"Ask Ken" - Trader Q&A

[Ken]

Hi Jimmy, great question; if by the "force" of a support/resistance level you mean, how well will it hold it, it's based on many factors... the most important is the tape reading pattern as it nears prior s/r levels (for example, 2-day high/lows, 25-day high/lows, 52 wk high/lows).

Next I look at specific market internal signals, because for example if the market's selling down hard, -1.4% from the open at 10:15am for example and taking out new 2 day lows, then I will look at the TRIN, the sector percent change from open that the stock's in, and other realtime data points, to make a "trade/no trade" decision, in realtime.

The best way to learn is to attend http://www.TradeMastery.com this March 23-24 in Vegas...

-Ken

[Vitez]

Hi Ken,

In your previous material you suggest using naz composite with naz futures.
In your latest videos you suggest using naz composite with ETFs.

So my question is does the futures method still work? If you had to choose only one besides compq, ETFs or the futures which one would it be?

[Ken]

Hi Vitez, great question - I continue to use both sets of indicators, specifically:

a) NASDAQ premarket futures ($QMI) and S&P futures ("spoos"()

b) Premarket ETF patterns

I describe how to use these at my live www.TradeMastery.com seminars; they're a superb set of premarket indicators to see how aggressively to trade each morning.

Ken

[dcom]

hello !
im no active trader yet but im looking into it and trying to learn things !
i saw several posts about interactive brokers here and asked myself if the software they offer (trading workstation) is any good for daytrading ! there is a demo on the website which i tried and so far it looks ok to me ! the good thing about it is that u can papertrade with the software and a special account - so its more close to the real trades which u later might wanna do !
so if anyone ever used it - i appreciate any response about the good and bad sides about it !

and another thing - i read somewhere that at least 25k € is required for daytrading ! does that also count for beginners who just started ? it sounds quite alot to me as beginner to start with such values ! and with what kind of values did u start ?

[Ken]

I'm very satisfied with IB, I personally use it for my daytrading. And there's information on various brokerage sites regarding reg T and the 25K rule, pages and pages of it... google "25K rule" for more... good questions.

-k

[dcom]

hi ken !
i got some other questions that im a bit confused about !
how are ur suggested 2day high/low and consolidation breakout tactics?
and do u trade stocks that gapped up/down cause of earning reports ?
and what kind of order types do u use for entry/exit (limit,market...) ?
and would u suggest nyse or nasday for beginners ?
and how important is premarket volume for u ?
and did u ever post a screen of ur monitor setup somewhere ?
and (this might sound a bit stupid - sry but im not from the us) - im looking for a list that shows me all the stocks that are listed in each sector (sox,gin,gha etc...) - searched on nasdaq.com but couldnt find any list .. nowhere :S!
sry for all that questions at once ...

[Ken]

Hi - good questions.

I use 2d high/low daily for my winning trades.
Yes I trade gaps.
I use both market and limit for entries, depending on the spread of the stock, and market exits.
Both NASDAQ/NYSE stocks are ones I trade.
Premarket volume is important, I cover specifics in my courses.
Here's a screencap of 2 widescreen monitors:
http://dtu1.com/2monitors.gif
See "Industry" listings at bigcharts.com for what stocks are in what sectors.

-Ken

[dcom]

thx for answering !
but one thing i still dont really get ... i always see you naming that different sectors i mentioned before (sox,gin,gha,gso,nbi...) ! so i tried to find the stocks that are listed in that special sectors but i couldnt so i wonder where do you get the stocks that are listed? do you select them yourself or do you pick that sectors cause they are available in your trading platform ?

[Ken]

Hi - I manually take many hours of work to look up stocks in sectors via lists, for example here:
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/ind...ind_period=3mo

Also please spell "you" correctly (not "u") and "your" (not "ur").

For example banks are here:
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/ind...ind_sid=171501


Thanks,

Ken

[Vitez]

Hi Ken,

You trading style has obviously changed and based on what I've seen on your webinnars you hold your daytrades over night and you enter as much as 50 stocks so you don't really need to check if the nasdaq is making a 2D breakout at the same time as those stocks, right?