Best Thread How To Make Money Trading The Markets.

[Mr. Charts]

I've only traded 14 times this week with 7 small losses, 6 larger profits and APOL
the best one of the week so far, producing a profit of $2.02 per share.
At the time of entry the ones which turn out to be losers look similar to the ones which are winners. Trading is a probability business, you will have some losers but you must keep them small.
Richard

 

[hamia]

Hi Angus,

It could be solved with an EFS program or just simple alerts but when the market moves, with 75 stocks, you could get say 50 alerts all at the same time, making it no clearer!

Coop

Hi Coop,

I too am just starting out. You'll realise this when I tell you that last week I put a daily high/low on all stocks in my watchlist - before open! (I pity the fool who does this lol).

I agree with everything you say. I like the idea of multiple scanners onscreen updating dynamically.

I'm still interested in how many charts I'll be able to display though. With my current PC the screen is only big enough to have 3 to 5 open at once (plus about another 20 stocks in a quote window). When I upgrade (thinking of a Dell T5500) I'll have 4 large monitors which should allow at least 30 good sized charts. I have just installed eSignal 11 which now has tabs and looks fantastic. Can't yet use it to trade as the broker integration is not quite finished. The application has been written to use multi-threading and I'm hoping that a good single or dual quad-core PC with loads of RAM will see me right.

For the opening 1st hour or so I intend to be actively scanning, the same as you, sitting at the keyboard and paying attention. But I would like, for the quieter afternoon session, to be able to have a more hands-off approach which will allow me to move around the office keeping an occasional eye on the charts while I do other stuff (eg play guitar!).

Angus

 

[coopster]

A laptop with second monitor is all i need right now. I'll use the proceeds of my successful trades to fund the purchase of better equipment as and when i need it. That way, if i never make it as a successful trader, i won't be regretting the purchase of an expensive PC that i never use.

I have one large 24" monitor and a 17" on my laptop which is about all i need i think. The Laptop shows the level 2, the 1 and 5 minute charts of the selected stock plus a trade window and smaller charts of the Index futures and S&P futures.

The Large monitor has a narrow quote window down one side and 8 charts. One chart is dedicated to switching between sectors/index charts, the other 7 are those on my watch list. The screen is then full except for a gap at the bottom where the stock scanner windows are placed.

Trading is not a problem that can be solved by the latest pc. It is all down to experience which is only gained by screen time. I have very little screen time at the moment but i know that my old laptop is more than capable of keeping up with my demands and replacing it would not improve my trading at all. (Obviously, if your PC is very old and running windows 95 then a newer PC could help!)

I think if you can have a list of 10 stocks and trade those repeatedly, making better trades, its more productive. Learn to trade on small numbers of charts at a time until it becomes almost automatic then consider expanding the number of charts after that. This is my approach right now. Seems to be working better than the "chase anything that moves" approach i had before.

I'm looking forward to E-signal 11 being released too. There are so many weak areas in the current version compared to other software on the market. Having tabs to quickly flick between different screens would be a great improvemnt.

thanks

Coop

 

[BTippen]

Hi Coop,

I too am just starting out. You'll realise this when I tell you that last week I put a daily high/low on all stocks in my watchlist - before open! (I pity the fool who does this lol).

I agree with everything you say. I like the idea of multiple scanners onscreen updating dynamically.

I'm still interested in how many charts I'll be able to display though. With my current PC the screen is only big enough to have 3 to 5 open at once (plus about another 20 stocks in a quote window). When I upgrade (thinking of a Dell T5500) I'll have 4 large monitors which should allow at least 30 good sized charts. I have just installed eSignal 11 which now has tabs and looks fantastic. Can't yet use it to trade as the broker integration is not quite finished. The application has been written to use multi-threading and I'm hoping that a good single or dual quad-core PC with loads of RAM will see me right.

For the opening 1st hour or so I intend to be actively scanning, the same as you, sitting at the keyboard and paying attention. But I would like, for the quieter afternoon session, to be able to have a more hands-off approach which will allow me to move around the office keeping an occasional eye on the charts while I do other stuff (eg play guitar!).

Angus

I build trading computers for the prop firm i am part of. Give me a shout and i can quote you.

As for waiting at the market open this is probably a good idea for new traders. However most of the traders in our group have 30-50% of their days money trading the pre-market.

 

[hamia]

I build trading computers for the prop firm i am part of. Give me a shout and i can quote you.

As for waiting at the market open this is probably a good idea for new traders. However most of the traders in our group have 30-50% of their days money trading the pre-market.

Thanks for the offer but I am in China and I think it'll be easier to go with a Dell!

