What is a typical trading day like for u guys?

hi, just thought that a discussion of a typical trading day by everyone might yield some insights. Describe sites visited, purpose, chat rooms used, research done etc.

raine

Actually it might yield some insights.
How about you get the ball rolling and give us a breakdown of your trading day.

jog on
d998

raine said:

hi, just thought that a discussion of a typical trading day by everyone might yield some insights. Describe sites visited, purpose, chat rooms used, research done etc.

Click to expand...

Yeh it would be a good idea....

Let me describe yesterday as an example....

11:30am toro opens.
11:34am sell toro for 0.82c

200%+ profit!!!!!

Sorry guys, but like.... i still havent got over TOOOORRROOOOO!!!!!

I'm afraid mines as boring as can be.
Takes about 10 mins a day to check on things and a decision comes along about once in every 3 mths unless a new position is instigated.

Nothing sexy but the results are as I want---so job done and I'm free to "Have a life"--contrary to some opinion!

Cant think of anything more boring than watching a computer screen all day and worrying whether THIS trade is going to be a winner or loser or what happens overnight.
I like to be able to trade with a large capital base and not worry about how it will affect my life if things tank dramatically (as I'll be losing increased equity not initial capital base--- IE Drawdown)

Some people need the high of seeing their trade go their way and their short term beliefs or analysis fullfilled.

Personally boring is good but the fruits of which can be sexy if used to your benefit.

raine said:

hi, just thought that a discussion of a typical trading day by everyone might yield some insights. Describe sites visited, purpose, chat rooms used, research done etc.

Click to expand...

I suppose it depends if you still work for a living, I do so my day is like this :

On computer by 6:30am, check overnight financial news (i.e..wall street, price of Gold etc.) then I decide if I want to place a order to buy or sell taking into account my watch list from my scan of the market the previous night.I always place a stop order now, which is great because during the day I can't lower it

Back from work by 4:30, check what's happening with my stocks, if any trades have taken place update Excel, add the daily interest for my CFD'S etc, only takes 5 mins all done.While the market is open I also again, check my watch list for potential trades / investments as I can trade while the market is still open.

After dinner I will scan again,which with the criteria I use (Top Secret) :screwy: can bring up between 4 and 15 stocks.These can usually be checked and most eliminated within 5 mins.

I could do it all in probably 1 hour a day although I usually take longer, checking out ASF and some other financial sites.

I don't know about everybody else but if I didn't have to go to work I am very confident I could make a damn site more money by doing a couple of day trades every day than working for a living, but until I have proven this (maybe by taking a months leave to try) I will carry on as I am, probably completing 2 trades a week, along with my medium term investments.

I think we could all say that we have too much to learn, and it is true you could spend a lifetime reading and learning and still only know a fraction of what's out there, but in the end using good money management skills we can all make money, just depends how much time we want to spend trading / investing.

Similar to tech/a, it's really quite boring.

No more than 20 - 30 minutes, depending on what turns up, even much less some days.

Once the analysis is done the decisions of the day are made.

Take a quick look at the overall market to keep in tocuh with the daily mood, as time permits. Take a look at some of the forums, can always offer a bit of light amusement or even amazement at times. The amount of emotion that comes across in forums related to stocks and other aspects, just confirms the frailities of market participants.

Other than that more interested in developing a new multi-system approach at the moment. Hence, time is spent researching this area, including investigating and testing potential approaches.

It really pays to take a KISS-based approach and be focussed and disciplined in whatever approach is used, but don't see the need to make things more complicated than necessary.

There are other things in life, besides trading.

Cheers.

Hi and welcome raine

I am retired now and an investor (and not a trader) and so I don't fit the profile of the vast majority in here who I suspect are mostly traders of one type or another.

So for what it's worth I'll give you a quick run down of a typical day for me.

After breakfast I normally fire up the pc normally around 8:30 - 9 in the morning to check emails, read a few local and OS newspapers, maybe do a bit of banking tasks etc etc and check in these forums to see what is going on.

