Stage one I guess

Hi, Firstly compliments to ASF. The site is informative, supportive and Aussie honest. Trembling Hand you have my full attention. In particular I respect your values and insights.
I'm a teacher who started a small CFD account with IG Markets and a ASR subscription in Feb. after realising that the substantial bite out of my allocated pension fund (started Nov 2007) showed I had not a clue about markets and money and definitely, no control. "Stage one" means I've got about a hundred sites and an e-mail account full of newsletters and "hints"and success "strategies". I've also got lots of books and magazines. I'm swamped by the volume of input and yet totally absorbed by it. Nothing I've attempted previously has blended so many elements of analysis, psychology and real world effect. The "noise" will dissipate in time I hope.
So far, I often feel like I'm gambling and not surprisingly, I'm down a few hundred dollars. No biggie but gee it'd be nice to have that reversed . Death by a thousand cuts? Getting stopped out in that ten minute opening flurry happens quite a lot to me.
Here are some naive questions I hope you can answer though. What's a DOM and if I need one where can I get one? When I go back to work in July after long service leave I'm not going to be able to readily access trades in working hours. I'm thinking I should focus on learning FOREX. Should I be investing in some real time chart feeds or other tools?
Thanks anyway for all of the excellent information and links to date.
Cheers
Michael

Welcome Michael: The SPI has been pretty boring today so TH is probably totally immersed in the Hang Seng at the moment. DOM is Depth of Market, it shows you some of the buyers and sellers and their orders that are in the system. Do you need it, no.

You can trade profitably without looking at the monitor. While I was at work I trading ASX stocks using the weekly charts. It was a no stress comfortable way to trade. I did all the work on the weekends, put my start gain orders into the trading platform before Monday's open and went to work. In the evening I looked at the EOD prices and if an exit was triggered I sold on the open next morning. It was fun to come home after work and see that I had bought something that had triggered my entry.

You have to cut down your info overload. Focus on one trading style that appeals to you and work out how you can get it to work. By all means see how others are using it but in the end it is your trading plan and you must take responsibility for it.

Use the forum to help narrow down the alternatives and ask questions to help define aspects of your plans.

High Michael
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
If your only down a couple of hundred well done. Most lose thousands before they start asking questions. I would say throw the tip sheets out and concentrate on 1 or a couple of methods that have pricked your interest in books. Make sure you keep GOOD records of your trades. Very important to cut the mistakes out. One tip I can give you is its a simple game, learn about position sizing and money management and if your trading short term learn a couple of simple chart patterns that you see reoccurring and how to trade them.

DOM is Depth Of Market or the order book(see pic this is for the SPI). And no I would think a newbie doesn't need one just concentrate on learning how to trade chart patterns.


If your trading intraday you need real time data. Which I think IG has. If its index stuff you are trading I would think you should throw away the CFD charts and get some futures data, that is what the Index CFDs are linked to.

Trembling Hand said:

High Michael
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
If your only down a couple of hundred well done. Most lose thousands before they start asking questions. I would say throw the tip sheets out and concentrate on 1 or a couple of methods that have pricked your interest in books. Make sure you keep GOOD records of your trades. Very important to cut the mistakes out. One tip I can give you is its a simple game, learn about position sizing and money management and if your trading short term learn a couple of simple chart patterns that you see reoccurring and how to trade them.

DOM is Depth Of Market or the order book(see pic this is for the SPI). And no I would think a newbie doesn't need one just concentrate on learning how to trade chart patterns.


If your trading intraday you need real time data. Which I think IG has. If its index stuff you are trading I would think you should throw away the CFD charts and get some futures data, that is what the Index CFDs are linked to.

Click to expand...

You switched over to zerolinetrader TH?

Yep. Got to hard trading different markets with IBs booktrader & bracket orders. And NT DOMs no good for HSI. Also like the MAE & MFE stats of ZLT.

(could I include any more Acronyms in two lines? )

Trembling Hand said:

Yep. Got to hard trading different markets with IBs booktrader & bracket orders. And NT DOMs no good for HSI. Also like the MAE & MFE stats of ZLT.

(could I include any more Acronyms in two lines? )

Click to expand...

I'm sure you could have fit a few more in there somehow

Sweet. It's a top little program that one. Would be great if it spat out the kinds of stats that NT does, but I suppose you can't have it all!

Appreciate the input everyone. Great to have a sense of perspective(s) provided, makes the whole thing feel a bit less edgy.