Frequently-Asked Trader Questions About Daytrading University:

Do You Take Alternate Payment Methods Other Than Paypal?
YES — we accept Visa/Mastercard and postal money orders for all items and services
available at Daytrading University. Simply contact us using the contact form above
and tell us which product(s) you're interested in, and we will email alternate payment
instructions to you within 48 hours.
 
What Stocks are In Each Sector?
Click Here: http://money.cnn.com/technology/techstocks/


How Do I set up my monitors for day trading?
Here's the 2 most-important monitors:

http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com/2monitors.gif
 
 
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?
How long will it take for me to become a successful day trader?  etc..  
 
In compliance with SEC regulations, I cannot answer individual traders' questions,
particularly in regards to suitability of courses/resources for individual trading
backgrounds/trading styles, because I am not a registered investment advisor. 
Nor can I give you individual advice on how to trade.  

So please do not email me these, as I will not answer them.   Even if I had time to answer
the staggering volume of questions I get via email each week, I simply cannot, by law.
It's not that I don't want to help each of you who writes in; however I must remain
compliant with SEC regulations and therefore CANNOT answer individual traders'
questions for these matters.   

The good news: I address common trading related questions I get in my videos, online
course, and in the video traders' blog; 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 __? (answer to that is No, all my
materials are designed to cover new techniques, with little or no overlap)... etc. 


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

http://www.daytradingu.com   or

http://www.dtu1.com  into your browser


Can I see PREVIEWS of some of your training?
Sure, see these notes and downloadable charts from our popular audio seminars


CHARTS: I use www.esignal.com basic with 100 extra symbols option and the CME feed. I do not use any commercial scanner, including any esignal scanner. I scan through charts manually, rapidly - here's a movie explaining.

BROKER: I use www.cybertrader.com basic (not pro, since I use esignal for charts), and do most of my order routing via ARCA limit for entries, market for exits. Roughly 70% of my calls are for shorts, depending on the day's market.

TRAILING STOPS/INITIAL STOPS: With all but the widest-spread stocks (BIDU, GOOG, SHLD, RIMM), I use .2 as my max initial stop and trailing stop value.   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.

MONITOR SIZE: I use 1280x1024 resolution, need at least 3 19" monitors.




Do Daytrading University's courses apply to forex, Canadian/Australian markets, eminis or other type of trading, like options?

No. Daytrading University is for NASDAQ/NYSE stock traders, period. We specialize in high volatility, high volume open range and gap breakout trading techniques for active US-market stock trading.
 

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

It's best to start by looking through all the free resources first, such as our articles.

Then, try our ChartSCANS Alerts Service. Once you see how well it works, you'll likely want to join for several months, and get additional materials such as our videos and online course. Thousands of traders worldwide have enjoyed our materials. For those who would like a step by step approach, we recommend the following:

- Months 1-3: Online Daytrading Course : enroll in the course, study the hundreds of pages of materials and worksheets, skim through all the charts, and use it in combination with the video to begin your study.

- Month 2: Get the "Traders' Secrets" 7 DVD System with Ken Calhoun and Steve Nison to learn specific trading strategies



- Month 5: Get the Winning Chart Patterns and Advanced Day Trading DVDs and begin applying the techniques you're learning in all the examples to your own papertrading efforts.

Follow as our "Over the Shoulder" cam shows realtime charts (Info)		This bestselling classic reveals exactly how to day trade stocks. (Info)

- Months 6+ : After trying out the ChartSCANS alerts, papertrade and practice using the alerts to learn which patterns make for successful breakout and gap continuations and fades.

What Do I Get Access To When I Enroll with Daytrading University's Online Course?

Once you enroll, you get instant access to everything in our exclusive trader members' area. This includes full access to all lessons, audio clips, vidclips, worksheets and activities for our members. Currently all of modules 1-4, and most of 5-6 are currently complete.

We've added new Module 7 lessons as well. DTU is constantly being updated, we post a new lesson at least once a month for our members, often more. During your time with us you will have access to all 8 modules' worth of materials. They will be completed within the next 6-8 months.
 

Are You Still Offering Your Popular "Trading The Open" Live Trading Room?
Although the live trading room is currently not being offered in 2007, you can get my daily ChartSCANS service to see daily alerts for strong stocks.
 
