Jideams:


YerYer,

I believe you use the thinkorswim platform, the same one I use for trading analysis. If not, you will have to download that and install it. You can adjust the the amount to what you want. I tend to adjust it to about 20k giving me the option to trade 4 stocks at 5k each.

Yup I have their thinkor swim platform downloaded on my phone and laptop. I didn't know the account balance can be adjusted. But that's fine anyway as I'm trying out different options strategies with different stocks, my target is to average one option trade a day. For stocks i buy and hold, i use real money however; I don't see the point of playing with paper money if your gains or losses aren't really actualized. Also when you trade with a paper account, there's little to no emotion attached and you may not do due diligence to research the companies and what not. My goal is to use it to fully understand options for at least 3 months so I don't lose my shirt in trades I have no clue about.

YerYer:
Glad to see this thread is back and running again. I recently signed up for TD Ameritrade paper account to learn options trading. They start you with $199,999 though I'm not sure if this is standard or not since I also have a live account with them.
You guys should also look into this new broker called Robinhood, www.robinhood.com it's 100% free, there are no commissions.

@Jideams, what book would you recommend to someone trying to learn charts?

Robinood it's for American citizens and a few other country for now.

K

[quote author=zamirikpo post=46553317]@zhironsky I've used suretrader for over a year now with no serious issues apart from their fees which for me eats deep into my profit. They charge 4.95dols per trade, so to buy and sell u need 10dols . so if u trade 5times a day u burn 50dols.....plus some ecn fees which is quite small. [/quote

@zam,

Please apart from trading fees and ECN fees. Are there other fees,

Like platform and level 2 data fees?. It's cos of the fees that I have opens suretrader.

K

Unfortunately @kentoto......there is a $120 monthly charge for level 2 pro, that is for those of us that day trade......but if u r a swing trader u don't need d pro version of level 2. There is a free version.

YerYer:


Yup I have their thinkor swim platform downloaded on my phone and laptop. I didn't know the account balance can be adjusted. But that's fine anyway as I'm trying out different options strategies with different stocks, my target is to average one option trade a day. For stocks i buy and hold, i use real money however; I don't see the point of playing with paper money if your gains or losses aren't really actualized. Also when you trade with a paper account, there's little to no emotion attached and you may not do due diligence to research the companies and what not. My goal is to use it to fully understand options for at least 3 months so I don't lose my shirt in trades I have no clue about.

You are right as emotion is a vital part of trading. Paper money is to enable you to familiarise yourself with the platform and execute your trade properly. You could also sharpen your strategy and perfect it before bringing it into live trading.

kentoto:


Robinood it's for American citizens and a few other country for now.

K

Most of the Materials for Chart reading can be gotten on the internet. I will try and past some as soon as i come across them. if you also have a particular question, I can dig them out and sent the link on the platform.

The Market Today 15/06/2016

Once again the market has failed to break through the resistance and we can see a gradual pullback in momentum. At a point last week, we saw the market (Dow) crossed the 18000 mark after which it pulled back, in addition the volume at the point of cross was low telling me there are no momentum in the Market.

You wold notice I have been paying a lot of attention to the Market and not the stock. As a swing trader, the Market direction is very vital. You could see a stock break out, but if the general market is week, the probability of a further movement up will be very small hence the stock will pull back. The market movement describes the overall sentiment.

Looking the first graph you will see that one of our condition for a positive move has been met, the yellow line has crossed the grey line at point B. This is very significant, telling me the factors for the new uptrend is building up. The negative to this is that the last 3 sales volume were (RED) telling me there is more sale taking place hence the market had fallen over again.

The graph below showed the price action on daily basis, you will also see that we had 3 red bars in the last 4 bars showing higher sell pressure that buy (3 red and 1 green). In addition to this and of more importance is the fact that the red bars are higher than the average volume (see the broken yellow line above the volume indicator).

By doing a simple maths, we have the last 3 bars on the weekly graph as red, and the 3 of the last 4 bars on the daily graph as red, meaning there has been only one green bar in the last 3 weeks. You do not need a rocket scientist to tell you the market is week, meaning you should not execute a new trade.

