stock entry/exit points

[ZaNoob]

It seems I am able to spot good/bad stocks when looking from a long view. For example, looking at a 6 month daily chart. I'm not anywhere as good as TGC or WSE but from experience so far my picks tend to have a bounce soon... unfortunately I keep catching those falling daggers.

I need help with my entry points especially during the day. If you could share a list of things to look for before entering a trade and exiting a trade it would be very helpful. I need something that will smack me on the face, like the seafood commercial, so I'll stop and look to see which way the stock is going before clicking the order.

You can roast me, toast me, skin, flay, or fillet me but give me some tips. Or else I'll dance naked for you and you'll go blind and never be able to trade again. :twisted:

[ZaNoob]

Or perhaps I should just stop and do the YMCA or Macarena before placing a trade. That should give me enough time to think things through.

[wallstreetsedge]

if youre going by daily charts, you need to play it from a daily point of view...

also pick up stock in groups, not all at once

when it comes to playing stocks based on a daily chart, you have to consistently buy/sell based on a daily chart, not an intraday chart

[ZaNoob]

I need big time help with my intraday entry point and exit point. I get so excited sometimes (most of the time) after finding a juicy stock I point, click, and pull without checking who else might be in the way. And it's usually me and my portfolio. So the juicy stock runs down some more after I long or runs up a LOT more after I short. Then I have to wait for the bounce and recover what was lost before getting profits. That is what frustrates me

[mjl3434]

Do you use any technical indicators to help you pick entry/exit points, or are you just watching the ticker?

If you're not, QuoteTracker gives free technical indicators for live data from many of the online brokers. I'm sure there are other tools out there as well.

I don't day trade so I'm not sure of what eactly one should be looking for before pulling the trigger on a day trade. I would assume though most of the longer term indicators become useless. E.g a MACD with 12 and 9 day moving averages isn't going to tell you squat. Plus fundamentals like balance sheets & earnings only come out quarterly, so I doubt they are helpful on predicting the interday price.

One thing I've noticed is the price seems to be the most volatile in the first 30 minutes of trading and the last 5 minutes. So I'm sure there are tons of falling daggers there as well as great opportunities.

I don't think this question has been hashed out as much as it could be. For you day traders out there are there some specific indicators you find handy before buying/shorting?

[ZaNoob]

After thinking about this overnight I have found the problem with raising this question. The answer is the bread and butter of many day traders. But now that I see this as a problem I can start looking for solutions. I have found a few things and places that give free advice. I wish I could pay for courses but right now I'm just trying to make this thing work. I can also go to the bookstore and take a look at technical charting and other strategies. It's not going to be easy.

With this I also found another problem I have and why I tend to jump the gun and stick with my decision. But I often stick to my guns because I only have a limited number of day trades per rolling 5 day period and the commission rates. Oops that's 4 problems in this paragraph. Two are as good as solved, one will be fixed, and the last one is the reason for this thread.

Last is that you need the tools to do the job. The more you know the better but you have to know how to use what tools you get. Live and learn and keep going.

[wallstreetsedge]

the shorter the time period, the better your average entry/exit points will be...there is no secret to picking entries/exits, i think its more about skill or averaging in your trades.. also depending on how much capital your trading, the commissions could have a big impact

[mjl3434]

The answer is the bread and butter of many day traders.You bring up a good point. People may be reluctant to share what works. In the short term you're not investing, you're speculating and speculation is a zero-sum game. Regardless I don't think there is much point in trying to "guard your secret"... here's why: The Central Limit Theorem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem)

The central limit theorem ... states that the average (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average) of many independent and identically distributed random variables with finite variance tends towards a normal distribution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution) irrespective of the distribution followed by the original random variables.This all depends on how "random" a trade is. Of course most people here would say they don't buy and sell randomly (I hope!). But if you think about it for every buyer there is a seller. So for every good trade you made someone else was thinking the opposite.

Bottom line is if its a high volume stock you're day trading with you can share your secrets and it wont effect how successful your strategy is in the future.

Of course this being said I doubt any successful trader is going to start sharing their secrets because I said they could. :p