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Day Trading Overview ....................................................................................................... 2 What is Day Trading? ..................................................................................................... 2 Types of Day Traders...................................................................................................... 2 Day Trading Risks & Rewards ....................................................................................... 3 Pattern Day Trader Status ............................................................................................... 3 Understanding Specific Time Zones during the Trading Day ............................................ 3 Day Trading Time Zones ................................................................................................ 4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 6 Day Trading Styles ............................................................................................................. 6 Day Trading Breakouts Overview .................................................................................. 7 Scalp Trading Overview ................................................................................................. 7 Counter Trading Overview ............................................................................................. 8 Trend Following Overview............................................................................................. 8 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 9 Level II Quotes - Primary Tool for Active Traders ............................................................ 9 Level II Window Structure ............................................................................................. 9 Tape Reading .................................................................................................................... 12 How do I get access to the Time and Sales Window? .................................................. 13 How to Use the Time and Sales Window ..................................................................... 13 Speaking from Experience............................................................................................ 14 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 16 Day Trading Money Management .................................................................................... 16 How Much Should You Risk........................................................................................ 17 Stops are not meant to be hit......................................................................................... 17 Operate in Cash............................................................................................................. 17 Day Trading Journal ......................................................................................................... 18 Terms of Use..................................................................................................................... 20
Reversal Traders:
Counter-trend traders will look for signs that a stock is topping or bottoming out before they place a trade in the opposite direction. For example, reversal traders use tools such as the TICK, TICKI, Put Call Ratio, volume, etc. to anticipate a change in trend.
Range Traders:
Range traders find stocks that have been trading within support and resistance levels and buy when a stock hits support and sell when it hits resistance. Range traders will be most successful in markets that are choppy and that have no real direction. Regardless of the type of trader, the most important aspect of day trading is the discipline to follow a set of rules and establishing your own money management principles which you live by.
Commissions
If you are day trading, commissions will be of utmost important for you to manage. Most full service brokers will charge a flat fee for trades while other brokers, such as Tradestation, charge per share. For smaller traders who are just starting out, per share trading is great for practicing with smaller commission. For those of you trading with a couple thousands share blocks, a flat commission structure will most likely be more beneficial. The key is finding a broker who will provide a platform which will allow the speed to execute orders and also provide for the ability to decide which commission structure is best suited for your trading style. eSignal seems to partner with a few brokers that allow for this.
Think about your trading history and notice if you see a pattern in the different day trading time zones in relation to winning and losing trade percentages. What a day trader must understand is that even if a chart has a great setup, the time at which the trade is placed may be in a day trading time zone which typically starts a countertrend move. For example, many traders who day trade breakouts will be far more successful during the first two hours of the day than any other timeframe during the day. Typically breakout attempts will fail and reverse which will only serve to frustrate the trader and cause you to doubt your approach to trading. Let's now take a look at the different time zones and understand the general market dynamics during each time zone.
Bond market closes and bond traders will flood the equities markets; watch for sharp moves in either direction. Moves can be fast and large.
Conclusion
Personally, I trade up until about 11:00am to 11:30am. The volatility in the morning fits my trading style. That is key; you need to understand who you are as a trader and trade accordingly. As you can see, the chart setup or systems that you look at are not the only factor in putting a day trade on. Remember, day trading is not absolute; it is a game of odds. Your job is to put the odds in your favor and by utilizing the different day trading time zones that we have discussed, your trading will become more consistent.
Summary
Every trader is responsible for his or her success. Day trading can be a great money maker, but without a sound trading plan it can push you to your mental limits. The first step in becoming a successful day trader, you have to determine which style of trading best suits your personality.
Security Information
The first element of the level II window is the general market information for the security. This information will include the symbol name, direction of the bid tick, last price, and net change. As the bid for the security changes, the arrow will shift up and down and from red to green. The last price is the last recorded price for the security.
Finally, the net change represents the total dollar amount change for the security from the previous day's close.
Depth Chart
The depth chart is the visual representation of the orders and their respective size. The color of the graph in the depth chart, will match the color of the bid ask data. If you are attempting to go long, you will want to see the size and speed of the bars on the left side of the depth chart to be larger than the bars on the right. This implies that there are more buyers in the market.
consolidated version of all the bid ask orders. Traders will look at all the bid ask orders in the level II window, to gauge the momentum and to see how many orders are at a particular level.
