2007 Aug 05 - Sun

Trading Site of the Day -- Trader's Narrative

I was pointed to Trader's Narrative through a link at Elite Trader via a thread regarding margins and haircuts (the two being the same thing). This link points to a list of proprietary trading firms, where Genesis Securities is listed as one. I guess I have an exam to write to get a better haircut!

It seems that once a person has passed what is known as the Series 7 exam (a 6 hour, 250 question General Securities Representative Examination), one can join a proprietary trading firm and enjoy margins in the 20-1 region. Regular retail traders get 4-1 during the day and 2-1 over-night. There are a number of preparation books listed at Amazon. One poster suggested Securities Training Corporation.

Trader's Narrative blog also has an entry regarding the use of the McClellan Summation Index as it relates to the Nasdaq and NYSE markets. According to that index, the markets can fall some more and still be above previous declines.

A couple of links later, I found myself at VIX and More and a summary page on the McClellan Summation Index, which is basically an advance/decline tool. VIX and More should probably be on a Trading Site of the Day entry by itself. Anyway, from there, I got to where there is a description of the actual calculation at the McClellan Financial Publications.