It is quite simple actually. Theoretically, every stock that is...

It is quite simple actually. Theoretically, every stock that is listed on any exchange is a trading stock. Some are just more tradable than the others. I was a day trader with a trading group in the late 1990s, early 2000s. The first and most important criterion to pick a trading stock is not whether it is trending or not, but whether it is liquid enough for you to get in and out quickly without losing much in the spread.

While you can double your money holding on to a stock like TPW for months or years, I can make more money range trading a liquid stock like BHP in the same time frame or much less.

You have to be quick, in and out a few times a day, long and short, but only when the market is liquid. On slow days, we would go to the pub or the cat house. I actually traded a lot of options then, collar was my favourite. You can move a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of BHP in minutes without moving the price at all, not losing more than a couple of pips in the spread. When you close the trade, the same thing.

I would like to see you move a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of TPW in a few minutes without moving the price 40 or 50 pips at least. On a slow day, you can move the price up or down 20% or more with such a trade. When that happens, you are more like trading against yourself and you will never make any money.

With KGN or APT, when they move up they leap and bounce but they do the same when they go down. Without the liquidity (they do have,that is why they are traders' stocks), I would never have touched those stocks.

In my winter years, I am now an investor in stocks, mostly through my SMSF although I still trade FX and commodities, more for entertainment than making money. You can move $1M EURUSD in one trade without moving the price by 1 pip (at night when both London and NY markets are open). With high blood pressure and a weak heart, I limit myself to $50K per trade now.

Yeah, those were the days, my friend.