It’s weekend non-reading. hooray. You know, the name made more sense when JC was still blogging with his “weekend reading” posts every week. Oh well, I must carry on regardless… If you’re out there, JC, we miss you and hope you are happy.
Ok, let’s get started:
Hi, I have an attractive website and a course to sell you. Unfortunately, it looks like no one visits it, and I bet no-one has bought my course yet, either. Here is a video where I have a small stroke halfway through and start repeating “boom boom boom” over and over until I snap out of it. Very Howard Hughes-ian of me. Good times.
Hi, it’s Harvey again. I still have the same healthy respect for round numbers as I always do. I’m still using the big buy and sell buttons from Hasbro(tm). And, I’m still making boatloads of money, mostly before 10:00 AM. Here is my video, in which I reveal that I prefer stocks with big spreads. (no info on stop losses, though why bother since none of my on-video picks move against me…):
A decent-sized 16-cent winner on Triad Guaranty Inc. (Nasdaq: TGIC). I thought it would be a scalp at first, but I actually let it retrace a bit, because I thought the initial drop was too weak and another would follow. So, I’m not sure what to call this type of trade. ultra-discretionary?
I was extra careful all week, because I was scared of the pre-holiday markets. Luckily, I think there were enough random news events that we got pockets of movement all week. Great! Hopefully volume will flow back in by next Wednesday or Thursday, and there’ll be more tradeable action out there.
I will be unavailable starting about an hour from now until Monday night. Gonna do a little mini-vacation. I’ll see you all Tuesday (and I’ll try to update the weekly stock scan Monday evening).
Since I’m in a hurry, here is your weekend non-reading… an adorable-sounding Irish woman takes an EOT-style trade:
And another one from Harvey Walsh… I wish he talked a bit more about his rationale for entry, especially on the aapl trade. Oh well.
Dude, I’m watching these two videos, and they both seem to cover a lot of ground in their 10 minutes… I always feel rushed and like I didn’t say anything in my 10 minute videos… Anyway… here are two from this week:
I heart volatility, and I’m gonna show you why with some example winning trades this week. I make them sound so obvious that any short-bus rider would know enough to take these trades, even if they had never traded a stock in their life. Here is my video:
Fibonacci lines and symmetric action are my bread and butter. Spread them out on a bed of forex, and they can make you some serious cheese. Or, something. Here is my video:
Not many cool youtube videos this week (other than mine, of course!). I did find this one, though:
Not specifically a trading video, but I really enjoyed this WallStrip… I got a kick out of the game they play at the end. I watched it twice:
Last night, I watched Wall Street Warriors: Season 1 on DVD. I thought it was pretty enjoyable… I wish they had spent more time on the actual trading, but I guess that’s a lot to ask from a TV show. Here’s a clip I found on youtube:
You know the drill by now. These are recent trading videos that caught my eye. Let’s get to it…
I’m a sarcastic person who’s too scared to show my face on camera. But, I will superimpose counterpoints on top of footage of Jim Cramer from Friday. Here is my video:
I’ve realized that the 70’s was 3 whole decades ago, and now spruce up the EOTpro blog’s trading videos with recent dance/pop hits (this one features Rihanna). Next I will try one of those new-fangled electric can openers. Anyways, I’m working on summary indicators now, both in terms of longer time-frames than my candle charts, and in terms of spanning multiple markets in a single indicator. It’s still a new idea I’m playing with. Here is my video:
I sport a lively urban style and have got some phat market lessons fo’ dat ass. I attempt to pull off this image even with shelves of neatly folded pastel-colored cloth behind me. Here is my video, bee-yatch:
A video dedicated to me, featuring the return of the 70’s soundtrack! He almost forgot the site’s name, but he doesn’t mess with the stress, and achieved sweet recall in the end.
Thanks, and keep challenging that conventional wisdom! :-)
Looking around their site(s) here, here, and here, you can find lots more WMV movies of their strategy in use. Until recently I thought the youtube set was everything, but that was definitely not the case. Both winners and losers from a number of variations are featured, which is nice. That tradestation forum has a metric tonne of example charts, as well. I think there’s a lot there worth glancing at, if you haven’t yet. That’s why I keep putting up their videos.
