Introduce Yourself Here - Don't Be Shy!!

[Bluewolf 10]

Hello,

I'm new to making my own trading decisions and wish to learn about swing trading. I've studied allot of the indicators and am suffering from information overload. I am looking for some mentoring as to the best indicators for swing trades lasting from 3-14 days. I don't know whether to stick with oscillators and such or use more of the indicators that day traders seem to use such as price, volume and TICKS. Also how far back in the stocks history do I review for short time swing trades?

I have no time goal for learning a system only that I want to become comfortable with whatever system I learn. I have pretty much put the indicator study on hold until I can get some advice from some real swing traders who successfully trade for a living. I need help learning and developing my own system. Currently I am studying more of the psychology of trading to understand my own best approach for me to begin trading.

I learn best from examples and books but any advice is welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

[smuhr 10]

Forget about indicators and learn first price action/reaction.

This is the most important !

 

Do not forget to define a clear Trading Plan for 2010.

 

You should have a look to those threads :

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f37/what-made-you-profitable-622.html

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f30/define-your-trading-plan-7312.html

 

Happy new trade ,

Steven

[Bluewolf 10]

Thanks Steven,

 

So here's what I got out of the statement and threads you referred me to.

 

1. Have a system in place and do not let emotion define your trades. Stick with the plan. Keep a journal to review trades to see what worked well and what didn't.

 

2. Understand yourself so as to feel comfortable with your plan and trades.

 

I do a lot of process development in my day job for manufacturing and work-flow so following a system is something I would not have a problem with as I am **** about having a process in place and following it. I had not thought about keeping a journal when it comes to my trades but is an excellent way to track and refine any system in place. I should have thought about the journal as it's another tool I use in my day job to streamline and simplify process's.

 

You stated "Forget about indicators and learn first price action/reaction" I take it you are referring to support and resistance? Beside S&R are you also looking for specific patterns?

 

Sorry to ramble and ask so many questions but I have another two.

 

1. Any recommended reading on price action/reaction to help me develop a good system?

2. I am also overwhelmed with all the charting software out there. Whats your preference?

 

I am only paper trading while I develop my system. That's part of my psychology until I can prove to myself with confidence that I can trade.

 

Thanks again for the excellent advice.

[DugDug 10]

Hi BlueWolf - congratulations it looks like you are doing all the necessary things to start successfully trading.

In terms of a couple of your questions.

1. Any recommended reading on price action/reaction to help me develop a good system?

 

Start sticking to this forums threads - there is plenty of information here to start with. (read everything with a grain of salt as there is plenty of crap but if you take notes and actually treat it like a study you should be fine).

 

2. I am also overwhelmed with all the charting software out there. Whats your preference?

Again there is plenty of info on this forum, but in summary - you will find that every system is different and suits different people. There is no substitute for trailing a few different systems with free trials and working out what suits you and what does not. systems include - esignal, Ninja trader, Multicharts, Sierra chart.

 

Just before you continue though too far can I suggest that everytime you come across a new idea/system/thread re read and look at your trading plan.....part of it should deal with your personality and what you are like and that an extremely important part of successful trading is matching a system to the personality. Dont make the mistake of trying to copy someone elses if it does not suit you. Its a waste of precious time.

good luck.

[smuhr 10]

Hi BlueWolf,

 

You should take a look to the e-learning Workshop from Robert Miner : here

 

In his WS you will start to learn some techniques to analyse price, how to use indicator, how define a trading plan, how to enter and exit a trade, etc....

 

I have personally watched the WS and it was really helpful for starting !

 

If you want to learn more about price action/reaction you should use Technical Analysis.

 

The following books are good :

 

Technical Analysis of Stock Trends

 

Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns

 

Technical Analysis Explained : The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points

 

Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications

 

Regarding a good software : Ninja Trader is good. It's free until you go live ! You have simulator, you can replay market data and have free quotes from Yahoo.

 

Good luck

[Bluewolf 10]

Thanks DugDug,

I already knew I would probably have to sift through a lot of BS to find some gems of knowledge.

I definitely agree with understanding my own psychology to trading and that's what I am currently concentrating on instead of just learning a system. I think this has been a big problem in my past as I was not always comfortable with some of the trading decisions I made.

Good trading to you and thanks again.

[ephan171 10]

Hi everyone,

Am new to these forums though not necessarily new to the markets,but not so experienced with live trading.been lurking here for some time and I have learnt a lot,I hope to learn much more.

Am from Zambia,a Southern African country,next to Congo(check on Google maps)If there's anyone from nearby here,give me a shout maybe we could share some ideas looking at locality.

Appreciate your comments and looking forward to learning and giving back.

[charles1 10]

Hello fellow trading enthusiast. I would love to learn more about trading and make good connections with fellow traders I can learn from. I've done some reading in this area and thought it was time to reach out and be a part of the community. Thanks for this site its great!

[StockDude21 10]

Hey Everybody,

 

Just thought I'd introduce myself. I am still in college, but I would like to pursue a career in trading. Does anyone have any suggestions on classes to take that would be beneficial towards trading? I am trying to learn as much as possible, but it's tough considering there isn't really a trading program where I go to school. I've been reading a lot on here the past few weeks, but I still don't know what some people are talking about. Any suggestions on the intro of all intro trading books?

 

Thanks

[SNYP40A1 10]

I am not the best person on here to give advice since I only traded a couple times in 2009. I am still learning to be a trader, but I want to help you out. I would recommend:

 

1. Programming classes. I don't know anyone who trades today without a computer and programming will allow you to test your own ideas without having to rely on others or the limitations of the popular software on the market. Probably two or three programming courses should get you up to speed.

