james_gsx

I am looking at playing the CL/heating oil crack spread through options. I have been watching energy for quite some time and I want to start using real money. Has anyone ever used options to trade energy like this? If so, what kind of advice could you give me? Options are relatively new to me, but I'm definitely willing to learn more. Thanks.

We'll see what happens over the next few days. I think long term though these rate cuts are going to help the banks a lot. Short term I'm still undecided. Whatever happens the Fed can keep cutting rates. Gotta love it when you're long gold and short the USD

Yeah then the market sold off fairly hard after hours and is now basically back to where it closed. I heard about the bond company, but what's the real story behind it? Because if it's like a typical stock downgrade then I want to be buying right now. If not, then obviously I wouldn't want to react.

I just did it all manually. Look at a 15 or 30 min chart then enter it in by yourself. Its time consuming though. But I'm sure there are other ways.

Well the point I was trying to get across to you was don't listen to the guys on TV. Do your own research and come up with your own conclusions. If you had been listening to most of the guys on TV for the last 7 months you wouldn't have any money left.

All those talking heads were saying the market looked bullish 3 months ago. Now they are saying it looks bearish. You have to remember how many negative things were priced in during our 5-6% decline. We most likely had a minor recession priced in, because let's admit a 600 ym decline is pretty impressive. That doesn't just happen BAC or C missed earnings. That doesn't mean we won't test those lows again, I wouldn't be surprised if we do. But I also wouldn't be surprised if we blow through 13,000 and charge straight for 14,000 again. Be careful when all those guys pretend like they know what they are talking about. Because usually they don't have a clue. The best thing to do is sit back and look at all of your data, and your charts, then make your own decision. You'll probably be right most of the time if you do the right homework.

Thanks. Definitely don't want anything left open when they announce.

A few things I would think about coming from someone who always seems to be moving money. It's a serious pain in the ass so make sure you pick the right place. 1 - What do you trade? Do you just trade stocks or do you trade options and futures? 2 - How do you trade? Are you day trading equities, position trading, or swing trading? If you are just trading stocks and plan on keeping to that then you have no reason to move. I know all the charts are cool, but in reality you don't need them since there are so many ways to get free charts. 3 - What do you plan on trading? Do you plan on trading multiple vehicles such as futures, options, and stocks? If you want to trade futures then you will need a broker with solid charting software. If you want options you will want a broker that will be filled with options data, etc. 4 - Do you have a budget? Some of them are expensive and they eat away at your bottom line faster than you will imagine. This is annoying when you are starting out because you think you are a horrible trader losing all your money. Then you look at the bottom line and realize all your money is going to your broker for all those fancy charts and indicators If you are just trading equities and even swing trading them then stick with TD Ameritrade unless you find a really good reason to switch. Most brokers offer pretty good charts and other tools that will be more than sufficient. I personally use Trade Station for futures (soon to change) and Fidelity for stocks and options. Fidelity is simple, I can buy and sell then check on my positions and that's all I need. If you take the route I see most newbies take then you will most likely meet options in a few weeks. In that case I like Think or Swim since you can do equities and options, and they have a pretty good charting platform. Go check out their website for a free demo and see how you like it. At the end of the day the hard reality is you don't need real time quotes. They are nice to have, but if you are swing trading it will only add to the emotion sitting there watching every tick of a stock if you plan on holding it for a few days/weeks. So if you currently have a broker that offers free streaming quotes and it's simple to use, then stick with that. Otherwise you spend more time looking for new brokers and services and less time trading.

Well, it looks like I'll be buying this sometime this week. Any thoughts? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153039 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127306 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136012 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129025 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106245

Who was the bank he supposedly did the transaction with that ended up getting him caught? I can't wait till this unfolds some more. It will be interesting to find out his true intentions... and it would make a good movie :o

Free is always good Camtasia is what most people I know use, and what I use. I like that I can annotate on the screen while I'm recording. If you can find something that can do that for free, then all the better.

Camtasia Studio

If I had bought this, this is how I would set up the trade. My first stop would be around $134 like you said. My first target would be around $160 where I would exit 2/3rds of the trade and move my next target to $170 and my stop to break even. Heres what I don't like about this setup. Initially I'd only feel comfortable for a quick push to $160. But with a $134 stop thats a bad risk/reward for me; since I'm risking $14 for roughly $10. It would make a little more sense if my first target was $170 - but I like things to happen fast. Whatever fits your risk parameters and your plan then stick with that.

So far this is what my friend put together. Any input is greatly appreciated. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148298 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143119 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144115 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131255 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

Thanks 404; I like that idea. I just had a friend find me some stuff on newegg.com and he pieced together a pretty badass computer for $1800 and can support 4 monitors. It's definitely more than I'll ever need. Sounds great but I wouldn't know how to put it all together so I guess that defeats the purpose. Unless I called my ex girlfriend and had her put it together for me :o Has anyone else built a computer? I don't have any sort of time frame, just exploring all different options.

