My daily trading preparation and tools used.

A viewer of the nightly videos recently asked me how I identify potential trades and what trading software/platform I use. I remembered a relevant post I made on the blog before I accidentally deleted it a few weeks ago, and was lucky enough to find a copy. So here's a run down on my tools of trade and a little insight to how I prepare for a trading day:

Every morning the first thing I do (second after coffee!) is check the overnight market action. I check U.S and European market movements, metals prices and general market news.

My favourite web sites for this are:

www.marketwatch.com
www.kitcometals.com
www.bloomberg.com/news

I'll then open my charting program (FCharts Pro) and run a few scans, with a bias towards overnight action. For example if U.S markets were looking toppy, I might focus more on looking for shorting opportunities. Or if gold was very strong, I'll make sure to pay particular attention to goldies. I will particularly look for stocks in hot sectors that haven't ran hard yet.

The 2 primary scans I use are a simple Price and Volume increase scan, and one looking for potential swings in trending stocks. I also look at every individual chart in the ASX300 if I have time.

From these scans I will start setting up watch lists, and set alerts at prices of interest...primarily support and resistance figures. I will often set well in advance of 50 alerts each morning.

I then have 3 trading platforms that I rely on during market hours:

1/ Spark
Spark is an excellent piece of platform software. A couple of features that stand it out from the crowd are a unique graphical presentation of market depth, and a very very handy feature called "Smart lists". Smart lists allow me to scan and sort the market in real time for market movers over specific time periods, search for stocks with unusually high volume, and much more. Many of my intraday day trading opportunities are sourced from Spark. I run Spark across 2 monitors.

2/ ETrade Pro
Although I rarely trade through ETrade, I have used this platform since the old TD Waterhouse days. I know it intimately, I like the charts, and the watchlists have a very useful feature where the user can set how long price change highlights take to fade from screen. What this basically means for me is that I can still pick up price movements across my 6 monitor ETrade set up, over a minute or two after the actual price action. This is a very handy feature if you are watching large amounts of stock at once as I do.

3/ WebIress
WebIress is the platform where I actually place my trades through my CFD provider - FP Markets. The software is nothing special, but it is pretty stable, which is extremely important, and it does have a few cool features.

Throughout the day I'll also keep an eye on U.S Futures and also Asian Markets, particularly when they re open in the afternoon.

As alerts trigger throughout the day, or stocks on watch hit potential entry levels, I will move them to my "close watch" lists, and take positions from there. When I can I will Twitter stocks that have sparked my interest, some of these I'll take positions in, but not all, as many of the set ups don't kick on as I'd like.

Add to this; Email, Excel, the odd forum, and Messenger and you might get an idea of how hard my PC works during the day!

Here's a pic of my trading desk...it's usually tidier than that though....really! :)!

Daily Trade Focus Video 30Sept10

Tonight's video online now.



Remember to select the HD option in the resolution drop down list if the charts are a little blurry.

Alan

charts for the day

Thanks for a couple of great videos Al.. I think many will find them extremely valuable and give a real good insight into your style.

Below are a few charts..I'm currently moving house, so things are a little hectic at the moment.

Metagasco (MEL)



Greenland Min (GGG)



Lycopodium Limited (LYL)



Sorry there are only a few, however will try to get a few more up a little later.

Good luck today

Cheers
Kevi

Daily Trade Focus Video 29Sept10

Here's tonight's video:

Just 4 stocks covered tonight...another ASX short position, and 3 spec plays in AVB, CMY and RXL.



I have been asked by a reader how I find potential trades. I'll try to post a run down of my daily preparation and set up in the next day or so.

Alan

Daily Trade Focus Video 28Sept10

OK here's a look at a few trades from today.

In tonight's video I have included trades in PEK, WHC, AAX, and also a couple of ASX short scalps. I also touch on a few Rare Earths plays.



It's a tad long, almost 15 minutes! I'll try to keep them down a little in future lol!

