Focus On The Future

Some
days, we intraday traders must simply step aside and
tip our hat to the investors and swing traders. Such was obviously
the case this morning, as the Qs jumped 2 full points after hours
on the
(
YHOO |
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PowerRating),
(
MOT |
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PowerRating), and the rather strangely timed
(
MSFT |
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earnings announcements.

Yet while one of the
challenges daytraders have is not being able to take advantage of
nice pre- or post-market moves, I’ll never
hold a trading position on which I can’t keep a tight stop (which
is impossible with overnights), and I sleep very well every night
knowing my trading account is safely in cash and that the store
will simply reopen in the morning.

Which brings us to a common nemesis for many traders: the nagging
feeling of perceived opportunity loss which for some can be more
painful than real financial loss. I’ve already had numerous
discussions last night and this morning with traders kicking
themselves for missing last night’s move. Missed
a big move? At the risk of bringing out the old soapbox which I’ve
been known to do from time to time … forget about it gang. 

The market will always
be moving and the larger the move missed, the greater the
opportunity to align oneself with a new trend on higher
probability pullbacks or position for a reversal or oscillation.
If you’re beating yourself up over would’ves and could’ves, it’s a
complete waste of energy. Focus on the future, because that’s the
only timeframe where profit opportunity lies.
(Strange that I never get calls on
missing those massive overnight gaps down.)

Anyway, as far as this morning goes, as of this writing, this
normally high-volume trader has made but a handful of “test
the water” trades good for a burger and fries (no drink), as
I wait for more normal market rhythms to prevail.

Chart
Settings

In response to numerous
questions on my chart settings, here’s the setup at this end. Keep
in mind each study is duplicated on all timeframes with the exact
same settings.

Moving Averages

Bollinger Bands

This is a bit more complex
as settings options seem to vary from platform to platform. At
this end I use two charting platforms. On the charts which you see
in my columns, vendor settings are %K length 15, %K smoothing 3,
and %D smoothing 5. On my direct access broker’s platform, it’s
%D: (%K length 15, %D interval 3), and % D Slow: (%K length 15, %D
interval 5, %D-Slow interval 2). Since I only reference one of the
stochastic lines (%K) and don’t use stochastic crossovers like
some do, the important elements are basically 15 period with a 3
(and 5 for the second line) interval settings.

Don Miller