Got questions? Simply clicking the blue "Support" tab at bottom left of this page (or here) to send in a support ticket. We'll answer courteously and professionally within 12-24 hours.

Gotowebinar help page with help links:
http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com/webinarhelp/

 

 

Q: Do you offer a free trial or open house?
A: We currently run a free "Open House" the first Monday morning of each month.  You can click here to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8171906145940208898

Q: Can I upgrade from Basic to Professional membership?
A: Yes, at the end of your current membership term (only).  For example, if you're in the basic monthly plan and wish to upgrade to Professional, simply cancel your basic plan near the end of your currently-paid month and rejoin using the Professional link.

Q: What type of trader is "Trading the Open" for?
A: It's designed primarily for learning stock day and swing trading. It's a great way to learn in live markets.

 

Q: Are there video downloads or replay links if I miss a session?
Yes, for Professional-level members... we now have a private member's area in which we archive the most-recent two week's worth of 9:30-10am segments of each session to download. The video recordings are in high resolution 1920x1080 clear .wmv video that you can download and keep. We run the full sessions Tue/Wed/Thur from 9:15-10:30am, and record the most important part of each session, from 9:30am-10am for you to keep. This is new and we just started recording these effective April 24th, 2013.

This is ideal for swingtraders who can't be there live for our morning events, and for all traders who either miss a session or simply want to download professional trading videos to learn from how swing and day trading S/R levels are set. This is an exceptional bonus, as it's a total of 6 hours of video (12 x 30-minute recordings) each month that you'll get as a member.

Q: Is this for new traders, or should I learn from your other courses/videos first?
A: I've designed Trading the Open to help traders of all experience levels.

New member: Before asking questions (particularly related to how to trade/trading patterns), please be sure to a) watch at least 8-10 videos from my http://www.youtube.com/tradingtelevision/ channel, and b) read all of my Equities.com articles and c) carefully study this FAQ/help page.

Q: How do I use the swing trading training?

A: During the sessions, I will post tickers (only) of swing trading candidates to follow. I will also verbally tell you likely entry areas, a specific price, to use as you papertrade/learn from the training. If it's hit later in the day, and you are watching the recorded video, simple add .35 to above the nearest whole number above the day's high, for an entry signal. For example if a stock's high-of-day is 32.7, the swing trading entry trigger would be (33.0 + .35) = 33.35.

For stop losses, I like to use no more than 1.5 points maximum for any swing trade. I may also on occasion note a tighter exit stop level during the live session, if I see one that's more conservative and makes sense.

Q: How should I prepare for each day's session?
A: You'll get complete information once you register. It's easy to get started, you simply log into the Gotowebinar interface and see the charts, hear the audio and pay attention and learn during the open.

 

Q: How long does it take to get my live room access once I've registered?
A: Allow a minimum of 24 hours after you place your order, to get your live room access information email. Do not join the hour before the market opens Tuesday and expect an instant email within a couple of hours with your access, for example. If 24 hours have elapsed after the time you ordered and you don't see your welcome email, check your spam and trash email folders. If you still don't see it, contact us with your full name and we'll re-send it to you.

Q: I don't want to use Paypal, is there an alternative?
A: I prefer that you use Paypal if possible, since it makes it easy to register and/or cancel yourself. However if you don't want to use Paypal, just contact us and we'll send you an alternate registration link using Visa/MC with our regular 1shoppingcart registration merchant account.

Q: Do I need to buy any special indicators or proprietary software?
A: No -- I use 1-minute candlestick charts to train day and swing traders myself. You do not need to buy any proprietary "magic indicators" or other software, unlike competitors make you do. You can follow along and learn via the gotowebinar interface. No special software is needed. And I don't sell any software of any kind. I teach traders how to trade.

To learn how to trade, you simply need to know how to trade momentum price action with the strategies I teach, including candlestick charts, tape reading, micro-cup patterns, gaps and other core trading tactics, like any professional trader uses. For more on candlestick charts for momentum trading, with western technicals, get the StockTradingSuccess.com system I co-produced with my colleague Steve Nison.

Q: How is "Trading The Open" different from other chatrooms?
A: There are several important valuable differences. Some trading rooms have text-only; Trading the Open feautres live chart patterns to watch. Also it's moderated by myself, Ken Calhoun, personally; I'm one of the industry's top known day and swing trading professionals (featured in trade publications including 'Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities", MoneyShow Traders' expos and more), and I'll teach you how to use my techniques.

