ryounkin

This is free-market capitalism at its finest. Microfuzzy holds an oligopoly on OS software. Its only serious competition to date is Apple, which arguably produces a superior product, but limits adoption by insisting on proprietary hardware. This allows MS to market crap. Having just survived a malware attack that my McAfee didn't prevent or even detact and reading about viruses that can download kiddy-porn on your computer and get you arrested, I long for a popular version of Linux that will attract developers. I would have abandoned Windoze long ago if Tradestation had an Apple version.

From what I've read, Win7 will not be offered as an upgrade to XP. I avoided Vista. I'm probably going to upgrade my hardware in a year, so will wait to change OS then. Actually, if TS ever runs on Linux, Microfuzzy is history.

NYSE is open, the bond market is closed.

I trade the YM (Dow e-mini future) from 6:30 to 8:30. I often quit by 7:30. I find that I am most profitable before 7:30 and often give a lot back if I keep trading.

Breakfast! Over here on the Left Coast, the market opens at 6:30 AM. I usually am in front of the screen in my bunny slippers, drinking hot chocolate and eating steel cut oatmeal with raisins and pecans.

The latest version of TS (8.5) has Renko charting.

ISTJ I cannot imagine an extrovert daytrading. One of the great joys of trading is that I don't have to screw with anybody! No managers, no employees. Just me and the cat, sipping hot chocolate and doing battle with the forces of darkness that want to take my money.

I usually use pivots for s&r but in such a volatile market, they seem meaningless. Today we have had a 400 pt range. Yesterday was a 631 pt range and today's R1 is 240 points higher than the pivot. Not terribly useful. What s&r levels do you find useful? Buck

Since you are just beginning your quest for the Holy Grail of Trading, You might want to read Johm Murphy's "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets". It is full of techniques that were "Holy Grails" at one time, but they all stopped working or only work in some markets some of the time. There isn't a Holy Grail, or if someone found it, they aren't sharing it with the rest of us. But you will have to convince yourself of that fact. In my humble opinion, the skill to be learned is pattern recognition. Have you ever seen a chess Grand Master play 30 kids at one time. He can walk from board to board and make the next move almost intuitively. However, if you show him a board where the pieces were postioned randomly, he is lost. It is pattern recognition. I have read several books written by successful traders that suggest that it takes 5-7 years for them to become successful. Linda Raschke suggested that you have to look at a million charts. Do the math: 800 charts a day/5days per week/5 years. Buck

BTW, the YMM stops trading at the open of the cash market Friday morning, not the close Friday night. So don't have any positions open then or it will take several days to free up that capital.

Just for the sake of opening up the discussion, my answer would be that it is impossible to trade without indicators. Price is an indicator. Volume is another. The time frame that you choose to trade in is probably a third. Choosing to use candle-sticks or bar charts is a fourth. Looking at a chart and deciding the trend is fifth. Buck

The Aug low of the DJIA anf the S&P 500 were hammers. As we threaten to test those lows, is the resistance going to be at the narrow body or the low of the day? For the DOW, that is a a 350 point difference. Buck

For the YM: MACD set at 19-39-9 doesn't have a lot of whip-saw. Try it on a constant volume bar chart (500 shares has about the same play as a 5 min chart). Buck

I realize that there is a certain "Star Trek" qulaity to what I am going to suggest, but it seems to work for me. If you put on a set of headphones and play specific tones, you can induce specific brainwave. You want an alpha meditative state? Play a 10hz isochronic tone in your ears and you've got alpha. This is called "brainwave entraiment" and nearly all forms of entrainment balance the two hemispheres. This is the concept behind Silva Ultramind Control System among others. I use a $50 program called Neuro-Programmer from Transparent Corp. Google it, you might find it helpful. Buck

My mistake. In this part of the world, "Steph" is a feminine nickname. Buck