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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dr. z who wrote (15238)	2/16/2002 10:30:40 AM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

If by "good" you mean consistently applicable, no. Except, perhaps, that none are. LP.

To: dr. z who wrote (15238)	2/16/2002 12:36:06 PM
From: KymarFye	Respond to of 18137

I'd be interested myself in seeing any thoroughgoing, practical, battle-tested analyses of the uses and abuses of L2. Most of what I've picked up on it has come from bits and pieces in various books, a few web sites and message boards, some private correspondence, and experience. When decimalizaton was completed, some micro-scalper types reported fears that long-practiced, heavily L2-oriented techniques would become obsolete. I haven't seen any recent reports or work on post-decimalization L2-banditry. Anyway, there is much useful material, along with a thoughtful approach to creating a daytrading discipline, in THE DAY TRADER'S GUIDE TO TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (somewhat misleading title), by Chris Lewis, published in 2000 by McGraw-Hill. I don't fully agree with (and wouldn't expect to) all of Lewis' statements, and, as you might expect, given the changes in the trading environment over the last couple of years, many of his methods and observations are arguably already out of date, but others still apply, and his overall philosophy, perspective, and attitude are probably more important, in my opinion, than the particulars. As for L2 specifically, he appears to use it in two principal ways - as secondary confirmation of apparent patterns (e.g., heavy sell interest showing at and around a theoretical resistance point), and as an indication of available opportunities to enter or exit. He also gives numerous examples of what typical L2 screens look like (or used to look like) at various points in a tradable move's cycle, and also of what misleading L2 screens look like, but you may have to get over the view of a stack of QCOM buyers at 343 13/16 in order to get the message... (I just never get over those prices.) Rudd's STOCK PATTERNS FOR DAYTRADING (1 & 2) books are even more out of date, and often appear to be relying on some unnamed and unspecified external body of knowledge, but they're still quite useful, in my opinion, both for their passing observations on the use of L2 and more generally. They include a few re-productions of (pre-decimalization) L2 screens and even a specific L2-based trade set-up that, at the very least, is helpful for pointing at a way to begin thinking about how to assess the information. It's interesting that Bernstein's THE COMPLEAT GUIDE TO DAY TRADING STOCKS doesn't include a single reference to L2. Whether that's more a comment on L2 or on the book's true "compleat"-ness is another question.

To: dr. z who wrote (15238)	2/17/2002 12:56:32 PM
From: KymarFye	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

BTW on trading books: Still wonder why TraderAlan's been in such a bad mood. I suspect he's overworked, but, anyway, in addition to his new fee-for-service from TSCM - The Daily Swing Trade - he's also got Amazon on his side. Almost every trading book I check out is automatically bundled with THE MASTER SWING TRADER as a "special." You're also directed to the book from other directions as well. Apparently, if you've ever bought a trading book, it'll appear at the top of "recommendations." None of this is meant, by the way, to say anything for or against MST. Anyway, the Lewis book (THE DAY TRADER'S GUIDE TO TA) that I mentioned favorably re: L2 discussions is on remainder-level sale at Amazon. amazon.com They haven't thrown up my customer review cut-and-paste from here. I suspect that it won't make me famous, however, as the new price suggests that the book is on the way out... Tony Oz's 1999 book STOCK TRADING WIZARD appears to have gone out of print. I never read it, but it is said to have included the most detailed analysis of L2 and Time and Sales ever published, at least at the time. I guess there are exceptions (or infractions), but I sometimes wonder if there's a law stating that every trading book on Amazon must include several extremely positive testimonial-style customer reviews and usually at least one rather personal assault...