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Showing posts with label stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stuff. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

There's nothing you can do that can't be done...

I hope everyone is having a good week. I traded Monday, but have been out for the past two days due to an illness in the family. I will be out tomorrow as well, and hopefully will be back at it Friday and have a chart or two to post. I know there are some unanswered questions in the comments, and I will try to get to those as well.

And, R.I.P. John Lennon. This is a nice quote/statement that puts things into perspective, as Mr. Lennon could often do.



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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

It's Tuesday!

I did not trade Monday, as I spent the last three days doing some work around a rental house...trimming trees, cleaning, repairs. I will be back at it today.

On a sad note, I received word that RJ passed away at the end of last week. RJ was a great contributor - giving freely of his time and knowledge to all that asked. I was fortunate to have a lot of communication with him over the past half-decade. My thoughts and prayers go to his wife and daughter during this difficult time.

R.I.P. RJ...you will be missed.

And let it serve as a reminder to all of us to take advantage of every day, and live life to the fullest. I know it sounds cliche, but we never know what tomorrow will bring.



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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Tuesday roundup

First, thanks to Tom C. for an informative post on the "u-turn" setup.

Next, RJ's daughter sent me an email and said she downloaded all the comments (no Internet access in the hospital) and read them to her father, and they both appreciated it very much. We are close to 40 comments - I hope we can double that over the next few days. I am a big believer in the power of positive thinking and I know all of the support and comments will go a long way towards helping RJ recover. So leave him a comment here.

Finally, I did not find many "great" setups Monday and Tuesday, but I still had some good trades. I wanted to highlight a variation of the "top out" where the third bar closes below the halfway point between the morning's high and the 50% retracement. The entry on both charts was a break of the third bar's low.

STT had the added advantage of being turned back down at the previous day's low (the third bar closed back below that level). And if you do a more detailed analysis of GENZ, you will see that price is turned back down at resistance from the FE of the previous day's high to low.

I covered both positions when price reached the OR low (and left some money on the table!).





note - I am done for the day, so the GENZ chart is only through 1:30PM EST.

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Friday, February 27, 2009

Thoughts, prayers, and Good Karma

All-

As we go into the weekend I wanted everyone to send out positive thoughts to RJ. RJ has been a frequent contributor in "Comments" for years, and he is always there to answer questions and lend a helping hand.

He has faced some health problems in the past and fought them into remission. Unfortunately his health problems have resurfaced, and he is currently in the hospital. He sent me an email through his daughter who said she will keep us appraised and asks that everyone keep RJ in their thoughts and prayers.

Take 30 seconds to type out a quick comment - I am sure he will enjoy reading them when he gets back in front of the computer.

I know you will be back on your feet soon RJ! Get better and get home!

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

A few things for the weekend

Happy Valentine's Day.

Every year I ask the Trading Goddess to be my Valentine, and every year she turns me down.

Bummer.




Over on "The T.A.D. Principle" blog - a blog you should be reading every day if you like motivational quotes - David posted a video that really caught me off-guard.

It is about a man named Nick Vujicic. I had never heard of Nick, and I don't want to go into details about the video because I would not do it justice...just go and watch:

Meet Nick Vujicic

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Trader-X upgrade!

Some time in the next few days I will be upgrading the blog. It has been a long time coming - if I remember correctly, Blogger has been trying to get me to upgrade since 2007.

The process should be simple, but it will take some time to get everything back in its proper place. The good news is that once I upgrade, I should have access to some cool new features.

note - special thanks to Trader Jamie for his tutelage on upgrading.

So if things on the blog look strange between now and February 1st, it is because I am in a transition phase. Keep checking back.

It is important to note that I am doing all of this for you - the reader - but I do not plan to raise my prices. You will still get the great Trader-X wit and a site packed full of random thoughts and semi-valuable content for the low, low price of...nothing. Unless you are Dinosaur Trader - I have him convinced he has to pay $29.99/month.

Also, I can't ignore the possibility that things will go terribly wrong during the upgrade process, and the Trader-X blog will disappear into cyberspace never to be seen again. If that happens, just know I enjoyed the ride and I wish you all a long life filled with happiness and prosperity. In the immortal words of Carl Spackler:



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Monday, January 26, 2009

Random thoughts for a Monday

Charts

I wanted to highlight a comment Bill G. made on the previous post. He said:

"I may be in the minority, but I enjoy you posting charts without a lot of analysis. It forces me to do some work to try and see what you are seeing, and I have learned a few things over the past few weeks.

When you spell it out, most people won't get it. When you make them figure it out themselves, most will."


Bill gets it.

