Frequently-Asked Trader Questions About Daytrading University:

Q: How do I set up my monitors for trading?
Here's sample screencaps of my personal eSignal primary trading monitor for each of several different types of trading:

Swing and day trading stocks and ETFs? http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com/StocksETFs.gif

Related courses: StockTradingSuccess.com, ETFMastery.com, BreakoutMastery.com


Day trading e-minis (ES)? http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com/EminisES.gif

Related courses: EminiInferno.com, EminiUniversity.com


Trading Forex? http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com/Forex.gif

Related courses: ForexFirepower.com

Q: What stocks are you currently following and/or trading?
Here's a quotebox (eSignal format) of my current watchlist for learning from:
http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com/CurrentWatchlist15June2012.quo

These are not trading recommendations; do not buy nor sell stocks based on what's
in this list; I'm providing this as an educational resource to learn from. I will be posting
watchlists and workstation layouts for other charting platforms starting early 2013 as well.

Q: Ken, I Have This Trading Problem (....) Can Your Course Help Me?  What
Should I Do? How Can I Stop Making Mistakes In My Trades?  Which of
Your Courses or Videos Is Best For Me?  How Can I (...) In My Trading?
What chart software should I use? How does this indicator work? What broker
should I use? How do I set up my software for trading? How long will it take for
me to become a successful active trader?  etc..

Since I'm not a registered investment advisor, I cannot (by law) answer individual questions
regarding suitability of which course(s) are best for you personally. Even if I had time to answer
the staggering volume of questions I get via email each week, I simply cannot do that.
It's not that I don't want to help each of you who writes in; however I must remain fully
compliant with SEC regulations and therefore CANNOT answer individual traders'
questions for these matters. You can see plenty of preview videos on the sites that you
can review to help you see the quality and content professionalism of what I offer.   

The good news: I address common trading related questions I get in my videos, online
course, and in the many trading webinars I offer; so there are questions to commonly-asked
trading situations (eg "how can I use close stops without getting "shaken out"? etc).

The only types of questions I can answer are related to content and delivery of the instructional
materials provided by the site (eg "what's covered in your __ DVD? Is there a lot of overlap
between DVD __ and DVD __? (the answer to that is no, all my materials are designed to
cover new techniques, with little or no overlap)... etc. 
 
 
Q: How do I access your webinars? What software do you use?

Each webinar is conducted with the GotoWebinar service. You'll need a PC or Mac, speakers and a good internet connection. For hardware requirements, visit: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/m/join_gotomeetingFAQ.tmpl and refer to the help there. There's also help here, at: http://support.gotomeeting.com for reference.
 

Q: Do you offer any discounts, or sales? What if I've taken other courses of yours?
Because our pricing is already an exceptional value, and priced much lower than competitors (many of whom charge $2500 - $5K and more for trading education), we do not offer any discounts. When we launch a new trading series, it's typically offered with a time-limited "early-bird" special price, however, which has a deadline. That's why it's a good idea to stay on the email list, so you can learn about these exclusive new-course launch specials. All courses, webinar series, seminars and services are sold separately, and all sales are final.

We do offer discounts on re-takes of the same course, however.

Retaking courses -- save on your second year:
I do offer modest discounts if you want to take a new year of training for a specific course that you'd taken in a prior year, to re-take the same course, with new examples and new webinars that I cover in the current year. For example if you'd been a member of ETF Mastery in 2011 and want to renew/retake new ETF Mastery webinars with me in 2013, I can offer a discount off for a renewal/returning member, for continued new webinars in that same course series you originally registered for (not for a different course).

Contact me for details using your original email that you placed an order for, to ask about a renewal rate. For example, your email would say something like "Ken I was an ETF Mastery system owner in 2011 (here's my order number...) and my webinars were from March 2011 through September 2012; here in 2013 I'd like to renew for access in 2013 since I liked the training, how much is it for me to get access to this year's ETF Mastery webinars?".


Q: Can I see preview video clips of your DVDs and courses before buying?

Of course! You can see generous preview video clips of every single one of our courses on
my sites before buying, because I want to you see for yourself why this training has been so popular
with active traders. I'm confident that you'll want to order your courses from me, as thousands of other
traders have since 1999, and am pleased to show you sample preview video clips so you can see what
you're getting before you buy.

Additionally, once you are on our newsletter email list you'll be sent access directions to occasional
no-cost webinars we offer, if you wish to see live training with me personally online.

