Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Power of Now and using a new highs/lows ticker

Instead of worrying about what the future holds or being affected by what the past did to you, a trader will find it useful and beneficial to always operate as close to the now moment as possible.
As a day trader I would not be very effective if I looked at a bunch of charts the night before and read pages of commentary about which way the markets are headed. The time spent doing that is much more valuable to me to sit in quiet reflection and examine my inner self and prepare for anything to happen at anytime. This is living in the now moment.
War could break out or peace could break out. A new drug to cure everything is discovered or dandelion juice could be discovered to cure everything. An important world leader could get assassinated or politicians could be declared unnecessary. How could you know all of those things. You can't. How can you prepare for all those things. You can and easily too. There are usually two sides to every story and it pays to be ready with the mental acuity in order to be flexible and take whatever that comes. Thinking that you know what the markets will do and holding fast to that idea while the markets are playing out some other way will lead to disaster.
To get into the now moment I use what is called a hitting new highs and lows ticker. It scrolls in realtime so I don't have to use future thought or rely on conjecture to wonder what will happen. I can see in realtime as any stock is making new highs or lows as it happens. This gives me a huge advantage and jump over traders who have some preconceived notion in their minds on what a particular stock will. I can see it. I can act on it in either direction if it continues to rise or falters.
To see my indicator in action click here http://www.vimeo.com/9220589
Your eye can get quickly trained to see blocks of a stock making new highs or in this case lows. I have this linked so that if I click on any symbol, the charts for that symbol come up. I then check volume and the spread. If it is suitable, then I can enter it at that moment.
Virtually all of my trades come this way to me. For instance if a stock is trending higher making new highs, then pulls back, I can set an alarm just under the previous high so that I am notified that it may break out again, or not, if it is exhausted.
Having your mindset in the now opens you up to accept what is happening in front of your eyes. You can discard the being right or being wrong in prognosticating the market and all the mental tricks that will play on your psyche. The now and momentum can be your greatest ally.

2 comments:

joshua said...

scott, when the the ticker is streaming red or green, do you already have positions on and are unloading into the momo, or do you get on once it starts streaming and ride it like a wave?

Scott said...

J- Well both actually. If I was paying attention I would have gotten in before the market really starts to whiz by. The advance scouting party of momentum shows up before the main movement does. Some new highs or lows to pique my interest and say to me, mmmm what going on here? And the more they do that the clearer the picture becomes. Stocks can go up or down rapidly without the market as well.
Its those new highs or lows made in secession that initially alert me.