Really I do not know for how long this trend will hold, but control is a vital part of trading, we must learn to read the signs, hold back, study stocks with high potential, set our alerts ready for a new market uptrend and we will make a killing.
Patience is a virtue, and we need all the patience we can get at times like this. Will keep you posted, as of now, I will continue to highlight stock getting ready to move once the market condition is right.

zamirikpo:
Hi...quant......pls expansiate on the (if I trade too fast part)....I don't quite get it. I day trade in seconds......I take 10cents when I get it and hold the rest of my position to break even at worst. Some of my trades take seconds.. And are u based in naija.

Sorry guys, I have been offline for awhile. Zamirikpo, check out your trade blotter in the Suretrader menu and see how much you are contributing to them in commissions. lol. In ten trades you would have given them $100. If you can beat that odd consistently then you are a "blackbox" that needs to be hacked, lol.

Check out this brokers if you need to really day trade....sharktraders.com, liquidtreegroup.com, questrade.com and choicetrade.com. There are others too. They proprietary trading firm that accept outsiders and offer less commission rates. Even hedge funds negotiate their commissions too. I bet you, if you want to continue with Suretrader you can get a better bet by calling them to lower your commission rate a little; it is in both interest.

New user..........and not very knowledgeable about stock.

I open a new account with Td Ameritrade with $500. If you can help out and share your knowledge, I am willing to learn new thing.

Researching on how to use the tools and pick stock. Will provide an update on what i learn latter.

Fosi:
New user..........and not very knowledgeable about stock.

I open a new account with Td Ameritrade with $500. If you can help out and share your knowledge, I am willing to learn new thing.

Researching on how to use the tools and pick stock. Will provide an update on what i learn latter.

Fosi, we all started from somewhere and we will be willing to throw light into it... feel free to ask question.

@quant......i get ur point, but as part of my strategy, i dont take more than 3trades daily. initially it was wahala,cos i was taking small size,and my executions weren't spot on, but after some time,things got better. thanks for the info. on other brokerage firms, but i will stick with suretrader for now, cos any new platform would need some getting used to.

i will sure check them out.

Market Daily/Weekly/Monthly

Guys,
Please take time to review the Market trend at the close of session on Friday 18/06/2016. I have decided to provide the daily/weekly/Month graph in order to show the trend. The trend provides an indication of the general market condition while isolating or eliminating the noise from the daily stock movement.

Starting off with the monthly graph, you will see that the volume traded although green (buy) has been decreasing month in Month out. This is a clear indication that the Market sentiment is low, people are not putting money into stocks hence the sideways moment we have seen over the last year. In addition to this, we are now in the summer season, so most people are going on holiday only to come back trading in September.

If you took a closer look at the MACD graph you will see that the broken yellow line has crossed down since April last year and the last 4months has seen a significant drop in volume reducing steadily.

If you carry that into the weekly graph (the graph on the Middle) You will see that the last 3 weeks has been read and the volume has been increasing as well. The last 3 weeks increase has resulted in a red volume (on the monthly graph). All these factors point to the fact that the Market is week and you should not be buying new stock now it is very hard to make money for the swing traders.

Trading is about probability, we are looking for a high probability low risk trade, buying a stock with good fundamentals confirmed by a good technical graph. These good fundamental and convincing technical analysis at a point when the general market is good will create a perfect storm to move our stocks forward and make good money. We need to sit back, watch, understand the market and interpret the market and buy only when the conditions are right.

The daily graph shows activities on daily basis but it is prone to a lot of noise. The weekly and monthly graph provides the trend and this is what we base our conclusion on. Traders buy stocks and take position for months and years, all we need to do is know when they are buying and Tap into it.

PAYC

This stock has been reviewed at the beginning of the week and would like to round up. This is an example of a perfect stock getting ready to take off, all the conditions are right ( fundamental and technical) but the last piece of the puzzle and the most vital ( general market direction) is missing. This could continue to trade sideways for a while or breakout, but I do not expect huge gain as the market trend is week.

Please keep and eye on this, go back to the thread and read the fundamentals. I have highlighted in yellow, the key technical indicators, showing that it is good to take off.

Stock of the Week starting 20/06/2016

LGIH - LGI Homes

Description

LGI Homes, Inc. is a homebuilder. The Company is engaged in the design, construction, marketing and sale of new homes in markets in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington and Tennessee. The Company has five segments: the Texas division, the Southwest division, the Southeast division, the Florida division and the Northwest division.

