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Non-Tech : MB TRADING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nazbuster who wrote (1221)	9/12/1998 4:13:00 PM
From: funk	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 7382

Daniel, one way to optimize the situation is to stick mainly to stocks that trade plenty of volume but also not too fast. There are plenty of stocks that trade between a million to ten million shares per day and if they are swinging in price, it is the place to be. The pace of the trades is good and steady allowing you to judge the patterns more easily and to always have the liquidity to bail in or out with out much difficulty. Trading DELL for me is just about impossible. Just too much for my internet connection and for me. Don't get me wrong its not impossible, but it is much more difficult and to me just not worth the trouble. I would bet you have traded an illiquid stock and so you know how that works. I will trade one occasionally but those are often position trades or on days that the volume is way above normal. If we assumed that there is one and only one rule for trading.... never let a stock go against you... if for simplicity we agreed that was the only rule; then I would say that you want a trading system that lets you control your entries and exits nimbly and you need to pick stocks that are relatively easy to trade in and out of. Since I hooked up with Manhattan Beach; the only times I have taken a beating... while I was sticking to the rule... was when I was in a low volume stock or in a fast market stock ... IPO's are a good example. So after a few memorable beatings, I have learned to pick active stocks. So to answer your question... YES! With the direct executions, reasonable stock picking, and a proper mental attitude <<< that's the tough one >>> I can jump in and out with very little slippage. When you recognize the signals telling you to hit the button, and you do not hesitate, but confidently and quickly act on what you know, man it works. the classic frustration is when you see the signals, know its go time, wait a few seconds, then a few more, and then ten other guys did what you knew to do, now the market moves, you get a partial or no fill. I would say that at this point the difference between a great day and a bummer is 90% me 5% luck and 5% the broker. I am only as good as my next trade, so don't take my word for it, but the two greatest qualities you can cultivate within yourself, the two that I think about every single day is patience and flexibility. funk

To: Nazbuster who wrote (1221)	9/13/1998 1:03:00 AM
From: William W. Dwyer, Jr.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 7382

Daniel, Very good question, and I hope I understand you correctly. "Effective enough" is a fairly subjective description, but let me offer that I would answer "yes" but only with certain qualifications. "Yes" in the sense that the platforms work and can be used. However, one must know and understand their limitations, given that the technology is fairly new and changing rapidly. First, the internet gets very busy some days, and so does the stock market, so do brokers, and so forth. These can sometimes create a problem that the remote trader needs to recognize and deal with. It can be done, though. The ISP one uses can effect results, as can the power of one's computer and whether it works well on a give day. The quality of your connection to the ISP, the telephone network, many things can adversely effect performance on any given day. A prudent trader needs to be able to tell when things are normal and when things are not. When they are not normal, a trader needs to be able to determine it these problems can be dealt with reasonably, or whether his trading should be suspended or altered for that time period, maybe even the entire day. In other words, one must be willing to stop trading whenever the odds become substantially unfavorable. Excess risk cannot be accepted without paying a price. Lately, the stock market and telecommunications networks have been extremely busy and the technology seems to have been pushed to new limits on several occasions. I believe the technology (and the brokers who use it) have done exceedingly well and I expect them to improve with time. After all, this is the way they make a living. They absolutely have to make it all work. I think they will. It might comfort you to know that I personally have not been prohibited from trading very often because of these problems, and it seems to be getting better. But one must surely realize some bad days will occur, just as some days you just can't seem to get to work because it's raining really bad, lots of street flooding, lots of traffic accidents, interstate all congested. Well, with trading, some days are better to just sit back and read a good book and "watch" the market rather than participate and risk losing capital. Regarding your question about being able to buy/sell at the prices you choose, well, I must say that is not always possible. And it's not because of the trading platform. All traders with all brokers have that problem. Some days you try placing an order and you just don't get the price you want that moment. Maybe you were too slow, maybe you did it wrong, pushed the wrong button, maybe you wanted a price and, for many possible reasons, you just didn't get it. That can and does happen with all kinds of traders with all kinds of brokers. Has little or nothing to do with your system, it's your ability to read the market in advance and properly anticipate what to do and when. If we were all perfect at that, well, we aren't. Obviously. In summary, though, let me just say that many traders are successfully trading using these platforms. Probably many are not doing so well. The systems are very, very good and getting better with each passing day. But the market seems, to me, to be getting tougher, too. Nothing worth while is that easy. If you are really interested in leading edge trading, I would suggest you more fully investigate either or both of these trading platforms and make your own decision whether this is for you. Obviously I have done so and decided it was for me. I hope this helps. Bill