What type of trader are you? Q&A

C

cheesenachos

All,

I have some questions regarding your experiences/lives as traders. I do not trade (yet), I do however work for an asset management firm and believe that I may be suited to make an attempt at the profession because of my passion for investments. I say investments, because I feel personally that I would be more of a swing trader rather than a scalper type. Anyway, I hope the following makes sense. Please take a look at them... I would love any and all feedback.

- Are all/most of you technical analysis traders (as in, you study charts)? What about Fundamental? Swing? Scalp? Momentum/Trend? M&A?

- Are there ways to trade remotely (not sitting in front of a desktop/laptop).....(i.e. via Blackberry/Smartphone/PDA)?? I ask this one because I am a fan of connectivity, meaning that if I HAD to be somewhere away from my office, I could still make moves if I saw an opportunity

- Is it best to diversify your strategy (trade many different types of securities), or might it be ideal to trade one and only one thing (i.e. gold, shatz, a stock, e-minis)....so that you would be an "expert" regarding the one asset type/equity you are trading?

- Is it best/ideal to trade in a market that is open 24hrs a day (I believe e-minis is 24hr)(I wouldn't mind being able to make my own hours and make money all day long)....or would it be good to trade in market that closes at times (in order to provide sanity/take a step back into reality/give yourself some time to breathe & relax).....I ask this question because I could easily see myself getting obsessed and never sleeping (which would be a bad thing)

Thanks for reading (sorry for writing a novel), and let me know if you have anything for me.
 
For what I do, bonds are a swing proposition. I tend to LOVE to play the spreads, on yc widening/narrowing. These trades I can hold for as small as a few days, out to a few months (held on to a spread for about 7 months in 2006)..

For equity derivatives, my holding time is minimum 1 month, and I determine those trades by several measures of correlation/dispersion in a particular market (i.e. SPX and the components)

Cantor offers trading via blackberry for US Treasuries, so I have found it useful to have that when i can't be in front of the terminals and something hits the fan... for equity opts, ThinkOrSwim has trading via mobile devices, but i've never used it, so i can't comment on that.

If you're doing equities, might help to get streaming quotes on your mobile device, and if possible, try to find a broker that offers web/mobile based access.. I've used Quotestream wireless for rt equities before on the blackberry...

trade one thing, get familiar with how things work, study the angles of what makes it tick, why it's moving, etc..


hth
c




Quote from cheesenachos:

All,

I have some questions regarding your experiences/lives as traders. I do not trade (yet), I do however work for an asset management firm and believe that I may be suited to make an attempt at the profession because of my passion for investments. I say investments, because I feel personally that I would be more of a swing trader rather than a scalper type. Anyway, I hope the following makes sense. Please take a look at them... I would love any and all feedback.

- Are all/most of you technical analysis traders (as in, you study charts)? What about Fundamental? Swing? Scalp? Momentum/Trend? M&A?

- Are there ways to trade remotely (not sitting in front of a desktop/laptop).....(i.e. via Blackberry/Smartphone/PDA)?? I ask this one because I am a fan of connectivity, meaning that if I HAD to be somewhere away from my office, I could still make moves if I saw an opportunity

- Is it best to diversify your strategy (trade many different types of securities), or might it be ideal to trade one and only one thing (i.e. gold, shatz, a stock, e-minis)....so that you would be an "expert" regarding the one asset type/equity you are trading?

- Is it best/ideal to trade in a market that is open 24hrs a day (I believe e-minis is 24hr)(I wouldn't mind being able to make my own hours and make money all day long)....or would it be good to trade in market that closes at times (in order to provide sanity/take a step back into reality/give yourself some time to breathe & relax).....I ask this question because I could easily see myself getting obsessed and never sleeping (which would be a bad thing)

Thanks for reading (sorry for writing a novel), and let me know if you have anything for me.
More...
 
Quote from cheesenachos:

- Are all/most of you technical analysis traders (as in, you study charts)? What about Fundamental? Swing? Scalp? Momentum/Trend? M&A?

- Is it best to diversify your strategy (trade many different types of securities), or might it be ideal to trade one and only one thing (i.e. gold, shatz, a stock, e-minis)....so that you would be an "expert" regarding the one asset type/equity you are trading?

- Is it best/ideal to trade in a market that is open 24hrs a day (I believe e-minis is 24hr)(I wouldn't mind being able to make my own hours and make money all day long)....or would it be good to trade in market that closes at times (in order to provide sanity/take a step back into reality/give yourself some time to breathe & relax).....I ask this question because I could easily see myself getting obsessed and never sleeping (which would be a bad thing)

Thanks for reading (sorry for writing a novel), and let me know if you have anything for me.
More...

All the profitable (not many) swing traders (holding overnight to a few days) or position traders (holding a few weeks to a few months) that I personally know are very deep into the fundamentals and market seasonal cycles while trading futures.

Yep...some of these guys/gals are institutional traders.

As for diversity...start with one trading instrument and trade it until your consistently profitable.

Hopefully by the time of profitability you'll realize the importance of other key markets and have been paying attention to them.

Thus, it'll be an easier time to traverse into other trading instruments for diversification.

The best markets to trade regardless if they are 24hrs or not is very dependent upon your personal lifestyle, stress level and confidence in your methodology.

Simply, nobody should be telling you what's best on this particular question you ask unless they know everything about you on a personal level.

Mark
 
Quote from cheesenachos:

.... I say investments, because I feel personally that I would be more of a swing trader rather than a scalper type. ...
More...

A healthy debate could be started over the difference between trading and investing, and has in other places. I'm pretty sure, though, that there aren't any folks in that discussion who would differentiate the two by saying trading is scalping and investing is swing trading. The very term itself tends to tip it off. Don't fool yourself in to believing that what you are contemplating is investing.
 
Quote from Rhody Trader:

A healthy debate could be started over the difference between trading and investing, and has in other places. I'm pretty sure, though, that there aren't any folks in that discussion who would differentiate the two by saying trading is scalping and investing is swing trading. The very term itself tends to tip it off. Don't fool yourself in to believing that what you are contemplating is investing.
More...



I know that swing trading would be trading (not investing). I mentioned it because I find myself, in everyday research, looking at fundamentals and looking for undervalued securities (right now I only look at equities b/c that is all I really know) and I feal that swing trading probably described my intentions best. I appreciate all the feedback. It gets me thinking on different levels, and probably keeps my ego in check as well.
 
Quote from NihabaAshi:

All the profitable (not many) swing traders (holding overnight to a few days) or position traders (holding a few weeks to a few months) that I personally know are very deep into the fundamentals and market seasonal cycles while trading futures.

Yep...some of these guys/gals are institutional traders.

As for diversity...start with one trading instrument and trade it until your consistently profitable.

Hopefully by the time of profitability you'll realize the importance of other key markets and have been paying attention to them.

Thus, it'll be an easier time to traverse into other trading instruments for diversification.

The best markets to trade regardless if they are 24hrs or not is very dependent upon your personal lifestyle, stress level and confidence in your methodology.

Simply, nobody should be telling you what's best on this particular question you ask unless they know everything about you on a personal level.

Mark
More...


Thanks for this, I guess my thought was that I would take all the suggestions eveybody has to offer and formulate my own opinions based on others' professional experience. Nobody on this thread knows me on a personal level (much less on a virtual level as I have only been visiting this site for 3 months). Thanks, I am sure I will continue to read and ask questions.
 
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