JWBK169-Lien July 3, 2007 13:56
Man Versus MachineQ:Evenifyouhada$5K by 11a.m.you wouldn’t stop?
A: No, never because if there is opportunity to make more, that’s
what I am there for.Q: Have you ever had a situation where you were up by$5K at
11 a.m.and back to$0K at 3p.m., where you gave it all back?A: No. Not after my learning phase. Usually I will trade more con-
servatively if I am up. I will try to trade only much higher percent-
age setups, smaller share size. Just trying to pad what I already have.Q: What do you consider to be a great day to make money? High
volatility? Big ranges?A: It depends. Sometime the stock will move but I can’t figure it
out. I have no edge. I don’t know who is buying and I really don’t
know what going on. But if the stock moves and the clues are there,
I see bids, and they cancel offers. A lot of times what will happen
is that the market maker will come in and will hold the price up
even if the market is going down. And he will do it for a couple of
days. When I see that, I buy them with him on every pullback. He
may do that for three or four days in a row. If I can identify that
early I can get with him and make money.
Sometimes guys will hold the stock in very small range on the
bid and the offer and I can’t make any money, but a lot of times
there may be a buyer at 15 and a seller at 70, and I’ll try to trade
that in between all day long. As long as I can identify who the
buyers and sellers are, I can make money. But if the stock goes
straight up and the market is flying, it doesn’t necessarily mean I
can make money because I have no clue what’s going on.Q: You may actually stand down then, even if there is move-
ment just because you don’t understand the reason behind the
directionality?A: Exactly. Let’s say they took out a big level. Say they took out all
the evens. But if I don’t know who the buyer is, I don’t necessarily