Posts Tagged ‘flags’

About Us

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

My name is Vince Tarantino and I am the originator of SniperDayTrading.com. Below is a little about myself and how I got started in the business.

I started following the markets in the early 1980’s. I was young and just getting started in raising a family, so my capital to trade or even invest was very limited or non-existent. This did not stop my interest in trading. I started to read a lot and observe what was happening in the financial markets. I remember in the early 80’s the Dow trading up to a new milestone of 1500. Many thought it would never last, but it just kept going higher from there.

The 1987 stock market crash did not surprise me. I saw the over exuberance and euphoria that I had learned about, but not personally experienced, until that time. Even back then I always looked at market psychology and how it relates to trading.

We were in October and the market was waving a big RED FLAG to me, saying sell, sell, sell. Within one week, the market sold off in a large way. I had a small put option position in Phillip Morris. It worked out well as the market dropped and I made a very nice return.

In the early 90’s, I saw the recession coming and the subsequent market drop from that. Market sentiment was so bullish it only told me another big drop was at hand. Within a week, the market broke support and the sell off was underway.

Just after the early 90’s recession, I was laid up with a back injury and had a lot of time on my hands. Thinking what to do for a new career. What better field than a stock broker, I thought. I found a small brokerage company who sponsored me and became a licensed stock broker passing the series 7 & 63 tests. This was something I thought I wanted, until I realized that I would have to be pushing stock to clients that might not be the very best for them in their situation. In that business, it happens. So I canned that idea, but never stopped learning and dreaming of the day that it would all come together.

What I regret most of all was missing the big move of 1995. I was not in a position to take advantage of the move of the century. My professional career had taken a different direction and I did not have the luxury to take advantage of that market action. I did still follow it, because that’s my passion. I saw all the “would be” day traders try their hand at making a lot of money in the markets and many of them did. The problem is, unless you are equipped to handle all of the other factors that I will be mentioning in this site, you will lose, plain and simple and most of them did.

These new hopeful traders only saw one side of the market – UP. They did not educate themselves on how to handle a dropping market. They had been hypnotized into thinking that there was only one direction. Many people, on paper, had become wealthy, but it did not take long to show them that they were not worthy to hold onto their newly found gains because of the attitude that “this is easy”. It’s never easy and not without sacrifice.

Let me tell you from personal experience. Most people who are very successful in day trading have gotten beat up pretty badly, almost without exception. Their pride gets in the way, with them saying, “I can do this.” It doesn’t take long for them and others to realize that it is not easy, especially without mentoring or some professional training.

The year was 1995 and market was trading sideways to slightly up, with a lot of resistance overhead, and then it happened. One of the most explosive moves in stock market history and I was only able to watch it go by without me. It lasted uninterrupted for roughly 5 years, with a big hiccup in 1998, but back to new highs through the year 2000.

During this time I started my own little business of trading commodities. This was the actual products. Buying and selling. I had partners who put up the money and did the shipping. It worked out well. This was at the high of the market in 2000. The dot com bubble had burst and the whole market was coming with it because it to had become so overvalued by historical standards.

Again, I saw this one coming from a mile away. It was waving flags in front of me, saying again, “sell, sell.” I tried to warn those who would listen. At least I did what I could. During this big market sell off I was trading high volatility stocks and was doing very nicely. I was able to put together a long string of winning days, over a month and half straight. Things were going well and I was content with my method and results, when I was rudely interrupted. I suffered some medical problems that made it impossible for me to continue. I never gave up on my dream, though, through many difficult times and set backs.

That day has finally come and I am very thankful to my family, who has been very supportive, and to God who was there with me through all my trials. As I continue to move forward in life, I will be sharing my trading ideas and experience with a select few who also have a desire and passion to succeed in this business.

I love to teach this stuff. I believe this is a time of abundance and blessing. Sharing and teaching is a way of giving back some of those blessings. It could not have come at a better time. The world financial situation is not getting any better. I will be keeping my readers abreast of the real economic situation on my daily blog.

Trading the market is not everything in life and I have come to know that. I have learned to see things differently as I have gotten older and that’s good. Knowing who you are as a person is so very important before you begin trading. I take time each day and thank God for my current good health, my family who loves me, friendships that I have built up over the years, and my involvement in my local community. This, I believe, is true wealth.

I live in a small town in Northern California. It is in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. Elevation is about 2,500 feet, so we get snow in the winter and I love it. I moved here from the San Francisco bay area after my two children were grown, over 3 years ago now. It was the best thing I could have done.

I live with my wife in a modest home and do enjoy a little gardening and my new Australian Shepard dog, “Buddy,” who has just been great. I always wanted a dog and now have the perfect place for one. He keeps me in shape. I do a lot of hiking, exploring, and some fishing with my free time. I live between two small towns of about 7oo people each, but have a bigger town of 7,000 just 20 minutes away. I and my wife Angela like to go to Ashland, Oregon just over the border for a variety of activities and cultural experiences.

It’s a different life, but I love it and again thank God for it. I am spiritually minded and it has served me well. It gives me hope in so much more than we are able to see in the world around us. I believe it is my destiny to help others and I feel God has given me a gift of giving. I need to be faithful and continue to pursue the gift He has given me so that I may be able to bless others in the coming days ahead. This site is a part of that. I pray that God will also bless you with what I write here and on my website to fulfill your dreams, and that you too will take the blessing and share with others your resources and talents. We can all do our part to make a difference.

May you be richly blessed all of your days,

Vince

For more information you can email me at vinnie@sniperdaytrading.com.

Keeping it simple, in a difficult environment

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

As I stated in my last post, you will see the same patterns every day, up and down. I am capturing small winning trades every day with positive results. You need to be able to open your mind up to the possibilities of taking trades in the down direction as well as the upside. We do not care in what direction the market moves, but only that is does.

It sure is doing that these days with some very large moves. Sometimes I catch these and other times its just a smaller move. The best part about my method is that there are many places and times to be able to get in. There are a lot of great signals in the early morning open. The first 30 minutes of the day is some of the best trading although it’s really good for most of the day, but it can be a little slow during the New York lunch time, 11 am to 1 pm eastern standard time (9 am to 11 am west coast time).

Look again at a few early morning trades I have posted under this article. Also, I have some nice screen shots of a classic trading chart pattern setup that I look for. There are many great trading chart patterns to look for and some of these will include “Flags, Pennants, Wedges, Triangles, Channels, Head & Shoulders” and more. You can learn to trade all of these with no indicators, but with just trendlines, as in the examples I have below. Learning to trade without indicators is really a great skill and I highly recomend people interested in trading take the time to explore it. I have all of this broken down in the training section of my website. For the time being, I will be posting some of this training on my blog. This is not meant to be a complete explanation, but just a small sample to give you an idea of what you can learn.

When trading futures as I do, you don’t have to trade all day because of the leverage involved. The idea is finding patterns that happen over and over and being able to capture a small piece of that move. The key is finding patterns that consistently repeat themselves so you can take advantage of them by positioning yourself in the right spot where small mini panics take place. I have said that before but it is key in understanding how the market works.

A basic way to think of this is, “Support & Resistance”.  Resistance is where there is a barrier where prices seem not able to advance. This is because there are no more buyers at that price and selling pressure ensues to take prices down brought on by profit taking. My method is such that we can easily spot where those turning points are. One of my custom indicators is set up so that a simple change in color more easily shows you that a shift in momentum is taking place. This is just a tool to help you see what is already present in price action. Just remember that “Price always rules”.

Tommorrow I will discuss Support and take it from there.

Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/F3AdFKR1sE

http://www.screencast.com/t/HjUf8PKeEdI