How to Choose Which Symbols to Trade

Choosing symbols, in five lines

Choosing which symbols to trade is four questions asked of every row. When does it move, and are you at the screen then. What is one day worth at the smallest lot, which is the unit a trade is sized in, in your money. What does it cost, meaning the spread, the gap between the buying and the selling price, and what share of a day's move that eats. And can you say what the thing is and what moves it, in a sentence. The answers are on your own screen, in the bars, the Specification and the Market Watch. A short list is what is left when the four questions have been asked of every row you were curious about.

A short list on a clipboard

Picture a short list on a clipboard: a few rows, out of the hundreds a broker offers, with a tick beside the ones whose four answers fitted one person's hours, money and knowledge. The rows are examples of what such a list looks like, not a recommendation; another person, awake at other hours with another account, ticks other rows. What the lists have in common is the method. Every row on them answered the same four questions, and the rows that did not answer are not on the list.

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