Day Traders

CNBC’s POWER LUNCH
with Ted David & the CEO of
DayTraders.com

DayTraders.com Senior Market Editor Ray Johns says day trading should be part of an overall investment plan

SUMMARY: DayTraders.com CEO reviews the services their website provides to day traders and short-term investors. He points out that day trading does have risks and says the company aims to educate visitors while providing services for those who do trade the markets.

Ted: Thanks to the growing power of the Internet, an increasing number of investors have become day traders. These are folks who buy and sell stocks within hours, or even minutes, in hopes of pocketing quick profits. Where on the Web do they get information to help make the trades? Beginning today, here on “Power Lunch”, we plan to take a look at these and other questions about day trading in our weekly series, “Day Trading: Risks and Rewards.” To kick off this segment we’ve invited the senior editor of Daytraders.com, one of the largest trading sites on the Internet for day traders. Here to tell us more about his service, where he gets the research, and how you might profit from it all. Ray Johns, of DayTraders.com, joining us from San Jose, California today. Nice to have you with us.

Ray: Thanks, Ted. Nice to be here.

Ted: First of all, on your Web site, you’re giving stock tips, right?

Ray: Yes. We have a number of different services. The first service is a newsletter geared for day traders who play the market and that covers day traders as well as short-term position traders, so, not necessarily in and out in one day. We also have a trading room where the more advanced traders who are going in and out of the market on a daily basis can gather. So, those are the two primary services that we provide.

Ted: Let me raise this question early on in the chat that we’re going to have here. And that is are there some folks who probably ought not be doing this doing it anyway?

Ray: Yes, I think unfortunately that’s the case. As you know they’ve been talking about some regulations and things coming down the road with the SEC and you know, we think that’s a good idea. Unfortunately, you know, there’s been a shift recently from people who day trade in market who were financially well off and using day trading as just another means of investing in the market. To some people who are using day trading as a means to create wealth from nothing. This is where you hear about people using, you know, money from credit cards or mortgages where they shouldn’t.

Ted: Right.

Ray: And so, that is something. When people come to our site and sign up for our service, we have a two-week free trial. We do try to do some education. We do have information on the site. And you know, I think there does need to be some education so that people who are doing day trading understand the risks and that they aren’t using money they don’t have.

Ted: All right. And, in fact, and then we’ll move on, let’s dispel this. The average person cannot get on and make any serious money day trading; is that correct?

Ray: Yes. We do see a cross-section. There are going be some people who do poorly when they begin. There are going to be some people who do well when they begin, but for the most part, there is a learning curve, and than can be an expensive learning curve. It’s unrealistic to think you can go into the markets, you know, cold and know everything there is to know about day trading.

Ted: All of that said, for those folks who do have some discretionary funds available to them for this, as they might use to go to Vegas or anywhere else, or they think they’re really that good, they can get tips from you guys. Now, where do you get your information? Where does your research come from?

Ray: Well, for example in the newsletter we do a lot of technical analysis. I know you have a background in technical analysis yourself. And we mix had with fundamentals about the company. One thing we should stress is that in our service we do trade stocks that are… that do have good fundamentals behind them. So, we want to be trading the higher-quality names so that if we do have to hold them a little bit longer than a day or two or even a week that we are in good solid positions. And that’s something I want to stress to your viewers.

Ted: We’re not talking about over-the-counter stocks with eight ticker symbols or penny stocks here.

Ray: Yeah. I mean, we do cover some of those from time to time in our higher-risk segment of the service, but largely we recommend sticking to stocks that are also good investments. I think one thing that should be pointed out is before you ever think about becoming a day trader, you should be proficient at investing and again, day trading should be part of an overall investment.

Ted: But let me ask you this. Some of your holdings, AMR, AOL, dell, Monsanto, are these stocks you want to be in and out of on a hourly or daily basis?

Ray: I own these in my long-term portfolio.

Ted: What’s long term for you?

Ray: Well, for me long term, like I say, I have long term and short-term recommendations that I service. The stocks you just covered are ones I happen to hold for the next three to five years.

Ted: Okay.

Ray: But at the same time we recently day traded AOL, bought it at $102, $103, sole it at $119 and then went short. So, a stock like that, if you get in on the wrong side of the market and you’re going to have to hold it for a month or two, there’s always going be buyers of AOL. Nature got a sound business behind them. So, like you say, it’s not some five-ticker stock that, you know.

Ted: Ray, we’ll leave it there. Folks who want to tune in on your location it’s www.daytraders.com?

Ray: That’s correct. DayTraders.com. We have a two-week free trial for all subscribers.

Ted: Thanks for joining us.

Ray: Thank you for having me.

Ted: Senior editor of DayTraders.com, from San Jose, CA today.

Our attempts will all be in vain if we try to sell stocks when the market is close. Below are the dates we need to remember.

