Which US equities to pick?

truvor

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I have come across a trading contest that allows to trade US equities. I wonder which US equities are the most volatile and hence more interesting to trade than others.
 
Hey, truvor.
What kind of contest is that? Is it the one run by dykes copy? I know they offer US equities.
As to your question, have you tried Oracle and Cisco? These are very dynamic companies and they are very volatile as far as I know. Of course, this might also be a bad as well as a good news for you :).
 
truvor said:
The thing I am talking about is http://www.dukascopy.com/english/cquotes/tradep/ It is quite likely that they are what you say. They run free trading contest with 1000$ monthly prize.
As to your equities, balusa, I am going to check them out.

Don't forget quote.com

and try this one:

www.prophet.net you can even set up your own watch list after you have used prophet to search for active and volatile shares.
 
It all depends on what kind of trader you are or you wish to become.. If you plan to become a news trader then you obviously trade the momentum generated by the news.. These stocks are easy to identify and you can analyse their Conference calls pre market ..

If you wish to become a technical trader ,,,, then there are some technical criteria's to go by..

The first and most important filter must be those stocks affected by NEWS.. These stocks can swing $$$$ and the risk of taking such stocks are HUGE .. Saying that the reward can be huge too.. These stocks are more of a gamble than any thing else.. TA does not work on them

other filters for stocks can be as follow :--

1) Voulme > 1.5 mill
2) spread of max 2-3 C..
3) ATR of last 3 days > 1% and < 5% of the stock price
3) Price > 15 $

These figures are my own liking and does not mean one has to copy them blidly .. Just that I would not like to trade stocks with huge spread or low swingers ..

Stocks such as CISCO, YHOO,AMZN,APOL,BRCM,VRSN,ERTS,BEGN are typical of good trading candidates..

Few tips in trading US stocks in general :--

Lets say you choose 40 stocks as your core day trading stocks.. Then it is best to have a diversified stock from few different secotors.. For example,

If you are choosing MEDI,AMGN from bio sector then choose AMD and INTC and so on .. This way you can play the defensive stocks
against their counter part.. This is sector rotation and many program Traders shift postions from one sector to another as soon as they feel the heat.. This is also useful tecnhique for traders to watch how pair trading can be done using above concept..

If there is a news on a certain stock ( SAY YHOO ) then watch other stocks in the same sector.. You can often trade the momentum ( if you are into momentum Trading ) with a smaller risk such as ( CHKP ,VRSN,AOL and perhaps AMZN )

I let other more experienced US traders to contribute further
 
Different traders trade US stocks in different ways.However as a personal opinion i want the stocks that are moving.Thats news plays, gappers and strong movers,scanners can give you what you most of what you want.

I believe you cant make anything from something that doesn't move.If you had a stock that just stayed static most of the day then you'd be whipsawed in and out most of the time.Whereas something with strong movement gives you numerous opportunities.Taking profits from it is up to a traders own trading skills.
 
Naz said:
something with strong movement gives you numerous opportunities.Taking profits from it is up to a traders own trading skills.

This is the type of strong daily movement on the Nasdaq i'm talking about.IMHO its easier to trade something like this during a day rather than a dull stock thats going no where and leaves you frustrated.It started as many do as a gap play.
 

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Good question.

You find them by using a scanner.I was with another trader and we found it just after the open.Because the scanner threw it up as a gap play.Many gap plays turn in to exceptional moves.So i continue to monitor them through out the day.
 
Herein lies the real secret of successful trading. If you try and trade a dog, you'll get bitten! If you can preselect stocks using a scanner, then you'll be halfway home. Knowing what input criteria you need is the other half of the story......
 
Neil, Chart man ,

MATK is a news Driven stock, and the reason for the rally was Strong buy recommendaton by Needham with a price target of $80.. MATK has been trading at an average of 650 K volume over the last past month but yesterday had a 3.2 Mill volume spike..

To pick these stocks ( to me these are very risky to trade on first day of news or recommendation release ) , all you need is to set a filter for volume traded to be X time greater than previous X days and and that is all you need.. Not a rocket science..

Alternatively just use www.Trade-ideas.com and set a filter as above and you be getting excellent signals..

