Jul 29, 2008

Did well, but...

Not nearly what I should've done. Traded SAP (twice), AKS and CL. Got stopped out of my first SAP entry which was off the 10:24 bar high. 57.85 was decent resistance and my entry broke that area on good volume. I then traded AKS off a break of the 10:39 bar high. Things went wacky and fast. I was up quickly and really was just settling into the trade and looking forward to managing it. I was up almost 1 point before the shit hit the fan. Luckily, I moved my stop up to 58 and for some reason it was triggered and I exited at 58.16. At first I was pissed, but then the stock plummeted and I would have certainly lost more. Still bummed I was up .97 in the stock and ended up with a loss. I need to do a better job of locking in profits but the price action was all over the place.
 
After 11am I flipped over to the :15 charts and set my trendline alerts at the ORH/L of each stock. That's when I saw SAP again. But this time, I flipped back to the 3-min chart and saw a nice breakout bar. Entered long off a break of the 11:33 bar and started managing my exit. I was happy to make back my earlier losses but I was certainly hoping for a whole lot more. A one point move would've been perfect. Again, dinner called so I moved my stop to 58.68 and a sell-limit order at 59.24. Wouldn't you know it??? The damn stock stopped me out at 58.70 (although I don't see where price reached 58.68... should I talk to IB about it?). Still, it was a nice gain but the stock did end up moving up to 59.41.
 
I then entered CL off a break of the 12:45 high off the :15 chart. Nice strong bar with volume that finishes above the ORH. Can't say I really effed things up but I switched over to the 3-min chart to manage my exit... a new strategy I'm working on. I exited when price dropped below 73.84 as it was setting up to be a failed breakout. Looked like a good idea at the time. Decent profit but had I kept my exit rules I normally have off the :15 chart I would be sitting very pretty.
 
Overall a nice, active day. The more B&B trades I make the more I can realize what I'm potentially doing wrong and the more confidence I'll have.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

10 comments:

TraderAm said...

Good trading. I missed SAP 10th candle on the 15min chart.

Anonymous said...

Where did you put your stop-loss for the AKS trade?

TJ said...

Nice job on SAP! I'm kicking myself for missing that one.

QQQBall said...

ah man, you know you are totally dialed in when your sell target is hit, but you're not the first in line. good trading. reminded that X used to take partial after a buck. a buck is alot of money.

bl said...

Nice 30" on CL SAP

OONR7 said...

anon: initial stop loss for AKS was the opposite end of my entry candle. I then moved it to 58.. it triggered and I exited at 58.16.

OONR7 said...

traderam: looks like my OR data for CL was wrong. However, the 1:15 was also a nice entry.

OONR7 said...

thanks jamie... felt good to finally log a successful B&B trade. Wish I would've seen it to the end :)

OONR7 said...

qqqball: totally agree. I mean, I never thought 1 point wasn't a good gain, but that could be target on every trade and I'd be doing cartwheels.

OONR7 said...

bl: yes, those were nice setups off the :30.