Traders' Roundtable

hello there,

what are some rules that can be used in daytrading the NYSE stocks?

i am a newbie proptrading part-time (2 hrs a day) in a proptrade firm in Toronto.

the level 2 quotes change too fast and seem unreliable.

i need some rules to base my trading decisions on. Any suggestions?

thanks.

If you want total unabashed honesty, the advice I would give you is: dont bother daytrading.

I traded at two props firms in NYC for a little over 2 years. I was ahead on a gross basis by about $45,000, after commissions I was down about $15k. That translates into $60k in commissions. Not a winning formula.

Thats not to say YOU cant do it successfully, maybe you can. Having said that, its a widely accepted fact in the industry that approx 90-95% of all day traders lose money, net of commissions. Statistically, if you cant allow your winners to run it is very difficult to cover your losers + commissions. I'm sure your team leader or the trading supervisor will tell you otherwise. Just remember, he gets a % of the commissions you generate.

Not to mention the bad habits you develop (ie. watching every print on the tape, trying to guess what the specialist\mm is doing, taking fast miniscule profits, to name a few) as a beginning trader. I'm still trying to overcome these bad habits as I now trade on a longer time frame, based on the Turtle model.

Good luck in your trading ventures.

The best daytrades I have seen for stocks generally follow similar rules toMaoxian's Trading for Dummies.

I agree with JimR that it is not for everyone and the commissions can add up quickly.

I prefer the tighter spreads and better fills that I can get from the e-minis.

Along the line of Maoxian, check out these sites:

www.traderxblog.com
www.tradethemove.com
www.tradermike.net

I plan to use some of these daytrading techniques in conjunction with my LTTF system.

Cheers,
Ed