Survey Results

Lots of New Readers

I was really surprised at how many people just found my site in 2005. There were a lot of comments asking for me to write about things that I've already written about. There's a lot of stuff in my archives and I know it can be a daunting task to go digging through all of those posts. I've been planning on re-doing my 'about' page and doing a 'guide for new readers'/'using this site' type of post. Hopefully when I get those done it'll be a lot easier for you to find things.

Search

On a related note to the topic above, a couple of people suggested that I improve the search capability and maybe even use Google's search tool on my site. I've hesitated to use Google because the search results will not always be up to date. Also, I've never had a problem finding things with the site's built-in search. If people can give me specific examples of something they were trying to find or a type of search they couldn't do maybe I can help or be convinced that Google is the answer to the (alleged?) search problem.

Contacting Me

Please feel free to email me with questions and/or comments (like the search issue above). Or to tell me that something is broken on the site. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how few people said they had technical issues with the site. This site, like most blogs and newer sites, is best viewed in a standards-compliant browser. That pretty much means any browser except Internet Explorer. I know that there are some things that will 'break' the layout of the site in IE but not in FireFox, the browser that I use. Certain user comments can do that. I usually catch those things quickly and fix them but sometimes I may not notice for days because the site still looks fine in my browser.

Font Size

One person mentioned that the font size is too small. If you're using FireFox simply hold down CTRL and press the plus sign key until the text is large enough for you. If you're using IE, try going to the 'View' menu and then go to the 'Text Size' sub-menu to change the font size. Unfortunately changing the font size doesn't work on all sites in IE. (Yet another reason to switch!)

Swing Trade Ideas

The vast majority of you wanted more swing trading ideas. I know that with my switch to day trading that the 'potential swing trades' section of my watchlists have suffered. And that's really why I was considering dropping the watchlists all together. Somebody left this comment in the survey and when I read it I thought "that's exactly what I would have said.":

Don't care anything about watchlists and stock ideas. I care about the process of being a trader, methods and mechanics used, and styles followed and observed. Any content focused on those guidelines I would enjoy reading.

I was glad to see that sentiment echoed my many of you. I've never wanted this site to be a stock picking service. I'd like for people to be doing their own scans and developing their own methodologies. At the same time, I understand that one can learn from seeing why I like or dislike a chart. So what I plan of doing is posting (swing trade) charts more frequently, outside of the daily watchlists. It may not happen every day but I'll try to post charts at least 3 times per week.

Also keep in mind that the concepts are really the same whether you're looking at intraday, daily or weekly charts. So the intraday charts that I'll be posting (see below) should be of some use to you from a trading/charting technique standpoint.

Day Trade Ideas

Even more so than with the swing trades, I would hope that anybody who's day trading has the proper tools to do so. That would mean not relying on me to post movers, etc. But again, I do understand the desire to see what I'm watching and/or trading, especially for those of you who aren't trading full-time (yet). I'll post intraday updates when I can but by necessity they're going to be very brief.

Comments on the Site

One person said that she (yes, a female!) doesn't like sites that require them to register to comment. Oddly enough I feel exactly the same way. But as many of you know, the comments were basically wide open for two years until the spam got out of control. So it was either use TypeKey or turn the comments off all together. A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to the latest version of the software that powers this site and it appears that they've gotten the spam issue under control. So I'm going to allow people to post without using TypeKey as soon as I finish this post.

Fundamentals and/or the 'Story' Behind a Stock

A couple of people said that they'd like me to post more (some) fundamental info in addition to the charts. This comment summed it up well:

Stocks don't trade in a vacuum. And I don't trade obscure names just because one can draw ruler lines.

All I can say is that I do trade stocks because of (trend) lines and other technical indicators. Similar to Gary B. Smith, I neither need nor want to know the reason for a stock move. Actually that's not entirely true for me because I often do know the story behind a move. But as a short term trader I don't the time to track fundies. Also, I'm just one person with a lot of things to do. There are plenty of sources out there from which to get the stories on stocks. And finally, I have to point out that I'm not trying to convince anybody to trade any stock that I post. Take what I post and do with it what you will.

Ideas on Developing Scans

I'll have to think about that one. There are a lot of resources (books, articles, sites) available on this topic. I'm not sure that I have much to say on that topic. Hmm...

My Long Term Holdings

Several people mentioned that they would like me to write about what's in my long term portfolio and why I chose those stocks. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Specific Trade Examples

Many people asked for examples of actual trades. I just started a new category, Trade Examples, today to collect those posts. I'll try to post the most interesting trades, winners and losers, of each day.

ETFs and Sector Analysis/Commentary

Great ideas and things that I need to pay more attention to anyway. For some reason, probably because they're less volatile, ETFs don't often pop up on my radar. But I'll make an effort to talk more about them. Random Roger and the ETF Investor have a lot of ETF coverage so you may want to check them out.

Options

I know absolutely nothing about options but I get requests for options information pretty frequently. I know that Online Trading and Gala (does anybody know what happened to Gala? You can still go through his archives) write about options frequently.

Dave Landry's Swing Trading Lessons

A few people have asked me about the links to Dave's presentations that I used to post. I haven't seen them in a while but I'll post them whenever I do. They're usually in the 'Investing Ideas' section of Yahoo Finance.

Hardware & Software Setup

Here are a couple of comments on this topic:

How to trade without being able to use a dedicated computer system and all the bells and whistles.

and

How about a summary description of hardware/software setup? Not product recommendations, but structure and functionality, why it's needed, how it all fits together, workflow for a typical day.

I can certainly write about the latter. I'll have to think about the former since I've never done that.

Ask the Expert?

Somebody suggested an "'Ask the Expert' posting where you would answer questions from traders would be cool." Well I don't consider myself an expert but I'd be open to that if others are. I'll have to think about whether to do it as a chat or have people email/post questions.

Trials and Tribulations

I loved this comment:

More background on how you became a trader, what enabled you to trade for a living, and how easy/hard it is to trade for a living. Trials and tribulations, my friend, trials and tribulations.

I could probably write a book about my trials & tribulations but I don't know if I want to relive the pain. ;-) I'll add this to the list of things to write about.

Brokers

Somebody suggested:

Info regarding the details of various discount brokers you may have worked with. What brokers are you now using. Comparisons. This would be useful from a new trader's standpoint.

I've been with CyberTrader since day one so I can't compare them to any other broker. There's a lot of brokerage talk & comparisons at Elite Trader though.

Fed Meetings & Economic Reports/Events

Some folks wanted me to highlight important upcoming events like Fed meetings (there's a Fed decision next Tuesday!). I'll try to mention them but again, there are better sources out there. One good one is the weekly 'Your Money' email from the New York Times or one of the economic calendars on the web.

Ads, Ads, Ads!

Last but not least, 8 people complained about the ads while 17 people thanked me for the site being free. (A few of those comments were from the same person, sayin they understood the ads but still don't like them.) I know people don't like ads but they do support the site. I think my ads (and their placements) are rather tame compared to some sites -- I promise there will never be any pop-ups, boxes floating across your browser nor ads in the middle of a post. They can also be easily blocked if they really bother you that much.

There were a few other things which I'll save for later. I'll also post some graphs of the responses later this week.