When following traders on Twitter, Stock Twits, and other social media. it is important to do it for the purpose of learning to trade for yourself, not to be hand fed entries and exits. To be a successful trader you must learn to build your own system and trading plan that fits your own personality. Learn to build a fishing pole, don’t ask to be given fish.
Beware of traders that do not cover all the bases of trading, like risk management, entries and exits, position sizing, and the right trading psychology. Trying to learn to trade and missing one of these elements will likely lead to disaster. Beware of fake traders who unfollow anyone quickly that deletes tweets, does not let you know about trades until after they are winners, and never has losing trades.
These seven people are some of the best on Twitter:
Scott Redler @RedDogT3Live – Chief Strategist for T3Live.com, active trader with T3 Trading Group, frequent guest on CNBC & Bloomberg and one of the best technical analysts today. I do not know when he sleeps with all the things he does but he is the most open and transparent trader I have ever seen at his level. His calls are spot on, his risk is managed, he calls his spots before the trading day. He is very active on Twitter and adds a ton of value to his followers.
Dan Zanger @DanZanger – Dan is the world record holder for trading returns and is a top swing trader who turned $11,000 into over $40,000,000. He has also managed a hedge fund. Zanger was a relentless student of William J. O’Neil, (Reading his book at least 30 times.), he also studied Nicolas Darvas and Jesse Livermore among others. His story is one of a pool contractor turned multi-millionaire who has earned the right to be in the same league as the legends of trading. His website ChartPattern.com is a goldmine of useful information to traders.
Darrin Donnelly @DarvasTrader – Darrin runs an excellent web site and blog at DarvasTraderPro.com. He is active on Twitter giving trader’s head’s up about key resistance and support levels. He also gives out tweets about hot stocks and their movements. He trades the Nicolas Darvas system which is also my primary system in bull markets. He is more like me in my trading than anyone else and came to many of the same conclusions of modernizing the Darvas method independent of my input. Serendipity.
Michael Covel @Covel – Author of the bestsellers Trend Following & The Complete Turtle Trader. He is the linchpin for trend following traders. I can attribute the difference in my accounts by about six figures from what I have learned from Covel’s work studying successful professional trend following traders. Listen to his trend following podcasts on iTunes, they are pure gold for aspiring traders. (And they are free!) Covel brings great value for stock traders coming from the managed futures world with their discipline and scientific approach to trading.
Mark Minervini @MarkMinervini – One of the few literal Market Wizards on Twitter, Mark was featured in Jack Schwager’s Stock Market Wizards book with several straight 50%+ up years and not losing money in bear markets. Mark will send out an entry he has made, advice, or principles on trading. he does not tweet a lot, but his tweets are golden and informative when he does.
BLUE-HORSESHOE @FitzStock2004 – He trades bonds, futures, equity options. He was a broker for 5yrs and has been a trader for 15yrs. He produces “Charts While U Sleep”(CWUS) and is an excellent chart reader. While he is very active in many markets, and good at all time frames, what I like the most was his simple Apple trading system this year where he was long above the 10 day sma with Apple options much like I was in the first quarter. He cleaned up in the first quarter of 2012 and was right on the stream ahead of me in all my big wins this year.
Angela Zhou @Z8angela – A full-time swing/day trader in stocks & options. Angela is one of the best chart readers I have seen. She lets the charts tell her where to go long or short and for how long to hold. She has really helped me improve my short term game when the market is not offering me any good trends long or short. Angela has made a lot of money in the markets over the past few years. She has done her homework.