Where can i discuss trading ideas without all the TA crap

shylock43 · #1 06-10-2007, 05:26 AM

I have been looking all around the internets to find the twoplustwo of the trading world. However most sites like elitetrader.com is mostly about amateurs talking TA indicators. Where does the pros hang out. I am interested in things like stat arb, market maker strategys, merger arbitrage or other special situations.

What i have found decent so far is value investors club but they are mostly into long term value plays wich i appreciate but I would like to dip my toe in whats else out there.

maxtower · #2 06-10-2007, 05:42 AM

Does anyone actually make long term profits trading?

shylock43 · #3 06-10-2007, 07:08 AM

Depends of your definition of long term profits. Buying where RSI crosses the stochastic MA(12) bollinger bands will probably be a coinflip. However banks do have arbitrage departents that obviously show a profit and some hedge funds seem to have found exploitable markets.

#4 06-10-2007, 07:46 AM

DesertCat · #5 06-10-2007, 10:26 AM

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Depends of your definition of long term profits. Buying where RSI crosses the stochastic MA(12) bollinger bands will probably be a coinflip. However banks do have arbitrage departents that obviously show a profit and some hedge funds seem to have found exploitable markets.

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I don't consider arbitrage trading, it's just a another form of investing, albeit one with a clear edge. Pure trading I would categorize as predicting price movements.

fun160 · #6 06-10-2007, 10:40 AM

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Does anyone actually make long term profits trading?

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Marc Greenspoon makes millions of dollars a year, mostly trading e-mini S&P futures.

There are thousands of other examples of profitable traders.

60Vauban · #7 06-10-2007, 10:46 AM

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www.elitetrader.com

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didja read the post?

fun160 · #8 06-10-2007, 10:48 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Depends of your definition of long term profits. Buying where RSI crosses the stochastic MA(12) bollinger bands will probably be a coinflip. However banks do have arbitrage departents that obviously show a profit and some hedge funds seem to have found exploitable markets.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't consider arbitrage trading, it's just a another form of investing, albeit one with a clear edge. Pure trading I would categorize as predicting price movements.

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Arbitrage is definitely trading, not investing. The edges tend to be very small, so you usually have to leverage the crap out of them. The goal is for your holding period to be as short as possible. (In contrast, Warren Buffett's favorite holding period is "forever.") An arb position held a year or more is probably a dog. And if you're holding a position less than a year you're trading, not investing.

In the interest of full disclosure, part of my trading career was spent arbing Dow futures against S&P futures. I'd take stuff home overnight if I got a deep edge on the close, otherwise they were strictly day-trading positions.

fun160 · #9 06-10-2007, 10:55 AM

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Where does the pros hang out?

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I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Brett Steenbarger has a must-visit site is you're interested in trading for a living. Lots of articles on psychology and statistical analysis of markets, tons of links to other good sites...check it out.

DesertCat · #10 06-10-2007, 01:51 PM

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Arbitrage is definitely trading, not investing. The edges tend to be very small, so you usually have to leverage the crap out of them. The goal is for your holding period to be as short as possible. (In contrast, Warren Buffett's favorite holding period is "forever.")

[/ QUOTE ]

Yet Buffett has made billions in arbitrage in a variety of categories from merger arbitrage (leveraged) to arbing the relative prices of coffee beans against a specialized equity tender offer.

Investing doesn't necessarily require long holding periods. Arbitrage is a subset of investing that involves finding identical or very similar investments (with similar values) that have significantly different prices and profiting from the situation. Most arbs are short term in nature, but they are still investments, i.e. they have quantifiable values and quantifiable risks.

I would not be surprised if most proprietary trading on wall street is closer to arbitrage than pure trading, i.e. predicting price trends based on technical data.