These charts are in honor of Bill. You can make a living trading only these setups - they happen every day, but you only need to catch a few a week (depending on your income needs, of course).





Having said that, I will start posting some analysis again in February as I have successfully accomplished my January goals.


Grocery store

I hate self-service checkouts. As it stands, I already bag and carry-out my own groceries most of the time. Now they want me to be the cashier too? And, they don't even offer me a discount on my bill. What sucks is my grocery store only leaves one or two "regular" lanes open to try and force people to use self-service. It is really starting to irritate me.


President Obama

John Stewart highlights the stupidity of Fox News:



And I thought this was a cool t-shirt:



note - don't forget to check my links on the right - "THINGS ON THE INTERNET THAT CAUGHT MY EYE"...I post some interesting stuff there and update it on a regular basis. If you are reading the blog in a reader or via email, you might consider clicking through to the actual site every few days.

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Friday, January 23, 2009

Become rich from stock trading!

It seems 2009 is the year of vendors telling everyone how easy it is to get rich from the stock market!

> TradingMarkets is trying to sell me an $8,000 daytrading course (only three left!)
> Michael Parness comes on my television every other commercial break telling me how he turned $4 into $9 billion (what a poorly produced commercial, by the way)
> Wizetrade is putting the marketing machine into overdrive (my favorite quote from Wizetrade - "if more people are buying a stock, it's going to go up; if more people are selling a stock than buying, it's going to go down")

The market has decimated investors and traders, so I am sure that these vendors are trying to take advantage of it by giving people hope they can get their money back...of course, they need to spend another thousand or two first!

There is no real point to this post - I just find it interesting. Have you noticed anything?




what is trader-x doing in January?

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Monday, January 19, 2009

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

"The time is always right to do what is right."

Martin Luther King, Jr.



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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Looking ahead to 2009

My trading

2008 was my most profitable year ever. I am blessed, fortunate, and thankful. But as I analyze my trading, I realize that it has become more complicated than I want.

Currently I have fourteen distinct setups that I scan for and trade every day. Yes, they all revolve around the core principles of Fibonacci, Candlesticks, and basic patterns/setups related to support and resistance. Nonetheless, as I get older I realize that my ability to keep things "under control" gets more difficult. I want simple - extremely simple - and my goal in 2009 is to ensure that I reach and maintain that goal.

As I stated above, the overriding rationale for simplifying is because I am getting older, and in my case getting older equals getting [a little] slower. The secondary rationale is because I want to free up more time during the day; I plan to to travel more in 2009...climb some mountains, trek around Europe, et cetera. I would like to be able to limit my trading - on most days - to around 3 hours. So I need to focus on the open and the first few hours, and the highest probability setups during that time. The final rationale is that simple is just better. Over the past five years I have simplified my life in general - I became a minimalist, donating a lot of stuff I don't need or use to charity. I decluttered my home and my mind, and I made great efforts to have what I need...and need what I have. Don't get me wrong, I am very comfortable and I enjoy the finer things. I just don't live in excess.

Back to trading - many readers would argue that my trading is already simple. It is, but I think I can reduce the number of setups I trade from fourteen to around four or five - while at the same time increasing my profitability because of the increased focus. So I am taking the first few weeks of January to study, test, develop, and refine how I will be trading for the rest of 2009. Posting will be light during that time, so check back or subscribe to Trader-X via a reader or email (see links in the upper right hand corner of the blog).


Trading tools

I have gotten many emails over the past few months about trading software. I am amazed at the number of people who are trying to DAY-trade by using Yahoo! charts or some equally insufficient charting tools provided by an online (web-based) broker.

This may seem harsh - and I don't want to lose readers - but you will not be successful if you do not use the correct tools. If you are using web-based charts that do not provide the flexibility to draw Fibonacci lines or plot [automatically] Pivot lines, or give you the ability to draw trendlines...you will not be able to make money DAY-trading the way that I do. I am emphasizing DAY-trading because you can probably get away with less functional charting if you are SWING or POSITION-trading. But why would you want to use less functional charting regardless?

If you are committing your hard-earned money to this - or any - venture, why would you want to use tools that are substandard and hinder your chances of success? Everyone knows this is a hard business, and the majority of people who try eventually fail. Why would you stack the odds against yourself even further? It is tantamount to a surgeon operating with a pocket knife and a bottle of whiskey...and your money is the patient with little chance of surviving.

The main argument I hear is that the tools I use are too expensive. Too expensive? If the tools I (and professional traders) use are too expensive, then quite frankly you are not ready to trade. You are either undercapitalized, or you do not have the proper mindset. If you are undercapitalized, stop trading until you have enough money. If you are just cheap - well, stop trading until you change your attitude.

