What on earth do I do with Sharescope now ?

[overgrowth]

Hi folks,

I'm new to the game of regular position/swing trading and wondered if you'd be so kind as to answer some questions.

I've recently subscribed to the Sharescope EOD software, which looks great and is very easy to find your way around. However, even after reading tons of books on TA, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the charting options available. Ideally, I would like to initially home in on FTSE 100 companies only and would be looking to buy or sell based on TA triggers.

1) When looking at a candlesticks chart for example, how do you know what date range to select ? I'm looking at being in and out in a matter of days or at most in say 3 weeks. - should I only look at 3 week charts ?

2) I would probably select RSI, MACD and MA's as confirming indicators, though are there much better ones to use (there's such a huge choice) ?

3) To check the chart triggers do I need to select each share every night and look at the chart (I'm not near a screen in the day so I'll need to place and close spread bets at market open) ?

Many thanks.

 

[Roberto]

Hi, and welcome.

I would like to initially home in on FTSE 100 companies only

Probably a good move, particularly if you're spread-betting.

should I only look at 3 week charts ?

Not sure what you mean by "3 week charts". Not trying to be "funny", but what's a 3-week chart? Possibly you mean "look at only 3 weeks of the daily chart"? (Sharescope EOD is just daily charts, yes?). My answer is no; it always helps to look additionally at longer timeframes than you think you're going to need.

I would probably select RSI, MACD and MA's as confirming indicators

Confirming what? It sounds from what you say as if you're planning to use these indicators as secondary to your trading strategy, which sounds in principle quite a good idea to me; but without knowing what your trading strategy is, it's really hard to say. These are potentially useful confirming indicators but (IMHO) close to useless as a SOLE basis for EOD trading decisions.

are there much better ones to use (there's such a huge choice) ?

There are almost as many different answers to that as traders.

Sorry not to sound more positive, but it's really not clear from your post exactly what you're asking about ...

 

[overgrowth]

Roberto,

Thanks for your reply - I didn't realise I was being vague!

I did mean three weeks worth of the daily chart. When I look at charts I tend to look at one years worth of weekly moves to get a general overview of the trend, then look closer to see what the share is doing right now - so it sounds as though that may be enough.

Regarding the confirming indicators, I meant to use them in conjunction with looking at the basic candlestick charts to attempt to identify possible turning points - that's my strategy !. It sounds as though this is not going to be enough, have you any recommendations of what I should be looking for in formulating my EOD strategy ?

With all those technical indicators around there must be some which are usually rubbish, some which are usually quite good and the rest average. Are there particular indicators which I should be looking at for EOD position trading ?

I realise that there may not be a simple answer to the last question as I keep reading time and time again "everyone must develop their own personal preference for using TA....etc.". Apart from spending months or years learning what works and what doesn't - I wondered if some of you guys have an idea of what is likely to work best.

Cheers

 

[the blades]

Hi folks,

I'm new to the game of regular position/swing trading and wondered if you'd be so kind as to answer some questions.

I've recently subscribed to the Sharescope EOD software, which looks great and is very easy to find your way around. However, even after reading tons of books on TA, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the charting options available. Ideally, I would like to initially home in on FTSE 100 companies only and would be looking to buy or sell based on TA triggers.

1) When looking at a candlesticks chart for example, how do you know what date range to select ? I'm looking at being in and out in a matter of days or at most in say 3 weeks. - should I only look at 3 week charts ?

2) I would probably select RSI, MACD and MA's as confirming indicators, though are there much better ones to use (there's such a huge choice) ?

3) To check the chart triggers do I need to select each share every night and look at the chart (I'm not near a screen in the day so I'll need to place and close spread bets at market open) ?

Many thanks.

Hello OG,

I'm no expert here but I don't think you'll get the answers in a simple way.

EG - MACD and MA's are better when a market is trending, oscillators (RSI etc) better for rangebound markets.

You need to do a lot of work to find the right combination in the right market at the right time.

If you have another £100 to spare, take a look at www.amiquote.com - this is cheap software that you can analyse data from SS and backtest strategies. You need to learn the language but if you ask politely on the BB's, people will write that for you until you get the gist. Alternatively, for another £25 approx look at amitools, software which bolts on and helps write the code.

Though you can't rely on backtesting 100%, it will give you some confidence in your strategies.

I can't advise too much more as I'm new to that software - but you may also find that you don't have the time to get into this method right now.

Hope this helps.

UTB

PS - Just reminded me, look at FTSE beater (see below)'s thread on the basics of trading, You may want to forget indicators for a while.

 

[FTSE Beater]

Hi Overgrowth

Welcome to T2W
If you going to be holding for 2-3 days, then you should really be looking at the last 6 months of data. This will give you a good overall picture of the stock your interested in.
FTSE 100 stocks are an excellent place to start.

HTH

 

[Roberto]

Regarding the confirming indicators, I meant to use them in conjunction with looking at the basic candlestick charts to attempt to identify possible turning points - that's my strategy

Gotcha. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. (Sorry to have been unhelpful the first time!).

This sort of strategy's not unlike what I first started doing with Sharscope about 4 years ago (I only do intraday now). I used 20-day and 40-day MA crossovers and standard MACD histogram and 14-RSI and tried to learn about candlesticks as I went along. I did ok. You sound better prepared than I was, and should do too.

As long as you're willing to have some drawdowns and losing runs, I'd imagine you'll have a profitable strategy there, I must say. The _essential_ things are position-sizing and money management.

And there are some very good observations in the posts above, IMHO. Good luck, and keep us posted

 

[overgrowth]

Thanks for the advice guys, some handy tips there.

I tried the amiquote site it looks as though it's moved to: http://www.amibroker.com/

I'll let you know how I get on.