Active Stock Trading

[Semiretired2008]

Yep, PHP has all of those things and I've used a lot of Google searching to find and learn how to use them

Okay, you have talked me into it at least. It has been added to my list. I sure will be glad when I finish my renovation projects. I would much rather be doing this kind of stuff over painting, replacing ceilings, flooring, plumbing, etc... But, you gotta do what you gotta do...

 

[Semiretired2008]

Regarding trading, while I don't usually get into returns since this apparently is an element of the discussion I will provide the following. As a long term holder my average holding period is 712 days or 1.95 years. The S&P Gain over this period was 25.81%, my average gain over this period, including dividends received, is 36.40% which is below my average gain over a longer period. As cited above, my focus is on commodity oriented equities-Agriculture, Energy, Precious Metals, Base Metals -- which comprise 79% of my investments, the balance being in banking, comp/tech, and miscellaneous. btw I am INFJ. All my best,

2010 was my worst year in trading (3% overall). It was when I learned a hard lesson in taking chances. I took a lot of long shots with companies that were realigning lets say - not an area I normally delved in, but I thought I would try it for the potential of big returns on the other end... Did not work out as I had planned. Now I stick with what works and avoid trouble...

 

[photoguy]

Yep, PHP has all of those things and I've used a lot of Google searching to find and learn how to use them

Thanks for the info. Although I prefer the statistical programming environments for small scale stuff I can definitely see using PHP for this in the future. R has great graphics that include all the visual information you need but look like crap.

 

[pperl]

Yep, PHP has all of those things and I've used a lot of Google searching to find and learn how to use them

I understand and took a quick look at the site cited; but having done a lot of database programming in the 70's and early 80's as well as a bit of C, I don't think this really pays in terms of practical technical analysis. I have been using Worden for many, many years and also subscribe to Stockcharts.com, the latter to handle those symbols not available on Worden. It really makes no sense to me to write a new program when several excellent ones exist as there are a multitude of functions, sortings, et al available on the latter two. All one has to do is enter a symbol to come up with both technical and fundamental data using Worden which is available free if you accept ads-- I don't -- or at a cost of approx $300 per year which is tax deductible whether or not you make a profit one year providing you do make and take a profit over the years; the latter is subject, obviously, to your review and that of your accountant(s).

Using Worden I have some 70 chart layouts available, some of which I configured & others which were provided. I basically utilize 11 different layouts I created, all of which are selected using a Function key. And I view the charts in the daily, weekly, & monthly time periods.

My fundamental data is in columns and specific for each stock and I have an enormous choice therein as well. I currently have set up the following 10 columns of data:
Symbol, P/E, Current Price as a Percent of the 52 Week High, Return on Assets (ROA), Market Cap, Current Book Value/share, Debt to Equity Ratio, Volume, Dividend Yield, Beta.

StockCharts.com has excellent tutorials available as does Worden, though for beginners StockCharts is probably a better site. In the upper left hand area one clicks on 'Chart School' to get there. As far as texts, the following are all excellent:

Murphy, Johh J., Technical Analysis of The Financial Markets -- this is one of the bibles of TA.
Meyers, Thomas A., The Technical Analysis Course --This relatively short book is one of my favorites.
Pring, Martin J., Techical Analysis Explained: The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points -- This is also considered 'the bible' of TA

Regarding purchasing any 'books' I always search abebooks.com first, where one can find the above books all at decent discounts depending on the edition et al.

all my best,