Tip: Only buy trading DVDs after you've been able to watch preview videos first, before buying. Every
site selling instructional trading dvds should be showing preview video clips so you can see a sample
of what you're getting before you buy. That's common sense, and you should expect it.
At Daytrading University, I'm proud to show you preview video clips of everything I offer, because the
content quality is world-class and has earned industry awards, trader testimonials and more.
 

Q: Webinar scheduling: How does it work? See main schedule at www.TradeMastery.com/calendar/

Most of our evening webinars are held 8-9pm Eastern time, using Gotowebinar. We also provide high-resolution (1920x1080 bluray quality .wmv) video downloads of each session in all of our for-pay courses, in an individual password-protected download area. That way, you can still watch the event even if you can't make it live, by downloading and watching the complete video version. All webinar series and courses sold separately.

If you wish, for any of our paid events you can submit a support ticket with questions you may have about the topic (send it in at least 12-24 hours before the webinar is scheduled to start), and I'll answer those during the event, so you can see the answers in the downloadable version, in case you can't make it live...another Daytrading University trading webinar advantage.

The Schedule for each webinar is posted on the individual website of the webinar series you've paid for, so you can see what the upcoming schedule is, and mark your calendar. In the event any webinar needs to be rescheduled due to unforeseen circumstances, we'll send you an email with the new date and registration link. All sales are final for all products, services and courses. If for any reason a webinar or seminar event series needs to be permanently cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances or emergency, you'd get a pro-rated refund for any undelivered sessions (we've never had to cancel a webinar series; 100% of them have been delivered).

Another Daytrading University advantage: outstanding customer service webinar deliverability. In over 13 years of doing webinars, all of them have been delivered and well over 99.9% on-time (in fact of thousands of webinars, I've only had a single webinar be late, due to pc power supply going out, which we were able to quickly fix). We've never had to cancel nor reschedule any webinar series, ever, as of January 2013.
 

Q: Can you provide webinars at different times than those on your sites?
Answer: No, because we set the time to meet the needs of the majority of our traders; most people can make it from 8-9pm ET. However for those with different schedules (in Asia, Europe, or in the US with a work schedule that prevents you from attending live), you still get the high-resolution complete video download, included for our premium/pay webinar series..


Q: What's the difference between the online course, ChartScans alerts, your DVD systems, webinars, 1-year programs, and the downloadable videos? If I buy one, do I get others included?
The content in each is different, so there is little or no overlap; the training is intended to build on each other, like university classes build upon each other, or books/videos that cover different topics. If there are specific bonuses offered with any one course, they will be listed on the course information page. Everything at Daytrading University and our other sites (ChartScans.com, StockTradingSuccess.com etc.) are all sold separately and purchase of one product/service does not include access to others.  
 
  
Q: Do You Take Alternate Payment Methods Other Than Visa/MC/Paypal?
No — we accept Visa/Mastercard for all items and services available at Daytrading University and are not set up to accept money orders or checks.   Please use Visa/MC.
 

Q: If I add something to my shopping cart, then leave the page and re-visit the page a second time, it increments the price; how do I clear the shopping cart to start again so I can place a single order?
That's easy - just scroll down and click the white "Return to Cart" button, click "Clear Cart", and restart. At the bottom of the page, at lower right you'll see this button; just click this:



 
Handy Tip: You can also reach this site by simply typing

http://www.daytradingu.com   or http://www.dtu1.com or http://www.kencalhoun.com  
into your browser


Q: Can I ask trading related questions by email if I buy one of your products?
No - I'm a busy trader and do not have time to answer individual questions, except during the premium webinars I deliver, during which I generously answer all trader questions (I've stayed around as long as 1-2 hours after webinars just to answer everyone's questions, from thousands of traders who've attended my online webinars).

Just because you buy a product does not entitle you to a lot of free consulting time/emails. I do not answer individual trading related emails.Do not buy anything here and expect to be able to get free consulting time/trading questions answered by email; that is not included. Your product is included. You do not get unlimited email Q&A support (except for questions related to product delivery etc).
 
 
Q: Ken, can your training definitely guarantee that I'll become a consistently profitable trader?

No. Anyone who claims to help traders become "consistently profitable" is dishonest and in violation of SEC and FTC regulations. Typical trader results are that all traders lose money and most are not profitable. I make no profitability claims of any kind — because that would not be honest. Yes trading is exciting, and yes there's lots of potential to make money... but most traders lose money and don't become profitable, even after years of studying. It's a lot harder than it looks.

