Day Trading Takes Experience

 

day trading DAY TRADING Day trading is often a much debated subject. Can it work ? Yes, but only for those who have mastered the discipline and remain extremely discipline. In theory types of equities can be day traded. However, the overwhelming majority of market mavens are in agreement that day traders should stick with the more liquid names.
 
 Some investors who delve into day trading, often use their own research methods. They basically scour the internet, read research reports and form their own technical trading styles. Others simply subscribe to internet based services or participate as members in live trading rooms. Keep in mind that while both sources can act as great aids, they are not necessarily guarantees for success.
 
 This is why here at Pennystockexplosion.com, we are not a day trading website, but we do try to map out some sort of game plan when we issue alerts. For instance we frequently highlight the perils of buying penny stocks that gap up in the AM. We also try hammer the strategy of taking smaller profits into the heads of our subscribers, instead of always trying to hit home runs. Being uninformed and greed are some of the biggest factors proved in studies that show that the majority of day traders lose money.
 
 We are also going to touch on the subject of day trading more frequently than we have in the past couple of years. Mainly because history has shown us that day trading activity usually wanes when the market is flat to down. And right now might be a good time to brush up on the style, because many feel this market could turn higher soon.
 
  Before you act though, here is an important point that most overlook. In my opinion, this factor is not discussed as often as it should be, and rivals the importance of being well funded and properly informed.

 

Day Trading is Intensive Work

 
 The question is pretty simple and can be answered easily. Do you have the time to trade for 5 or 6 hours a day. You would be surprised to see how many people answer yes, and fool themselves when they are asked this question. Many feel that they can properly watch intraday patterns while trying to perform at their day jobs. Others feel they can just enter the trade and follow up with buy and sell stop orders (Depending if you are long or short) and put their account on autopilot.
 
 Neither strategy can work for the masses on a consistent basis, and here is why. People with intensive day jobs have far too many tasks to perform to properly monitor ever the ever changing news flow and technicals. For instance, do you think that a supervisor of an employee wants to see a 5 minute chart of Potash (POT:NYSE) up on somebody’s work station while they are being paid to write a proposal. There are just too many distractions at a 9-5 job to day trading properly. Plus, you potentially could be putting a solid income at risk by getting fired.
 
 As part as trading on auto pilot, it can work because it often takes emotion out of the equation. However, it only takes one choppy market to chew up a trading stake. And with predetermined profit and loss levels entered after a trade is executed, you often see novice day traders not use common sense. Let’s say John Doe just bought 1k shares of XYZ at $22 and the trading system recommends to enter a sell at $23. Now let’s also assume that XYZ is now trading at $22.80, only .20 away from the sell target and bad news comes out of Europe and the markets start selling off.
 
 Now for an astute trader who is actually monitoring this situation, he or she can simply sell the position or raise stop loss orders to lock in some sort of profit. This differs from the auto pilot trader who will not only miss out on the profit from XYZ, but will potentially be stopped out at a loss.
 
 The moral of the story is to not get too serious about day trading unless you are retired, or have a cushy job with a flexible schedule.

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INSIDER TRADING is Legal


insider trading1 INSIDER TRADINGDue to legal issues, the term Insider Trading may confuse some. Many astute investors often confuse Inside Information with Insider Trading and the term we are touching on today is completely legal, and has to do with management buying or selling their own company’s stock in a legal fashion.

HOW DOES INSIDER TRADING WORK? A company insider can legally trade his own company’s stock. There are layers of legitimate regulation that provide a safeguard to abuse. Executives, and members of the board can buy or sell stock in their own company providing they disclose the transaction and facilitate the trade within allowed time frames. The SEC is the ruling body in regards to insider trading and activity. Stock options also fall under their jurisdiction.

INSIDER TRADING Can Benefit Investors


HOW CAN INVESTORS BENEFIT? The theory behind insider trading is pretty simple. Look at it this way. Would you listen if a buddy of yours was on the BOD of a NYSE company and told you that he legally just purchased shares a week or two ago ? Of course you would. You would probably also take notice if that same insider just told you that he dumped his entire position. Just keep in mind that due to advances in technology this information is readily available if you are willing to do the leg work or perhaps pay a few dollars for a service.

DOES THE STRATEGY WORK? As you probably know, all investment strategies have both benefits and flaws, there are no guarantees in the markets. However, following insider trading might be best used to validate a position that you are already in. Let’s say that you own 1000 shares of XYZ at $10 and it’s now trading at $4. Let’s also assume that the CEO of XYZ just stepped in and purchased 750000 shares of XYZ at $4.31 in the open market. Now, that’s obviously a sign of confidence from management, but only use Insider Trading as a guide, not gospel.