The Texas division includes homebuilding operations in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin locations. The Southwest division includes homebuilding operations in Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Denver and Colorado Springs locations. The Southeast division includes homebuilding operations in Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville locations. The Florida division includes homebuilding operations in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Jacksonville locations. The Northwest division includes homebuilding operations in Seattle location. Its product offerings include entry-level homes and move-up homes.

Oh damn you Britain! When the market closed almost all my stocks were in green. Now I'm hearing the Brexit votes are coming in and it looks like Britain will leave. DJI is down over 500 points right now. I expected the market to sell off regardless of the outcome of the vote and I'm getting ready to buy the dip.

wow... It was a bad day as no one was expecting it. In fact I did not vote, thinking all will be fine, counting on others to do my civil duties/right for me. Well here we have it, we are out.

Market today...

Been busy throughout the week, update will be sent out at the close of business today. Please check your position and see stocks that are holding despite the market run. These are potential stocks likely to run once all is good. I own XRS and it actually gained almost 1% today, meaning the closing price for yesterday will be set as stop loss and stock will be held for another 3months. This stock as proven itself as my position is already 20% up.

The graphs below shows the performance of the market (S&P 500) and XRS at the end of the trading week. The SPY daily graph shows the volatility on the market on Friday following the BEXIT vote. The Market was really beaten down and this is reflective in the daily volume.

The weekly graph showed a better picture of the S&P and you could see we failed to hit the line at point A and the volume in the last 4 weeks keep on increasing. Volume Is key here, and we need to pay attention to it.

Conclusion.
Market is week, and has been week for the whole year, the BREXIT vote has created even a higher level of uncertainty, expected to continue well into next week and months. In addition to all this, we are fast approaching the holiday season when trading volume are expected to be low traditionally.

I would suggest you trade carefully, do not make new buy unless you all the conditions are right, take profit at about 10% and look for new breakouts. The market is expected to be volatile in the coming weeks as the level of uncertainty increases.

XRS & STOR

These two stocks has held tight following the market sell off, actually they both increased in price. You will see the stocks initially sold off and then came back. This is an indication of the strength of the stocks hence the need to keep them on watch list. Right now, both stocks are both at a perfect buy point. The choice and risk to buy is yours, make sure you set a comfortable stop in case the market turns against u.

XRS & STOR

These two stocks has held tight following the market sell off, actually they both increased in price. You will see the stocks initially sold off and then came back. This is an indication of the strength of the stocks hence the need to keep them on watch list. Right now, both stocks are both at a perfect buy point. The choice and risk to buy is yours, make sure you set a comfortable stop in case the market turns against u.

Market Review – 01/07/2016

The Market showed a strong movement with exceptional volume in the last 4 days on the up side. This movement is an indication that we are back in an uptrend but one can only make this call with caution, knowing fully well we have the issue of Brexit trailing Europe.

As previously said time and time again, we are not in the business of predicting the market, as a trader we let the Market make its move and we wait to interpret what the market says. The foot print of the Market is what we use to decide the Market sentiment and the basis on which we draw our conclusion and trade with care and a good defence strategy.

Attached is a daily/weekly graph of the S&P paying attention to the volume on the daily graph. We can see a significant increase in volume in the last 4 days on the upside, this is confirmed by a jump in price. There are time when you see a significant increase in volume, but prices neither move significantly up nor down, this is an indication of high buy and sell with no clear direction. In this case, we can see a Jump in price followed by a significant increase in volume till the end of the week.

Note, price and volume action at the end of the week for both stock and Market is a clear indication of the market sentiment ready for the following week, as long as there are no strange events over the weekend. Events unrest in the middle east or a disruption to oil production in Niger delta could spell doom the following week.

Weekly graph S&P
Now have look at the weekly graph, two conditions are true, telling me that the market is showing some strength. Point B remains true (the yellow line crossed above the grey), the momentum is pointing up, the last condition is for the price to rise above point A.

Right now, based on the first two condition being true, I am back in the market with caution, my first position XRS is up 31% and my new positon is up about 5%. I will run an analysis of the stocks I suggested in the last 5 weeks over the weekend to see how they have been performing.

