Ask ANY trading related question!

[UKtradergirl]

Do many people find that candle patterns actually work in practice, or are they just a load of superstitious, eastern-mysticism hooey?

Or if not the latter, can be made to look like they "work", with a lot of post-hoc rationalisation or hindsight, but could not actually predict night following day.

To those about to reply "yes, but not in isolation", what other tools, in combination with candle patterns, have you personally found to be effective, and which candle patterns are the most effective.

I have to say that I am sceptical, but I am happy to learn from your experience.

Hi,

Candlestick patterns do work, yes. Not in isolation though, and they don't work all of the time. I would never base my trading decision primarily on a candlestick formation, although it is useful knowing what they are, as when certain formations occur around points of support/resistance it can give you a clue as to what is going on.

They are certainly not just 'mysticism'. They are footprints of price action, showing where price was during the time period in question, and looking at a candlestick you can get a real sense of the fight going on between bulls and bears minute by minute.

Seeing candlesticks constrict, getting smaller and smaller one after the other (inside bars), is a brilliant sign, as is the doji. You can almost guarantee that when the price breaks through one side or other of these candlesticks it will keep going for long enough to take a little profit.

So, in answer to your question... use of support and resistance lines with 'certain' (not all) candlestick patterns, i find very useful.

 

[tradingmarkets4rent]

Anybody from Chicago here?

Hi,
Back in 1999-2001 I traded about 2 blocks away from lasalle train station in chicago. Since then they are no longer in business, but I am looking for the same setup they had. A local daytrading shop where everyone is scalping trades looking for that quick trade of .125 - .25 point and out. I am looking for anyone's opinion of good / bad shops they might have traded at in chicago.


Good Trading,
Brian

 

[Alfie1927]

help with finding historic data

Hi

I'm looking at investing in shares and have been trying to find historic data going back 4-5 years. The websites i've been looking at only seem to go back 1 year and just include the share price. I'm looking for info on company turnover, profits etc as well as share price

Is there somewhere I can get this info from-any help would be much appreciated

Mike

 

[Pauliebgood]

Mock Trading

As I am starting out I wonder if someone could point me in the direction of a good Practice trading platform.

Perferably one that is worldwide.

This new sticky thread is targeted to all new members and existing members who are making their first posts.

In this thread, feel free to ask ANY question relating to trading, however simple you think it is. Our forum advisors and more senior members will be happy to answer them for you! :smart:

:!: If you think your question requires more than a quick reply, it's best to create a new thread in the appropriate forum, so that a discussion about it can develop.

 

[Kazem]

Calculating Win Percentage

Hi, I understand the formula to come up with the actual percentage but I don't know which figures to use? Is it the trades I've made in a winning month, losing month, week, year? Do I include break even trades; would I treat them as wins or loss? Thank You

 

[mastroiani]

As I am starting out I wonder if someone could point me in the direction of a good Practice trading platform.

Perferably one that is worldwide.

I use OANDA.

 

[UKtradergirl]

Hi, I understand the formula to come up with the actual percentage but I don't know which figures to use? Is it the trades I've made in a winning month, losing month, week, year? Do I include break even trades; would I treat them as wins or loss? Thank You

It's up to you.

I would count as winning trades, only those which actually profited. Hence, i would class a break even trade as a loss.

It is possible to have a win rate of 90% yet have a net loss in money terms on your account.

It may be better to look at your performance in terms of % increase/decrease on your account over a day/month/year, etc. (if this is what you are after, i don't know).

Also, you might want to assess risk:reward ratios.

Just some ideas.

 

[Jaydee]

Hi, I understand the formula to come up with the actual percentage but I don't know which figures to use? Is it the trades I've made in a winning month, losing month, week, year? Do I include break even trades; would I treat them as wins or loss? Thank You

Ignore scratch (zero profit or loss) trades* and do the following calculation:

R = [(# of winners * average winner) - trade costs]/ -[(# of losers * average loser) - trade costs]

If R = 1 -> you are breaking even
If R > 1 -> you have a positive expectation
If R < 1 -> you have a negative expectation

*Also ignore trade costs if spreadbetting as the costs are already included in the spread.

 

[kenviro]

I have a question since I'm new to Emini trading.

From reading quite a fair amount on Emini trading, I have found out that emini trading is day trading or intra day trading. But is it possible to close my emini position (whether I go long or short) after a few days instead of within the same day?

Ken

 

[joeking323]

you can keep your position open for as long as the contract takes to expire.

the CME contracts expire in March, June, September and December.

if you wanted to keep a position open for longer then all you do is roll it over to the next contract month.

 

[bellevue]

Hi, I'm a newbie as well and I would like an explanation about what happened this morning. I'm only trading stocks for the moment, FTSE350 to be precise. The trading platform froze for about 10 min this morning around 10:30 with very strange prices on FTSE100: most stocks went down a long way for a few minutes and then resumed normal trading. They were not "tradable" online, only by phone. What was that? I truly regreted not having limits on quite a few of my trades because those prices were way beyond my targets. Would the limits - in case they were there - have been acted upon and the trades closed or not?
Thanks!

 

[vicakin]

The Dow

This is my interpretation

 

[jason46242003]

I have a question,

does the SEC consider buying and short selling the same stock in the same day day-trading?

 

[UKtradergirl]

Hi, I'm a newbie as well and I would like an explanation about what happened this morning. I'm only trading stocks for the moment, FTSE350 to be precise. The trading platform froze for about 10 min this morning around 10:30 with very strange prices on FTSE100: most stocks went down a long way for a few minutes and then resumed normal trading. They were not "tradable" online, only by phone. What was that? I truly regreted not having limits on quite a few of my trades because those prices were way beyond my targets. Would the limits - in case they were there - have been acted upon and the trades closed or not?
Thanks!