Tape Reading
From my experience in day trading over the last few years, my most valuable tool became the time and sales window, aka. the "Tape". The time and sales window basically shows the trader detailed information regarding the order flow for a particular security. The time and sales window provides details on each of the trades that have gone through for that security, such as: Time of Trade, Price, Size of order, and condition of order. Depending on the trading platform, you will have other data points available to you.
After mastering the message of the tape, you will be able to accurately decide when to enter and exit a trade.
you see the tape speeding up a bit. You need to be aware of support and resistance levels and also combine the message of the tape with price pattern formations. Tape reading can be very fast and confusing at times and requires quite a bit of practice in order to get used to understanding the true meaning behind what you are seeing. Remember, every stock is a different story and tends to trade differently. It is wise to review the way in which the "tape" trades for a couple of minutes before entering a trade. Reading the tape requires you to train your eyes to scan for changes in character. I want to discuss a few of these key changes that you should take note of:
Size of Orders
Lets start with size. The size of the orders coming through will help you decide if there is conviction behind the price action you are seeing. When putting on a trade, you typically want to see a flurry of buy or sell orders which have greater than 300 to 400 shares in size. There is no hard and fast rule about this; it is more of a visual cue that your eye gets trained to recognize. Many times, I will see great technical setups in stocks that trade low volume. I stay away from these setups as the message of the tape is not as clear and this lowers my odds of a winning trade.
Order Speed
The speed of the orders is another key component to the message that the tape is giving you. Typically, when stocks breakout through support or resistance levels, not only will the size of the orders go higher but you will see the tape start to speed up. This gives you an indication that there is an interest in this stock at this level and that the interest is larger than a couple small traders buying or selling.
Order Condition
Order condition refers to which side of the bid/ask spread the trade was executed on. When we go long a stock, we want to see many orders being executed at ASK. Conversely, when we go short, we want to see orders being filled at BID. This gives us a clue as how desperate traders are to get into our out of this stock.
provide you with strong volume and large interest from the public. They also provide strong and fast moves which you can make larger profits from. Remember, we need to see speed in the tape and that requires a stock with public interest.
Does the tape work better during specific times of the day?
In my experience, the answer to this question is YES. I typically only trade the first 2 hours of the day. This is when the most volatility is present in the market and also when most of the trending moves are made. Typically, lunchtime becomes very choppy and has a different group of traders who are buying or selling for different reasons than the first hour. I am not ruling out trading after lunchtime, however, my results have been less than stellar when I attempted to do so.
Exiting a trade
This is probably the most difficult part of the trade for most traders. Tape reading helps me get out of the trade by looking for imbalances. When I see a stock moving sharply in one direction, I will immediately look to the tape to offer clues as to when the brake pads will be applied. Again, this skill will take practice to develop. If your short a stock, keep an eye out for the bid side getting heavy and the bid/ask spread widening. This could be a tell tale sign that the juice has been used up.
their tapes can be a bit confusing at times if your a beginner. You may see 14 orders come through at bid with large sizes but that may not mean as much as if the stock was trading less volume. Remember to always keep everything in context. If your stock trades gigantic volume, you should expect a different kind of tape action.
Focus
It is extremely important to have utmost focus when you are trading and trying to listen to the message that tape is giving you. Try and stay in a zone and filter out the extra noise. If you are going to put a trade on, be in that trade and nothing else. This will help you feel when it is right to stay in the stock and when its time to get out.
Conclusion
Tape reading is a very important skill to have as a short term trader and can keep you out of many bad trades. Remember, don't be an action junkie, psyching yourself up for every trade. If you do this, you will find a reason to put on bad trades in the heat of the moment. Discipline is key and it takes time to develop. For any new traders looking to try this out, please practice, practice, practice before you put your hard earned money at work. Mastering the art of tape reading will take time, but when you do, you will be rewarded.
However, many day traders find themselves losing due to poor day trading money management.
Operate in Cash
Day trading is a cash business. The only loan you should be using is with your day trading margin buying power. Do not start or continue to day trade, if you have to take out loans, credit, or use part of your retirement to get in the game. Traders that operate with a positive cash flow and utilize day trading money management rules, have a much higher success rate than traders that start out in the red.
4 - Set Goals
In every business plan you have to create a roadmap of where you are going. This is no different in trading. You have to set goals for your trading business. How many points do you plan on making monthly, quarterly? For you day traders, how many points do you plan to make per week? Your goals should align with your profit targets and trading habits. These goals will not only be a way to measure your overall performance, but it
will take away the uncertainty of the trading business. Unlike 95% of traders, you will know exactly where you will be in 1 year, 5 years, and even 20 years from today.
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