8502

Jideams:
Market Review – 01/07/2016

The Market showed a strong movement with exceptional volume in the last 4 days on the up side. This movement is an indication that we are back in an uptrend but one can only make this call with caution, knowing fully well we have the issue of Brexit trailing Europe.

As previously said time and time again, we are not in the business of predicting the market, as a trader we let the Market make its move and we wait to interpret what the market says. The foot print of the Market is what we use to decide the Market sentiment and the basis on which we draw our conclusion and trade with care and a good defence strategy.

Attached is a daily/weekly graph of the S&P paying attention to the volume on the daily graph. We can see a significant increase in volume in the last 4 days on the upside, this is confirmed by a jump in price. There are time when you see a significant increase in volume, but prices neither move significantly up nor down, this is an indication of high buy and sell with no clear direction. In this case, we can see a Jump in price followed by a significant increase in volume till the end of the week.

Note, price and volume action at the end of the week for both stock and Market is a clear indication of the market sentiment ready for the following week, as long as there are no strange events over the weekend. Events unrest in the middle east or a disruption to oil production in Niger delta could spell doom the following week.

Weekly graph S&P
Now have look at the weekly graph, two conditions are true, telling me that the market is showing some strength. Point B remains true (the yellow line crossed above the grey), the momentum is pointing up, the last condition is for the price to rise above point A.

Right now, based on the first two condition being true, I am back in the market with caution, my first position XRS is up 31% and my new positon is up about 5%. I will run an analysis of the stocks I suggested in the last 5 weeks over the weekend to see how they have been performing.

8502

Thanks man

THE STOCK PICKS SO FAR

XRS

As you can see, XRS is a strong stock that has recently broken out, this is an example of a strong stock which I tend to hold till I see changes in the graph. The green vertical lines showed where I bought the stock, and the second line showed where I added to my positions. Presently my position is up 31%.

LGIH
This is my new buy, this was not mentioned earlier but had been in my watchlist. On the recent breakout, I bought the stock at the point where you see the vertical green line.

STOR
This stock has shown exceptional performance, the green line showed when I spotted the stock and if you check the chat history you will find them it there. I do expect a pull back soon, and if it does, I might take a position in it. I do not chase a run away stock, once it is extended in price, I will wait for a pull back and then buy into the recovery.

PAYC
Trust me, this is another good stock still in a buy range, I will continue to monitor this as we progress.

STOCK PICK SO FAR

The stocks listed below has pulled back since they were identified as a good trade. This goes to tell that stock picking is an art and not a science. fundamentally, they are good stocks, technically, they are not in the buying range hence the need to keep and eye on them and decide with to buy.

I will keep an eye on these once till the end of July to see if they come back into buying range or they fall apart.

8692

@ kentoto

Thanks, much appreciated, it shows am not alone and someone is reading and appreciates. Let me know if you have any question.

Jideams we are following you, may not drop a comment frequently but we dey here. Even though I like to focus more on fundamentals than charts, I would still love to learn some of the basic chart elements and if you can suggest a book or site I will appreciate it.

It was nice to see my whitewave stock pop 18% yesterday after Danone offered to buy them out, with that, im up 74%. Though I don't have a huge stake in the name, i still like when my gut feelings turns into reality. I love whitewave products especially their silk brand and organic food. They get to charge a premium for their products because most people looking for organic products will pay an arm and a leg for them. Will this be a good time to closeout this position based on your analysis?

YerYer:
Jideams we are following you, may not drop a comment frequently but we dey here. Even though I like to focus more on fundamentals than charts, I would still love to learn some of the basic chart elements and if you can suggest a book or site I will appreciate it.

It was nice to see my whitewave stock pop 18% yesterday after Danone offered to buy them out, with that, im up 74%. Though I don't have a huge stake in the name, i still like when my gut feelings turns into reality. I love whitewave products especially their silk brand and organic food. They get to charge a premium for their products because most people looking for organic products will pay an arm and a leg for them. Will this be a good time to closeout this position based on your analysis?

Wow, that is fantastic, good return. I have never held a stock that long but that is good. true, Fundamental is key, most of the stock i trade on technical has a strong fundamental back ground. Let me know when next you have a good one and I could trade it along with you or run a dummy trade along side. You will see how the technical will compliment the fundamental on entry and exit. the issue I have with trading only fundamental is that you are likely to hold on when the stock is dropping in price for no reason. The reason might eventually pop up during the next quater.

