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To: jesso who wrote (502)10/10/2000 9:47:17 PM
From: Michael Watkins  Respond to of 8925
 
jesso,

Anyone primarily trade just one stock, or a few, every day, day after day? I've heard that people do this, and I've always wanted to try it

This type of question is probably better fit for the Daytrading fundamentals thread ( Subject 28734 ) rather than A Price and Volume Technical Trading thread..., but, many people follow this approach and I personally think there's a lot of validity to it. Of course, it will depend on the time frame that you want to trade in, how big an account you can trade, etc.

If you are going to day trade, in my opinion you need to find stocks that:

- trade millions of shares per day. The more the better.
- have the most volatility - measure it with something like Average True Range

I used to do a stock selection scan once a month or when the spirit moved me, looking for stocks that were volatile, and I'd pick the top 5 from my list. Originally I was trying to track 30 or more, but that was unmanageable.

However, there's one big downside, this would work best in a bull market, because with stocks you still have the no short on a downtick rule. Depending on the setups you trade, you may not be able to trade stocks at all on the short due to that limitation.

The mext logical place to look then are the index proxies - they allow for shorting on down ticks, but I think you need to be thinking of larger time frames and perhaps overnight trades if you want to do well with the Amex specialist and things like the QQQ, DIA, SPY, etc.

I only day trade futures, and I position trade stocks / index proxies. Futures give me volatility, instant order execution, a full range of order types (stop, limit, stop limit) and I can short on a downtick. Highly leveraged.

One last comment, if you are relatively new to trading, I'd definitely reduce your list to one stock, or one future etc, and focus on improving skills and being consistant before broadening the scope. I wish I had done that when I started...



To: jesso who wrote (502)10/10/2000 11:54:24 PM
From: Teresa Lo  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 8925
 
"...Anyone primarily trade just one stock, or a few, every day, day after day?...

This has always been my position, that a traders should keep a list of stocks to watch at about a dozen, follow all the fundamental developments and know them inside out. Stocks on this list should trade millions of shares a day and represent the top stock in their sector. You watch them day in a day out, and know them like the back of your hand. You will have a significant advantage over someone who just saw it in their scan and make money.

I personally don't trade stocks anymore, and have simplified my life even more, to just trade the S&P and the Nasdaq futures contracts. There's more to life than sitting here night after night, working yourself into the ground.

Like Colonel Sanders, you should aim to just fry chicken right!

Teresa



To: jesso who wrote (502)10/11/2000 7:00:14 AM
From: booters  Respond to of 8925
 
Anyone primarily trade just one stock, or a few, every day, day after day

I trade just the NQ00Z. I like it much better than the days I jumped around searching for a trade.

boots

PS. and I am doing better also.