Alan

Kevi's morning thoughts

Morning all and thanks Al for the video last night!

Running scans last night was fairly enocuring, with a decent number of stocks showing bullish signals. I will first show you a version of the XJO which I think can't be ignored...Yesterday we saw a test of the major downtrend from the all time highs back in 2007. Can it break it? sure it can, but will it see a bullback before the retest...



Anyway, see below some of the stock charts that I liked the look of.

Leighton Holdings (LEI)



Nobel Mineral (NMG)


Sundance Energy (SEA)


Aditya Birla (ABY)


Globe Metals (GBE)


Panoramic Resources (PAN)


Good luck today all

Cheers
Kevi

Video blog...Daily Wrap

Thanks in part to the positive feedback I got from the last video, I've decided I will try to find the time to do a daily video giving a bit of a run down on some of the more interesting trades of the day.

In this video I have included an ASX short scalp, a MEL "wall breaker" play, a couple of range/res break outs in NCR and WDS, and a failed intraday swing trade on BOW.



Video is best viewed in full screen mode.

Your feedback and/or questions are always welcome!

Alan

Dealing with trading stress and anxiety

Well, I'm back on board after a refreshing week away from the markets. We had a fantastic time snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and then a few relaxing days in the beautiful Daintree Rainforest.



I'm feeling far from stressed right now...the holiday has left me mentally fresh and ready to attack the market once again. I felt like I was still trading pretty well in the zone before I left, so I probably didn't really need the break, but hopefully I'll be better off for it anyway. In the past I probably haven't taken enough breaks from trading, especially when I was losing my edge...and trading when not mentally or emotionally "healthy" is a very dangerous thing in my opinion

I made a post here and on a public forum a few months ago in response to a question regarding trading stress. It was part of the blog that I accidentally deleted recently, so I thought I'd rehash it here:

For me the psychological and emotional side of trading is paramount...something I probably spend as much time on improving now as the technical and systematical side of trading.

I've been trading for a living full time now for around 8 years and for a few before that part time, and I'm sure during that time I've pretty much ridden all of the emotional roller coasters that trading can send you on. There's been times that just felt too easy, and others where nothing I did seemed to work and I questioned my ability to trade.

The stress that comes from trading though seems nothing to me compared with the prospect of a "real job", dealing with real customers, real bosses and real co workers. I control my stress, no one else. I can embrace it and learn from it when I want, and I can walk away from it and sit by the pool, or attack the punching bag until it subsides.

I also try to trade in a manner that keeps that stress to a manageable level. I trade a lot...I'm talking 20+ positions at a time, and often over 100 transactions in a session. To me this feels manageable...I like the hectic nature of my day, but that doesn't mean it's how anyone else should trade. If you don't feel comfortable with more than 1 or 2 positions at once, then that is right for YOU.

I try not to take position sizes that are so large that they trigger that stress attack. Similarly I try to keep my overnight exposure long or short, within my boundaries of acceptability.

I sleep like a baby at night (and I don't mean I wake up 3 or 4 times crying!). If you're unable to sleep at night, fretting over what the U.S will do, checking the market on your IPhone every 15 minutes, then chances are you are too heavily invested. OK I admit, I "might" check the DOW at 3am if I happen to wake up for a toilet stop, but I guarantee no matter what it tells me I'll be asleep again in seconds. Believe me though it wasn't always that way...I definitely learnt from my mistakes there!

The difference between my trading now, and when I started full time, is that I can now start to recognise when I'm falling into the habits that destroy my discipline and my profits, and cause me that anxiety. The longer I trade, and the longer I practice, the quicker I recognise the signals that the wheels are threatening to fall off. I then make a concious effort to get back to basics. This may include reducing the frequency of trades I make, sticking more tightly to my ideal trading set ups, and concentrating on being ultra disciplined. I may also start trading smaller position sizes when I do trade.

I focus on the process not the outcome, knowing that if I do so, the result will eventually look after itself.