Never technically trade a stock without a strong fundamental basis.... Rule number 2.

THE MARKET

I have decided to include all the market indices in my analysis as significant changes in one of them would signal a change in market direction. Attached the the graph for Nasdaq, Dow and S&P.

As you can see we seem to be approaching a new a new all time high. It seems the SPY will be breaking the resistance at point A next week. This point signals a new market high and I can see stocks breaking out into new high.

let us see what happens next week, but I think we can trade with confidence from this point onwards.

Why haven't you discussed $MGT yet that is pretty much a garantee that it will go up im up by 86% there is high volume in there. Oh and. I hope you dont mined that I copied your instructions on how to trade in your not in the us on my website

AgoraRoad:
Why haven't you discussed $MGT yet that is pretty much a guarantee that it will go up im up by 86% there is high volume in there. Oh and. I hope you dont mined that I copied your instructions on how to trade in your not in the us on my website

Not sure your comments was directed at me, but if that was the case, money management is mostly based on your cash and risk appetite. I would see what could be put together but it is more of personal preference. In addition, some sort of technical analysis also comes to play.

Which stock did you have running at 86% profit and when did you enter the trade. I want to run a technical and fundamental analysis on it.

Jideams:


Not sure your comments was directed at me, but if that was the case, money management is mostly based on your cash and risk appetite. I would see what could be put together but it is more of personal preference. In addition, some sort of technical analysis also comes to play.

Which stock did you have running at 86% profit and when did you enter the trade. I want to run a technical and fundamental analysis on it.

on MGT in at 2.56 at around may

AgoraRoad:
on MGT in at 2.56 at around may

I just ran through the stock and yes it has almost doubled in price, but I cannot see the reason why you bought the stock, maybe you could explain.

The price has been dropping since 2012, the company is not in profit, 3 years growth is -49%, the company is valued at 102 million dollars. Not sure what the criteria you are looking at to buy your stock but this would never had made my shortlist in any way.

This is the way I see trading, my plan is to perfect my trading such that I would gradually leave my day job and be sure of a return of 5000 dollars a month living in Nigeria trading the US Market. In order to get to that position, I must have a logical, tested confirmed approach, turning out 60% success rate month in Month out. This has to be clearly defined on paper and tried over and over again. You do not want a situation whereby your performance is based on Luck. Luck or wishful thinking does not fly in trading, unless you are trading for leisure and not a living.

Please provide your buy criteria and lets see if there is something to learn here. There is one thing i am certain of, peny shares is not the way forward, it is not how many shares you have but the percentage gain on what you buy.

Following

Jideams:


I just ran through the stock and yes it has almost doubled in price, but I cannot see the reason why you bought the stock, maybe you could explain.

The price has been dropping since 2012, the company is not in profit, 3 years growth is -49%, the company is valued at 102 million dollars. Not sure what the criteria you are looking at to buy your stock but this would never had made my shortlist in any way.

This is the way I see trading, my plan is to perfect my trading such that I would gradually leave my day job and be sure of a return of 5000 dollars a month living in Nigeria trading the US Market. In order to get to that position, I must have a logical, tested confirmed approach, turning out 60% success rate month in Month out. This has to be clearly defined on paper and tried over and over again. You do not want a situation whereby your performance is based on Luck. Luck or wishful thinking does not fly in trading, unless you are trading for leisure and not a living.

Please provide your buy criteria and lets see if there is something to learn here. There is one thing i am certain of, peny shares is not the way forward, it is not how many shares you have but the percentage gain on what you buy.

It is the fundamentals my friend. It is all due to the new CEO John McAfee. He has bought the company and planning on turning it around. We have already seen the success of McAfee antivirus software. He his hiring big names of bitcoin block chain technology left and right. There is no telling what he is doing but there is a lot of big players that is going into it. http://fortune.com/2016/05/09/john-mcafee-mgt-ceo/?xid=yahoo_fortune

How is this platform different from using a meta trader 4 and choosing a trade broker.

Well, has any read the laws of Market efficiency?.. guess not...