Other chatrooms may deliver little or no actual training. Trading the Open is like getting a "live market seminar each day" because of the specific training strategies that you'll be learning.

Plus, seeing the "how" and "why here?" to spot breakouts from a veteran, seasoned real trader can be one of the most valuable trading experiences you'll get. You get that with Trading the Open™.

Q: Why can't I actually make real trades based on what you present in Trading The Open?
A: There's several reasons we require that you use the information presented solely to learn from (and not actually trade from). One is regulatory compliance laws: since we are not a registered investment advisor, we cannot by law (and do not) make buy, sell or hold recommendations. Instead, we teach you specific breakout chart patterns, including how to identify key support and resistance levels, in each day's session. Also I do not trade live, so I can focus on teaching.

So by registering, I require that you agree to not make actual live real-money trades based on any information presented (nor do I), due to SEC/CFTC regulatory requirements. All information is for educational use only. I want you to focus on learning the timing and pattern recognition skills, so you can use these independent trading skills for yourself.

Also it's not good to make trading decisions based on what people say in live rooms anyways. It's better for you to focus instead on learning and personal trader education, so that you learn practical day and swing trading skills for yourself. Look at the Trading the Open sessions as live-market online seminar-style training, to learn pattern recognition and timing skills.

For educational use only: no real-money trades are made during these training sessions; all information is for training/educational use only. No performance nor profitability claims nor trading recommendations nor advice are made: this is Not an advisory service, it is educational only. By participating you agree to not make actual trades; use a demo (papertrading) account, to Learn the patterns as they are explained in each educational session. No individual advice nor recommendations are being made; all information is impersonal and generally published for educational use only, per applicable SEC & CFTC regulations.

Beware the non-CFTC compliant other 'trading rooms' (some of our competitors) that do illegal things like a) making performance /winning %age claims, b) claim to be trading live when in fact they're doing simulated trading that they dishonestly try to pass off as real-money trading c) front-run their alerts (especially with penny/low-float risky stocks) d) pay off "room shills"; people who post phony 'trade wins' and act as cheerleaders, e) claim to have traders making big (fake/inflated) profits.

Q: Do you do actual live trading during the room?
A: No, it's all interactive training, chart patterns and teaching, for educational use only. This is to avoid 'front running' orders or having unrealistic expectations or implied performance/profitability claims. All information is for educational use only and no warranties of suitability nor performance nor profitability claims of any kind are made. No live trades are made.

Q: How is "Trading The Open" different from your premium evening webinar series, such as Breakout Mastery, Price Action Mastery, Trade Mastery, Stock Trading Success and others? (all courses/services sold separately)
A: The morning "Trading the Open" sessions are designed primarily for day traders who want to see world-class training for each of the morning opens that we train traders in. The training is also good for swing trading. The main focus of Trading the Open is to post realtime training to follow what's moving, and explain patterns. There is very limited time for Q&A, as it's mostly live-market commentary.

In contrast, the evening sessions are for in-depth training, with lots of Q&A time and interactive immersion coaching and activities. The evening sessions in my various courses are designed to teach you the mechanics of how to trade, in detail, with advanced precision entry and exit strategies. Also the evening webinar series provide much more time for interactive Q&A time plus detailed in-depth training.

The live room is fast-paced "what to look for now" for day (and swing) trades, without as much time for training in the various techniques to use. The best way to learn is to initially register for one or more of my evening webinar courses, to learn strategies, then register for the live room to see fast-paced training in action.

Discount rate available: if you've bought one of our premium webinar series within the past two years, contact us for a special quarterly "Trader Loyalty" discount rate link.

Q: Will you ever run "Trading The Open" during every day, all day long?
A: No ... I offer the sessions Tue-Wed-Thursdays from 9:15-10:30am ET,as that's the "prime time", midweek opening hours, for best volatility and price action.

Current schedule: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays 9:15 am - 10:30am ET.

Also, I don't believe it's healthy for traders to become overly dependent on a live fulltime chatroom: I've seen it all, since 1999 — traders mindlessly log in and post meaningless chit-chat text (politics, offtopic comments) all day long, which consumes too much time and is not, in my opinion, how to become successful.

My philosophy with Trading the Open is that by delivering practical focused live opening-hour Tue-Wed-Thursday trading sessions, it's a much better way to get you to actually learn and FOCUS during selected market opens, so you can see how to actually find potential paper-trading opportunities much faster and potentially more successfully, than other approaches you may have seen.