 

2. Probability and Statistics courses, even better, datamining course such as this one:

Statistical Learning and Data Mining III

 

3. AI and Machine Learning

 

4. More math classes

 

Too late to become a Math or CS major???

[LearningtheMarket 10]

I am trying to get into the stock markets now. I need a couple of good stock market courses to understand the markets better. I started with LearningtheMarket from Eric Miles and found it good. Can anyone suggest something better. Looking forward to answers.

[brownsfan019 17]

Attached is a list of recommended books I put together some time ago.

 

Before you can decide what courses to take or what others could recommend here, you have to tell us about YOU...

 

What instruments do you want to trade?

What timeframe(s) do you want to trade?

How much risk are you willing to take?

How much do you want to spend on your educational materials?

 

Before you run off buying expensive courses, you should poke around this very site and see what you like. You might just find stuff that is here for FREE and much better than what you can find on the web. Start w/ this thread.

Amazon.com trading book reco's (tiny url's).pdf

[LearningtheMarket 10]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the list of books. I am more interested in stocks & Options and my plan is to understand the technicals more better. The LearningtheMarket gives information on technicals also but I want to probe a little deep.

[Jahr 10]

Hi all,

 

1st post, just trying to learn from all the experts on here

 

Hope to make trading buddies too along the way.

 

J x

[zapisy 10]

100% - you will learn

[ChimRichalds 10]

Well here I am. I'm fairly new to trading. I got into the market about a little over a year ago. took a tip from a friend who's made some money over the years. Bought into FNM/FRE and lost a few bucks. Did a little research where I could and stayed with it. Trading, not fannie mae. lol

 

i'm always looking for tips and tricks and what to look for and places to do good research. hope to get some good stuff here and help where i can.

[trader273 10]

I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly...

 

Good luck, lots of good stuff here.

[pandion 10]

Briefly:

I have been a money manager for the past 13 years (my whole professional career) deeply educated and practiced in fundamental analysis with a value discipline (MBA in finance, CFA). After getting the :crap: beat out of me in 2008 (my firm was long only) I decided that maybe charts actually have some merit. I have been reading voraciously about TA for the past year, and am now off on my own. I will likely be using TradeStation (also thinking about IB, but I do not like IB charts, and TS seems to have everything)... any words of wisdom on this please let me know.

 

Also, any reviews on Robert Miner's software would be helpful. His book was actually the first book I read on TA, and it totally jibes with my way of thinking. I am much more geared toward swing/position trading than frequent day trading/scalping (by the way... is it even possible to be a successful scalper paying $4.70/round trip contract for ES?). A lot of what he says makes sense. I've gone through his book probably 5 times. I would rather not pay $2,000 for his software, but it looks like through the TS market scanner (if I go that route) that I would be able to scan for 60 min/daily/weekly data using stochastics to determine time frames going in the same direction (though he uses some proprietary oscillator that combines stoch. and rsi, which I don't believe is available anywhere but his software... hopefully stoch. is good enough). So, any advice on how well his approach to trading works would be great. I would be happy to hear of other longer term trading strategies as well.

 

enough for now... sorry for the long intro. Nice site you have here

 

best

Drew

[zapisy 10]

Hi Drew,

 

Do you mean this website? - Dynamic Traders - Home

 

Tradestation is the best in the business for charting, strategy development, for creating custom indicators and for scanning hundreds of stocks. And in the scanner you can use all the technical analysis available, not only stoch. You can even scan for candlesticks patterns... there are lots of possibilities...

[CHernan 10]

Hello,

 

I am a quant trader and programmer in Connecticut. I run some models/systems in a few different asset classes and in a few differing time resolutions. Before that I worked for Visual Environs Inc., the premier quant and backtesting engine architect and technology firm as a consultant.

 

Cheers,

Charles

[bootstrap 47]

there are a few here that will back what i have to say.

 

1) forget everything that you learned in college. the best traders that i know barely graduated high school.

 

2) listen to no one. there is only one master and it is bid/ask

 

3) money manager and trader are two different animals.

 

but enough of the a-hole trader speak....welcome to the new world.

[DaKine 10]

Welcome,

 

I've also studied Miner and what was tough for me at least for intraday trading was wave counts... I also tried just using fib confluences for intraday stuff but have abandoned pretty much all of that.

 

GL on ur journey.

 

Be EZ...

[castello48 10]

Hi All,

 

I am probably the 'newest' member on here. ... I mean that in every sense of the word, not just the date my user account was created.

 

I've spent the last 7 years working in high tech sales. I've been lucky enough to build a pretty solid reputation in this space, and I have been working remote from my home office for the past 3 years -- I love it.

 

I've done decent for myself, especially in a terrible economy- I'm 29, married, baby on the way, homeowner, decent savings, etc. ... but I want more - freedom, money, knowledge, etc. so I am looking to dive into trading and hope to make it a full time job. I hope it's more rewarding than grinding it out at the poker tables ... which I also do!

 

I've literally just started reading "Day Trading For Dummies" (about half way though), and I was wondering if some of you more experienced traders can steer me in the direction of some other books/materials that will get me more familiar with the life of a day trader.

 

Thanks -- I appreciate it.

 

RICK

[brownsfan019 17]

Rick,

Attached is a book list I put together for these type of posts.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Amazon.com trading book reco's (tiny url's).pdf

[DugDug 10]

Life of the day trader - if you read a lot of similar threads, it is a daily grind. You dont find many people day trading from the beach, living it up. They are focused on screen time and reading the markets, or researching and backtesting.

 

By that I mean it involves a lot of patience, isolation and focus.

None of these are bad, however they are also not for everyone.

 

However, as some seem to do very well via time allocation and turning off the screens at set times, you can make it work for you in whatever way you like in terms of freedom.

Good luck.