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Every day trader has their own way of doing business. Some will focus on low volatility stocks and hold large positions. Others will gravitate to the high flyers and use less money. Regardless where you are in your trading career, odds are you have been attracted to the news worthy stocks of the day. Call it human nature, we naturally gravitate to the things in life that create the much desired adrenaline rush or things that make us challenge the natural order of things. Since you are a trader, odds are when your parents told you the stove was hot, you still had to touch the burner. When your close family and friends told you trading was for gamblers, it went in one ear and out the other. So, since I have psychoanalyzed you and we are all on the same page, let's get back to how Tradingsim can help you find the high flyers of the day.
When you login to the application you will see a scrolling ticker directly in the center of the screen (Note: as we advance the site, the look and feel may change, but the concept will remain the same. Tradingsim will provide you the means to locate the most volatile issues of the day). The market screener scrolls from side-to-side in alphabetical order. As of 4/25/2010 the list is updated nightly between 10-12pm EST.
Selection Criteria for Market Movers
The market movers are chosen by looking for the highest volume stocks with the most volatility. So, while Google or Apple may have heavy daily volume, if they only trade in a 1% range for the day, they will not make the list. Also, if you are looking for 25 cent stocks, you will not find them in the market movers list as well. Below is the current selection criteria for the market movers list as of 4/25/2010.
Selecting a Market Mover
Using the market movers functionality is as simple as it comes. As you see the symbols scrolling back and forth, you simply scroll over the stock and click it with your mouse. You will be able to tell you have properly scrolled over the stock because the symbol will be highlighted and a small mouseover will appear that says "Trade". Once you click the stock it will automatically load on the chart and in the orders tab.
Summary
So to sum it all up, using the market movers ticker is an easy way to check out the high flying stocks of the day. You can make this apart of your daily routine in addition to trading your favorite issues.
Extending users the ability to modify this selection criteria is something we are contemplating. If it is something you want to see, please let us know by dropping a comment or emailing us at feedback@tradingsim.com
Throught the Years - Stories of Success, Win and Loss in the Stock Market
People who look for easy money invariably pay for the privilege of proving conclusively that it cannot be found on this earth. This is one of the most fundamental rules of stock market success. We would like to introduce our readers to the stories of three of the most prominent figures in the stock market of all time, starting with the early days of the 19th century and ending with a contemporary stock market entrepreneur. These are all stories about fabulous wealth, risk taking, intelligence and competitive spirit.
1. Jesse Livermore - Probably the Greatest Stock Trader who Ever Lived
Jesse L. Livermore is a legendary stock trader and one of the success models that helped with the development and popularization of stock trading as a whole. He was nicknamed "boy plunger" at an early age due to his aggressive risk taking through large stock trades. His claim to fame was amassing fortunes on Wall Street during the crash of 1929. Even through all his successes trading the stock market, Livermore was unfortunately also known to have a difficult time maintaining personal relationships and ultimately lost his entire fortune.
Success formula
His career was impressive and fascinating; he started off as a board boy in the gambling industry only to end up becoming Wall Street's most influential trader fifteen years later. By the age of 15, Jesse Livermore had already made $1000 (a rather important amount of money for 1890) by investing in the stock market solely through hunches and assumptions.
Livermore is widely known to have made no less than $3,000,000 in one day during the financial market meltdown of October 1929, crashing the market into oblivion by short-selling stocks.
What happened to his fortune:
Enjoying a very lavish lifestyle and reportedly being very unstable both mentally and professionally, Jesse Livermore had in fact gone bankrupt and broke three times in his career. He made an immense fortune right before the great depression, but also lost money with ease. He owned several mansions around the world, fully staffed with servants and a fleet of limousines and he was quick to renounce his life partners for new women he met. In a moment of despair and depression, he shot himself dead in a hotel room in Manhattan. He left behind $5,000,000 worth of cash, assets and stock and a good bye note addressed to his third and last wife. Ironically, she herself had married four times before to husbands who all committed suicide.
Jesse Livermore in figures:
$100 million - Jesse Livermore was worth that amount of money at the peak of his career in 1929. In today's money that would be close to $13.7 billion; 3 - of his direct descendants (daughter, son and grandchild) ended their lives prematurely in poisonous gas suicides; 14 - the genius investor left his father's household and got his very first job at that age.
2. Nicolas Darvas - Professional Dancer and Self-Taught Investor
One of the most prominent and controversial figures of the stock market trading scene in the 1950s, Nicolas Darvas and his story are a referential point in the history of this business. Starting off as a world-famous dancer, he ended up making a seven figure fortune in a matter of years, being the center of attention for publications like Time Magazine.
Success formula
Nicolas Darvas was often described as unusually ambitious and strong-willed so although he started off ignorant, but he made sure he didn't stay that way. Before he ever invested any money into the stock market, he spent his years on the road from one dancing gig to another reading and researching the various aspects of the business. Later on, when he started investing, he would gather all the available information on the company who's shares he was about to buy or sell. His famous and innovative stock selection method was called the BOX theory. He considered a stock price wave as a series of boxes and waited at the time when the stock price was "confined" in a box and only bought when the price rose out of the box. He simultaneously set a stop-loss just under this trade price. Recommended read: the original 1960 Time article about Nicolas Darvas.