Q: What are the rules and guidelines? Why a 3-post/question limit?
A: You agree to not make live actual trades based on this; it's all for educational use only. And there's a limit of 3 questions/posts per trader per session. This is an educational training service, not interactive coaching (my premium courses offer that). This is for listening to live-market commentary with me, not for asking a lot of questions or posting comments. And you agree to not post "how to trade" type questions every single day, that's too much.

The reason for the guidelines is so that I can focus my energy on scanning through the markets, live, which is very time-consuming and demanding on my energy and time. If people logged in and posted continuous comments or personal trading questions, I would not be able to use my time for the advantage of all traders. This is for learning with me, not for asking lots of questions every day.

If I ever did offer a personal live-markets coaching program with unlimited questions, the pricing would be substantially higher, with fewer traders allowed to enroll. The way I have Trading the Open structured, I can accomodate a lot of traders, with a max. 3-question or post per session limit, at the current low pricing I am able to offer. Thanks for respecting my professional guidelines. Here's an excerpt of an actual "stop asking so many questions" email support ticket I had to send to a trader who was asking daily how-to trade type of questions, which is not what this service is designed for.

Types of questions or posts that are okay would be: eg "SBUX near high of day, is there a cup breakout here yet?", or "market looks quiet here, I'm just waiting for now" or "gap up in SNDK, how does it look to you?" or similar.

Questions that are not ok would be like "please explain how to enter and exit GPRO here, what are all the signals you're looking for?" or "can you tell me how to use tape reading for entering EBAY right now and show how it works?", or "Please explain all the rules for how you set entries and exits" or "what's a cup breakout pattern and how do I trade those?" etc, since those are detailed questions that would take a lot of time to answer, and I cannot give individual advice.

Q: Can I send you personal emails or support tickets with my trading questions?
A: No, due to the volume of emails I get, I cannot answer individual trading questions. Save any questions to ask during the live sessions; you can ask up to 3 questions during any one session.

Q: Where do I go to see my account information, such as payment history and/or renewal date information?
A: All our payments are handled via Paypal, so just login to your Paypal account to see your payment history and renewal information. You can also unsubscribe from within Paypal if you wish to do so at anytime. Paypal accepts Visa/MC and others, so you can enroll using Paypal and it automatically handles renewals for your subscription, and maintains records of your payment history.

Q: What type of trader is "Trading the Open" Not for?
A: This is not designed to be a place where people mindlessly login all day and post chatter for each other, like a social club. It's not for traders who want to post an endless stream of posts and questions (there's a limit of 3 posts/question comments per trader, per session, plus you agree to not ask trading how-to questions every session). It's not for people who are needy and dependent and clingy and want someone to take them by the hand and do all their thinking for them. It's not for amateurs who want to have a place to talk with other people because they're bored.

Trading the Open (tm) is a professional place where traders come to hear my personal narrative on the market during the times we're running the room. Hundreds of traders have joined in prior years, and it's been exceptionally popular for a reason: the professional FOCUS we have on realtime entry and exit calls, narrated by myself. It's also not for rude, demanding, foolish nor childish people. If you are honest, thoughtful, mature, professional and want to learn how to trade, then this can be ideal for you.

Q: Does access to "Trading the Open" include other bonuses or services?
A: No; all our courses and services are each sold separately. Access to the Trading the Open live room includes live-room access as described here in the site; no other courses or services are included.

Q: Do you trade a live or demo account personally for us to watch?
A: No; all information is for educational use only; what you'll see are live breakouts to teach you chart patterns. The main benefit of the room is to learn a) what types of momentum patterns are good to follow, b) how to set entries and exits, c) the timing skills to use in learning how to trade, and d) live realtime interactive learning. No real trades are made.

Q: How do I cancel my subscription?
A: We use Paypal, so all you do is login to your paypal account and cancel it yourself. Alternatively, you can send us a support ticket (using the email address you used when ordering; include your name as well), with at least 48 hours notice prior to your renewal date and we can do it for you. It's best for you to manage your subscription yourself, however; as it's very easy to login to your paypal account and click cancel if you wish. Many of my traders stay with me for many years in my various educational programs because of the professionalism and value they represent.

Q: Do I need to use level 2/ totalview to day trade stocks?
A: Absolutely not. That's an outdated technique that us old-time day traders used back in the dot-com days of daytrading. It no longer works since most order flow is automated by software, not manually done by market makers/specialists in a way that can be exploited. I used to teach how back in my historical VHS/DVD called "Advanced Day Trading" (video clips here); though since that technique is no longer as effective, I no longer teach how to do it.

