Trading for a Living - the journey to self discovery

Quote from vk60546:

if you don't mind me asking, how do you pick the stocks to trade? Any details you can share would be appreciated. I'm in the process of learning about trading, so totally green at this point. Getting books and looking up software on line.
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VK...

Not at all; karma is a good thing :cool:

First of all, I am NOT a "stock picker"; never have and never will. Stock "picker" in my definition is someone who goes thru the analysis and then projects where it would be based on certain assumed "drivers" (fundamental usually). I like my 10% here and there instead of waiting - think of it as compounding.

Second of all (as I've seen some boards attract flamers over time), I'm not saying one method or approach is better than the other. I'm posting for myself and no other agenda. My biggest enemy over time has been the lack of discipline (on entries and exit)! If your approach works for you; great...please share and by sharing, both parties can benefit and improve their methods of profitability.

Given what I've said:
- I use a free site called Finviz.com; they have a pretty good scanner that is free. I use these parameters:
a. short interest > 10%
b. average daily volume >=100k
c. eps>0
d. price > all sma's

What happens next isn't an exact science. I sort them according to short interest (desc) and go thru the charts one by one looking for interesting patterns.

For example, I marked TZOO as a possible trade but chickened out as I knew earnings was coming out. It reported well and it gapped; but it could have gone the other way as well! I'll catch the bus another time...as in maybe on Monday lol...

NFLX comes up as a stock that I'm considering. Again, earnings coming up....it can either break out or break down. I'm willing to stand aside and take action after earnings.

I personally have the bias towards trading 3x ETFs due to its leverage. SRZ was from an article I read in Seeking Alpha. So, as you can see, I don't have a predefined bias towards any stocks. I merely look for ideas and then look at the charts for retracements or breakouts.

I don't use a packaged software program; Stockcharts.com works and its free.

Books? Ummm I'll sell you what I have lol. In hindsight, Stockcharts.com has all the definition you need. Reading is one thing; being able to apply what you learned with discipline is another thing!

My two cents...
 

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Quote from Th3UglyTruth:

Talk about issues! My PC showed the blue screen of death and practically wiped out everything and I mean everything on my drive!:mad: Start from scratch!
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Get an external hard drive and save everything to that going forward.

If your computer takes a shit, all your files are safe. Reinstall the OS and you are back up and running in no time - along w/ all your files intact.
 
Quote from brownsfan019:

Get an external hard drive and save everything to that going forward.

If your computer takes a shit, all your files are safe. Reinstall the OS and you are back up and running in no time - along w/ all your files intact.
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Thanks Brownsfan...

I do have most of it backed up (didn't back up manually for a few months! lol discipline ain't my strongest suite!); I just wasn't able to reinstall my OS (wouldn't go past booting to read the CD drive). Got frustrated trying and installed a linux based system instead. I have a feeling that I've got Malware or virus in my drive somewhere that needs to be cleaned out. I just have to adapt.

I'm shopping to find an external HD that will back up automatically.

Good trading to you.
 
Crosses MVA50 for the first time since it breached it on March. Bounced back up after testing the $41 range twice. $56's would be the resistance. Interestingly, PnF shows it to have a target of $39...but of course, it will change if price continues to move in the current direction.:D
 

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Quote from Th3UglyTruth:

Here is the chart...

Price bounced off the blue and olive trendlines; MACD divergence prior to breakout bar.
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Sold at $85.29 for a 5% return as it crossed MVA 20 on 30min charts.
 
Quote from Th3UglyTruth:

Here is the other one...

Now, can multiple attachments be done in one post?
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Took profits at $10.54; got my 10%; letting 500 ride with $10.25 stop.
 
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Given what I've said:
- I use a free site called Finviz.com; they have a pretty good scanner that is free. I use these parameters:
a. short interest > 10%
....
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Thanks for your info Truth. Again, total newbie here and found out that short interest means

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/082201.asp

A large increase or decrease in a stock's short interest from the previous month can be a very telling indicator of investor sentiment. Let's say that Microsoft's short interest increased by 10% in one month. This means that there was a 10% increase in the number of people who believe the stock price will decrease.
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So, by looking at short interest, you are picking stocks that are probably decreasing in price?

But then, if the goal is to make money, would one want to look at >10% short interest vs. <10%?

Thanks again.
 
Quote from vk60546:

Thanks for your info Truth. Again, total newbie here and found out that short interest means

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/082201.asp



So, by looking at short interest, you are picking stocks that are probably decreasing in price?

But then, if the goal is to make money, would one want to look at >10% short interest vs. <10%?

Thanks again.
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U r welcome VK...

RE: short interest
what you may have missed is that only make up one of the parameters of the search. if you look at the other parameters and combine it with the short interest requirement...it provides a different picture...

Stopped out of TNA...

Good luck!
 
Do you mean you were running Windows and had a blue screen of death and now you run Ubuntu or you were running Ubuntu when the failure happened? I've never seen a blue screen failure in Ubuntu but failures do happen even under Linux of course but they are exceedingly rare compared to Windows.

The big problem I've had with Ubuntu is that occasionally if you use the dual-boot feature with Wubi something goes awry and you cannot boot properly afterwards. I've never lost any data due to this but it is a pain to re-create the proper boot parameters to get back in again. You might want to create a Live boot CD and keep it handy for this purpose also if you ever need to mount your drive without booting and get your data off.

I'm still using Ubuntu 10.10 as a desktop but for my trading PC that is more important I've been using Fedora which has performed very well overall. If you want even more conservative you can go with either CentOS or Scientific Linux which are built from the rock-solid and stable Red Hat Enterprise Linux which is the preferred Linux for mission critical apps.
 
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