Day Trade Online

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Preface xiii Acknowledgments xix Introduction 1 Section I The World of the Day Trader 5 Chapter 1. Exploiting the Excesses of Capitalism 7 The House Edge 9 The Bid-Ask Spread 11 Section II Introduction to Day Trading 17 Chapter 2. Trading 101: Buying on Bad News and Selling on Good News 19 The Mind-set of an Online Day Trader 19 A Buyer When the Market Needs Buyers 20 Hit Singles, Not Home Runs 20 Brokerage Commissions Can Destroy Profits 21 Buy in on Fear, Sell in on Greed 22 The Slow Execution 23 Is the NYSE an Easier Market to Trade? 24 Section III How to Beat Wall Street at Its Own Game 25 Chapter 3. Exploiting Wall Street’s Conflict of Interest: Market Orders versus Limit Orders 27 Understanding Wall Street’s Conflict of Interest 27 Price Makers versus Price Takers 29 The Bargaining Process 30 Price Negotiation—Market versus Limit Orders 32 Wall Street’s Prey 34 Prelude to the Bid-Ask Spread 35 Chapter 4. The Day Trader’s Crystal Ball: Understanding the Bid-Ask Spread 37 A Snapshot of a Moving Picture 37 The Mechanics of Price Movement—Understanding What Makes a Stock Move Higher 39 Example 1: The Quote—Snapshot of a Moving Picture 41 Example 2: The Market Order to Sell—Hitting the Bid 46 Example 3: The Market Order to Buy—Lifting the Offer 48 Example 4: The Limit Order to Buy—Bidding for Stock 50 Day Orders versus Good-until-Canceled (GTC) Orders 52 Example 5: The Limit Order to Sell—Offering Stock 54 Haggling Over Nickels and Dimes 56 Example 6: Moving the Stock Higher 57 Chapter 5. The Role of the Specialist on the New York Stock Exchange 61 Using the Specialist System to Your Advantage 64 What If There Were No NYSE Specialist? 66 Buyer of Last Resort 67 Is the Profit the Specialist Makes Justified? 68 A License to Steal? 68 The Specialist’s Limit Order Book 69 Being on Both Sides of the Market 71 Narrowing the Bid-Ask Spread 72 Wide Spreads Protect the Specialist from Volatility 73 Handling a Large Sell Order 74 The Real Intentions of the Specialists 77 Beware When the Specialist Takes the Other Side of Your Trade 77 The Day Trader as a Shadow Specialist 78 The NYSE’s Fair Order Handling Rules 80 Never Reveal Your Hand 85 How Can You Determine Where the Specialist Lurks in the Stock? 85 Jockeying for Position 87 How Do You Know Where You Stand in Line? 89 When in Doubt, Ask the NYSE Floor 89 Tipping the Odds in Your Favor 92 Beware of the Specialist 93 Section IV Introduction to Scalping The NYSE: Taking Food Out of the Specialist’s Mouth 95 Chapter 6. The Day Trader’s Secret Weapon: Exploiting the Bid-Ask Spread 97 How Can You Make Money Trading Stocks that Don’t Move? 98 The Role of the Scalper 99 Hit Singles, Not Home Runs 100 Operating under the Radar 100 Avoiding the Glamour Stocks 102 Exploiting the Bid-Ask Spread 103 Finding the Trade’s Sweet Spot 103 Simplifying a Complex Process 104 Other Moving Parts to This Trade 105 A Bet with the House? 109 Too Much Work for Only $100 in Gross Profits? 110 A Few Words on Risk 110 Section V Trading The Market’s Momentum: How to Profit from Volatility 113 Chapter 7. Exploiting Market Volatility and Momentum: Strategies for Trading Volatile Stocks 115 The Specialist and the Upper Hand 116 Playing the Gap Open—A Strategy for Betting with the House 117 Buying on Bad News 118 Betting on the Specialist 119 Parameters of the Gap-Opening Trade 122 How to Tell If the Opening Trade Will “Clear” the Specialist’s Limit Order Book 124 Selling before the Second Wave 125 Trading Tick for Tick with the Market Indexes 127 Why Limit Orders Don’t Work in a Rally 127 Using the S&P Futures to Gauge the Sustainability of a Rally 129 Lightning-Fast Market Upsurge: How Offers Vanish in the Vapor Trail 129 Stock for Sale Becoming Scarce 130 Nasdaq and the Role of the Market Makers 131 A Few Words on Short Selling 135 Two Methods for Day Trading Nasdaq Stocks 136 The Apple Computer Trade 139 Buying Strong Stocks on Pullbacks 140 Opening the Stock Abnormally High 141 The Dangers of Buying a Strong Stock on the Opening Trade 141 Inflicting Heavy Damage on the Market Makers by Attacking Their Vulnerability 142 Chapter 8. The Day Trader’s Ticket to the Poorhouse: How I Managed to Lose $12,000 in Less than 24 Hours 145 The Pain of Missing a Trade 147 How Could the Stock Go Any Lower? 147 The Terrifying Feeling of Getting Caught in a Downdraft 148 A Feeling of Irresistible Greed 148 The Need to Break Even 150 Buying the Stock for the Third Time 151 Feeling of Devastation Leads to Useful Insights 152 Learning from the Mistake and Moving On 156 Can the Quoted Market Always Be Trusted? 156 A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted 159 Appendix A. The Day Trader’s Arsenal: Online Brokers, Trade Commissions, Real-Time Quote Systems, and the Home Office 161 Choosing an Online Broker 161 Negotiate the Best Possible Commission Rate 163 Make Sure that the Broker Can Route Directly to the NYSE 163 Per-Share versus Per-Trade Commission Rates 164 Setting up at Least Two Accounts 164 System Crashes and the Late Fill 165 Customer Service, Back-Office Problems, and Trade Discrepancies 167 The Remedy—Keep Good Trading Records 167 The Home Office and the Virtual Trading Floor 169 Appendix B. Considerations for Trading for a Living: The Allocation of Trading Capital, the Pattern Day Trader Rule, Using Margin and Trading Part-Time vs. Full-Time 173 Allocation of Trading Capital 174 The Pattern Day Trader Rule 177 Trading on Margin 177 Margin Calls 178 Part-Time versus Full-Time Trading 179 Index 183