What appeals to me is that they’ve managed to offload so much of the analysis work onto the computer, and yet still retain some discretionary flavor in the trades themselves. They seem to use indicators in exactly the way I preach here at MtM. Which is: indicators should give you high-level information that can feed trading decisions directly. It’s information like “we’re reaching the end of the current trend.” Compare that to, say, a newbie trying to make sense out of an MA, an RSI, a PPO, and a stochastic line buzzing back and forth across the magic 70 area. It’s so much better to derive indicators that tell you a more summary-level story, and use price action alone for the details. That’s why I like the QT paintbars I’ve developed so much.
Another thing I thought was interesting is that on a lot of their trades, they don’t form a pre-conceived idea of a profit target. Instead they appear to apply fib lines against intraday cycle highs and lows, in conjunction with their trend indicators, to pick an exit in real-time. I know a lot of traders pick profit targets based on fib lines against daily gaps, but I haven’t seen a lot of intraday fib line usage (possibly because it’s such a pain to draw and re-draw them with most charting packages that a lot of folks don’t bother to try it?). I’m one of those people in the camp that says fib lines seem like voodoo, so I’m not sure this idea is for me. But you fib believers might be interested.
So, to be clear, I’m not a subscriber to their service, and all I’ve seen on it is what’s out there on the web. But, they do seem to have some good ideas. It makes me want to get back to work offloading more of my decision-making onto my trading platform.
Hmm… for a post billed as ‘non-reading,’ there sure is a lot of text…. oh well, too late now…
I prefer to use videos I can embed here, but I came across two non-embeddable videos that I enjoyed this week. Even worse than not having an embed option, is having to register at their sites, and put up with their spiel trying to sell you additional services. For things like this, I personally love the spam.la service. Whenever you have to give a site an email address, just pick any name you want ‘@spam.la’. Then, go to the spam.la site and look for the email. All mail that is sent to any spam.la address is readable right there. No logging in. Very simple!
On to the videos….
First, a a talk by Linda Raschke about technical analysis that I really enjoyed. It veers off quite a bit into random trading wisdom and stories. The site seems to say they will only offer the video for another 71 hours, but who knows… It’s kinda like when oscar says there are only a few VIP seats available at his service, but he doesn’t say how many that is, or how many are actually left… sounds like marketing BS to me. (and while I’m at it, doesn’t it turn anyone off that there are no screenshots of their platform, or mention of things like commissions and fees, and whenever anyone asks about it they say to call oscar on the phone?)
She looks quite a bit better in the video than she does in the photo on the registration page. If I were her I would seriously update that pic.
Second, (via picture windows) I found a set of flash videos on tape reading. It’s really not the same thing I think of when I say I’m “tape reading.” They seem to mainly watch for larger prints, and note whether they are on the bid or ask. I think there are bid/ask volume indicators that would sum up this information for them rather nicely, unless I am missing something. But, they also pay attention to the trade rate a bit, which I also consider very important. They also happen to be selling into a breakout, which is something I’m trying to get into more (and, honestly, getting myself slaughtered one loss at a time so far… I’m like 1 for 5 trying that… but I am sure I will get the hang of it!)
You know that classic rock guy whose video’s I’ve posted here from time to time (check for posts tagged “weekend nonreading” if you haven’t)? Well, he posted a video about his indicators, which I found interesting. (No background music this time, I’m afraid)
… of course, it’s pretty light on detail about how some of the indicators are computed, because I think they want to lease those indicators to you. So, they seem to be at least partially magic black boxes. Especially the “Jazz Master Key” they use for entry… I have no idea what’s in that thing. There’s a page off EOTpro.com (their site) that gives a little more information about each indicator. There are links to more movies which are not viewable on my mac due to codec issues. Oh well! I doubt they explained how to compute them.
There’s also a forum at the tradestation site with lots of example charts. I notice that the first few pages have very different indicators than the latest ones. Perhaps some clue as to what’s underneath the new indicators can be derived from that? I don’t know.
I have no idea if their system really does work well, or not. Obviously if you’re producing videos about a system you want to sell, you’re going to shoot them on the days that the system outperforms. But, I really do like their marketing approach, which is: generate interest in the product by making fun, free videos for me to watch. More companies should do that!
