Best Thread US day traders thread.

[dvdh]

Anyone else having a look this week?

Had a (very small) pre-market long on CELG, then a mid-morning short after it broke down.

Would be tempted to add on the pullback if if it doesn't break through the old support, but closed instead as have to do yet more seasonal visiting of relatives this evening - still, this puts me in better frame of mind to do so.

Hope reasonable xmas's have been had by all

Mark

PS the support lines are only relevant to the short trade. The pre-market long was based on news and strongly positive momentum with a shallow pullback followed by more buying. I don't do this very much and when I do it's with a small position size, but it's nice when it works. I think some people make a speciality of trading pre market, and in some ways I can see why.

Hi Mark,

yeah, I've been trading today. Yesterday I visited a fellow trader, so he traded! Some good action yesterday.
Today indices are sideways, but some good movements in partical stocks though.
My trades today:
CELG +20
CELG +60
GOOG +100
ENER +52
WFMI +20
UARM -14
MEDX +15
WFMI -13
GOOG -12
Makes a total of +228. Not bad for a slow day I think!

Hope the afternoon will bring some more, but I'm afraid it'll be completely dead!
Good luck anyway, guys!

-Dave.

 

[laytonm]

excellent

I don't know how you manage to follow so many stock - I can do about 2-3 tops

looks good though

I'm just about to go out so I'm flat, but I noticed CELG failing to break through resistance (for the moment)

Mark

Hi Mark,

yeah, I've been trading today. Yesterday I visited a fellow trader, so he traded! Some good action yesterday.
Today indices are sideways, but some good movements in partical stocks though.
My trades today:
CELG +20
CELG +60
GOOG +100
ENER +52
WFMI +20
UARM -14
MEDX +15
WFMI -13
GOOG -12
Makes a total of +228. Not bad for a slow day I think!

Hope the afternoon will bring some more, but I'm afraid it'll be completely dead!
Good luck anyway, guys!

-Dave.

 

[dvdh]

excellent

I don't know how you manage to follow so many stock - I can do about 2-3 tops

looks good though

I'm just about to go out so I'm flat, but I noticed CELG failing to break through resistance (for the moment)

Mark

I use alerts. I have two screens, with one stock on each screen and a quote window on each screen. I scroll through the stocks and put alerts in around breakout levels! That's all. Plus you need to be prepared before the market opens!
But usually I don't trade more than 1 stock at a time. Yesterday I had 2 positions on for like 5 minutes. That's an exception.

-Dave!

 

[laytonm]

I see

thanks Dave

that's not too different from what I do, athough once I get into a stock (or two) I tend to 'drop' the others
cheers

M

watching celg, qdel&alks in addition to my usuals today

I use alerts. I have two screens, with one stock on each screen and a quote window on each screen. I scroll through the stocks and put alerts in around breakout levels! That's all. Plus you need to be prepared before the market opens!
But usually I don't trade more than 1 stock at a time. Yesterday I had 2 positions on for like 5 minutes. That's an exception.

-Dave!

 

[dvdh]

I see

thanks Dave

that's not too different from what I do, athough once I get into a stock (or two) I tend to 'drop' the others
cheers

M

watching celg, qdel&alks in addition to my usuals today

I have the same problem sometimes!
Again a great day.
My trades:
celg +40
alks +15
alks +2
aapl +3
aapl -5
aapl +26
mflx +80
ener +60
hans +50
celg +34
ener -15
ener -5
qdel +11
qdel +2
Total for today: +298.
Missed out on a nice short in IDCC. Didn't get fill! Was a little late. My fault! LOL

How did you guys do today?

-Dave.

 

[Gadgetman]

Too busy eating and drinking

Have hardly traded this week at all, despite good intentions last week.
Will monitor today's afternoon session though. Interesting to see that lunchtime spike on IRBT with no apparent driver in respect of news around that time. Watching AMZN to see if it will push through the 48.40/48.50 barrier that seems to have formed over the last day and wishing I'd been in CELG at the start today!

VLO seems to be an nice one to trade at the moment, when I did trade the other day had a couple of good trades, nice steady moves.

 

[Gadgetman]

Have hardly traded this week at all, despite good intentions last week.
Will monitor today's afternoon session though. Interesting to see that lunchtime spike on IRBT with no apparent driver in respect of news around that time. Watching AMZN to see if it will push through the 48.40/48.50 barrier that seems to have formed over the last day and wishing I'd been in CELG at the start today!

VLO seems to be an nice one to trade at the moment, when I did trade the other day had a couple of good trades, nice steady moves.

Would have been tempted to trade IRBT but the spread is moving to between 10 and 20 cents. Not comfortable with that, do you guys ever trade when it's like that?

 

[dvdh]

Would have been tempted to trade IRBT but the spread is moving to between 10 and 20 cents. Not comfortable with that, do you guys ever trade when it's like that?

Yeah, I do trade then, if I see a good set-up. Did two trades in stocks with a big spread today. In HANS (up to 30 cents) and MFLX (10 to 20 cents). I'm definately not comfortable in them if it doesn't move right away. Can't wait for 10 minutes, too impatient for that. But I did quick scalps. And when I goes I'll put in best bid/offer limit orders to scale out.

It's completely dead now, I just a couple nice trades in ALKS, that's about it!

-Dave.

 

[Gadgetman]

Yeah, I do trade then, if I see a good set-up. Did two trades in stocks with a big spread today. In HANS (up to 30 cents) and MFLX (10 to 20 cents). I'm definately not comfortable in them if it doesn't move right away. Can't wait for 10 minutes, too impatient for that. But I did quick scalps. And when I goes I'll put in best bid/offer limit orders to scale out.

