It's not worthless. Opinion obviously varies on everything... Some people do think it's worthless but almost everybody I know who is profitable either:

A. thinks you paper trade until you are profitable before going live (the vast majority)

or

B. trade very very small small size. Like for example 1 S&P futures contract (<-- this one is still too big IMO as you are going to get hurt almost surely and you still need probably a few thousand just to open an account). Or you can open a very small forex account like 200-300 bucks (something that's not going to hurt if you loose it and loose it you will ) and practice on it.



The biggest argument for people in camp B is you trade differently (from a psychological point of view) when there is no money on the line. While this argument certainly has some merit the fact remains that paper trading is not like play money in poker LOL. Your opponent and the difficulty is pretty much the same whether you paper trade or live trade. Basically if you want to hold on to your money you paper trade until you beat it and then move on to live.

That said if you are itching... Go to Oanda and download their demo (it's a forex broker but a very good one for live small accounts as even with a small account you can size your trades to risk 1-2% on each trade if you want to screw around with a live account for a couple of dollars). Play around with it for FREE for a couple of weeks (or 6 months or 12 ) then you can decide if you want to dump a couple of hundred. If you do choose to screw around with Forex I recommend you go thru this first before trying to search the internet all over the place for something that works (you can do that later THIS will give you the basics) http://www.babypips.com/school/. Learn how to size your trades to only risk 1-2% on any trade so you don't blow your $200 on the first trade. This should keep you busy for a couple of weeks man .

Note: only reason I mentioned forex is it's pretty much the only thing you can trade/practice for real money with a very small account. Anything else and paper trading is your best friend! (forex included actually).

Now all you have to do is find something that works... Then bang your head against the wall... Then stare at the chart until your eyes pop out... And maybe maybe you will get there one day. Good luck man.

Dumped all 154 puts for a .25 cent loss. And dumped 1/2 of Apr12 152 puts for .2 cents higher than I paid for them. Freed up some margin so I'm short the S&P contracts instead from 1545 and plan to add higher if we take out the high and reverse from there. Also short the Pound vs the yen from 143.5 stop 145.9, shooting for 137. Also long AUD/CHF from .9920 stop .975 shooting for 1.01

Anyone ever use DBC (Powershares Commodity Index) for their commodity portion of portfolio?

Can someone help analyze this day trade, if I made an error?
Easy to say in retrospect after looking at a chart, but if could analyze like a poker hand that helps, as you see the information at the time and not the rest of the chart.

Stock: BBRY, 5000 shares
Biggest loser gap down in an up market with Avg volume > 10M. Entry goal of an opening point reversal due to the large gap down, and the market being up in the opening. (stock was downgraded by GS "causing" the large gap down, but that is irrelevant for my purposes)

So my goal with a point reversal is to make the trade between 9:40 and 9:55 when a point reversal is indicated and hold the stock between 2-20 minutes ideally for a profit.

Key support and resistance levels, based on 1d, 1m, and 1y charts were, 14.40, 14.12, and 13.93. Key levels from premarket action were 14.00 and 13.64.

I entered at 9:43 am at 13.80, with a price target of 13.92, and a stop at 13.69 (based just below the "closing value low" on the 1 minute chart at 9:34 am). So if this trade works more than half the time, I win.

The stock hit 13.91, 3 minutes after my position initiated, so I did not fill and it looked to be turning around, implying that my point reversal theory was incorrect. So I changed my order to 13.85 and it ran away from me and I changed it again and exited at 9:50 am at 13.81, for a tiny gain, when I was afraid I was about to get stopped out (it had hit 13.71).

The problem is, that exactly when I exited is when the real point reversal happened, and you can see by the chart in the next 20 minutes it charged up to 14.62, and I could have exited at my original target. [I could have even re-entered at 14.05 after it broke the intraday resistance (forming a partial-filling gap) and exited at 14.22 when it was starting to level off for a nice gain, but I am just learning and doing only 1 daytrade a day max].

Anyone have any suggestions?

I played BBRY long this morning too. My thought was that the stock was down a lot on their disappointing phone over the past couple days so this downgrade seemed priced in. They gap down even more so it looks like they are setting up for a squeeze. Your stop seems kinda narrow so you're playing just random noise rather than looking for a real move. I would have started thinking about hitting out at 18.60

The floor???

Come onnnnnn, you think those idiots in suspenders on cnbc have a clue? Their only edge was/is frontrunning client orders and that is ending/done. That and living off of the $ that they were gifted from being the beneficiary of a monopoly.

Outside of marketmaking, and scraping macro numbers (which tbh isnt much for single stocks), when real things happen, stocks are still traded by people, they're just incognito.

If you're not selling crap (and nearly everyone selling crap is essentially a self-promoting scammer), there's really no benefit to do otherwise.

I understand that the floor is non-exsistent/ unimportant anymore. I was mostly talking about the futures pits of old. The point I was attempting to make that just like in the past attemtpting to scalp off the floor was largely unsuccessful because of the fact that you gave up so much edge to the floor. Now instead of the traders on the floor having the edge its the algos/ colocated hfts that have a speed advantage that is difficult to beat as an upstairs manual trader. Day-trade, yes, but trying to take one or two ticks out 100 times a day isn't that easy.

