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Thanks everyone for your input. Futures and spread betting (I had to look up spread betting). I don't know anything about either of those so that could be a dangerous path to take, but I'll look into them. The leveraging just has so much downside risk. Meaning I could lose more than I have in the account. That I could lose sleep over. I hadn't thought about buying half on entry, with a proper stop, then adding if it move in my favor. This I will try. Overall it looks like I'm just going to have to add more to it. To limit the anxiety I'll pull the plug if I lose my initial amount. I knew there wasn't going to be an easy answer. Thank you for not throwing me off the bridge for my lack of education. Bill

Well I almost hate to ask this, but would like to hear your suggestions nonetheless. In the many books and post I have read, one thing always stands out. "Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose." Not sure I like the idea of losing any money, but I get the idea. I can't afford to lose much so my account is very small. The good news is that I haven't lost my money, the bad news is it's not exactly growing either. The problem is if I apply money management to position sizing the number of shares are so small that just covering commissions can take several days. This makes me think I'll need to break some rules and just take my chances. I could: 1. Increase my risk from 1% to 2% or more. 2. Always buy no less than 100 shares, and just run tight stops. 3. Stop being so cheap and put money I can't afford to lose in the account. Are there any strategies for small accounts? Is there a minimun practicle account size? I suppose it's really too small for swing trading, but It's going to have to do. Thanks Bill

Thanks everyone for you input, and suggestions. I'm paper trading now with two similar pullback systems. One, from the book I mentioned in this thread, is to wait for 3 to 5 consecutive down days and enter went the price moves above the lowest high. The other is from an article in 'Stocks and Commodities' magazine. Also a pullback, but waiting until the market opens above the lowest high. They called this 'Getting Clear'. I plan on being out of the trade no later than the fifth day. I read somewhere that if your trade immediately goes against you to get out, and not wait for the stop. So I could be out on the first or second day. I probably won't do that with the simulations, but will watch how those work out. As for the stops, it seems to me now that it wouldn't matter if you placed the stop with your broker, or used a manual stop. Assuming unwavering discipline (ya right) you will be out of the trade either way. It's not likely you will be the only one with at stop at that level no matter where you put it. May as well place the initial stop when I enter the trade. I'll probably widen it from 1.5 to 2 X ATR and take a smaller position. Thanks again everyone, you have all been very helpful. B

Thanks bbc, Right now I'm trying to get familiar with my charting software, and how to code the scans to find what I'm looking for. Also being pretty new at this I thought I'd find what someone else is doing, or has done and just work on that until I get it. There are a lot of books on short term tradeing, almost all of them panned by someone for one reason or the other. I researched the authors and now I have a book by Oliver Velez "Tools and Tactics for the day trader", but it covers swing trades as well. Its a bit old though. I'm going to start trading using only one of his techniques, and just stay with that one until I'm comfortable with it. There is a lot of information on this site that I'll need to digest sometime, but for now I don't want to get back into that information overload condition I was in a few days ago. I 'unsubscribed' to dozens of sites this week only keeping this one, one from Worden for software support, and my account. I had so many ideas floating around my head I didn't know where to start. Well thanks for the information everybody, I'm going in. Bill

Thanks Tiobingo. I'm getting the impression that I should be more concerned about where to place the stop then I am about getting stopped out by some market manager. That's what I really wanted to know.

Thanks Tams, I'm guessing by your answer you would just make sure the stop is reasonable, and not worry about stop hunters. Yes I do, if you mean do I try and stay outside the potential price movement. I use 1.5 to 2 time ATR to place initial stops.

Hi, Ive been searching the forum for a difinitive answer, and the fact that I can't find one is probably all the answer I need. It seems that sometimes a trade gets stopped out, and then the price goes back to where you where expecting it to go when you entered. The question is: Are professional traders just taking your shares cheap, or Is that really just the way the market moved that day? If the pros are just taking your shares cheap is that considered part of the risk of trading? You just set your stop and hope they don't bother with it that day. The lack of any concern from this forum tells me not to worry about it. I would like to know what your opinion is of this practice, if it actually exist, and what can be done about it,. Thanks Bill

I've been reading the post in this thread, and I really have some learning to do. Hope you will bear my basic questions. I've read the Wyckoff 'Charting the stock Market' by Jack Hutson, and am in the process of reading the seemingly endless Wycokoff pdf files. This is really great of you guys to do this btw. Thank you On the types of charts to use he mentions - Composite averages, Group, Individual stocks, and the wave chart. Here is what I believe he means. Composite Averages - This would be the S&P500 or 100, the Dow, and Nasdaq. Group Charts - What I'm useing for this at the moment are Trasnportation Services (Third party logistic and trucking) and Building Material. So I have about 12 Transportation charts, and 5 on Building material. This would be the Group of stocks he speaks of? Group Averages - Don't know what this means exactly. Can't seem to find averages on one particular group. Individual charts - I'll assume this would have to be one stock in the group you are planning to trade in, Wave Chart - No at all sure what this is. Tried to use search, but it doesn't seem to search only on thread. Thanks Bill

I think Zapisy's approach works well for him (or her I suppose). It looks as though he has some experience in it from his profile. I'm sure that won't work for me at this stage. The 'Research Wizard' is pretty cool though. Thanks Tams, I've bookmarked it. From the search of the site I think I'll paper trade with the 'StockFetcher' scanner for awhile. I have a very small account at the moment (job loss wacked it real good). I'm only trading in one stock which seems to be doing alright, so paper trading is about it until I exit. For the Moderators: If you feel it more appropriate, this probably belongs in the 'Noob Question' post. . Thanks Bill

I think this should be in the 'Noob Question' thread. Sorry. Thanks Zipasy, I did search the site and found some posts on scanners that was helpful. TradeStation is impressive, but I don't have the 1 million dollars, nor could I make that many trades a month to cover the cost. Maybe this forum isn't for totally inexperienced people like myself. Thanks again Bill

I've just made my first introduction post and have questions already. Probably the biggest problem I have in trading is in finding stocks before they get to a good entry point. I generally get my picks from internet sites like 'StockScores', take a look at them, and then enter the trade so late that I'm lucky to get out even, or maybe make enough to cover the commission. It seems pretty clear to me that I will need to find my own picks, which brings me to the question - What do I need for a scanner? Are the free online scanner good enough to start with? Which one has the most bang for the bucks? I don't mind spending some money on good tools, but most scanners are expensive and I have no idea if they will help before hand. Thanks Bill

New to the forum. I've had a Scottrade IRA account for 5 years, and the best I can say is that I learned how to not lose my money, But I have yet to make any significant profits tradeing. I'm hoping to find some answers here. Thanks Bill