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Strategies & Market Trends : Trading For A Living -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rob Davis who wrote (486)	6/20/1998 4:36:00 PM
From: jawd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1729

1) I track about 20 stocks looking for activity then dive in and trade only one (Nasdaq) stock at a time (using level II). I need to concentrate 100% and watch the play to decide when to get out/in. 2) I always buy min. 2000 shares and look to quickly take 1/16 profit. This produces the same profit as trading 1000 and looking for 1/8. Difference is, 1/16 comes a lot easier than 1/8 - therefore IMO a lot less risk. Downside is that if the trade goes wrong - losses are doubled. If a stock is low price - like $15 - I might accumulate lots of 2,000 up to 4,000 or more. Easy to buy 4,000+ but much harder to sell. Have to sell it in lots of 2,000 or maybe direct to MM's using Selectnet at bid. Reason is that showing large numbers on the sell side easily pushes price down. Of course, much of this is determined by the size of your account. 3) I only trade Nasdaq. NYSE too slow for me.

To: Rob Davis who wrote (486)	6/20/1998 4:48:00 PM
From: Eric P	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1729

Rob: Welcome to the thread! In response to your questions: 1) I think the number of simultaneous trades that a daytrader holds is dependant on their ability to closely monitor their trades. A trader that typically holds positions for several hours may take 3+ simultaneous trades. Someone who gets in/out in 5 minutes may only keep one position at a time. 2) As far as the number of shares per trade, I imagine most daytraders (myself included) restrict their trading to a minimum of 1000 shares. This is the limit of the SOES system and thus is a reasonable upper limit for this reason. Anything less than 1000 shares will make it more difficult to cover the high commission costs of daytrading. Good Luck, -Eric

To: Rob Davis who wrote (486)	6/20/1998 8:35:00 PM
From: Alf	Respond to of 1729

Rob 1) Typically, how many simultaneous trades do you have open ? 98 % of the time I will only have one position at a time - I find that two at a time is two hard to concentrate on - but sometimes I will do it. 2) How do you determine how many shares to buy when you see a trade ? 500 shares is my minimum - when I get into a trade for 500 shares I am willing to hold this stock longer than my normal trades and expect to get at least 1 point - but it is still a daytrade and is never held overnight ! Most of my trades though are 1000 shares and again never held overnight. 3) Are any of you trading in the Canadian markets? (eh?) Not me For the most part I try to stay away from stocks under 5 bucks a share Hope this helps good luck Tim