Mikhoul

Trend is my Friend on both side.. but "TRAILING STOP" ( VTSO ) help me a lot to remove emotion out of the trade. ! I Start with a VTSO that I'm comfortable with to loos and if the trade goes on my sidethe more it reach my target, the more I narrow my VTSO to keep my profit. Let's say the other 2 weeks ago was trading AAPL on the short side, it was a friday and I wana to go out for the week-end so I just tighten my stop 10 minute before 4pm, in the last 2 minutes a "Flash Dump" happen and it goes from 443 to 435 in less than one minute... My Trailing Stop (VTSO) triggered @ 436. Having to put a stop myself (Manually) has been something impossible at this speed. But even on slow move, the VTSO order keep me than thinking to move my stop against my first beliefs.. they protect me... and of course if a sudden move happen like AAPL I will have a maximum gain !!!

They ALWAYS use Algo, so nothings really change the price ---> Algorithmic trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I Agree fully, I begin to trade full time 1 years ago, and 1 1/2 years ago I had no idea at all of what was day trading and even don't know the signification of Bull or Bear ! s So to make a Short Story: I began on my own to trade with "simple" strategy, taht I even don't know they exist and have their own name... ;-) The firs was to look at Stocks that drop fast and deep on a "news" & learn about the company if the move is rational or emotional. So when it was emotional I bought the stock and sell right after the emotion fade as the stock comeback... 2 months ago I learn it's call "momentum" Hahahaha ! So I was successful and make lot money of money... but I was using a "Full-service stock broker" so each trade cost me $350-500 Cdn for ONE in&out, but I was happy since I made lot of money, and don't know how much charge a "discount broker" for a trade. So when I was ready I moved my asset to a discount broker to have bettr price and not having to call my broker each time I want to do a trade... So I go with TD to transfer my all my asset since my "test" to know if I can make a living of "Day Trading" was successful. He ask me what was mt return on investment ? I told him since 6 months (Test period) it was an average of 10-15% by years, he says me WOW !!!! And ask me about how I achieve such result... I told him about buying low when peoples was emotional about a stock and as soon the fears fade away and stock recover. So I used this "strategy" 70% of time.. Of course since that time I educated myself by the net and forums like this one... I've learn about options ( I know a lot about the strategy with options involving Greeks) but never used option at this time. But I know they are there, and what I can do with options, how to use them so if I found that using it could maker me more successful I will use it... for me it's just one more tolls to use. But I use the tools I'm good at... and the ones bring money, since it's the primary goals. Recently I learn about shorting and margin cause I see that I can make more money when stock goes down... since some stocks have trends for more than one years of going down, there is "almost" no risk since I know clearly the trend and what the company need to reverse it.. from my point of view it's safer to go short in many case tan going long... Since I have almost no formal education, I've see I don't have the same approach to the market that most trader have. I never used "Pre-fabs Strategy", so in my mind I'm not limited to what already exist, I "create" way of making money with stocks.... and use few strategy, also I use only the most efficient way to make profit. There is lot of money to do with the options, but for me using "real share" is more simple and efficient as of now. So I'm successful in trading and living of trading, and using only few and simple "way" (read strategy) to make money is more efficient than reading Zillions of parameters to analyze the market and over-analyzing everything... I chosen to make money in a more efficient way and discover at the same time that some peoples are taking more time in "Making" strategy than trading... So Keep it simple and Stupid ;- ) KISS !!! So the only strategy I use is -- >

Most of the Time I'm daytrading and sometime swing over 2-4 days... I try to keep the everythings SIMPLE for my part. I mainly use Tech Analysis with FreeStockCharts.com - Web's Best Streaming Realtime Stock Charts - Free It's easy, fast and real time. You can customize the charts the way you like. Mostly I trade stock on Nasdaq so I always have the NasdaqCompositeIndex on my chart to see if the stock follow the market or drive the market. Also I use MA 200 50 & 10 Once I choose an interesting stock and "know" the trend of the stock (Bull -Bear) I use most often the 1min/chart and look at it live. I look for patterns ( Technical Analysis: Chart Patterns | Investopedia ) and the MOST important thing to detect MOVES or Breakout is VOLUME. If You look just at pattern you will follow the crowd most of the time, If you look at VOLUME you have an edge, cause you can see, and detect the the first bar (1minute) of a breakout or breakdown and go in the trade. Friday I was trading KCG, a stock that I have never looked at before, I was just knowing they were down 40% in pre-market, read some news about it, but not a lot. So I have traded all day long KCG with 1 minute to 3 minutes chart. Here is a screenshot that I have shared on StockTwits: Look at the volume, it's easy to see that a MOVE will happen on any VOLUME RAISE . APPLE on the same day: I also take a look at StockTwit feed to see the sentiment and pick-up quickly some news on stock. Also when I target a stock I look a Level2 to know the Ask & Buy ratio this way it give me a clue to know if the price will drop or raise at the end of the pattern. ---> http://content.screencast.com/users/lamote/folders/Snagit/media/4a687fbe-a743-4950-9b19-be2a553c7dc8/08.03.2012-12.16.26.png Also it could be useful to see the "short float" of the stock, this way you can take advantage of Short Squeeze. --> FINVIZ.com - Stock Screener Also with FreeStockCharts.com - Web's Best Streaming Realtime Stock Charts - Free you can program any kind of Alerts for a stock and it scan all day long in real time for what you asked for ! It's not perfect, but it's the way I trade... ;-) Best Regards