Anybody that promises profitability is not to be trusted. I tell you the truth -- that most people never make it, that it's hard as heck, and you should be careful about who you learn from. See my post on my TradingTalk.com forum about realistic expectations. Expect to lose, at least at first, for years. That's trading. Go in with your eyes wide open. Most people in the trading vendor industry are either non-trading failed "chart talking only" people, or dishonest. Learn from genuine experts who can honestly help you —and even then, don't expect to become a winning trader anytime soon. It just doesn't work like that. It takes years to learn, and it's more about risk/money management than anything else. The "math" of trading, with tiny stops and small incremental gains as the goal, repeated over and over. Nobody can honestly claim to make you a consistently profitable trader. Period.


Q: I am unable to register using your credit card links, why?
We use world-class shopping cart integration with 1ShoppingCart and Authorize.net, the world's biggest payment gateway, to handle all your orders securely. Please make sure you have sufficient available credit and that your address information and CVV code are properly entered when you place your order. If it doesn't approve your order when you try it, it may be due to one of the following reasons:.
1. Your credit card limit has been reached, and/or there's a billing/address mismatch (eg your IP address doesn't match the country of your credit card or your billing and shipping addresses do not match, or cvv code).
2. Your name and/or credit card may be in our blacklist database due to prior refunds or chargebacks made at other trading websites (anyone on our industry blacklist, e.g. with history of being a difficult customer or a serial refunder will be refused service and their order disapproved — we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason we deem fit)
3. Note: please do NOT try to re-enter an order if it's not approved the first time; contact us using the support link instead. Do not try and re-enter an order if your order status shows as declined. We prefer that you use paypal, since they're easy to use (just click the paypal button on the shopping cart page once you're ready to place your order); but you can easily use Visa/Mastercard instead.
 
 
Q: What is your refund/returns policy?
As with Amazon.com, none of our DVDs or services or other products are refundable, since they are copyable media. This is to protect us against "serial refunders" and people who are not sincere about purchasing. We've provided preview clips of all videos so that you can see sample content for yourself before buying - so you can see what each video/service provides.

Thousands of traders have been highly satisfied with our systems and products since we started in 1999, as you can see from the video and other customer satisfaction testimonials on the sites. By ordering you hereby agree to our Terms of Sale and Disclaimer.


End User License Agreement (EULA): All DVDs and other materials sold via this and all our other sites are sold with a non-transferable End-User License Agreement and by purchasing from us you hereby agree to not resell nor give away nor otherwise redistribute these DVDs (and/or the content you'll be getting via webinars and downloads) in any manner whatsoever, which is expressly and specifcally prohibited under this sales agreement, to which you hereby agree to in its entirety, by placing your order. You hereby agree to waive any first-sale doctrine rights by purchasing this and agree that it is licensed for your personal use only and that you will remain the end user of the media and content you receive and will not resell nor redistribute either the content or its media in any format, shape or means. All information including DVDs are for private noncommercial home use only and may not be used in any commercial venue nor shown publicly nor for any commercial purpose under any circumstances, nor may be redistributed nor resold via any venue under any circumstances.

Attention institutional traders: if you are a professional market maker, specialist, or floor trader (or want to use our training for commercial use, as a part of internal training for your professional traders), please contact us for institutional pricing. My advanced day & swing trader training DVDs, webinars and course materials may not be used internally by professional/Wall Street trading firms unless a commercial usage license has been ordered. All materials are licensed for usage by individual retail traders only, at the current low pricing on my sites. Institutional pricing is higher. Contact me for details if you need institutional pricing and/or training information. We also book individual training days for trading market makers and floor traders, for bringing us to your location. Minimum on-site training fee is USD$17,500 daily for New York and other domestic USA locations + expenses (including first-class air and accomodations at a 4- or 5-star hotel; international rates are higher, subject to availability). Contact me for booking information and availability.
  
 
Q: Ken, you used to teach Level II based training, in your earliest courses from many years ago, like your Advanced Daytrading DVD and in the early module of your online day trading course, why don't you teach Level II trading anymore?

Because Level II is no longer useful for day trading, and is antiquated. It hasn't worked consistently since the exchanges moved over to decimals (from fractions) back in 2001. That's why I stopped teaching it. Level II is a "poker game" nowadays, in which due to algorithmic and HFT/dark pool based trading, mms don't keep their bids available longer than brief seconds, and step off their bid/asks at the first sign of momentum price shifts.

