Reader's Guide

The Private Trader market letter at www.timbovee.com tracks trades on my own accounts, in real time, as I make them, with explanations of why I chose to make each trade.

My goal is to share with readers the trading approaches and techniques, and mental attitudes, that I have found to be useful, through book reviews, long-term studies and trading techniques and theory.

Theory without practice is of little use in the real world of the markets. I have often, during decades in the markets, wished that I could trade alongside someone, so we could both learn from each others successes and mistakes.

So every day I'm hands on in the markets, focusing the day with the Morningline, scanning for and analyzing possible trades during the market day, positioning for the crucial last half hour of trading with the Watchlist, posts telling about my trades -- what I did and why did it -- moments after they happen, analyses of trades gone bad (and good!), the Almanac setup for the next trading day, specialized scans for covered calls, and subtle jabs at Jim Cramer on every possible occasion.

It's the difference between hiking alone or with a friend. I'll take the friend on any trail. . . .

Nothing on this website constitutes a recommendation to buy or sell stocks, options or any other financial instrument. The only purpose of this market letter is to provide education.

In reading Private Trader, it is important that you remember that no trader is ever 100 percent successful in his or her trades. Trading in the stock and option markets is risky and uncertain. Each trader must make trading decisions for his or her own account, and take responsibility for the consequences.

Here is when things happen (times are Eastern):

9:30 a.m., Stock markets open
10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., Morningline posted
10:30 a.m. onward, Scans for possible trades, new positions, adjustments to existing positions.
2:30 p.m. - 3 p.m., Watchlist posted
4 p.m., Markets close
After 4 p.m., Almanac posted

My positions are either stock options, including covered calls, or for lower-priced and less liquid issues, the stocks themselves. My ideal holding period is under four weeks. Generally, I prefer to get in and out of a positions as quickly as possible.

I also enter income producing positions.

I am mindful of the the SEC restrictions limiting day trades to four a week on accounts of less than $25,000.

My analysis is normally done on three-month charts showing one candlestick or closing price per day, but I also look at the three-year daily chart, the decade-long monthly chart, and even the very short term 133-tick chart.

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Some abbreviations you'll run across:

bb - Bollinger Bands, a measure of volatility using lines that are two standard deviations from a moving average. See John Bollinger's website, Stockcharts, Wikipedia and Investopedia.

ma, sma - Moving Average, often followed by a number indicating the period, such as ma20, sma50, ma200 and so forth. An average of closing prices over a certain period of time that shows trends more clearly by smoothing short-term fluctuations. When I use ma, I mean the simple moving average (sma), which gives equal rate to each closing price used in the calculation. See Stockcharts, Wikipedia and Investopedia.

macd - Moving Average Convergence Divergence, subtracts a longer moving average from a shorter moving average to calculate momentum. See Stockcharts, Wikipedia and Investopedia.

mfi - Money Flow Index, a volume-weighted measure of money flowing into and out of an issue. See Stockcharts, Wikipedia and Investopedia.

pps - Person's Proprietary Signal, a buy/sell signal designed by John Person. It's inner workings have not made public.

rsi - Relative Strength Index, also a measure of money flowing into and out of an issue, but without the volume component. See Stockcharts, Wikipedia and Investopedia.

sto, stochatic - Stochastic Oscillator, calculates the relationship between the current close to the high-low range over a period of time. See Stockcharts, Wikipedia and Investopedia.

All content on Tim Bovee, Private Trader is copyright 2009-2010 by Timothy K. Bovee. All rights reserved.

Quotations of up to 200 words each are allowed. No need for permission, but please let me know what you've used. See the next paragraph for how to get in touch.

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