What happened to his fortune:
Towards the end of his amazing life as a stock market trader, Nicolas Darvas invested in other fields, such as the fashion industry and real estate, which in the early 1970s was a very wise thing to do. He died a rich man in 1977,after retaining and increasing his wealth in both stock trading and other business ventures.
Nicolas Darvas in figures:
23 - was the age when Nicolas Darvas fled communist Hungary with a fake visa and went on to become a successful dancer; $2,450,000.00 - the amount of money he made in 18 months starting in 1957 with a $10,000 investment; 5 - is the number of specialty advice books he wrote between 1960 and 1977 (the year of his death), making him not only a very successful trader, but one of the most sought after authors in the stock market business.
3. Richard Dennis - Back from the Bottom of the Pit
A man of his own trading style, Richard Dennis is a modern superstar on the stock market scene. His stories of success and failure have been followed closely by millions of people interested in the stock market and his legendary accomplishments have earned him a spot in the trading hall of fame. His rather scholarly and scientific way of working the market has turned into innovative projects like the turtles, a group of young investors working together, making and controlling millions.
Success formula
Starting off with $1,600 of borrowed money, he turned that amount into a whopping $200,000,000 in a matter of ten years. However, he reportedly lost much more than that when he started trading with his clients' money; the financial and emotional pain forced him to retire for several years.
In 1996 he came back to the stock market and commodity trading business with a new approach, using complicated computer programs and databases and making predictions and investments based on odds; instead of thoughts, theories and impulses. He's also famous for believing that it doesn't take exceptional talent to succeed in the business, but rather proper training and discipline, a point he proved in every possible aspect by selecting two groups of people called the Turtles and teaching them the system. It turned out that his learners could turn one million into several in a matter of years.
What happened to his fortune:
Like most people at the top of the trading business, Dennis has made and lost considerable fortunes. He's been known to support unpopular causes like marijuana legalization and has declared that he has given away a little over $30 million in supporting violence victims shelters and political campaigns. The amount of money he controls nowadays is below the $100 million mark.
Richard Dennis in figures:
$8 million - the amount of money Richard Dennis lost in one day as a consequence of a bad decision; 111% - was the profit that Richard Dennis turned for his investments in 1996, making him the top performing investment advisor at the time; $400 - was the initial amount of money Richard Dennis had available for his first trades.
So there you have it. Stock market success is not exactly winning the lottery, although it's obvious that a fair amount of luck is required. But training, determination and skills are crucial for success. Many people that get into this business nowadays use computer software that specializes in market statistics, analysis and predictions. Perhaps a good way to practice trading the market is heading over to TradingSim, a very informative and modern NASDAQ trading tool. Our success stories have only proven that raising fabulous wealth is a possibility for anyone.
October 9, 2007 marked the top in the market. Taking that high and counting the days to the next low and then taking a 38.2 of those days and adding the days out to the future have found important turns days in the market plus or minus two days. We have marked on the chart those turn dates. From the October 2007 high to the March 2009 low took 355 days. Taking 38.2% of 355 comes in 136 day and add that to the March low projects out to 9/18 (last Friday for a turn date). From the March low to the July low took 86 days and 61.8% of 86 day is 53 days and add 53 to 86 projects a turn date of 9/24, this coming Thursday. The SPY is at gap resistance (107 to 109 on SPY) and there are Fibonacci turns dates starting from 9/18 to 9/24 plus or minus two days. This week could be an important week. We are short the SPX at 883.92.
An Elliott Wave five count down to the March low shows the bigger trend is down. The direction of the true trend goes in an Elliott Wave five count and consolidation goes in a ABC (or three count). Currently XLF is working on the ABC consolidation up and once completed should start the next impulse wave down. The ABC count up is taking the form on a bearish “Rising Wedge”. We have identified two previous “Rising Wedge” pattern, one in 2007 and the other in 2008. “Rising Wedge” have minimum downside targets to where they began and therefore it appear the March low of 2009 will be visited again. However, “Rising Wedges” can go much lower then the previous low like the ones in 2007 and 2008. First support come in near 11 on XLF and next support down is the March low near 6 and beyond that who knows. The “C” leg should end near current levels. We are short the XLF today at 14.30.
Below is the Bullish Percent index for The Gold Miners index. Reliable tops in the Gold Miners have formed when the RSI reaches above 70 and turns down and with the Bullish Percent index has a bearish crossover of it’s 10 Moving average. This conditions was triggered yesterday. This potential pull back could push GDX down to the apex of the Triangle (near 40 on GDX) it broke out of in early September. We will look for a buy signal in GDX on the next pull back which could come in near 40 and at 960 on gold. We are very bullish on the bigger timeframes for Gold stocks and we will keep our core positions. Bought GLD on 4/24/09 Sold 8/14/09 at 93.78 gain 5.4%.
