Stock Trading

I’d like to trade options on some some ETFs; QQQQ, DIA, SPY, IWM. I’d like to stay focused on a few stocks and trade when they move. I’d prefer not to trade on news; just the technicals.
I use options so that I do not have to risk that much cash(5K) but willing to take the volatility of options.
What indicators and what confirmations should be used to make 1 day-trade per day? .03 – .06 per trade would be fine trading 40-80 contracts.
I currentl use QuoteTracker software using EMAs and WMAs, MO, TRIX and RSI as indicators.
I just can’t seem to get very successful using my settings.
What have you successfully used? What should I be using and what should I be looking for?

Dan

I don’t have a great answer to the original question, but I want to point out that there is a serious error in the answer above. Purchasing the most liquid ETF’s options doesn’t make sense. The only way for one ETF to gain liquidity over another is by increasing its average daily volume. Volume usually works inversely of volatility.

She is correct that ETFs by definition are less volatile, so why would you want options (a bet on volatility) on the least volatile ETFs? You should only be interested in shorting/issuing them.

I am Day Trader, I am searching for best Stock and Future Trading Software

i’m not a day trader but PFG is worth a look. and a free subscription to SFO is a must.

I saw a article in Yahoo Finance about this software that supposedly will gain 1% a day or more. anyone use it?

They show no model portfolio or track record on their web site to back up these 1% per day claims…..or any claim for that matter. Sounds like they are doing some very creative marketing.

You can do similar screens for various technical criteria using various software packages out there. Some brokers even have free screening software built into their platforms.

I am considering taking a course for around $950 u.s. dollars that comes with software. Its a 2 day seminar with 25 people where you learn to day trade and the guy who does it is very conservative and very successful with it. I am not trying to get rich doing it but would like to have a goal of 150 dollars a day on average. I have about 20,000 in the bank to work with. I know a lot of people are negative about day trading but there must be people making money out there. What was your experience with day trading and did you go to a seminar to learn? Thank you.
Please do not try and sell me on a course or website.

I’m not going to talk you out of day trading, I ran a firm that had traders in various markets, who acted as in-house proprietary position traders, specialist, market makers, and dealers. But I hope you’re not going to be dependent on green lights, red lights or arrows.

All our traders worked in trading departments, on various floors in various makets, and traded various products, all the traders had years of experience. This is how we all made it in trading, not of them ever attended a seminar, (some gave them).

You can not learn in 2 days, what most traders do, and spent years doing it.

$150 a day, is not worth entering the order, you should set your goals for at least $10,000 a month.
By the rules & regs. to be a day trader you need a margin account that maintains minimum equity of $25,000.

If your going to trade/invest you must have the following, if you don’t, you’ll never have any success.
1 – A written sound trading/investment plan with rules that will not only help you but more importantly protect you, mostly from yourself.
2 – Sufficient trading/investment capital. Use your own money, there’s no need to go into debt so that you trade/invest.
3 – A written money management program in place.
4 – A full and complete understanding of the rules & regulations of the industry.

If you can do all of this in two days, you’re amazing but to be a decent trader you will have these four item in place, a professional considers them a way of life.

From the voice of experience, there may be other avenues you should try before you go buying packages, but you’re at least trying to better yourself

You do what you have to do to get you where you want to go, don’t let anyone ever talk you out of it, especially those that have never done anything to better themselves.

Good luck

Hi

I am looking for the best stock charting software for Day trading, I have used yahoo, stockcharts.com, bigcharts.com and etrade pro. There are others out there, can anyone reccommend one over others and why is it better than others, price, ease of use, capacity features?

Any relevant comments or advice appreciated.

For the price, you can’t beat Telechart. It has everything you’ll need in one place. Speed and efficiency is unsurpassed. You can sort thru 8000 stocks in seconds to find any criteria (and I mean ANY criteria) you can think of. If it’s not a function of TC, then you can easily write your own personal criteria formula.

Each function key on your keyboard can represent 12 different chart configurations, so you can look at these 12 different criteria in seconds. As soon as you hit the "F" key, the chart is displayed on your screen.

