Day Trading equities - selections

[roughbert]

In trading terms I have reached the age where I ask a stream of irritating questions. Feel free to ignore them!

If I look at a bunch of shares - let's say a whole sector on one exchange, to keep it simple (for me), then I can detect at a given time how many are trending up and how many down. At a certain % of uptrend within the sector, the odds on success with a long position on one of these would be significantly increased - or would it?

I need lots of historical intraday data for a sector/exchange to test this and other daft ideas, any suggestions as to how I get it?

 

[Strangelydifferent]

hi
I see it the same way. Intraday all costs money. The data suppliers usually also have other bells and whistles on their websites or supplied software for charting and scanning.
If you want ideas, I have looked at
esignal
tradestation
prorealtime
taltrade
mytrack
sierrachart
sharescope
hemscott
trackdata
moneyAM
digital look
advfn
- most of them have a whole array of different options for intra-day data all with different prices. digital look even has free intraday for the uk market only but the interface gives you streaming data and nothing else.

all the best
Duncan

 

[roughbert]

Intraday all costs money.

US data is not too expensive - Pi Trading offer 6 years x 1100 stocks x 1minute intraday data for $149. LSE have a product but I can't get a price yet - my guess is that it will cost 10 x as much. Might be worth it if I can prove to myself that I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Regarding trading as opposed to research, these web-based services seem a bit slow to me. Also, comparing LSE's tick-based (though too buggy to yet be useful) EIW with ADVFN's 1-minute charts, I know that the 1-minute charts are too damn slow. I think that with a tick data feed (as opposed to a tick-based chart over the www) I could really fly. It strikes me that reducing reaction time (and for that matter, dealing costs) must be an essential component readily available even to inexperienced traders.

 

[new_trader]

If I look at a bunch of shares - let's say a whole sector on one exchange, to keep it simple (for me), then I can detect at a given time how many are trending up and how many down. At a certain % of uptrend within the sector, the odds on success with a long position on one of these would be significantly increased - or would it?

I can't see how the odds on success are increased, but then again, I can't see how many of the strategies talked about on this site can ever work..

IMO: You are better of studying the actions of one stock only. Learn its 'habits' and become familiar with its character. Study it like nothing else on the planet exists. Imagine your goal is to become the worlds leading expert on that stock. That is how one would significantly increase the odds on success in this game.

 

[0007]

.

IMO: You are better of studying the actions of one stock only. Learn its 'habits' and become familiar with its character. Study it like nothing else on the planet exists. Imagine your goal is to become the worlds leading expert on that stock. That is how one would significantly increase the odds on success in this game.

True. You just get to know it so well that you know when to trade it & when to leave it alone. Works for me.

 

[roughbert]

IMO: You are better of studying the actions of one stock only.

Specialising like that sounds like a plausible approach, but even so, the stock would be a member of a sector and a market - surely short-term influences of both would also be of significance when timing a trade? Equally, I can see how news from another stock or sector could influence appetite.

Going back to your theme of specializing in a single investment (I once knew a man who did this for years with some success), that approach does restrict you to companies whose activities are well documented, and a lot are not - until the bad news breaks! (I'm thinking about Cattles - must be time for my medication).

 

[foredog]

He wrote study the ACTION not the news of the stock.

I would suggest though having a stable of four or five stocks as some can get stuck in a rut and ignored for a few weeks and therefore lack opportunities

 

[roughbert]

He wrote study the ACTION not the news of the stock

He did too, and I missed it.