Agreed, the style of making eighths or overlaps has transformed into one of inefficiencies and special opportunity trading though. It's kind of a natural progression I guess in terms of if something is so simple it cannot last.

I didn't trade BBRY today but one of the guys at my desk did. At first, he was looking to get short. If you noticed on the 5th 5m bar, it actually tried to break down from that consolidation (after it got tighter) before reversing. What happened afterwards is a breakdown failure where real buyers came in to absorb all the selling and everyone who tried a momentum short got trapped. My buddy got short originally, but quickly reversed his position and went long once he saw buyers coming in on the tape. He got long in the 13.90s looking to scale into profits between 14.25 - 14.50 with partial stop at his original price (if momentum fails) and full mental stop in the 80s. I don't know if you're attempting to day trade in the morning using only charts, but you really need a level2 (and learn how to read order flow well) especially in your case trying to scalp 10c (I actually have no idea why you are doing this on a news play where there is no shortage of volatility and momentum. If you want 10c moves, just play market maker in an idle, rangebound stock). Also, the best trades that start working immediately are when you can visually tell on a chart where lots of traders get trapped on the other side.

A few disclaimers: I'm not a day trader. Also, I'm not sure I know what a point reversal trade is (I assume your looking for just looking for the stock to reverse higher).

I don't see the long entry here:
1) At 9:38 you have 1.3 million shares that couldn't take it higher. The 9:42 bounce was on 500k shares. That is not enough juice go long at 9:43 imo.

2) I'd personally let it get back in the gap before entering long.

3) I'm not sure a 1:1 risk/reward is a profitable spot with a stock selling off heavy.

As played I think your rationale for selling is reasonable, but it's still a panic sell.

4) It's reasonable to think you might be in trouble when we roll over at 13.91.

5) Don't raise the stop to $13.81 as your stop number just so you can book the 1c. You want to set stops at a point where if it breaks below, it changes the trade.

$13.68 is the price where the trade really changes. If you feel your screwed and must raise the stop $13.74 >>> $13.81 as you have some mini-support @ $13.75.

If I was in your trade with your game plan I like to think I would of just let the trade playout, but I'm certainly capable of panic selling. If I did, I would of sold at $13.74 and gave back the gain.

I will preface this by stating that my intraday trading is horrible , and I am probably a good 50k in the red lifetime daytrading, so my suggestions wont be so much on your entry/exit prices.

I also was looking at bbry today , but more on kicking myself for not initiating my short last week like I was originally planning (i was short right before earning (see jan thread) ) , I decided to wait to start my entry in it .


what i find a little odd is your 1 daytrade a day parameter , so best case scenario you made your 12 cents and that is your day ? That really is no way to learn imo , it is similar to playing one orbit or one down . You dont want to over trade either but you had secondary plans for bbry once your first round trip went through . You should limit your trades when you are chasing or when you step outside your system.

as for that specific trade , why cut it off before it hit your stop ? you set your stop for a reason .

^you guys should abbreviate long quotes

This .

This as well.. having level 2 is very important imo . I will look at a level 2 screen for hours on in if there is a stock i am targeting .

I used to think this, but for beginners it's not too bad for preserving capital (also since most of their entries/timing are bad in the first place, it allows them to get flat and re-evaluate). There are also cases where you want to stop yourself out of a partial position at breakevenish (especially if you realized you took too much size or have a reason for lowering your risk on a trade). And there are cases where you know if the price comes back to your entry, the probability of the trade being successful decreases.

Even for a beginner, I would argue your most likely to pick a correct stop before you get in the trade.

Yes, you can preserve capital, but your also probably burning money (I know I do), when you start tinkering with stop mid-trade. I'd imagine this is especially true for day trading because decisions must be made very quickly.

that is true, but he also set designed stops that he felt comfortable with , just seemed like a panic exit which we all have done , also , if the trade started going in his favor , limiting to one trade a day wont let him get into further entries.

I wouldn't call it tinkering mid-trade if you can incorporate it into your execution scheme/trading plan in a way that is positive expectancy (after commission ofc) and you already have multiple scenarios played in your head/where you know how to react in each one of them. Then again, my mentor and I were both hardcore RTS game players so maybe it's not for everyone.

I only do one day trade a day because I have to go to work.

6:30-7:30 is before work and I can play point reversals.
and 12-1 is lunch break and I can play last hour breakouts.

Thanks to all for the comments.

Wanted to give it a few minutes, before deciding to sit out again, but yeah...sitting out again.

100% Cash. GL all.

you have lot of patience ....

this market is made for range bound trading

you should give it a shot

I can give you a couple of possibilities if you want

sbux (54.595) -15% bbby (55.46) -5%
FB -20% 26.70 ges -10% (27.10) ANF -10% (47.70)




10 lnkd may 120 puts at 1.35
10 msft apr 29 puts @ 1.16
33 spxs apriil 12 calls @ 1.3




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still shorting more into this up market.. someone examine my head.

20 FB april 27 puts @ 1.99 avg
5 ANF april 50 puts @ 4.51

What's your stop on BBBY?
72?

It is a hard chart to analyze.

I am holding it on a tip. Small position. I plan to add before earnings. If it does not pan out, will most likely cover.

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"still shorting more into this up market.. someone examine my head."


Examined