Got your attention didn't I?

Are any of you successful stock traders by any chance? If so, are there any trading literature recommendations you can make?

I have been known to stack a few chips in the market. Although I like Commodity trading more. (Refer to The G Manifesto: http://www.thegmanifesto.com/category/money)

Here are some of my favorites:

Jesse Livermore: World’s Greatest Stock Trader (reading currently) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471023...ive=380601

Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Day Trader http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400067...ive=380601

Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470474...ive=380601

Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071486...ive=380601

And my personal favorite (life changing in more than just investing):

The Zurich Axioms http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1897597...ive=380601

I am 22 and I live of trading high risk mining stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Looking back, I might be taking the Nicolas Darvas path...

Zurichs axiom is the first step to take, almost philosophical. We can draw some parallels with Game too. "This book is about betting to win" .

Quote: (01-09-2010 09:01 PM)LÉtranger Wrote:  

I am 22 and I live of trading high risk mining stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Looking back, I might be taking the Nicolas Darvas path...

Sounds good... what kind of returns are you getting, if you don't mind me asking?

remeninisces of a stock operator

Just finished watching Le Mépris (of the beta). Took me few weeks. The alpha drives an alfa.

1. Trading literally makes your money "works" for you. But the less capital you got, the more you will need to risk, for a substantial profit. Also if you loose 50%, you'll need to make 100% to get back to the same level.

2. You need movement and volume (both together become Momentum). If market is flat you go nowhere.

3. You need help from the Index, since stocks are influenced by it most of the time.

4. You need technical analysis.

5. You need money management, cut your losses, let your winners run. Easy to say, hard to do.

6. You need emotional management. The hardest part to achieve.

7. Luck can help.

Some months I breakeven, my best day was +67%. Always think in %, not in $ or you'll go crazy. I made +18% today.

Now I am on Vivre sa vie (1962).

Quote: (01-12-2010 02:42 PM)LÉtranger Wrote:  

Just finished watching Le Mépris (of the beta). Took me few weeks. The alpha drives an alfa.

The Alpha Hollywood Producer vs The Beta French Writer... who wins?

So far I haven't found a movie that encapsulates the Alpha vs Beta "battle"/surrender as elegantly as Le Mepris. Hardheadedness vs Fragility. Confidence vs Insecurity. The curvaceous cavewoman returns to the caveman. As the French say, c'est la vie!

EDIT: They deleted the file... it seems its getting too much popular... perhaps because of me haha. Before it was available completly free on the first google link (neif.org).

Here is it again:

http://lix.in/-843717

Thanks for the link. I have been reading it a bit, and AXIOM #1 was exactly what I needed. For those of you wondering here are some nice bits and pieces:

On Risk:
Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health. If you are not worried, you are not risking enough.

To become a butterfly, a caterpillar must grow fat; and to grow fat, it must venture out where birds are. There are no appeals. It is the law.

I like metaphors.

What kind of tools are you using right now to find investment opportunities? I think I'm going to focus on the stock market for now, since that's the one I have some experience in, and then look at futures etc later. What do you think? How do you go about trading commodities? What kind of information do you rely on to make your decisions?

Commodities are heavy duty.

If you ever want to trade, I recommend http://mbwealth.com/ (full disclosure, I know the cat.)

http://seekingalpha.com/author/matthew-bradbard

He has some great articles on his blog and writes a daily update:

http://seekingalpha.com/author/matthew-b...les/latest

Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812973...thegman-20

G,
I would stick to stocks in this thread. Commodities (futures) and Forex are highly leveraged and should be traded by an experienced trader. They should be discussed in another thread.

Great quotes of Zurich axioms. Like I said, focus on its philosophy point-of-view, because on a fast-trading environnement like today some trading rules are a little outdated. For example I personnaly dont wait to be at -15% to exit a loosing trade. I exit when the trendline is broken. Or when the support is broken. I choose the one closer to my entry price.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/tra...dlines.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/tec...061801.asp

I have a subscrition to stockcharts.com that can scan all the stocks for a technical pattern. But they still offer GREAT free charts. I like The Motley Fool and seekingalpha.com for fundamentals. Since I mainly trade mining stocks on the TSX , here is an example of the market activity provided by the exchange : http://cxa.marketwatch.com/TSX/en/Market...tycan.aspx Also every morning I check finance.yahoo.com

L'Etranger, thanks for the excellent information! What platform do you use to trade btw? I'm wondering if I should stick with something like TDWaterhouse for now, and then move to TradeStation when I learn a little more? I read a lot of positive things about TradeStation on trading sites online, but it looks like there is a definite learning curve.