Art of Trading is not how to pick the fast moving stocks ,, any one can do that , DEAD SIMPLE it is more to do with how to trade the stocks with minimal risk...NOT MANY CAN ACHEIVE THAT THIS IS WHY WE HAVE SUCH A HIGH RATE OF LOSERS..
 

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I agree, as i said earlier New's plays, gappers and strong moving stocks with along with a scanner like trade-ideas is an excellent way to find stocks.

A stock has to move in order for a trader to have an opportunity to make a profit, how they trade it is down to each traders own skill.IMHO A low risk trade can be taken on any stock it's not determined by how fast or slow that stocks moving.It's how you decide to manage your position.
 
Liquidity and travel range often come with news and learning how and what to trade and anticipating where volume is going to be BEFORE it happens, are all key.
Risk control is very easy with the right management.
 
I had an experimental dabble (tiny lots of course) with SOHU and OCPI yesterday during the relative stillness of lunch and even managed to play market maker a couple of times by going inside the spread and waiting for a punter to hit my bid or offer. Dare I say it, much more fun than futures! And those trends, wow, what a revelation. I'm beginning to see why Naz and Mr C have such an affinity for fast stocks and want us to join in the fun. So, thanks for posting your charts and opening my eyes to their potential. I don't have Level 2, but just watching market depth, the bids and offers coming in, moving, being pulled etc. is mesmerising and gives one a real flavour of the market and, it seems, many opportunities for the nimble of finger. A farrago of Tetris, Tekken and chess combined into a fascinating electronic game. A double edged sword of course - the danger is almost tangible when they start to move. However certainly a fitting challenge for the terminally impatient who find even ES too slow!

It struck me that one of the obvious advantages of stocks compared to ES/NQ/YM etc. is that the general public buy and sell them in a conventional manner whereas futures are generally traded by pros. You don't hear someone saying "Load up on ES, Uncle Jack, and put them away for the kids" as you might for the latest hyped stock. Which surely means that when one blessed with the might of direct access, say, goes inside offer on a stock some Joe might simultaneously be instructing their broker to buy it at market, meaning one offload's the stock to him at a price that a pro trader probably wouldn't touch, or vice versa with bids. This would probably never happen in the futures market as far as I know. Am I right about this?

Also when you use IB SMART routing I assume one's bid or offer is displayed in the real market, visible to all players, not just on IB's system.
 
ChartMan said:
Herein lies the real secret of successful trading. If you try and trade a dog, you'll get bitten! If you can preselect stocks using a scanner, then you'll be halfway home. Knowing what input criteria you need is the other half of the story......


If you use Lycos then why not use the "Hotlist" function to look at stocks on the move?
 
Grey1 said:
Neil, Chart man ,

MATK is a news Driven stock, and the reason for the rally was Strong buy recommendaton by Needham with a price target of $80.. MATK has been trading at an average of 650 K volume over the last past month but yesterday had a 3.2 Mill volume spike..

To pick these stocks ( to me these are very risky to trade on first day of news or recommendation release ) , all you need is to set a filter for volume traded to be X time greater than previous X days and and that is all you need.. Not a rocket science..

Alternatively just use www.Trade-ideas.com and set a filter as above and you be getting excellent signals..

Art of Trading is not how to pick the fast moving stocks ,, any one can do that , DEAD SIMPLE it is more to do with how to trade the stocks with minimal risk...NOT MANY CAN ACHEIVE THAT THIS IS WHY WE HAVE SUCH A HIGH RATE OF LOSERS..


Thanks for that snippet. I will try it on stocks and leave futures on hold for a few days.
 
Getting in before the news based momentum move is hard. There are 2 ways: Watch price action in those stocks that are expected to report for the start of a genuine move when the news is announced. Trade the actual price action, not the direction you think the news is (bearish/bullish). The other is based on insider knowledge, which lets say is unlikely for us (me anyway!).

If that isn't practical, then try studying how price behaves in the days after a news based 'spike' bar. Do the extremes of that spike bar later become support or resistance, or do they trade through? Can you trade from your findings?

Scanning for momentum is ok, but you must obviously scan the list first to understand the charts. You may then miss your/an opportunity. If you have done your homework and planning, you know which instruments to watch, and you have planned your trades for entry and exits, before the open. Easy to say I know.
 
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