Daytraders (I don't consider myself a daytrader, but a hit'n run trader and if the market improves I'll consider myself a position trader, I reserve the right not o stereotype my trading style.. That was an excellent article and I took out a piece I think you should cut out and keep in close by:
<<Though day trading has grown more challenging since the Internet stocks peaked, few day traders have buckled down to doing the kind of homework that more selective trading demands.
Mary Lanigan, who is 52 and trades with Momentum Securities in Houston, avoids Internet stocks. Early last week, she was amused to find that many of the young traders around her, who tend to focus solely on the internal rhythms of the trading day, were mystified that Yahoo was slumping despite apparently good earnings.
"I had seen the negative story in Barron's on Saturday, analyzing the quality of those earnings," she said. "They hadn't." >>
This is mind-boggling. I'm not saying I'm the norm, I'm not.. I'm a computer and research nerd and I know it but its also my business. I also know that when I finish the day or the week I sleep well, I am not in danger of burning out (I've paid the piper with two very large losses in the last 5 years and the occasional stupid moves even now )
That Barron's article is the very least this daytrader should have read, but even I've seen on CNBC when a BGEN, NKE or LXK sell off they say "Great earnings but stock still sold off in that questioning befuddled way they have of reporting."
Daytrading is not the same for all people. Daygrading for me and SF and probably for Sam, does not mean buying CSCO, YHOO, AMZN 20 times a day and selling it again for 1/8 point. Daytrading has been forced upon us by the internets and IPO's that are capable of giving 5+ points in a trade. That is not scalping. That is like living in a time warp where 1 days is set at fast forward to be like 5 days.
I have never bought an IPO the first day, that is pure and simply gambling. Only in the last 2 months I've bought them after 1 or 2 weeks of trading. I try to research them as much as I can.. some are not bad. I liked STMP, AUDC, PHCM, and at least 1 dozen others like CMTN, BRCD, JNPT JWEB, because they do well (FOR A DAY OR TWO). I stay with the same ones over and over and rarely hold overnight. I get out when the loss is 3-4% unless its a short position where I tend to wait until 5%.
I study charts, study fundamentals, read a lot, watch others I trust, and still make mistakes.. but take away every part of the last sentence and you are left with the word MISTAKES... Have you noticed how kendall, or kha vu or aliveinsf, how viola 'knows' her stock or how SF with his technical background also seems to hover over the same ones. They are not daytraders.. they trade and sell when the stock loses steam,, but they study, ask them about WITC or NITE or ask kha about BEAM or Burjis about NFF.. They know..As OJ about almost anything or Lee. or how Sam can read his Money Flow or just about any regular on this thread.
These are not the same daytrader that trade with ATTAIN or hit on YHOO because their neighbor made a killing in March or April but now its May and the nets died. Or the self proclaimed guru who has been accumulating nets not giving in an iota that the bottom was dropping out
Too many people are getting on the trading bandwagon and not doing any research, can't tell a road map from a stock chart, doesn't even know what EPS stands for or things OBV is some kind of sports statistics. I'm not making light of them, I'm pretty angered that they are let loose and not told how difficult it really is. I don't know where the blame begins.. but its somewhere with companies hiring these novices and throwing them into the arena too quickly.
I was in 2 trading establishments one day before the tragedy.. It looked sick, stressful, I just wanted to get out of there. Traders only knew the colored lines of the level II and talked MM's without any regard to the company, the volume, the technicals, I won't even mention fundamentals.
The discount brokers are providing a wonderful service, education sites like www.tradehard.com, www.clearstation.com, www.wallstreetcity.com, www.multexinvestor.com, Zacks, all offer what you need, but if you don't go and look and read and study what good is going to do opening an account without knowing how to trade.. It doesn't take two weeks. It took me two weeks just to learn Townshend Analytics and what all the buttons were for.
Anything that will net your $50-100,000 a year (so they claim) will not take you 1-2 weeks to learn. More like 1-2 year at the very least and that is full time day and night starting out with enough cash to begin with. Its just like that guy at night on the infomercial who claims to be a multimillionaire by buying real estate with 'no money down'.. or the neighbor who said I'd be rich selling phone cards and explained some kind of idiotic pyramid scheme
Get a good education, not just $3,000 seminar alone but get some books and read, paper trade, study the Investor's Business Daily and what it offers. Go slowly, forget the word 'daytrade' and substitute the word "individual investor'. and if I were you I would do this independently and not 'join a trading room with 30 other prisoners and the MM and the owner as warden'. |