Hi,

I'm not sure what happened with your trading platform. Mine was working OK at this time-perhaps it was a glitch in their system. The markets are also extremely volatile at the moment and are behaving in a very strange way.

Some companies will stop internet trading temporarily if prices are moving too quickly- you can always phone them to trade or close out any positions you currently have.

In answer to your limits question- yes if you have limits in place they will attempt to close the trades at those levels. Again, due to volatility, they may not always be able to close your trade at the exact level you specify. This is 'slippage' and usually happens to a degree anyway- however i've noticed markets moving so quick that slippage has increased a fair amount too. If you are trading markets with less volume too it will increase the amount of slippage you may pay. (e.g. some stocks).

Hope this helps

 

[vicakin]

I have a question,

does the SEC consider buying and short selling the same stock in the same day day-trading?

Yes, you are involved in day trading,


Day trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bellevue]

Hi,

I'm not sure what happened with your trading platform. Mine was working OK at this time-perhaps it was a glitch in their system. The markets are also extremely volatile at the moment and are behaving in a very strange way.

Some companies will stop internet trading temporarily if prices are moving too quickly- you can always phone them to trade or close out any positions you currently have.

In answer to your limits question- yes if you have limits in place they will attempt to close the trades at those levels. Again, due to volatility, they may not always be able to close your trade at the exact level you specify. This is 'slippage' and usually happens to a degree anyway- however i've noticed markets moving so quick that slippage has increased a fair amount too. If you are trading markets with less volume too it will increase the amount of slippage you may pay. (e.g. some stocks).

Hope this helps

Hi and thank you for your answer.

I found out some more from the broker's dealing handbook. It was the 3rd Fri of the month which was the last dealing day for the month's FTSE100 and I quote from the handbook:

"FTSE 100 futures at the Exchange Delivery Settlement Price (EDSP) of the FTSE 100 as reported by LIFFE on the last dealing day. The EDSP is based on an intraday cash market auction of the FTSE 100 which commences at 10.10 on the last trading day. Uncrossing of the component stocks should be finished by 10.30"

Will probably be more careful next time. I've only got a couple of months of trading behind me so I've got a lot to learn.

 

[Fat8oyFat]

Potential newbie to trading and have lots of reading and demo accounts to run before I even consider putting some of my money into it. Generally I am risk averse anyway so I may not even move into trading once I have done some more research.

One question I would like answering is whether I can use instruments such as CFDs to mitigate the risk I have in company SAYE share schemes that are coming up to maturity.

For example, say I take out a 3 year £250/month SAYE scheme out at a share price of £5 and this matures on 1/12/2008. In the period running up to maturity of the SAYE scheme the share price has increased to say £8 and I don't want to risk it being lower when my SAYE matures. Could I take a CFD to short the stock so that I lock in a profit on my SAYE scheme at around the £8 market price when I took out the CFD? This situation happened to me recently as the share price dropped by about 20% in the run up to the maturity of the SAYE scheme and I would like to be able to mitigate that risk for future SAYE schemes.

Cheers.

 

[UKtradergirl]

Potential newbie to trading and have lots of reading and demo accounts to run before I even consider putting some of my money into it. Generally I am risk averse anyway so I may not even move into trading once I have done some more research.

One question I would like answering is whether I can use instruments such as CFDs to mitigate the risk I have in company SAYE share schemes that are coming up to maturity.

For example, say I take out a 3 year £250/month SAYE scheme out at a share price of £5 and this matures on 1/12/2008. In the period running up to maturity of the SAYE scheme the share price has increased to say £8 and I don't want to risk it being lower when my SAYE matures. Could I take a CFD to short the stock so that I lock in a profit on my SAYE scheme at around the £8 market price when I took out the CFD? This situation happened to me recently as the share price dropped by about 20% in the run up to the maturity of the SAYE scheme and I would like to be able to mitigate that risk for future SAYE schemes.

Cheers.

The short answer is: yes.

The practicalities of doing it however are a little more complicated. You need to make sure you get your maths correct when calculating how much to buy/sell.

Also remember that by doing this, if the share prices increase from the time you put on the trade you won't benefit from any rise either as you will lose the value through your losing CFD position (unless you plan to close it out if this was to happen).

 

[everyonerich]

Potential newbie to trading and have lots of reading and demo accounts to run before I even consider putting some of my money into it. Generally I am risk averse anyway so I may not even move into trading once I have done some more research.

One question I would like answering is whether I can use instruments such as CFDs to mitigate the risk I have in company SAYE share schemes that are coming up to maturity.

For example, say I take out a 3 year £250/month SAYE scheme out at a share price of £5 and this matures on 1/12/2008. In the period running up to maturity of the SAYE scheme the share price has increased to say £8 and I don't want to risk it being lower when my SAYE matures. Could I take a CFD to short the stock so that I lock in a profit on my SAYE scheme at around the £8 market price when I took out the CFD? This situation happened to me recently as the share price dropped by about 20% in the run up to the maturity of the SAYE scheme and I would like to be able to mitigate that risk for future SAYE schemes.

Cheers.

first thing you should do is study properly the correlation of your stock and cfd, most of the hedgefund can trade this way because they have LOTS OF money. they can afford to open another position in the market(while have other losing position) and just to catch the reversal trend, most of the time will close with profit when market gets back up.

this is just my opinion..

 

[bart simpson]

hi i'm the new guy, my question is, should i stay away from online spreadbetting sites like 'world spreads.com', paddypowertrader.com.....and so on , i'm in ireland so should i use brokers that are referred to in the national financial press like davy stock brockers, i want to invest but through spreadbetting, thanks.