So it's exceptionally difficult to use antiquated methods like shadowing the axe, like I used to do in the 90's day trading days. You can still see how to trade by following the "ax" (dominant market maker) with my Advanced Daytrading DVD from 2002, and in the early modules of my online day trading course, but that's not a consistent approach anymore, so none of my latest trading courses have it. Level II is currently best used only for those rare traders who scalp large size (greater than 1k shares, to get pennies up to .15 as goals), to get price optimization with specific order routing. Most day traders don't need that specific order-routing/ax data, since we trade from 20-500 shares at a time on breakouts.

Instead, I teach how to use tape reading, which is a much better price-based approach to trading breakouts and pivots.

As one of the original dot-com day traders back in the 1990s, I was one of the very first people in the industry to teach Level II based trading. Copycat competitors then ripped off a lot of my ideas, and some people are still teaching level II trading today. Anyone who teaches level II based trading in today's high-frequency trading (HFT) based trading world is showing outdated methods that don't work consistently any more.
 
 

CHARTS: I use www.esignal.com (affiliate link) and the CME feed. I do not use any commercial scanner. I scan through charts manually, rapidly.

BROKER: I use www.interactivebrokers.com since they have $1 commissions and instant executions.

TRAILING STOPS/INITIAL STOPS: With all but the widest-spread stocks (BIDU, GOOG, AAPL, NFLX), I have .4 as my goal for maximum initial daytrading stops (and usually 1 - 1.5 points for swing stock/etf trades). I use manual stops for everything, since we need to follow the time & sales movement in price, in realtime - I prefer that to entering broker-initiated stops, which may trigger on a single transaction, vs the 8-10 prints I like to see in the tape. For the ES I like a stop of 3 ticks for intraday trading (tight), and for Forex trading, 20 pips intraday and 60-110 pips for currency swing trades, depending on the pair's volatility and entry chart pattern and other factors.


MONITOR SIZE: I use 4 widescreen 24" monitors.


Q: Do Daytrading University's stock trading courses apply to Forex, Canadian/Australian markets, e-minis or other type of trading, like options?

We have a variety of products and services designed that are published for many types of traders. Look at the preview videos and/or other information available for each to help decide which are best for you. While we specialize in high volatility, high volume open range and gap breakout trading

Forex Traders: See ForexFirepower.com
E-Mini Traders: Visit EminiInferno.com


Q: How Do I Use Daytrading University's products and services?
Where Do I Begin? You've Got So Much Content!

Trading Abbreviations & Glossary:

COMPQ: Nasdaq Composite, also known as COMPQ

2dhi: two-day high, as in the stock is making a new high over the current + previous day's trading high (see chart below)

2dlow: two-day low, the stock is making a new low under the current + previous day's trading low (see chart below)

ir: intrarange, as in, stock is trading either inside the current day's high/low range, or within the 2day high/low range

fade: going against the major trend, as in "we're fading GMCR here after this 3 pt run up on a bear cup reversal if it loses the 51.5-"

bull cup: a cup pattern, looks like the letter U

bear cup: an upside down cup, looks like letter A (or upside down U)

volume pivot: often, after an extended run, a stock will have a new inflow of volume, at which point a reversal may occur. Example, if EBAY drops 1.7 points in 20 minutes and starts to consolidate, then we see two small 1-minute candles, we may say "EBAY volume pivot here, long bounce over 57.3+ if tape strong"

tape strong: meaning, if you see at least 60-70% of transactions in a 1-2 minute timeframe in your time and sales window go off at the ask or higher

doji, hammer, 3-line break: get Steve Nisons' books.

sup: support level, as in the most recent price level at which a bounce, reversal occurred

res: resistance level, as in the most recent price level at which a stock turned back, reversal occurred

fibo: fibonacci retracement level, the 38/50/62% bands within a stock's current trading range

+/- : these are directional indicators, showing when a stock is starting to get close to a specific long or short trigger that's been previously posted in the room

"later": will likely be awhile before this new alert is triggered, as in "EBAY 60.5+ later" meaning, EBAY long trigger buy once it clears 60.5+, likely to take at least 10-15 minutes to get there

lol: "laughing out loud", as in if something funny was said. "Maria's saying MU strong buy lol"

re: regarding, as in "re if our SOX gets over 2.1% here" ..