It's completely dead now, I just a couple nice trades in ALKS, that's about it!

-Dave.

SNDK could be good for a quick move, just around 63.50, which is also 50% retracement from last swing high on 5 min chart. Will be watching to see if it drops off resistance there or breaks through

 

[dvdh]

SNDK could be good for a quick move, just around 63.50, which is also 50% retracement from last swing high on 5 min chart. Will be watching to see if it drops off resistance there or breaks through

Or shorting CELG when it goes through the 64 even number! And I'm currently looking at UARM to break the 40 level. Would trigger a good buy, I think! For the rest no movement what so ever. Still a nice day, I'd say, I could live with this! LOL.

-Dave.

 

[dvdh]

Or shorting CELG when it goes through the 64 even number! And I'm currently looking at UARM to break the 40 level. Would trigger a good buy, I think! For the rest no movement what so ever. Still a nice day, I'd say, I could live with this! LOL.

-Dave.

I just missed UARM. Level II told me it wasn't gonna break the even number, so I wanted to short it if it went through 39.90 and I missed it, because I was surfing around. Now ain't that stupid!

-Dave.

 

[Gadgetman]

I just missed UARM. Level II told me it wasn't gonna break the even number, so I wanted to short it if it went through 39.90 and I missed it, because I was surfing around. Now ain't that stupid!

-Dave.

There's a heck of a queue on the ask side at 40, with ETRD NITE and UBSS at 39.95 as I look now......

Managed to get a nice short out of SNDK, out at 63.08 as there's a lot of support around 63. Could have stayed for those few extra cents and, who knows, it might go below but might take a while with all the bids at 63.

 

[Gadgetman]

There's a heck of a queue on the ask side at 40, with ETRD NITE and UBSS at 39.95 as I look now......

Managed to get a nice short out of SNDK, out at 63.08 as there's a lot of support around 63. Could have stayed for those few extra cents and, who knows, it might go below but might take a while with all the bids at 63.

It didn't take long at all

 

[Gadgetman]

Why it's worth watching the futures........

Wow - my scanner lit up just now, very appropriately like a Christmas Tree. Lots of lights indicating low of the day on a lot of my core stocks.

Nearly all of them mirrored the NQ activity, here's an example with EBAY:
(Mind you, the futures were only a few seconds ahead of the stocks.)

 

[dvdh]

Wow the last hour was pretty good. Didn't expect that!
My trades this afternoon:
idcc scratch
alks -4
alks +20
goog -28
celg +21
goog scratch
goog +30
goog +42
elos scratch
Total this afternoon: +81.
Nice day.
On the cash close (equities close) Merrill Lynch was the biggest seller in the S&P 500 pit. Merrill started selling around 1265.5 all the way down. I think he sold over a 1000 big contracts in that move down! On the cash close there were HUGE sellers, MAN Financial and almost all the banks came in selling it BIG TIME. I'm telling you, this is the biggest cash close in the last 6 month. We'll see some volatility tomorrow or otherwise definately in januari!!!

-Dave.

 

[Trader333]

Would have been tempted to trade IRBT but the spread is moving to between 10 and 20 cents. Not comfortable with that, do you guys ever trade when it's like that?

In my view and as a rule of thumb, it is not a good idea to trade stocks with such a wide spread unless you can buy on the Bid and sell on the Ask which is by no means certain when the spread is that large. It is more likely that you would have difficulty exiting a trade like this. Generally I would avoid trading in these circumstances.


Paul

 

[dvdh]

In my view and as a rule of thumb, it is not a good idea to trade stocks with such a wide spread unless you can buy on the Bid and sell on the Ask which is by no means certain when the spread is that large. It is more likely that you would have difficulty exiting a trade like this. Generally I would avoid trading in these circumstances.


Paul

I don't like trading them either! But sometimes, the setup is so nice, that I have to trade'em. Usually if they go, they really go! So I don't totally agree! The risk is a lot higher, but the reward can be a lot higher too!

-Dave.

 

[Gadgetman]

Thinking time

As I haven't done much trading this week, started to mull over a few things.

One thing that occurred to me is regarding volume of shares traded on any given stock: I assume that there must be a fixed number of shares that are available to be traded for a stock at any given time. Are there any studies or indicators that compare the ratio of shares "in play" at a given time with total allocation? All a bit vague at the moment, I'm just wondering if a relationship could be formed between share price and the ratio.

 

[Naz]

I've just been having a quiet read through the thread over the last few weeks.I've been busy trading and haven't had as much time as i would like to contribute.As i watch the US market very closely and i'm always hunting for hot stocks for my scanning site, (pm me for details if you wish) i was interested in the stocks that were being played.

I was also interested in the trades that were taken as well.

After years of talking about L2 on this site its great to see many are in agreement that Nasdaq level 2 direct access is an excellent way to day trade.Although i hear,( proper not simulated), Nasdaq level 2 cfd's are on the way and i'm going to enjoy playing with that trading platform to see what it can do.

It was also great to see many names i know contributing to the thread and keeping the interest going.Fantastic!

Brilliant trading guys.

Dont forget the results season coming up in a few weeks.Then we really will have some fun.......and for level 2 traders playing after the close there dosnt have to be any gap,you can trade it immediately the results come out.

Good luck.All the best for the New year.

Naz

Edited by Rossored: Removed URLs and advertising-related content

 

[dvdh]

Hi Alan,

long time no see! Yeah, Level II is really great! Mr. Charts taught me how to use it. I'm really a big fan now. Nasdaq equities have been really active lately, so I'm not complaining. This is the most quiet day of the year for me! LOL. Earnings season will definately be fun. Can't wait!

Happy new year to everyone and best wishes for 2006. Markets gonna rock & roll next year.

-Dave.