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LIVE TRADING ROOMS Have Advantages


live trading rooms LIVE TRADING ROOMSMany day traders and speculative investors have tried their luck using live trading rooms. In these rooms subscribers are given multiple real time trading ideas by live and in some cases professionaltraders. By subscribing to one of these internet based platforms, subscribers not only have participated in real time equity ideas, but Forex and S&P futures plays as well.

Well how do they work ? Live trading rooms frequently offer free trial memberships to induce interested traders into becoming paid members. Some of the more established sites usually offer free trial that range from 1 to 7 days. While the lesser known operations will often offer a free subscription for as long as a month.

Although I am currently not subscribing to any live trading rooms, I have in the past. Not only as a free member, but as a paid subscriber as well. So I will touch on some of my experiences with live stock rooms with these unnamed outfits below :

I’ll start on a positive note, and one plus of using some live trading rooms is the access to breaking news. However, most don’t offer it. Especially the sites that have lower membership fees. We all know how tough it is to efficiently watch a Level 2 screen and either keep an eye or ear on the tube to find out what David Faber or Jim Cramer is saying. It’s even harder for some to focus on trading when listening to the constant burst of information that comes through the internet based squawk box news services that so many traders use for news now. Especially if you are scalping or attempting to rebate trade. So having a one stop trading ideas/news service where you can just simply just watch your monitor can often reduce distractions.

Another plus of subscribing and taking ideas from others is that there are actually a few solid, profitable traders working for these websites. I can recall three individuals that I once followed that had tremendous prolonged hot streaks, and all of them had different styles. Now you are probably asking yourself this question right now. If John Doe from XYZ Trading is making so much money then why is he giving out ideas in a live trading rooms ? The answer is pretty simple. Many of these traders handle their own account’s and supplement their income with member subscription fees and purchases of add on products, banner ads etc. Keep in mind that it doesn’t take very long for a tech savvy person who trades professionally, to post a trade and it’s entry/exit points on a platform, and maybe follow it up with a quick blurb on the stock. The downside for the subscriber is that the person you are following is often in a profitable trade before you act.

On the flip side there are negatives too. Some live trading rooms do a better job at advertising than others, and a particular site caught my eye during a Google search. I signed up for a free membership, and as usual, I followed their trades for a couple of weeks without acting in my own account. What I found with this live trading rooms (Which is still in operation) is that they constantly recommended and scalp plays in less liquid ultra high beta, stocks that were over $100 and often over $200 per share. Now this strategy might sound like your cup of tea, but many veteran day traders preach to stay away from names that are under $5 and over $100 for the reasons I mentioned above. Liquidity and volatility. Now I am not saying not to trade stocks that fall under or above the above mentioned ranges. We issue alerts on low priced names all of the time. However, our time frame isn’t based on a 5 minute holding period.

LIVE TRADING ROOMS Suppply More Content


Here is why these live trading rooms use these high priced stocks as picks and why it’s almost impossible to scalp them consistently. Especially in choppy markets. It sometimes only takes 5k or 10k shares of market orders to move some of these small and mid cap names higher or lower by $1, $1.50 or even $2. Now if the site can get a few of those type of trades off in a day, they will mount some monster compounded percentage returns. But, here is the catch. You regularly couldn’t get filled at the suggested entry level, and the last time I checked, no investor has ever become rich by paper trading. I often saw this particular trading rooms issue a sell alert a few minutes later after the recommended name traded only 2k shares or so. It became obvious that this trading rooms was being run by professional paper traders. So I stayed away, and you should aviod these types of subscriptions too.

Another detractor of live trading rooms is using one with too big of a following. There is one site that I have used and respect, but they have so many subscribers that they often move fairly liquid NYSE stocks .10 or .15 cents in less than a minute when the projected profit was only .50 cents or so. So it’s very important to remain disciplined and pass on the trade when this happens.

I’ll finish with two final bits of advice. First, if you are interested in day trading and are looking for a content stream of ideas sign up for free trials, but look for those who provide additional content. But don’t jump in quickly, watch them for a while before you facilitate a trade, and see if they fit your individual style. For instance some are better at scalping than others, and there are others who trade the open better than they trade the close etc. Just look for a match that fits.

Lastly, and most importantly, if you happen to find a good site for your style, make sure you are funded well enough to take advantage of scaling out of profitable positions. In other words, many of the web traders often exit winning trades in 1/4 pieces. The reason for this is to hold on to the last profitable lot for as long as possible with little or no risk. Usually using a stop order at or slightly above the initial purchase price. Holding on to a final small position puts you in a position for a great percentage gain, and one good trade can cancel out some of the smaller losses you have taken during the month. But to play the market this way you have to be in a position to buy at least 400 shares of stocks over $50 and under $100. If you can’t, the inability to scale out can cost you dearly. Any of the live trading rooms that are worth their salt embrace this trading style.

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