"Sector Watch": this is where we ask room members to post their reading on which sectors are strongest and weakest at any given point in time. a daily routine/drill designed to help traders identify key money flow times into/out of sector rotation

Core Daytrading Patterns for NASDAQ Stocks: - Being selective on breakout longs/breakdown shorts, of which Do still occur frequently, using good scanning skills, is a key to successful daytrading. Stocks require careful attention to the chart patterns, time & sales, Nasdaq composite, trin, volume, candlestick charts and other indicators.

Below you'll find a handy, simplified overview of many of our core trading patterns. Enjoy, and contact us (above) if you have any questions!

Trading Related ABBREVIATIONS:

2d hi -- two-day high: means the stock is currently trading at or near the high established in the previous day's trading

ir = intrarange: means the stock is trading inside of the range established by previous day's high and low

(c): we rate stocks on a a-b-c-dd scale, depending on how likely we feel they are to continue moving in our direction at the time that the entry will be triggered at

What stocks are in each sector?
To find this out, use this bigcharts. com link, eg enter a ticker and then click "see industry" above the left top of the chart.

Q: If you were to share just one part of your experience with me, what would it be?

Keep very small stops and exit quickly if the reason for your entering the trade doesn't work out within a couple of minutes. I began to do better when I limited my losses to no more than 2-3 spreads, using tape reading and other indicators. Discipline to keep small stops when you're wrong and use trailing stops up as your stock gets bid up is important to take profit out of the markets daily. And, using the right trading software: try out www.esignal.com and www.quotetracker.com

When I was a beginning daytrader, whenever I was in a losing trade I would rationalize the fundamentals and confuse investing with daytrading (one of the "7 Deadly Sins"). Now I've developed a handful of specific techniques to limit losses and let winners ride, using limit buys and offering stock out on the bid. We can show you how to do this and dozens of other techniques to help you learn faster.

Q: If you're a good trader why offer this service?

(The answer is easy: I'm a professional trainer, I owned a leading training and consulting business (over 130 hotel and business clients) and enjoy training and teaching. Besides, I can remember what it was like getting started and would like to spare everyone the expensive learning curve. I'm asking very little for knowledge that has been hard-earned. Plus, having to articulate my trading experiences helps me sharpen my edge and become more effective in my own actual trades as well.

Q: How long do you hold your positions for?

My best trading is done with roundtrips lasting from several minutes to 30 minutes. Occasionally, I may buy an breakout stock that's closing on new 2-day highs on high volume at the end of the day (small shares) for an overnight gap up play, but I am generally all cash 99% of the time. I trade the market like a video game, not an investor.

Why? First, I like to sleep at night. Second, the risk in holding overnight (eg bad news, overseas market weakness etc). outweighs the benefit of any potential opening gaps I may miss. If its a great stock to own at 4pm then I can always buy at the open if I believe it will continue up. Cash is king. Occasional swing trades are fine too, if you know the stocks you are trading very well and can play the trading ranges profitably. We have a whole module devoted to swing trading.

Q: What type of stocks do you identify trade alerts for with ChartSCANS?

I have a core basket of "trading stocks" (eg SHLD BP GMCR NFLX and others) that have good intraday ranges and for whom I know the levels and market makers. I usually avoid low volume under-$5 types of stocks, since I prefer highly-liquid high-range stocks for active trading. I like to post alerts for stocks trading between $20-$70 in general. Daily volume should usually be >1.5M shares/daily to give me the liquidity I need to enter and exit quickly.

Our online Daytrading University network of sites has been carefully designed to help both beginning and professional traders improve their trading results. Good luck!

More FAQ answers coming, let us know your questions.

To return home, click here.

Fade Play: Shorting a Top after stock's ran it's range on bearcup reversal: very high-risk entries for very experienced traders only, rarely likely to follow through, example here trying to short a stock after it's ran up quite a bit on a sharp, weak run. Preferably short only after it's already ran it's AITR (avg intraday trading range) and is getting sellers following a bear cup pattern. These should be less than 10% of all trade attempts, even for experienced traders. Most traders go broke trying to bottomfish/fade tops and outguess the market. Simple breakout trades early in the direction of a major move are often better.

Fade Play: Bottom fishing, trying to catch a bottom reversal. As with fading tops, bottom bounce fishing is done only in very select circumstances, as in this high-volume wide range reversal play. These should be less than 10% of all trade attempts, even for experienced traders. Many traders go broke trying to bottomfish/fade tops and outguess the market. Simple breakout trades early in the direction of a major move are often better.