Did I mention that it has all the industry groups? If you looking at a stock and you want to know how the industry is doing, just switch over to the industry group with a click of the mouse.

All the indicies are also grouped together. You can also download that group of stocks that meet your criteria into a CSV file for importing to XL. I especially like this feature.

The support you get from the Wordens is unsurpassed also, and I couldn’t get by my day without reading the daily wisdom from Peter or Don.
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I day traded last year and had a capital gain of about 10,000. When I connected my brokerage account with my turbo tax software the amount I owed jumped to 175,000 dollars. Is day trading taxed by capital gains only or on the entire amount invested and what should be my next step?

if you made your living as a day trader and nothing else, your income is taxed as ordinary income, no capital gains.

but,, if you do pay tax on your capital gains, then like the guy above me said,, you must not have input your cost basis in the stocks you sold,, just the selling price. You would only pay on your gains, not on the original investment , you’d show the gain or loss between what you paid and what you sold for.

My father is willing to pay me to use a Foreign Currency Trading software basically all day every day. But, we’ve researched that it is a large investment to get the software to be able to do it. They’re advertising that if you do it all day, everyday you can make "a lot" of money per year off of this. I am concerned before we pay for the software if the program really does work and if you are able to make money off of it?

To make money on currency trading you need to work in large volumes. Often the margin of profit is 1%. Companies that do this need large reserves.

What eats up to profits, is the exchange of currency comes with a fee. Shopkeepers in tourist areas –like Bermuda– often find it cheaper to have the employees separate the US from the local currency before going to the bank.

I suspect what will happen is you will be paying the company to stay in business.
Is it worth it? Only if you have large amounts of money. Does it work? Not for small investors.

and some possible day trades. I need one with trailing stop/loss capabilities. Also, I’m trying to figure out if I need stock trading software? I have the specific parameters (Tech A.) mostly, so what is a good software? does any of the online brokers offer a good "real-time" software as well as low trade commissions? Any advice , especially from active traders , is appreciated. thanks.

Whatever disocunt brokerage firm you go with absolutely make sure to demand a money market fund for your cash account. ETrade and TD Ameritrade recently changed their policy and now pay less than 1% on cash…the income they earn by paying their customers less than 1% on cash and simply turning around and depositing "your" money into a money market account earns them huge profits (for ETrade it accounted for nearly 1/2 of their net income for the recent quarter)..Great way to treat their customers don’t you think….I can’t believe so many investors let them get away with this practice…I can’t stress enough that all discount brokerage customers need to look into what their firm is paying on cash and either demand a money market fund return (4.5-5%) or take your business to a place like Wells Fargo Investments that offers money market funds for idle cash and up to 100 free trades per account/year if you have over $25k between deposit, loans, and brokerage (including IRAs).

looking to day trade / swing trade.
Also what are best trading software indicators.

Interactive Broker offers the lowest interest rates on margin accounts. They also offer relatively generous amount of margin, but not as much as they used to, since the big meltdown last year.

Also, if you’re daytrading, you need to consider trading fees, and again Interactive Broker is very low.

What is the procedure for options and stock trading via E-trade or other day trading software. How much money is required to open an account. Is this risky? How does it compare with futures trading. Thank you for your help.

most online brokers have some minimums. they vary. in order to day trade, as i recall you need $25,000 minimum. there is a formula that they used to determine if you are a "pattern day trader". you must follow the rules and have the cash in the account to pay for the trades you make. you get a few strikes and then they will prohibit you from trading your account if you don’t have funds available. do a search on the site of the broker you choose for day trading rules.

Learn before you burn yourself out. Most (and i really mean most) people lose money day trading. You need a discipline that is hard to master. You need to know how and when to take a loss as this is what saves you to trade again in search of the winners. Stop loss orders are very important. And you need to realize that you are trading against professionals who get better executions of orders, have better information and faster access to it. You are also trading against computer programs.

Options are for the most part a highly speculative venture unless you are writing covered calls to try and boost your return on your long positions.

read the educational stuff at bobbrinker.com