon, but at the same time, we dropped through a number of key support zones, so you have to respect the technical nature of the market and not just the fact that we've dropped 300 dow pts in 3 trading days.
 
i guess one point is, that EVERYBODY should consider daytrading as a business just like any other one. and like in any other business there can be good times and bad times.

the ones who master their business will survive in the long-term - the rest won't.

it's no big thing - but i think that this is also one of the reasons why the 25K-rule had a chance to come around. stocks-trading still seems to have a kind of obscene image - even in the usa!!

most people consider it as a way of gambling - even some of those who daytrade themselves (or even the majority of them).

but it's again just a business - maybe somebody should take the effort and make a study about the wash out rates in other businesses compared to stocks-trading. i would be surprised if the differences where that large.

maybe the daytrading community should start to fight for a better image - and a better place within society.

i have a dream ...
 
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