I use a direct access broker and RealTick software - and for the record, my software is free because of my volume of trading. But even if I had to pay $300/month for it, I would gladly do so because I know without the proper tools I will not succeed.


The Trader-X name

I receive numerous emails every month that go something like this:
"I was reading your other blog..."
"I was looking at your software..."
"I was looking at your book on Amazon.com..."
"I was thinking about taking your seminar/course..."

I have addressed this before, but it needs to be repeated often:

I DO NOT HAVE ANY OTHER BLOGS, AND I DO NOT SELL ANYTHING (SOFTWARE, BOOKS, COURSES, TUTORING/MENTORING).

There are numerous people/products that have chosen to use the name Trader-X. I will not go so far as to say they are trying to cash in on this blog, but I have been using the name for many, many years - and thanks to all of you and my fellow bloggers this blog is somewhat popular.

The bottom line is this - do not spend any money on anything with the Trader-X name because you think it is me...it is not. And don't read any other blogs that you think I am writing...I only have this one.

If you want to spend your money on something, look at the top of my blog for things I recommend ("FRIENDS AND COOLS STUFF").


Thank you for reading, and best wishes to everyone in 2009!

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

As I mentioned this weekend, posting is scarce this week because of the holiday and family circumstances.

But check back over the weekend as I hope to have some of the promised posts up by then.

In the meantime, I hope all U.S. readers have a Happy Thanksgiving. And everyone else enjoy the market holiday!




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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Weekend roundup

1.) Everyone should have their own "attitude index". What is an "attitude index"? Check out this post from Attitude Trader.

2.) Over the past few weeks, I have heard and read many funny things regarding TA. Here are a few from my notes:

"Given all of this volatility, technical analysis won't work"
"You can't apply technical analysis to indexes"
"We are down too far and it has made all technical indicators irrelevant"
"Chart reading only works in orderly markets, and not very good even then"
"There are no technical indicators you can apply to the action in the markets today"

There are a lot of things I don't understand - but I don't dismiss them or say they don't work just because I can't make them work. It amuses me that other people don't follow that same philosophy.

3.) A couple of photos that made me smile:





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Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween



As I said last week, my posts will be sporadic until after the election.

Vote Obama!

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Thursday, October 09, 2008

I'm on AIG's distribution list

I am not sure how it happened, but nonetheless:

"Earlier today, AIG announced an important policy change - one that we wanted to be sure you knew about.

A short time ago, our Chairman and CEO Ed Liddy said that he has ordered the immediate cancellation of all outside meetings, conferences, and recognition events across AIG, except those that are required by law or that are deemed absolutely critical to sustain our ongoing business needs.

Given AIG's commitment to our customers, business partners, regulators, and American taxpayers, coupled with the new and very different challenges our company now faces, we take these responsibilities extremely seriously. Their trust is critical to our success. We recognize the need to be sensitive about all company expenditures.

As we move forward, we will continue our focus our efforts to pay back the $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as quickly as possible.

We appreciate your blog's efforts to share this information with your readers.

Best,

AIG Blog Relations"

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That gives me an excuse to make this post, which is somewhat related:

Waxman vs. Fuld

Why are these CEOs not in prison?

I don't advocate violence, but I understand this:

Dick Fuld, the CEO of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers, was punched in the face while working out in Lehman gym on the Sunday following the bankruptcy, according to CNBC's Vicki Ward.

Fuld testified before the House Oversight Committee yesterday, blaming everyone but himself for Lehman's collapse, an attitude that prompted Ward to confirm reports that he'd been punched in the face and to side with the attacker:

Ward reports, "From two very senior sources – one incredibly senior source – that he went to the gym after … Lehman was announced as going under. He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner, pumping iron and he walked over and he knocked him out cold. And frankly after having watched this, I’d have done the same too."

Waxman does a good job below (warning, you may want to vomit or throw something afterwards):



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Saturday, October 04, 2008

Weekend roundup

Long-time readers know my thoughts on Karma. It took 13-years to work in this case, but it always works...it always catches up with you.

One good thing about the "new bailout bill" - the FDIC insurance is raised from $100,000 to $250,000 per account. Now Trader Jamie can stop spending so much time monitoring his balance and transferring everything over $100,000 to another bank account.



I am working on a few posts with charts; I am outlining new tweaks to how I am using Fibonacci, and will show some examples from different timeframes. I hope to have something up before the market opens Monday.

And, I am updating del.icio.us links again. If you are bored and looking for something to read, see "Things On The Internet That Caught My Eye" on the right sidebar------------->>>