I normally 'play' on the pc until the market opens to get a feel for what the market will be like for the day. What I do after 10am depends on what plans mrs bullmarket has for me for the rest of the day

On Monday week we're heading away for a week so I won't be popping in here at all as the laptop is not allowed to come away with us

But on a more serious note, every Sep/Oct (after the full year reporting season) I usually scan the market for 'interesting' stocks using fundamental criteria such as PER, yields etc and then put the results from the scan through my fundamentals model (as described in other threads) to hopefully come up with a short list of candidates to put on my watchlists for at least the next 6 months. It takes me about 20-30 mins per stock to put each stock through my fundamentals model from go to whoa.

I'll probably go through the same exercise next September, just to keep my finger on the pulse so to speak, but I am now invested only in LPT's and energy/infrastructure trusts for reasons described elsewhere.

In the mean time, if anything interesting gets my attention through my normal reading or other parts of the media I will also look at it to see if it is worth pursuing.

cheers

bullmarket

I have split this thread folks,

The new thread regarding trading for a living is here:

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2985

Cheers

I day and short tem trade. But it is still boring really.

6:00AM Have a really good sleep and vivid and enoyable dream, rudely interupted by perhaps the most unpleasant noise on planet earth.

6:00:30AM stumble out of bed, groping for my glasses, swearing under my breath, but ever so audibly, about the time difference with the Eastern States

...have strong organic esspresso-no sugar, and try to achieve full conciousness while checking what Sycom/Dow/Nas/SP500/metals/oil has been up to overnight. Read www.marketwatch.com incredulous at the repugnant spin and outright BS. Read www.news.com.au ...slightly less nauseating.

Review positions, adjust stops if necessary. Make a watchlist of stocks for that day.

6:50AM Spi opens, set alarms at trading levels, and have live chart visible in second screen.. take trades as necessary through the day.

7:00 AM -8:00 AM while one eye on SPI, other eye is checking watchlist for possible early moves, trade as necessary. Set audible alarms on interesting stocks, option plays (and spi of course).

Somewhere 8:00 - 9:15 move away from screen, do some stretching, get into the Garden, play with other projects, chat with friends, whatever I feel like doing. Return to screen if alarm sounds.

9:15 - 13:00 Only return to screen if an interesting situation is present, otherwise doing other stuff. BSing on forums (hmmm not really getting away from screen there LOL), garden, chatting, idiot box, whatever.

13:00 on free to do wander at large in town, go fishing, play with horses etc.

20:00 check commodities futures to see if anything interesting, set audible alarms, trade as expedient.

Repeat

I analyse weekly charts after Fridays close to establish a view for the coming week by looking for higher highs and higher lows or lower highs and lower lows.

On Monday I then check the daily chart and hourly charts towards the last hour of the trading day to see where its traded and then look for high probability setups in line with my weekly view (these are the ones I've traded at least a 100 times before).

I make my decision, enter, then go do something else. Next day I check the market within the first half hour and exit on profit or loss targets. I repeat the process all week every week. I probably spend a grand total of two hours a week looking at the screen.

Cheers
Happytrader

thanks everyone for their reply,been pretty interesting and insightful thus far. apologise for not describing mine yet, last time i posted, had to rush off after posting midway.

anyway my typical day's pretty mundane as well. i would fire up firefox about 1 hour before the US market opens (begining to trade stock options) and check out the general market outlook on www.ft.com, www.bloomberg.com, yahoo finance, www.economist.com (for broad knowledge). currently, i'm also playing around with MSN stock screener, and whatever i find that fits my criteria, i would hit it into yahoo finance and study the techinicals in detail. depending on the technicals, i might make a trade depending on opening market strength or just before market opens. Occassionally, i would use www.smartmoney.com for sector outlooks. Once every few days, i would have a look at the momentum of commodities and equities of the emerging markets (through mutual funds), so as to understand the current trend, or upcoming global ones.

keep it going, i think as more ideas are thrown in regards to this particular thread, more insight will gradually be shed