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Strategies & Market Trends : Z Best Place to Talk Stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steven Bowen who wrote (13777)	3/21/1998 8:45:00 PM
From: Ron McKinnon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53068

Steve >>>Any thoughts to bring me back to reality appreciated. There is no free lunch. If something seems too good to be true, it is. >>>I was able to buy at the bid and sell at the ask in most cases if I was willing to wait a few minutes for an execution >>>For instance, I found if you could pick a stock that was steady and stayed quoted at 40 by 40 1/2, you can easily buy at 40 1/16 and turn around and immediately sell it for 40 7/16 Simple answer, this is not normal >>>Also don't want the stock moving fast, unless you can tell the direction You can never KNOW the direction, only make the best guess possible >>>My question is, What's wrong with this picture? It can't be this easy, can it? No! It is not. >>>Seems if you really stay on top of your trades, you could almost guarantee yourself no losses and make some easy profits There are no guarantees, ever! Trading is not easy; it is very difficult and stressful 90% of the time. Bu you can almost guarantee no large losses if you admit you were wrong in a heartbeat and get out fast; and you can make some consistent small, hard earned gains. >>>Is this what you mean you're doing when you say you're scalping 1/8's and 1/4's? No, I am normally looking for a quick run in the trending direction or a turn off the bottom, or jumping asap on some news or out of sync price movement. >>>Have you done this before? Yes, maybe on 5-10% of my quick trades >>>What is the downside? You lose money! Steve, you hit the jackpot with this set of trades. But, believe me, neither I or 1000's of others have ever been able to do that on a consistent basis. If you can hit a profit on 60-70% of your trys you will be doing better than 95% of all traders. This is a very different way to "play" the market; it is not for most people. But if it is something that you can develop a feel for, and like the action, it can be very profitable. My day trading account is up 48.62% this year but that is very unusual (huge understatement, at least for me). I have made money on 33 of the 54 trading days this year, 61%, and my guess is that my trades are about the same hit %. The key is to keep losses tiny; period. My advice is to try this for very small trades for a long period of time before you put sizable $'s at risk; focus on a very few stocks at a time and get to know how they tend to move; do not hold any trade over night; back off if things don't feel right either in your head or in the market that day; and don't Quit Your Day Job" Let us know how your efforts with this work out, and good luck. Ron aka takeZgain aka the Dolphin aka that Damn Yankee