So we fried a computer today and it's pretty much toast. The whole house smells absolutely terrible now :o But this brings up a good opportunity since we obviously need a new computer. The computer that fried was NOT my primary trading computer, but seeing as how everything is so fast these days this brings up the question of whether or not I should take this opportunity to buy a new one. The one I'm currently using would just become a play computer for basic applications. So assuming I go with a new trading computer, what should I look for? What brands do you all like? XP or is Vista now compatible and fast enough to work with most trading platforms? What else should I keep in mind? I hope some valuable information can pass through this thread so anyone looking for a new computer in the future can resort to this thread. Thanks everyone.

Brownsfan, I have been looking for those currency based futures contracts but I don't know where to get a list of all the currencies. Do you know where I can get that?

I think it signals a TON of buying at those levels. I think a lot of the negative news we have been hearing and slightly on the horizon was priced in. I also think that whole decline from 12,500 down to 11,450 was the "crash" and I expect us to test 13,000, possibly 13,500. I do expect pullbacks before that, but it's my overall target. The reason for this is because I think it's very similar to what we saw back in august, so short term I'm bullish. I want to see several higher lows before I will feel safe calling this a new bull market. Here are my annotations from last night.

He makes plenty of money trading. Sure he's wrong sometimes and loses money but so does every trader. 1 - Don't buy his book to learn how to trade and just like anything else, don't use someone else's indicators unless they work for YOU. He even talks about that in his book. 2 - His book is GREAT from the psychology aspect of trading. If you are new to trading then his book is great for that since it will open your eyes and realize just how harsh it really is. 3 - The section on market internals is awesome. He teaches you how to read internals and apply them to your trading. I have read his book and I don't use any of his setups. I'm glad I read it and I recommend it to anyone who is new to futures. I think his book is very real and that's probably the biggest reason why I actually read the book. You can download most of his indicators on TS forums and even some of them are around here. In his book he basically tells you what the squeeze is so it shouldn't be that hard to make the indicator yourself. If you're looking for setups or anything like that then don't buy his book. Buy his book for a great introduction to trading futures then design a system on your own that works for you (with the least amount of indicators as possible).

Wow, it's like reading something I would write about my own problems :o Hlm can attest to this, in the chat everyday I see similar setups that everyone else sees. I take those setups and time and time again I take a quick 1-2pt target and watch it run. Sometimes I get in the zone and have consistent trades that turn out to be very profitable. Then something clicks in my head that I wasn't suppose to do that well, then the emotion and frustration kicks in and I give it all back. A few things I do now that might help or they might not help. 1 - I don't trade the first hour anymore, I let the market set up in this first hour so I can later plot my s/r lines. Yes I have missed some big moves, but I feel better throughout the day. 2 - When I feel emotion taking over or that I might give everything back, I simply walk away for 30 minutes. I do whatever I want that's not related to trading, so I can clear my head. And by saying that emotion is taking over and I might get everything back, this can happen when I'm in a hot streak. I will take several winning trades but continue to take unbooked profits too fast and leave more on the table. When I see price take off without me I tend to get frustrated and my instincts tell me to chase. This might be your case, it might not be but it's something to think about. One thing that hlm said in the chat that stuck out at me was on a rather rough day for him. I was doing great since my scalping mindset was perfect for the choppy day, but he said, "It's not about the money it's about the trading." This really hit me because I realized that I'm always staring at my p&l and thinking about money. I want to run around telling everyone how much cash I just pulled in and that I'm on my way to buying my private jet and Bentley. But if I focus on the money, I'll never get there because I'll want to grab small profits so fast that when a losing trade comes around all that work gets blown out of the water. So instead I need to focus on my trading and analyzing myself, not the money. In my trading plan I have an entire self psychology section dedicated to my perfectionism and overcoming it. Basically instead of analyzing every trade I take, I analyze my emotions at the time, whether or not it was apart of my setup, did I execute and manage the trade properly? This helps so I'm not analyzing the hell out of charts every night (which creates fear the next day because I'm worried about money and missing out on everything) but instead I know what I need to focus on with myself. I know I'm a good trader, I just have to get over a few road blocks to get where I want to be. It's nearly 4 am and I'm sure a lot of that didn't come across as clear as I want. So if you have any questions feel free to ask me. If none of it made sense then I apologize :o

Congrats James!

I got confused one time with the TS matrix. I thought I was long, turned out to be short, then when I thought I had covered, I was actually long. Then I found the cancel button.

Well, all my trades ended up blowing up in my face. I will admit, I got cocky and started to think about how much money I was going to make. I'm glad it happened because I was able to identify a few key flaws in my trading. 1 - I need better defined setups 2 - I need to work on my discipline.

I have a few friends who have talked to him. He's just a typical ass that doesn't want to take anyones advice because he thinks he knows what he's doing.

I posted this last week, I'm curious to see how much money he lost over the weekend. This guy really needs a lesson on risk management, he's not just going to lose some cash but his entire house. http://boltar1.blogspot.com/