January 1- New Year’s Day

January 21- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

February 18- Washington’s Birthday

March 21- Good Friday

May 26- Memorial Day

July 4- Independence Day

September 1- Labor Day

November 27- Thanksgiving Day

December 25- Christmas

Stock or Ticker Symbol refers to the mnemonic utilized to identify the publicly-traded shares of the various corporations in the stock market. Below is the Nasdaq Five Letter Ticker Symbols.

A- Class A shares

B- Class B shares

C- Temporarily exempt from NASDAQ listing requirements

D- A new issue of an existing stock- typically the result of a reverse spilt

E- Delinquent in SEC filing requirements per NASD rules

F- Foreign (non-USA) stock

G- First convertible bond

H- Second convertible bond

I- Third convertible bond

J- Voting shares

K- Non-voting shares

L- Miscellaneous situations, including foreign preferred, preferred when-issued, second class units, third class warrants, or sixth class preferred stock

M- Fourth class preferred stock

N- Third class preferred stock

O- Second class preferred stock

P- First class preferred stock

Q- Currently in bankruptcy proceedings

R- Rights

S- Beneficial interest

T- With warrants or rights

U- Units

V- When issued and when distributed

W- Warrants

X- Indicates shares in a Mutual Fund

Y- ADR’s –American Depository Receipts

Z- Miscellaneous situations, including second class of warrants, fifth class preferred stock or any unit, receipt or certificate representing a limited partnership interest

How to download and install the Windows Software is elucidated in this article. Though it is quite possible to access the Trading Desk using just any standard web browser, this software has the additional features which are not available in typical browsers.

Daytrader.exe is the name of such program. This innovative software can be downloaded and used free of charge. It also includes an automatic installation feature that is carefully tailored to enable the loading of the software to the computer be straight forward and easy. In comparison to the Java Applet, the Daytrader.exe is a commercial grade software package that has been created to function well with other software packages available in the market. The Daytrader.exe is also compatible with Microsoft Windows 95/98/XP and new operating systems.

Installing Daytraders.exe is as easy as one, two, and three. The first step is to download and run the installation package that is labeled “dtc_21a.exe”. The following installation package features the most updated version of the software. It is also approximately 2.0 megabytes in size. To download, click (or right click and select “as target save”) the following links below.

- Download- http://216.228.19.25/dtc_21a.exe

- Md5 Check Sum- 7ce868ff2c93614143c68347082491c6

Then after you have downloaded the file labeled dtc_21a.exe, explore My Computer on your Desktop or Drive C. Locate your file and then double click on the dtc_21a.exe icon. The installation of the Daytraders.exe will subsequently follow. 

To verify the authenticity of the download even before the installation process, one can run it through an MD5 check sum to the .exe file. The MD5 check sum programs can easily be downloaded through the internet when wanted.

After the installation, Daytraders.exe needs to be properly installed to the computer and prepared to be run for the first time. To find Daytraders.exe, try clicking the Start button, then Programs, then Daytraders.com and finally Daytraders.exe. 

Another option would be to click and drag the Daytraders.exe programs through the desktop. It is also recommended that you leave the Daytraders.exe program in its folder and make a shortcut in your desktop location. After you have setup everything, connect to the internet and click Daytraders.exe to launch the software. On the first time that the program runs, select the File/Options menu item and configure your username/password. Right click too the various buttons and screens in the software to personalize/customize the program. 

This is DayTraders.com, your most reliable and updated online source for information on stocks and the stock market.

Shown here are records from our morning stock market reports dating back to the start of this year. They cover all closed long and short positions, with the short positions indicated in parenthesis (). The stocks shown on the tables below correspond to the positions closed (whether with a profit or loss) from our model trading portfolio.

Please keep in mind that the data posted here is merely for tallying purposes. They do not in any way reflect our current opinions on the market and are not recommendations to buy or sell any of the listed positions.

Performance for:

1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008

What does all this mean in practical terms?

The main aim of our morning stock market report and model trading portfolio is to supply members with both a report summary and trading guidance, in order for them to be able to attain a net gain of 2-3 percent per week. However, please note that any past performances do not necessarily mean a direct correlation with possible results in the future. The results shown here come from our weekly newsletter, and therefore may not take into account some factors that affect the actual trades, such as cost averaging or long/short dividend payments on positions held.

This is DayTraders.com, your most reliable and updated online source for information on stocks and the stock market.

Shown here are records from our morning stock market reports dating back to the start of this year. They cover all closed long and short positions, with the short positions indicated in parenthesis (). The stocks shown on the tables below correspond to the positions closed (whether with a profit or loss) from our model trading portfolio.

Please keep in mind that the data posted here is merely for tallying purposes. They do not in any way reflect our current opinions on the market and are not recommendations to buy or sell any of the listed positions.

Performance for:

1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008