But if I may pick your brains briefly. What sort of chip and RAM do I need for a good system capable of putting up 30 charts or so, with another 30 stocks getting updated in a quote window (i.e. just a list with no charts) + level2 and T&S windows + two or three dynamic scanners? The rate of updating can be adjusted but 4 times/second is the default. I wouldn't have thought this would be a huge demand on a PC - but what do I know. And roughly what sort of internet speed would be required as a minimum. Any comments appreciated. At the moment I'm thinking about a Dell T5500 with dual xeon quad-core processor with 24GB ram. I'd hope this is enough (more than enough maybe?)

Finding out what pre-market trading is all about is definitely on my to-do list once I've managed to get a bit of competence.

Thanks,
Angus

 

[hamia]

Trading is not a problem that can be solved by the latest pc. It is all down to experience which is only gained by screen time. I have very little screen time at the moment but i know that my old laptop is more than capable of keeping up with my demands and replacing it would not improve my trading at all. (Obviously, if your PC is very old and running windows 95 then a newer PC could help!)


Coop

Hi Coop,

I agree pretty much. But nonetheless I think there are advantages to having a large screen area. My trading strategy will be to look for for about 12 basic set-ups (same as Mr Charts - not coincidently!) so assuming I have a sufficiently good memory to recognize these when they occur in real time the only experience that is actually needed is using the software to find occurances of these set-ups. Which comes down to a judicious use of scanners, quote windows, charts, etc. And I think in my case the more "stuff" on screen the better. I really am limited by my current laptop - it's just not big enough. Of course I haven't yet tried anything else so could be wrong - time will tell!

Angus

 

[BTippen]

Thanks for the offer but I am in China and I think it'll be easier to go with a Dell!

But if I may pick your brains briefly. What sort of chip and RAM do I need for a good system capable of putting up 30 charts or so, with another 30 stocks getting updated in a quote window (i.e. just a list with no charts) + level2 and T&S windows + two or three dynamic scanners? The rate of updating can be adjusted but 4 times/second is the default. I wouldn't have thought this would be a huge demand on a PC - but what do I know. And roughly what sort of internet speed would be required as a minimum. Any comments appreciated. At the moment I'm thinking about a Dell T5500 with dual xeon quad-core processor with 24GB ram. I'd hope this is enough (more than enough maybe?)

Finding out what pre-market trading is all about is definitely on my to-do list once I've managed to get a bit of competence.

Thanks,
Angus

That computer sounds like it will be easy powerful enough. Just make sure it has a SLI board so each screen can have its own DVI slot without the need for spliters etc

 

[tradespreads]

Thanks for the offer but I am in China and I think it'll be easier to go with a Dell!

But if I may pick your brains briefly. What sort of chip and RAM do I need for a good system capable of putting up 30 charts or so, with another 30 stocks getting updated in a quote window (i.e. just a list with no charts) + level2 and T&S windows + two or three dynamic scanners? The rate of updating can be adjusted but 4 times/second is the default. I wouldn't have thought this would be a huge demand on a PC - but what do I know. And roughly what sort of internet speed would be required as a minimum. Any comments appreciated. At the moment I'm thinking about a Dell T5500 with dual xeon quad-core processor with 24GB ram. I'd hope this is enough (more than enough maybe?)

Finding out what pre-market trading is all about is definitely on my to-do list once I've managed to get a bit of competence.

Thanks,
Angus

30 charts LOL!! That is going to be information overload. No one does it like this certainly not at an amateur level.

Aside from hardware which you are correct you will need, extremely good ping times on an extra broad internet connection will be needed.

Sounds like IT is what you really want. Maybe try gaming and development instead. Lots of high end hardware, high-tech stuff in use there. Trading, and particularly the methods as discussed in this thread (and many others) lends to a strict practice of limited and measured moves. In any case you don't want to be over-trading. I suspect the way you want to run this is to turn it into a fulltime job. If so you most definitely will lose. Trading merely becomes a hobby nothing more.

Nothing beats real work, being a productive member of society.

 

[coopster]

I don't think the computer sitting on your desk is the bottleneck when it comes to speed. It's more likely to be the data tranfer via the internet that is the slower part.

I agree that more screen space is useful but for Larger charts instead of more charts, at least in the beginning.

I am intrigued by the pre-market trading but one thing at a time. I need to become proficient at normal hours trading first! That's a long way off judging by recent performance!

 

[BTippen]

As for internet speed i use 50meg cable. Its awesome and often i am getting over 50mg on a speed check. I use virgin as the supplier.

 

[hamia]

As for internet speed i use 50meg cable. Its awesome and often i am getting over 50mg on a speed check. I use virgin as the supplier.