A Subject that I've studied a lot at University and in "real life". Both are not related at all... but lot of peoples think they are or like think they are. Real Happiness come from inside you and is inside you. Money is outside ! Even if my lovely daughter die, I will not lost my happiness, I will FEEL sad, miss her, but since happiness is inside me, hapiness will take over in short time. It's not just theory, I've lost my Mother and Father, long and painful illness for both, and I've not lost my happiness in fact their funeral were a celebration of their life, full of joy A lot of study ( I've studied in Psychology in University) have show that they are not related at all... One of the most memorable study, was to follow winner of great amount of money over the year.... and those research show that after ~1 years Every peoples have come back to the same feeling that it have before it win the Big $$$$. But that study was made also in both side: So they have study at the same time peoples that have big accidents and keep them for the rest of their life in a wheelchair. They learn that after ~1 years those peoples have recovered the same state of mind that before the big accident, peoples that were happy before were happy again with their life, peoples that were sad, were sad again... For many peoples it's more easy to believe the illusion that happiness come from the exterior (in opposition to inside yourself) cause you don't have to work on yourself and look at yourself. This way you can just fool yourself thinking HAVING more will give you ""BEING" more happy." Regards !

Very Good Question !!! I begin to trade full time on last autumn... Before beginning to trade full time for most of my life I worked for myself ( I had owned mainly a computers company). So even at this time I was working with no coworkers. But at least at this time I see customers, Sales rep, phone calls to order parts, going on site sometime to repair, etc... But overall was alone ;-) Now trading full time it is REALLY BEING Alone No-Coworkwers, customers etc... So me too Use FB (not for chat, I don't like chat on computers) & StockTwits as substitute. When my day is done, 3-5 times a week I go to supper in restaurant to BE with real peoples, even if I don't talk to anybody I feel "being part of"(World) :P Over the top I'm single and have no family except my daughter that have is own life... I'm not saying I'm unhappy, I'M HAPPY :-) with my life ! I choose it, nothing is perfect. To overcome this loneliness (I'm in mid 40), I look for a girlfriend to SHARE with her.. but seeing peoples with day trading, being in mid-40, no family ask imagination and audacity. So I begin to look on "single networking sites" ... cause i.m pretty sure there is a lot of peoples that work for themselves in the same situation. And also on week-end where there is a festival, music show I go to interact with peoples and try to make connections with others, but it's not easy... to make real connections. I don't complaint to much, cause I'm optimistic and I do something that I like and choose. Also I plan a 1-6 months vacation in Asia (No time limit, OPEN ticket) not in a resort but to see "real peoples" and live with them. I like Buddhist philosophy (it's one thing that help me to manage my emotions in trading and life) . Overall I'm ab happy guy with a beautiful Life and I work on my life to make it better on many aspect like having more REAL interaction with Human Being 8-) Regards

I'm not sure of your trading strategy but I think you refer to the "magic" "Trailing Stop Orders" http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/trailingStops.php My broker is not IB I'm with TDW and ATraders + ToS platform to trade and don't use the API but if I can find some time I will learn JS... I've programmed in tha past and just konwing HTML and small amount of JavaScript give me an edge make tools that suit my needs. Let me know if it was a VTSO or Trailing Stop Orders that you look for... Regards

For me I did not really make "sim" ... Ive began by using a "Full Brokerage Service", it was them that mange my money. At one point in my life I began to have more time, so I seen good opportunity on the market, call my "broker" and say I'd like we buy this stock xxxx.... Within 6 months I realized I was making HUGE gain, and noticed that many stock in my portfolio should have been sold since a longtime... So I said to myself, I will try for One month to make at least $500 NET per week if it's OK, I will consider involving me at full time. So I reach my goal and for each trade I was paying an average of $300 in fees so for in & out $600 ;-) The more I was successful, the more I was interested in learning more... We all can agree that $600 is VERY EXPENSIVE for just one In & Out ( At this time I did not realize it was a lot, so it don't bother me) , but for this price at anytime I was able to cal my brokers ask him a lot of technical questions and he was willing to answer and give me good advice since each trade give a lot of money to him for almost no work, I was doing all the research . So I take the decision make a living of trading, found a discount broker, find the tools I needs and begin to trade "myself" cause I leaving the expensive "Full Brokerage Service" and discover also that my fee goes from $600 to $15 for in and out (2 trades). All this time I was not nervous or anxious, each time I trade I say to myself if you trigger the trade accept that you can loose all the money (btw it's not the goal ;-) So for sure sometime emotion takeover, but for me the "trick" is to be "mindful" about knowing I'm on a high and feel the emotion but don't letting the emotion leading me... just feel the emotion, that's it. Also you have to be able to learn from your mistakes, have confidence in your judgment (if U do your homework), Having fears is fine, but not letting the fears decide your moves... Also don't see trading like a "CASINO" cause it's not the same at all. The basic for me is to accept (In your life) that at any moment you can loose everything that is outside you: Money, car, house, spouse, TV Job etc.... If you realize that and don't overemphasis on those, It will be really hard to the fears or the thrills to lead you... You will just feel the emotion and be mindful about your emotion, this way it's you that will lead... The emotion will be just one of MANY indicators, like those on charts. ;-) Regards