Here’s another live trade, by some woman using their system. I see her name associated with the site a bunch, so I believe she works with them:
Who wants to read on the weekend? Not me… (actually I am reading quite a bit this weekend, but it doesn’t fit with the ‘non-reading’ theme to say so)
But wait, you might object. You always post videos. To watch the videos I still need to use my eyes. Isn’t there anything I can learn with my eyes closed? Perhaps some Q&A with females?
Well alright…. Here’s two interviews I listened to today:
In both interviews, I noted that they said something about taking as many signals as possible, because that’s my recent soapbox topic. Toni specifically said she used to take days off after losses but doesn’t do that anymore, and that she’s branching out into taking imperfect setups to increase her profits. Toni also says she uses price and volume and usually nothing else, at which point the interviewer remarked that he’s been hearing that lots of traders eventually gave up on indicators and go back to simple T&S. Teresa mentioned the same phenomenon I had recently talked about, where the first trade you skip seems to be the one that runs without you. All very cool.
Maybe now you are rested up enough to watch video… if so, here’s a couple:
Remember in the June 3rd edition, we had that Skynyrd-listening stoner? Well, he’s still making videos, which I find entertaining. Here’s one where he accidentally goes long instead of short, and loses $500:
Here’s a longer one (featuring more 70’s rock), where he sits around talking for a minute or so, before realizing he needs to set his stop. (I poke fun at the guy, but he does seem to know his stuff… doesn’t trade anything like I do, though):
It’s time for another edition of weekend non-reading. Who’s got time to read during the weekend? Not me. Let’s get started:
Video 1
I’m quite possibly stoned. I listen to Skynyrd. I trade with a lot of indicators, and my stop loss is more than three times wider than my profit objective. Here is my video:
Video 2
I mumble a lot while trading NASDAQ stocks. I have a healthy respect for whole numbers while shorting new lows on big gaps down. I don’t mention a stop loss, but I imply that I have one at some point. Here is my video:
Video 3
I sound Australian. I am careful to cover my ass with legalese about how I’m not liable for your losses. I combine fundamental and technical analysis. Here is my video:
It’s the weekend… who’s got energy to read anything? Not me. In fact, you are probably just skmming through this text right now. Well, you’re in luck, because I don’t have the energy to write much. So, here are some market-related videos I’ve run accross this morning.
Live S&P… stuff
In what way would this be useful to listen to during trading? I’ve read about John Carter using pit noise in Mastering the Trade, but I don’t think this is the same thing. It’s some guy yammerring at top speed, while blips and bleeps that remind me of 90’s electronica (or 80’s video games) occassionally blare in the background. Anyway, if you can make something out of it, lemme know! (Warning: the sound is rather loud on this)
I only watched the first 10 minutes, but it seems like this guy’s more of a contrary indicator than anything else. When he gets most excited about sellers seems to be right as the price is about to turn and run up a bit.
A Simple Trading Technique
Essentially, the message is: trade with the long-term trend when the medium-term cycles roll over. It’s very similar in spirit to the “triple screen” technique, where oscillators are used on the middle screen, to know when you want to get in a trade in the direction of the overall long-term trend.
It annoys me that they didn’t really talk about stop losses, except for one mention of an arbitrary .50 stop loss.
Short it… NOW!
This one’s worth watching just to hear his voice get all strained when he finally pulls the trigger on his trade.
If trading doesn’t work out for him, it seems like he’d be a shoe-in to do TV commentary on golf tournaments.
You Call That a Scalp??
Here’s a “scalp” of the S&P e-minis… You know, everyone has a different definition. I believe the rigorously “correct” use of the term is when you enter a trade with hopes of exiting immediately to make the bid-ask spread. I guess decimalisation of the stock markets has made that a much more rare practice. I use the term “scalp” when I want to capture a single thrust of momentum in a direction, and won’t accept any move against me. Here, we have a much more easy-going “scalping” approach with a 3-point stop.
I wish I could stay that calm and easy-going during my scalp trades! Once again I notice that this trader is buying a dip, rather than a breakout. It bothers me sometimes, that by playing breakouts I am getting in once a little bit of a move has already happened. Jumping on a longer trend at turnaround points does make a bit more sense. I need to think some, about when it’s sensible for me to try that kind of approach out.