That's very nice. At the moment I've only got the usual phone line connection which gives a speed around 100-300 KB/s - according to eSignal suitable only for moderate use. I think this will be the weak link (apart from me obviously!).

Thanks,
Angus

 

[gktk]

Richard - sorry to briefly hijack your thread

Hi Angus - also a new Trade- ideas user, very powerful. Do you kind confirming how to check against stocks nearing round numbers within TI? Something i have been looking to setup but not sure how.

thanks

Hi Angus,

Bear (bare?) in mind that Richard is showing only the trades that display this particular method but could have shown up on his scanner initially for other reasons. He is looking for more than one setup all the time and if it happens to trigger this one, he writes about it in this thread. He is not actually scanning for this setup directly, rather more general criteria from what i can tell.

For example, Stocks approaching round numbers, approaching the previous days highs/lows, % gainers/losers etc etc. These can be found with all market scanners. (I use www.tradeideas.com for example but others are just as good.)

Scanning for these puts them on the initial radar and into a quote window but never as many as 75 charts or 200 lines on a quote window! Not with me anyway. By the time I've looked at the last chart, some of the earlier stocks could be moving already and i never had the chance to look at their order book! It could be solved with an EFS program or just simple alerts but when the market moves, with 75 stocks, you could get say 50 alerts all at the same time, making it no clearer!

I try to weed the ones out that are presenting clearer patterns and have live scanners that update regularly. Worthy candidates go onto the watchlist, others get removed when no longer interesting. I also have a favourites list of stocks that i am becoming more familiar with. They stay on the list all the time and often present this setup too.

Just my way, others will disagree i'm sure. I am still a learner too so take what i say with the required caution!

Coop

 

[Mr. Charts]

"Richard - sorry to briefly hijack your thread"

No problem

 

[coopster]

Richard - sorry to briefly hijack your thread

Hi Angus - also a new Trade- ideas user, very powerful. Do you kind confirming how to check against stocks nearing round numbers within TI? Something i have been looking to setup but not sure how.

thanks

Not sure Angus is a TI user but i am!

It's in the window specific filters under Decimal. You specify the value after the Decimal point and it will only give you stocks in that range. The 0.95 to 0.05 values seem to give good results. Or 0.45 to 0.55 for half numbers.

Theres help on the TI website to show you how to better configure this to show stocks running up or down to these values.

 

[gktk]

ok excellent many thanks. back to RTFM for me

Not sure Angus is a TI user but i am!

It's in the window specific filters under Decimal. You specify the value after the Decimal point and it will only give you stocks in that range. The 0.95 to 0.05 values seem to give good results. Or 0.45 to 0.55 for half numbers.

Theres help on the TI website to show you how to better configure this to show stocks running up or down to these values.

 

[Fabius]

Hi, want to say that I have just discovered this thread so I have these 145 pages to read. By now just one question (don't know if already told about) : is it possible to use this method of trading also for forex market? I guess that anything that works on stocks can work also on forex but I would like to know from people who know more than me.
Thank you
Fabius

 

[Blaiserboy]

Hi, want to say that I have just discovered this thread so I have these 145 pages to read. By now just one question (don't know if already told about) : is it possible to use this method of trading also for forex market? I guess that anything that works on stocks can work also on forex but I would like to know from people who know more than me.
Thank you
Fabius

The consideration is that you test and test and test until you can see yourself making money with the method(s).

What one trader has success with does not necessarily apply to another trader until he works with it enough to make it 'his own'.

 

[redart]

Hi, want to say that I have just discovered this thread so I have these 145 pages to read. By now just one question (don't know if already told about) : is it possible to use this method of trading also for forex market? I guess that anything that works on stocks can work also on forex but I would like to know from people who know more than me.
Thank you
Fabius

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/forex-strategies-systems/97114-mr-charts-forex-trades.html

(from the same author as this thread)

 

[Fabius]

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/forex-strategies-systems/97114-mr-charts-forex-trades.html

(from the same author as this thread)

Thank you for the link Redart and thank you for the suggestion Blaiserboy: I'll feed my brain with all these food

 

[Mr. Charts]

Here's one from today. It's a little different as it's much earlier in the trading day, but the principle is the same. As always red X hairs on point of entry and image at time of exit.
This had a large range but you can reduce position size accordingly so your dollar risk remains the same and is related to the ATR and the candle low as described earlier in the thread.
The exit was because I could see on Level 2 T&S that resistance was building. The price pushed up just a little more before dying and the candle I exited on proved to be the highest of the day (so far).
NFLX +70c net profit per share (there was a spread of a few cents, as is common on high priced stocks).
Richard