 
What stocks are in each sector?

See http://money.cnn.com/technology/techstocks/

Room Abbreviations & Glossary:

COMPQ: Nasdaq Composite, also known as COMPX

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 INTU 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. Favorite stocks like QLGC NVLS EBAY and others 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.

Semiconductors ($SOX) Trading list: AMAT BRCM IDTI INTC KLAC LLTC LRCX NVLS QLGC RFMD XLNX

complete list: ACTL ALTR AMAT ATML BRCM CUBE CRUS CPWR CNXT IDTI INTC KLAC LRCX LSCC LLTC MXIM MCHP NVLS PMCS PMTC QLGC RMBS SNDK SSTI SBLU SNPS TXCC TMTA TQNT VTSS XLNX

Software ($GSO) Trading list: ADBE ERTS MERQ MSFT SYMC VRSN

complete list: AKLM ATVI ADBE ADSK BEAS BMCS BVSN CHKP CKFR CPWR CORL CTXS ERTS GPSI HNCS ITWO IFMX INTU JDEC LGTO MACR MERQ MSFT MUSE NETA NEON NOVL ORCL PSFT RATL RMDY SEBL SYBS SYMC THQI VRSN VRTS

Internets ($GIN) Trading list: AMZN EBAY YHOO GOOG

complete list: ATHM AMZN AMTD BYND CMGI CHKP CNET CYCH COOL DCLK EGRP EWBX ELNK EBAY EGGS EXDS INSP INKT IVIL MKTW NETM OMKT OTEX PSIX PRGY RNWK SPLN TFSN TGLO TMPW TRLY VOCL VRTS VRTY VSNT YHOO

Hardware ($GHA) Trading list: AAPL BRCD DELL

complete list: AAPL BRCD DELL SUNW

Biotechs ($NBI, $BTC) Trading list: AMGN BIIB CEPH DNA

complete list: AMGN HGSI IDPH MDCC MLNM

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 Level 2 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 (using Cyber, Level2 etc.) to help you learn faster.

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

(lol, that's what I would ask)...The answer is easy: I'm a professional trainer, I owned a leading training and consulting business in Hawaii (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.

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 oversold stock that tanks > 5-7% at the end of the day (small shares) for an overnight bounce/gap up play (eg YHOO), but I am generally all cash 99% of the time. I play 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 GOOG SHLD RIMM QLGC EBAY DNA BBY and others) that have good intraday ranges and for whom I know the levels and market makers. I avoid low volume pump-and-dump under-$5 chatroom specials. I like to post alerts for stocks trading between $30-$70 in general, but like some of the hi-fliers on occasion. Daily volume should always be >1.5M shares/daily to give me the liquidity I need to enter and exit quickly.

Q: I'm new to daytrading, do I really need level 2 to trade?

It's been said that "daytrading without level 2 is like driving in the city at night without headlights on - suicide".... You can daytrade without level 2, my first year I learned a lot just using Medved's QuoteTracker (www.QuoteTracker.com) and the Datek streamer. I traded better when I had those resources plus level 2; I find that eSignal (www.esignal.com) is a terrific quote service that I use with Cyber, a direct-access broker.

It also depends on your trading style and length of time you want to be "in the trade" for. If you are like me and prefer to be in and out in under 30 minutes, you'll definitely want level 2. If you want to trade for several hours, or hold overnight and "swing trade" (2 days to a week or so), then you may not need level 2 or a direct-access broker. It's up to you.

Our online DTU has been designed to help both beginning and professional traders improve their trading results. Good luck!

One FAQ: "Help there's text overlaid in the browser what do I do?

Answer: Your monitor should be at 1280x1024 or better resolution to view content at DTU. You shouldn't be daytrading anyways if your monitor is set for 800x600. Maximize your browser to make sure it's at 1280 pixels wide or better.

To fix, right click on your screen and choose properties, settings etc to readjust your monitor for 800x600 or better resolution. If your display card won't go higher than 800x600 go get a $99 monitor card that will help you improve screen resolution. Good trading!

More FAQ answers coming, let us know your questions - Good Trading everyone!

Best wishes for successful active trading.   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. Example, see this HGSI bottom bounce where we posted a Buy Long alert 10.75+ on Oct 17th, 2002 in the live room. 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. 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.