Instead, we use 1-minute candlestick charts, tape reading, and other easy-to-follow breakout and pivot strategies, illustrated live in the markets.

Q: How will I learn to become a trader using what you teach me in your live "Trading The Open" sessions?
A: As a former corporate trainer, as well as trader, I will make sure that we do interactive "you make the call" type training, in addition to showing you new pattern recognition skills.

Each session is exceptionally educational, fast-paced and focused, so that you're learning while you see the live training. The interactive commentary about "how to trade, specific entry patterns to look for, and how to spot breakouts?" during live markets is the best feature, in addition to all the live training you'll be getting.

Trading the Open is designed to be world-class, unlike any other live trading room experience you've had. When I ran my live Trading the Open room back during 2000-2005, it was extremely popular, for good reason. Compare me to anyone in the industry. I think you'll be impressed, and hopefully become a much more knowledgeable, confident trader as well!

Q: What is your charting software and broker?
Personally I use eSignal for my charts. I'm also in the process of working with other chart providers, like NinjaTrader, MetaStock and TradeStation. It's very important to have the right tools for trading; I like use professional trading charts because of the depth, usability and flexibility the charting platform offers to active traders.

I use InteractiveBrokers.com as my broker, because their commissions are inexpensive (for example, they charge a low commission for many stock trades) and they've worked well for my trades. The trading interface is easy to use and order execution is extremely fast.

You must have a fast direct-access broker (like InteractiveBrokers or similar) to day trade. You cannot use a slow browser-based broker (many of whom charge high $7+ commissions) and inferior free charting. You need the right tools for the job.

Q: Can you answer individual questions by email, or handle special requests?
A: No; you may post up to 3 brief posts per session, live, during each webinar event; these are often things like traders posting a ticker of something that's moving they want me to look at (though no questions related to detailed "how to trade" or other questions can be answered). And you can't ask 'how to trade' type questions every single session, that's too much. Due to the volume of emails I get, I cannot answer individual trading-related questions (read this), nor handle special requests for things outside the scope of what's described here on the site. That's true for all my courses and webinar events; I can answer questions during events, but not via email nor can I do other training/support (like how to set up your charts or enter demo-account orders in your brokers' software or other detailed support).

Q: Do I need any special software or anything else?
No — since Trading the Open live sessions are shown using our Gotowebinar interface, you do not need anything beyond a typical computer setup to view the events. If you have a regular PC you should be able to log in via our Gotowebinar interface to follow along.

Here's the PC system requirements, from the GotoWebinar FAQ page:

  • Internet Explorer® 7.0 or newer, Mozilla® Firefox® 3.0 (JavaScript™ and Java™ enabled)
  • Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
  • Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection
  • Dual-core 2.4GHz CPU or faster with 2GB of RAM (recommended)
    (Mac users: see the Gotowebinar FAQ page for system requirements)

For .wmv video files for Mac/iMac users:
Macintosh/iMac/Apple users: Before joining, be sure you can properly download and view .wmv video files before you enroll. If you can't figure out how to right-click to download and view .wmv video files (see forum Mac thread here), do not join.

Be sure to turn up your computer speakers so you can hear the presentation once you log in.

Q: I have trouble logging in, what should I do?
Make sure you're logging in from just one computer. If you have any technical questions about gotowebinar, you can see their FAQ/help area here. You can also contact them directly for tech support if you need it.

Q: What forms of payment do you take?
We take Visa/MC via Paypal.

Q: What's the limit for IP addresses for? How does it work?
To guard against illegal/unauthorized password sharing, we use a very advanced IP logging program that tracks every single login (including IP address and geographic location/geolocation lookup). By using this service, you agree to not login to the download area from more than 2 unique IP addresses (if you have to travel or login from different locations, do Not join). For the live gotowebinar sessions, you are limited to a single computer/single login per event.

Here's what it looks like, from our admin screen: login security -- as you can see it's very accurate. It's ok to have a dynamic IP address with your ISP, since the first two octets remain the same (only the last two would change); but if all 4 are different, it knows that a different ISP/location has been used, and locks out the password.

This is okay: (person has IP with dynamic ip, ok as long as first two octets remain the same)
210.14.216.xx
210.14.208.xx
210.14.199.xx

this is not ok (person is using multiple locations and/or password sharing):
210.18.216.xx
198.22.290.xx
207.44.395.xx

We reserve the right to turn over suspected password-sharing IP data logs to law enforcement personnel for criminal investigation of 'theft of service' charges. We have a zero-tolerance policy for attempted theft or password sharing.

