agatto2

Hi Billy - Great questions - It is all very confusing. Here is what i had to do to keep my mind . The way it works for the hardware/software side of trading , after much research I decided on an asus laptop , running 4 gig ram , large hard drive , and running vista. Vista is a little quirky but seems to be working well so far, and they have an installed program that lets me upstep my memory with out actually installing memory hardware. Asus also had a 2 year part and labor warranty , is a gaming system , and has a great customer service reputation. Next We all have to connect our computers to something to start trading. The way this works ( for me , some people connect direct to exchanges ) I used interactive brokers for my broker , my broker then feeds me information that my software programs will use to chart , and trade. I then signed up with another data supplier to make sure i always had a backup. There are a lot off good suggestions on this site for data suppliers. Now Software - Two peices i use , many are the options. Sierra charts for charting was not to expensive and a pretty good charting program. Next i use what is called front end software , it is called button trader. The user interface on the button trader is incredable , but a little expensive . There are other front ends out there that are good as well and a little cheaper . Button trader was better for my trading style. You put all those together with the internet , a lot of practice and tinkering and you have the trade initiation system. im no expert but thats what has worked for me. Man long post , so much of this stuff - As far as actually trading . I keep it very simple. A chart , 8 to 11 period moving average with 5 or 1 min candles. I like the first two hours of trading , I like to play gaps. Briefing dot com has a morning report with their platinum program that reports gappers . With that style trade i watch the five minute candles . If the gap was up i wait for the first five minute candle that closes inside the last 5 minute candle , then i short . That style trade works out about 60 percent of the time , and you will have to get out of the trade if it does not do what you think it should do ( really important ) . I also like the 30 minute bulls trade . That one you mark the high and the low for the first 30 minutes of the session. When it breaks those points its a buy signal. This is a easier trade but again money management is cruicial , if it is not doing what you think , get out. What else has helped , I picked a basket of stocks 20, in various sectors , and just watched them all day on the one minute charts. after around six months i really started to get a feel for the stocks and the market , and the market makers for those stocks. Practice Practice Practice. Thats all folks :doh: