Trading the markets with Alan Rich.

[timsk]

Naz & Mr. Charts

, etc. . .
Soooo . . . the ol' Naz / Mr. Charts combo is reunited once again. Fantastic, welcome back to you both. An injection of flair, professionalism and experience to these boards is long overdue. IMO, T2W has been a somewhat dull and uninspiring refuge for new and developing traders for quite some time now. (I speak as one of the 0.00001% of traders on the site who still want to trade stocks - be they U.S. or U.K. - in preference to Forex!) However, with your return gentlemen - and the arrival of Jerry O', these BB pastures look verdant once again!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tony B',
I believe that you mean well and want to extract the most and the best that Alan and Richard have to offer for the benefit of the wider membership. That said, I urge you to 'go with the flow' and recognise that here are two full time pro' traders who can really help the wannabes like me. Maybe you don't need their help and encouragement but, I and many others, do. Yeah, I know, they both have their own agendas with their respective sites that they are keen to promote. However, they are astute enough - and the T2W membership are smart enough - to realise that they (Alan and Richard that is) will have to give a lot first in the hope of attracting new membership later. You understand this perfectly well, so asking Richard (or Alan) questions to which you already know the answer is precisely why you got the response from Alan that you did. I urge you therefore, indeed beg you, to make positive contributions to the thread with your enviable knowledge and wisdom, rather than to use your considerable talents for less worthy purposes. The greater good is what matters here. Disagreements of old are just that. It's time to move on to pastures new, for the benefit of one and all - I hope you agree.

Tim.

 

[zenith]

Nasdaq level 2 block trades

Hi Naz, I was wondering if you happen to know the rules regarding printing block trades on the NASDAQ.

When I see a 100,000 block printed at, say $68.1227 (bid), when the current bid is 68.31, its obvious that a market-maker has been covertly buying a big line of stock, and that the printed price is an average of several (many) transactions.

So, to understand what the big blocks mean, I'd like to know the rules/regulations market-makers have to follow when printing big blocks? Is there anything to stop them, for example, covertly buying 100,000 shares and waiting until the following week before printing the transaction on the tape?

Zenith

 

[North_Face]

Mr. Charts,

Thank your much for your trade explanation on CAKE. I have two questions.

1) Had Cake started down as soon as your buy was filled on bar 4 where would you have exited? On a break of the high of bar 1 & 2, on the break of the low of bar 3 ... or somewhere else?

2) You mentioned in post #71 that you dont need charts to trade small scalps so this question is more on the tape reading side. If your position is 1000 shares or more, do you find it better when you are filled in one lot or does it bode well if the lots are all in 100s and 200s. Basically, what does 'how you get filled' tell you? This question is both for the buy and sell side.

Thanks,
NF

 

[PitBull]

Hi Naz, I was wondering if you happen to know the rules regarding printing block trades on the NASDAQ.

When I see a 100,000 block printed at, say $68.1227 (bid), when the current bid is 68.31, its obvious that a market-maker has been covertly buying a big line of stock, and that the printed price is an average of several (many) transactions.

So, to understand what the big blocks mean, I'd like to know the rules/regulations market-makers have to follow when printing big blocks? Is there anything to stop them, for example, covertly buying 100,000 shares and waiting until the following week before printing the transaction on the tape?

Zenith

Hi Zenith

This article may help.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3972/is_200304/ai_n9197498/print

 

[Mr. Charts]

Good morning, North Face,
I'm happy to answer your questions and welcome to this thread.

1. My stop losses depend on the specific situation and vary according to the volatility of the stock, the type of stock, time, and my level 2 screen and what it tells me about market maker and apparently retail behaviour, T&S, buy/sell pressures, momentum.
In a fast early move such as CAKE, I was watching for a change in momentum and market maker behaviour to warn me of an impending change in direction BEFORE it would have appeared on a chart.
Had such a change happened immediately on entry I would have exited immediately and probably taken a loss of a few cents. This actually only happens occasionally.
Had it happened shortly afterwards once the trade would have been in profit, again I would have exited immediately with some profit, albeit a small one.