Q: Can I park my membership or put it on hold if I go on vacation? Or makeups if I miss one or more days?
Sorry, no -- we can't keep track of that type of information; so there are no 'holds' or 'parking'; your room subscription is like cable tv, it's something that's there for you during scheduled times; we can't put your time on hold and then reactivate. And no there's no makeup sessions if you miss a day, it's a continuous subscription (like any pay site, or cable tv service), so if you miss any time that's your responsibility and no make-up or other time is provided. .

Q: Do you have a refund policy?
No, all sales are final and there are no refunds nor partial/prorated refunds. This is to protect us from dishonest people. You are welcome to look at the preview videos to see an example of the type of training I deliver (links are at the top of this page), to help you make your decision.

Q: Do you have any performance records or statistics?
No, because this is all for educational use only, we do not make any performance nor profitability claims of any kind, per SEC/CFTC regulatory compliance requirements. You can join for a month or so as a new paid member to see the professional training quality for yourself .

Q: Will my rate I joined at stay the same, even if you raise rates after I join?
Yes, your rate will stay the same as long as you stay continuously subscribed with no cancellations/rejoining/lapses in membership. So if you join at one price and stay subscribed, that's your rate for as long as you stay a member in good standing and continuously subscribed. Your rate will not increase. If however you join, cancel, then rejoin later, you will need to pay whatever the then-prevailing current rate is.

Q: I joined at one price earlier, now your rate is higher; can I rejoin at my original rate I had?
Sorry, no -- if we offer a special price for joining, you must stay continuously subscribed to be eligible for that rate. Otherwise people would join for a few months, quit, and rejoin, and that's a hassle for us to manage. Once you join, you must stay subscribed with no lapses in membership to be able to stay in at the low rate you originally subscribed at. Our rates go up over time.

Q: How would I use this with options, for strike prices & expiration dates?

The live room is Not for options, it's for learning how to day trade stocks, in round trips of several minutes to 20 minute round trips. We have nothing to do with options or risky penny stocks.

Q: What are your standard stop-loss settings?
Once a breakout is found, I will often call very close exits, with as tight as .05 to .10 (five or ten cents) trailing stop. The starting default levels are .20 - .40 for stocks. Good professional traders use tight stops to minimize risk. Once it’s moved in our favor by >.2 (twenty cents) or more, exit ½ the (papertrading) position to lock in a gain and trail at breakeven (initial entry price) stop on the rest.

Q: Why do you use candlesticks instead of bar charts?
Because candlestick charts deliver much more information than simplistic bar charts. I'm an expert at momentum day trading using 1-minute candlestick charts, combined with Western technicals like tape reading, sector strength and micro-cup patterns. Trading off bar charts is like watching television in black and white vs color.

The world's top expert in candlestick charts is my longtime colleague Steve Nison; we've co produced the bestselling, critically acclaimed Stock Trading Success System together (highly recommended if you haven't ordered it yet).

For more on candlestick chart training, be sure to visit Steve Nison's Candlecharts.com site — he's the world's foremost authority and genuine expert on using candlestick charts.

Q: What's your eSignal setup, subscriptions you personally use?
This is what I have in my eSignal account:

New York Stock Exchange
NYSE (Bid/Ask)
NYSE MKT LLC (fka AMEX) (Bid/Ask)
NASDAQ Level I
500 Symbols
CME Group Globex Data
North American Stock Indices
NYSE Euronext Global Index Feed (GIF)
S & P Cash Indexes (CME sourced)

Q: How is "Trading The Open" different from your other training?
A: The focus on Trading the Open is primarily on timing, pattern recognition and trading entry and exit skills using LIVE realtime markets. So it's faster paced, and more targeted towards showing you how to react to signals that are happening in live markets.

I recommend that you buy my other training first (webinar series, online courses, DVD systems), to learn the core trading strategies and specific advanced tactics. Then, see for yourself "how it works in live markets" by enrolling in Trading the Open live room training sessions. Or at least review this recent archive of 21+ recent Equities.com articles I've written.

And of course questions are welcome (up to 3 per session), so you'll learn during live markets, exactly how to trade. Although I cannot give you specific trading advice nor recommendations, I can answer any general questions about chart patterns I'm teaching.