I suggest using a discount broker. With a small to medium capital, its best to have a fixed price for each transaction. For me its 9.95. You should check around the forums to select your broker since things are probably different than when I picked up mine, 1 year ago.

I use the basic & free platform given by my broker wich is accessible with a simple net browser. That's all you need... since you will plan your trade.. and trade your plan.

I am a failed stock trader. And by "failed" I mean I've never had a down year. It's just it became quite obvious that it's a waste of time. You are going to lose money if you don't do a lot of homework, and that homework is a terrible investment of your time when you could be focusing on a business achieving much higher returns.

It's one thing if you work for a brokerage or as a specialist, as L'Étranger presumably does. He draws commission. The speculative gains are icing on the cake. Kids, don't try this at home.

Why did you presume I work for a brokerage service?

The reason I posted about trading on this particular forum is not because its an easy way to make money by doing nothing, you'll have to put the time in of course. Its because you can be completly free to trade all around the world thanks to internet. Also, you can disconnect yourself from the crumbling American society, wich is a plus. And not pay taxes.

Most of people think about casino gambling when they heard "trading". I will take my time to explain why its completly different. I won't do that often.

I believe the most fair game after blackjack is red/black on the roulette. You bet money, you can loose all or double up. And you have "approximately" 50% of winning.
If you trade a stock, we could also state that you have 50% of being right. But the difference is that you can CHOOSE your loss.



Here is an simple example of level trading. The 2 green lines are supporting the price in a consolidation. It's like pressure building up. I bought both times and I had fixed my loss at the red line, wich is approx -10%. Now you see that I was expecting a much higher gain, at least +25%. Thats what you are looking for, the trade with the smallest loss acceptable vs biggest gain possible.

I'm well familiar with various technical analysis techniques.

The appealing aspects of speculation that you iterate are exactly what make it a poor investment of time for 99.99% of people. It is very attractive for many reasons and so it is crowded with extremely smart people and alpha is extremely difficult to achieve. Being an NBA player is an attractive proposition for many reasons, but pursuing that as a goal is statistically stupid for almost anyone.

In any case, if one truly has the talent for active trading (it does exist just as pro NBA players exist) it doesn't make much sense to jet around the world and do it from hotels. You go work on Wall Street and walk away never having to work again inside five years. They handle all the ancillary tasks you'd be wasting time with and give you information and infrastructure advantages so you can focus on trading.

There are wolves on Wall Street who will eat you alive.

Personally, I think the best bet is to get in early on a small/micro cap not yet discovered by the market. Hold strong when they try to shake you out. And wait for the market to discover the value you saw all along.

A clash of opinions is always a good thing, for the observer. Thanks kingkong.

PS: The DOW is in trouble.

Nobody has ever lost money waiting for the market to pull back.

Quote: (01-25-2010 01:50 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Nobody has ever lost money waiting for the market to pull back.

My turn. "Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy".

I am shorting the market since January 19. People are starting to see that Obama is doing a mess. I don't live in the states thought.

The only thing I don't understand currently, is Gold. Exploded the Grand line, then pulled back heavily. Yes the US dollar in inflating, but I really hoped they were disconnected for good.

My friend http://mbwealth.com/ called the short term pull back in Gold.

Long term he is still bullish.

I haven't even read the first ten pages of the Zurich Axioms but can already tell this book is pure gold! Damn, the forum keeps on delivering quality content from girls to money and everything in between.

Quote: (02-01-2010 04:43 PM)loosewin Wrote:  

I haven't even read the first ten pages of the Zurich Axioms but can already tell this book is pure gold! Damn, the forum keeps on delivering quality content from girls to money and everything in between.

That's what we do here brother.

Rules That Warren Buffett Lives By

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeti...t-lives-by