Personal Circumstances & Trading Style?

[fastnet]

I was giving a bit of thought at the weekend to how much my own personal circumstances dictated my trading style. I'm very much still a ''beginner/improver'' despite having actively traded on and off for three years.

Any trading I currently do has to be outside normal office hours and based on EOD data. I suppose I could day trade US stocks until 9pm but, quite frankly, after a day in the office I chose not to.

I am much more content to review a short list of diversified charts, using daily EOD data, and place trades and stops in this timescale. Positions are generally held for 2-10 days.

A new member to this site might imagine that the vast majority of traders did so as their main source of income and were overwhelmingly day-traders using direct access i/o spread betting accounts. Can this be so? Is it not that these are the people who find time to post during the day between trades?

I would really like to hear from people who, like me, trade in their spare time, using daily data, outside office hours. I am interested how their circumstances affects the type of trading they can engage in and what sort of techniques are used. It is true that many very short term techniques do work equally well on a daily basis but many do not.

Are there any full-time traders that chose to trade longer term i.e., daily charts or longer? Is it significantly harder to profit from longer term techniques or is it just that most traders that post on this board are full time intra-day traders and so discuss techniques relevant primarily to this time scale.

I really would love to get stuck into level II and 5 minute charts but circumstances just do not allow - am I alone?

Grateful to hear from anyone in a similar boat -

Cheers

 

[Skimbleshanks]

I believe you're right about daytraders making, what appears to be, the majority of posts - it's simply because they're around during the day. Daytrading is also quite lonely sometimes and that is another reason that peeps post. And of course we have our own in-built market indicator at T2W - just look for when the daytraders post during market hours, and you will notice that it coincides with boring sideways action in the markets!

However, I would say that the vast majority of T2W members are end of day traders - they're just not as vocal as those naughty daytraders :cheesy:

 

[bonsai]

fastnet
a couple of thoughts.
A profit is not a profit until the trade is closed .
and we all need the readies. ?
You get paid at the end of the month, we get no such guarantees.

Day trading is just like your day job.
What do you talk about in the office ?

I think we all probably trade the longer term but perhaps there
just isnt much to say about them on a minute by minute basis ?
How often is there real news about say BOC ?

Moneyam started an 'investors' board as opposed to a
'traders' board. But last time I looked it was very quiet except
for traders who had jumped the fence. lol

But have you noticed how few threads there are which are epic specific ?
No reason for that at all. I guess eod traders choose not to post.
Anyway, the range is so large. I trade some of the Ftse100 stocks
but many many more trade the very small stocks.
about 650 stocks to choose from ?

If I started one up on BT or BOC or BARC, would you post a lot ?

 

[Helenqu]

The trading I do is a compromise. Given the time I'm sure I'd be at the machine from 7am to 11pm. However motherhood means that my time is limited to 9-2-50 that dictates the European markets and no US. The other thing that limits what I trade is my capital base. I will only risk 1% of my capital on any one trade so that cuts out the racy Dax which otherwise appeals and consequently I trade the placid ESTX and FTSE100 SBs It's OK but it's awful when you see it move at 3pm just as the kids get home

 

[fastnet]

Thanks for the posts guys - I suppose my email was the product of frustration at the lack of posts I could really empathise with. Many are general and apply to everyone, especially the psychology aspects but many are more specifically aimed at short term trading.

I just wondered if there were more folk like me willing to discuss techniques and philosophies specifically appropriate to position or medium term trading.

I know Helen has replied to one of my posts discussing Alex Elder in the past. This guys philosophy sums it up for me. He does discuss intra-day trading in his books, and I'm sure trades in this timescale himself, but he is also absolutely adamant that new or improving traders must be able to trade profitably in the medium or multi-day term before they speed up the pace and day-trade. Just an opinion but I happen to agree.

Thanks for yr post Bonsai - I think I know where you're coming from. I wasn't talking about investing as such (which I would define as regular savings in blue chips - usually long) - just trading on a daily basis. This needn't be restricted to FTSE shares either, in fact I prefer commodities since there is much more diversity. I am constantly frustrated by FTSE share charts with beautiful set-ups ruined by an unexpected run on Wall Street that lifts all global markets for no operant reason.

A chap called Frugi had an excellent thread over on fillyaboots.com. It was basically a diary of a position trader complete with his hopes and fears and a running (fully verifiable) P/L account. Although he studied the markets full time he rarely day-traded in the early days. His thread has all but petered out. Basically he was doing all the work and I guess became a bit fed-up with the one way banter. He has also moved into more regular day-trading which takes up much more of his time.

Okay - I'm rambling again now - if there are any other frustrated traders who position trader thru SB cos on EOD data as shortest time frame (of course, from anyone else with something to add)then it'd be great to hear from you -

Cheers

 

[Helenqu]

Hi Fastnet,

If you haven't seen it you might find the threads on Wilders Reaction Trend System of interest, you could probably set this up if you use D4F on an EOD basis either using stock or indices.

The initial thead

http://eurostoxx50.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Strategies;action=display;num=1056288128


The results so far thread
http://eurostoxx50.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Strategies;action=display;num=1057133911


This weeks thread

http://eurostoxx50.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Strategies;action=display;num=1057338832


HTH

 

[Trader333]

Try sending a pm to Carnivore or Aussietrader both use EOD trading and both do so profitably.


Paul

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Or, why don't you start a new thread in UK stocks, something like 'End of Day trading only'?

 

[fastnet]

Thanks Helen - I'll take a look at those links -

I'll also send a private message to Carnivore. I have had discussions with Aussietrader both in private and on this board - I'm not a great fan of long-term trend trading. 2-10 day position trading is more my bag and have only realised this within the last few months after experimenting with shorter and much longer term techniques.

It's down to the individual but I can't bear the drawdowns and whipsaws that are unavoidable with long term trend trading. I would prefer to know quickly whether the trades good or bad. Quick small profits or even quicker (and smaller) losses would be my ideal style.

Cheers