2. Generally my trades are for 1000 shares, but not when I trade GOOG ! ;-)
On slow moving stocks I tend to take more, 2k or 3k, things like DELL for example.
Sometimes I get filled for the 1000 with one participant, sometimes the fills are spread with Supersoes, Arca, Island being the main ones.
I suspect there is something else in your mind with your second question about size, and if there is, please feel free to email me if you want to continue the discussion. The address is earlier in this thread post #77
HTH
Richard

 

[Mr. Charts]

Thanks for your comments Tim and Lee and again to everyone who has PM-ed and emailed.
Richard

 

[Mr. Charts]

China has raised rates this morning so if the FOMC tightens in May - and Uncle Ben is speaking today - that might dampen the market a little. Index futures are currently off. We'll see if the bond market raises the probability of a rise in the Fed rates. The stock market reaction this afternoon might open up some even juicier opportunities.
Richard

 

[samtron]

2. Generally my trades are for 1000 shares, but not when I trade GOOG ! ;-)
On slow moving stocks I tend to take more, 2k or 3k, things like DELL for example.
Sometimes I get filled for the 1000 with one participant, sometimes the fills are spread with Supersoes, Arca, Island being the main ones.
I suspect there is something else in your mind with your second question about size, and if there is, please feel free to email me if you want to continue the discussion. The address is earlier in this thread post #77
HTH
Richard

Welcome back Mr C. Great to see you.

1000 shares on GOOG would be just for starters for one trader who we both know :cheesy:

 

[Mr. Charts]

Thank you, samtron.
It was a pleasure meeting you at Imperial China. I'm sorry we didn't get time to chat properly - with 20 US traders there it was great fun and the time whizzed past very quickly.
Trade well,
Richard

PS Yes, he's a great guy, isn't he? ;-))

 

[Mr. Charts]

Here was a RMBS trade from this afternoon.
In my opinion the chart set up is obvious so I shan't elaborate. It produced an 80c profit in seven minutes and was, again imho, a bit of a no brainer.
Richard

 

[TheBramble]

Richard, can you explain on the exit bar how you know that's the end of the volume move when the bar hasn't completed?

As for a no brainer on the setup, I guess I have no brain as I can't see why you chose that specific entry point.

Certainly the earlier move up out of consolidation would have got my attention, but to be honest, this isn't the sort of stock or stock action I personally trade. 80c in 7 minutes is good, don't get me wrong, but I'm looking for slightly higher gradients.

Anyhow, would really appreciate your response to my questions as it's really puzzling me.

Cheers

 

[neil]

nice one

Here was a RMBS trade from this afternoon.
In my opinion the chart set up is obvious so I shan't elaborate. It produced an 80c profit in seven minutes and was, again imho, a bit of a no brainer.
Richard

Agreed - definately a no brainer - just look at the volume bars (Level 2 helps of course)

 

[TheBramble]

Forgetting LII for a moment Neil (as Richard didn't mention it in his post as a basis for taking the trade - just the chart action) what exactly do you see as the no brainer aspect of the volume? Sure the volume dies on rising price action just before the blow-off, but that doesn't explain the entry. What specifically do YOU see as the no brainer part of the entry?

You see, I suspect there are people reading this thread who really have no idea about this stuff and making blanket statements like that doesn't actually add any value whatsoever.

Might give you a nice warm feeling of course which is always to be welcomed. But you can get that from peeing your pants.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Post #71 shows the screen shot I took at the short entry on RIMM
This image is the one I took at the time I covered; a 31c scalp in two minutes on a pure level 2 play.
I merely wish to illustrate there is another dimension to Nasdaq trading, deeper than a chart.
Interesting, huh?
Richard

 

[TheBramble]

Richard, good posts. Very thought provoking.

I appreciate LII being a very dynamic tool iit s almost impossible to translate into the environment of a bulletin board, but could you perhaps comment on the basis for your scalping entry into RIMM 2 minutes earlier and the basis for your decision for entry and perhaps even for exit using pure LII?

Many thanks.

 

[Mayfly]

Tony,

Why are you stalking Mr Charts?

Cheers

Mayfly

 

[TheBramble]

If following someone's posts with a question is stalking, why didn't you ask why I was stalking Neil. Or for that matter - you me?

You're somewhat off topic and your post could be considered by some as possibly just looking to create trouble. I'd suggest you think twice as Rossored has already indicated he wont stand for it.

I'm keen to learn more about how Richard trades and this thread seems an excellent place to do it. Isn't that why we're all here?

 

[neil]

Not only charts but also......

Post #71 shows the screen shot I took at the short entry on RIMM
This image is the one I took at the time I covered; a 31c scalp in two minutes on a pure level 2 play.
I merely wish to illustrate there is another dimension to Nasdaq trading, deeper than a chart.
Interesting, huh?
Richard

Very interesting and shows the value of level 2

 

[Chicken Curry]

This had the makings of an excellent thread.

It is very sad to find it bogged down so soon with the same old shennanigans.

 

[chris_ri]

This had the makings of an excellent thread.

It is very sad to find it bogged down so soon with the same old shennanigans.

Agreed, can we move all this "stuff" to an alternate thread and get on with subject at hand i.e. "Trading the markets with Alan Rich" ( and of course everybody else who is interested in this topic)

All the best

Chris