The Ticker
I guess we all have our addictions/obsessions. Mine is the ticker tape for trading the stock market.
It's hypnotic, it's exciting, it's heartbreaking, too. You can never pick the absolute tops or the bottoms of stocks. The trick is to "know when to hold 'em and know when to 'fold em". You can't trade with fear, greed, or hope. A little luck does help and intuition :) (i.e., research)
Stocks were traded in fractions when I first started learning to trade and only the symbol for the stock was displayed - "MSFT". They switched to the decimal system in the Spring of 2001 and just last year, CNBC added the company name in addition to the stock symbol to the ticker - "Microsoft (MSFT)". It's so much more user friendly now for beginners and those of us that don't want to look up the symbols to find out the company name OR calculate in fractions. For awhile, CNBC's ticker tape didn't show the volume and that was awful. I really depend on the volume of trading to determine where the action is. Now, CNBC's ticker displays the volume of shares currently trading, again. It's like the pulse of the world market. I remember when the market reopened on September 17, 2001. Blinking Blood Red.
On my computer I have a full screen of streaming real time tickers for my selected stocks. It is totally fascinating (for me) to watch the bid and ask and volume of each exchange - all those flickering red/green lights. Yes, I am a small pototoe stock market junkie. I stay in touch with that ticker tape Monday through Friday for many years now. Even in a restaurant, I ask if they'll change the channel to 28. I don't need the volume, just the ticker streaming by. Of course, I like to pick the places to eat breakfast or lunch that let me watch CNBC. You'd be surprised how accommodating Tico folks are here. My dream was to live in Costa Rica and trade the market for a living.
I'm still learning to trade while I'm living the dream.
6 comments:
do you have by any chance a 'for dummies' link where someone could read for instance what does bid price/bid size is
Click onto highlighted words in my post and it will take you to explanations for the ticker tape and what all that stuff means.
If you need more help, just write me: hermosaparadise@yahoo.com
I think they have simplified trading for everyday folks BUT they still want to keep some mystic - it weeds out those not willing to learn the tools. I read everything on trading for two years before coming to CR. I'm still a novice and I've been trading on my own for 7 years now.
Well, I did it. I bought some options contracts on Garmin. Three put Options to be exact. I haven't traded in options for almost five years. It's risky business here where the electric comes and goes at will. A couple of weeks ago, I had shorted the Garmin stock and I got really nervous (unlimited liability) so, on the first dip, I covered my short. I'm glad I did cause GRMN bounced up again (52 wk high). I know it has to pull back a little and then I'll sell my puts and buy more Garmin. I love trading Garmin. It moves.
Check out this site to answer your question about bid and ask:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bid-askspread.asp
If you show me yours I'll show you mine ;-) Help me learn about trading and I'll help set up your blog for Adsense. What say you?
I love trade talk and would do it for nothing. Where ya want to start?
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