Nov 28, 2007

Tough

Hard to make a high-probability buck lately. Market's up big, I've got a full watchlist and - up to this point - no candidates are setting up. Sucks since this is my 'full' trading day and I'm out of town on Friday.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, never do that well when the market really moves. I had to step away from the office this morning and I missed the few setups I might have taken. DRYS is the nicest one, ITU and GM I probably would have taken...

A little frustrating after standing aside for over a week.

I wanted to ask you what cash interest you get from IB on your day trading margin account. Mine sucks but it seems I can not do much with it because it is a margin account.

OONR7 said...

gt: don't know the % amount. Is there a window that has that info? If you're comparing to Etrade... IB is way, way more. Depending on how much I trade per month, the interest alone helps pay the commissions. I remember Etrade (with the same amount I have now in IB) was minimal at best. FYI... here's what I'm hoping will happen to Etrade: they sell their brokerage arm to Ameritrade which would allow me to get Ameritrade's backfill and datafeed allowing me to dump prophet for good. I'd rather Etrade keep their banking business as I like the 4.7% APY on the savings account.

OONR7 said...

I was looking at ITU and hoping the 11:30 bar would end up on increased volume.

Anonymous said...

I have an Ameritrade account and their backfill is very fast. It is only 5 days (no 200ma) but I use it to do my original scan. Once I am down to my watch list for the day, I switch over to the StockWatch backfill which is slower but 10 days. I use the StockWatch data now and it works great. They also have the exchange right... NYSE etc...

StockWatch is 16.95USD/month including exchange fees.

I have been told that Ameritrade plans to go to a 10 day backfill in the future.

Anonymous said...

FYI, I am no longer a Prophet Silver member, just Basic free member and their backfill still works (maybe it won't if they read this :-))... It is kind of slow.

OONR7 said...

hmmm... is the backfill current? Before I knew I hadn't unsubscribed, my backfill info was 20min delayed.

Anonymous said...

Looks current. Just tested it by clearing all data on GRMN. I would not use it as my only source, but it seems to work fine. My case is probably an anomaly. I was telling you in case it helps.

Anonymous said...

ITU - I would have looked at the 11:45 bar which closed strong (at the high) above the OR and R2, relative volume was over 100%. I look at relative volume more then individual bar volume. X never seemed to look at volume very much. It is all pretty subjective :-)

TJ said...

GT,

IB pays interest using Fed funds rate.

OONR7 said...

gt: I think your prophet access is indeed an anomaly as I've seen price gaps over the last week when using Prophet. Enjoy it... I won't say a peep :)

As for ITU... it's a good example of my 'issue' regarding entering based on increased volume or decreased volume. There's a lot to be said about both situations. Since I've been using the retrace/reversal method, I've only been entering on a confirmation bar that occurs after a reversal bar on increased volume. Now, while I've found that this increases the probability for success, I've also noticed it cuts down on my candidates. So, it's a double-edged sword. I don't mind waiting for the right setup but I also don't want to be too careful and let good opps pass me by. I'm also wondering if I can get into a trade sooner if entering on the reversal bar instead of waiting for confirmation. Flatwallet and I have discussed this as well. I'm like a mad scientist testing what is and what isn't dependable. As for relative volume, I utilize it to cut down my watchlist. Do you wait till relative volume on any particular stock is over 100% before entering?

OONR7 said...

jamie: thanks for the info regarding IB, I always wondered about that.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jamie,

I am looking into transferring some of the money in a savings account (4.7%). The best I can get on the day trading account is 1% APY. I do get 4x margin though :-) I have not been using the margin but I think I will now.

OONR7 said...

UBS was also very ITU-like.

Anonymous said...

UBS did not do much yesterday after the GAP. I probably would have passed... but it worked today :-)

Anonymous said...

oo,

Yes relative volume at or above 100% and I look at the Qs as a reference. If it is less than the Qs, I usually pass. But once in a while I get impatient and do a WTF trade :-)

Lots of sitting on my hands the last week and a half.

I like candlestick and setup geek better than Mad Scientist :-)

OONR7 said...

gt: like I said on Esto's blog... I'm more like Frankentrader!!!

Anonymous said...

LOL :-)

Unknown said...

GT: My IB account gets about 2% APY roughly (I just counted) and I can use 4x margin too.. but I never had any open position overnight so I guess they will count me as all cash at the end of everyday.

OONR7: I'm interested in your backtesting method. It could provide you more confident when you enter a trade if you know historically it's higher percentage trade. Do you test base on longer period of data such as couple months or a year? Also how do you set your exit criteria if it's automated test?

Anonymous said...

00nr7,
Didn't trade today. Seems like big up days might want a WL or short the short FXP etf=in effect going long 2x FXI, or financials, china solar since they have been the most volatil groups. UTI looked great 5/30

OONR7 said...

hammer: I keep a chart of virtually every trade I make... and ones I wish I made. So, for me, when I'm looking at a new entry technique I go back in QT about two weeks and also refer to my saved charts. I wish I could go back longer and I know Tradestation has that capability. I would be interesting to see the win % of the retracement technique I'm utilizing now.