Chris; RE:" BIG losers "
Berney and I both got whacked in WDC last year. I had heavy positions in QNTM/WDC and, at one time, had doubled my money.
IntelTrader and I both got whacked in INTCW last year. We had heavy positions at 50 and we doubled up at 75 the week before earnings. We went into the 'Intel Trader Doghouse' for a couple of months after that.
McMillan's book about options is the de facto reference work, Chris. It's a heavy tome. Surf on over to the CME website, Chris -
cme.com
- buried down in there somewhere is something called the "free S&P Mini Trading Kit" -
cme.com
- and request the free kit by post. You'll get a packet of stuff in a few weeks. One of the nifty things is a little pocket-size calendar that shows all the options expiry days on it; it makes a righteous bookmark for McMillan's book ;-) But the most useful thing is this little, pocket-size booklet called,
"Twenty-One Proven Strategies for Mini S&P 500 Options"
and in it is a summary of all the options diagrams in McMillan's book - it's a great reference - from the pictures in it, you can look up all the details in McMillan's book.
The Edwards & Magee book is sorta the classic reference for T/A stuff, and it's a heavy tome, too. But if I had to buy only one T/A book, it would be this one (I guess I'm old fashioned).
Candlesticks are way-cool. Nison's Candlestick Charting Techniques was the original translation from Japanese into English, I believe - and it's a good introduction. Morris' Candlepower has been re-printed with a new title, "Candlestick Charting Explained: Timeless Techniques for Trading Stocks and Futures". It is a more complete reference, but not so good as an introductory text as Nison's original work.
Understanding the sector indices and their components is a worthwhile endeavour, Chris. Go to the PHLX -
phlx.com
- and look up all the components of the sector indices. The classic SOX.X is there, and worth understanding/charting. I put all these sector index components into portfolio-trackers (like MyYahoo) and track them that way. I'm really glad I broadened my horizons out past MSFT, INTC, CSCO, etc.
The amex.com site also lists sector indices, as does the cboe.com site. I also looked up and constructed trackers for the DJX, DTX and DUX, as well as all 100 components of the OEX and NDX indices: I cannot imagine how I ever followed the market before I learned about its structure!
My 'Meta Portfolio' tracker contains all the sector indices in one spreadsheet on-line. A useful exercise for any cybertrader, IMHO (^_^) For me, Chris - it was a fresh start all over again.
-Steve |
