Your Trading Plan Benefits from My Visit to the NYC Traders Expo

Your Trading Plan Benefits from My Visit to the NYC Traders Expo

Mar 3, 2009

Our news is your news.  What’s happened over the past week at Trade-Ideas can impact your trading plan, how you use Trade-Ideas PRO and its tools, or at least give you a new place from which to gather great market insight and a continuing trader’s education.  
NYC Traders EXPO: 2 Surprises
I came away with 2 observations about The Traders EXPO this year:
  1. There were fewer big name exhibitors at the show.  E*Trade was completely absent and there was no OptionsXpress either.  Several large firms opted for smaller booths or booths just behind the front row (TD AMERITRADE, Scottrade to name a few).  One contra-observation to this theme: an explosion in random, out of nowhere Forex brokers – you’d think everyone who left to dabble in real estate has back to the markets to kill themselves learning Forex.
  2. An unexpectedly larger audience attended The Traders EXPO than in years past.  This was rather pleasantly surprising – especially I’m sure to the EXPO organizers.  It was one of the busiest events I can recall over the past 6 years.  I believe many people (as eloquently expressed by recent Schwab commercials) are upset at how their money is being managed for them and seek a greater amount of control over their savings and invested capital.  That’s why I notice more of an emphasis on such “take over the helm” kind of tools as advertised recently by  TD AMERITRADE and ongoing (somewhat) by Scottrade.
Highlights: StockTwits
The event always provides opportunities to chat with existing partners as well as meet new ones.  This EXPO did not disappoint. One of the highlights was a very impromptu gathering by fans of StockTwits!  Tim Sykes, a couple of Kevins, an intern from StockTwits (who I understand has since found a better-paying gig), and JasonRaznick.  It was great to connect with good people who understand the markets and make their living (or hobby) there everyday.
Some of us stayed for the photo op:

Highlights: AlphaTrends
Another highlight from the event was the chance I got to sit in on Brian Shannon’s presentation, “Multiple Time Frame Analysis Techniques” based on his recently published book, Technical Analysis Using Multiple Timeframes.  Here’s Tim Bourquin’s interview with Brian since I could not find the video of his actual presentation.  See his regular YouTube videos here.
Since I am in the middle of reading Brian’s book, the presentation was very impactful at bringing home many of its lessons.  I was glad I made it for the whole thing.
Other Highlights
I had great meetings with TD AMERITRADE, Need to Know News, Pristine, AcquireMedia and a few other individuals that I met outside the event.  One such meeting was with a trader from Ohio who calls himself SpyderTrader.  He and I had several cocktails at Merchants Cigar Bar downtown while he discussed his profitable trading strategy that he documents and explains in detail on EliteTrader.  I’ve made a mental note to do what you should do when you come across someone who explains the approach to the markets: model it in Trade-Ideas.  That’s what I plan to do when the world slows down for a second.
Take a look at his posts under the thread Equities Journal and his profile.