Friday's trades

Managed to eek out a nice profit after starting off poorly. Mismanaged FTO and missed a nice little run - but I'm happy to end the week positive. SWN was my saving grace and TIF was my loser. 

Enjoy the weekend.

Thursday's trades

Calling it a day as I'm about to head out to an Irish bar to knock back a few pints. Had a nice day with just a couple of trades. RTN was about as good as it gets.

Hope you all did well.

Wednesday's trades

Certainly didn't think I would be going short after the first hour of trading but that's what I ended up doing. Caught a couple of nice moves with LLTC and DF. Red arrows are where I exited all my shares.

Monday's trades

Some charts to enjoy. Questions? Leave a comment. BHP was a loser but a good day overall.

Wednesday's trades

Tried a couple of different tactics today. I just need to mix things up to give myself a better chance of making money. The grind of one good day followed by crappy days is really wearing me down. While I don't want to overtrade, I still want to feel like I can approach a chart from a few different strategies.

Anyway... shorted ADBE (10am bar low, :10) and it bascially bounced of R3 and I decided to just get out at breakeven.

Shorted HUM at the same time as ADBE and pretty much got out with a small loss.

Also shorted GFI on a break of the 9:50 bar low and it went my way at first. Partialed at 1R and left the rest which was stopped out. 

The best trade of the day was MET. Entered long off a break of the 10:45 bar high (:15), partialed then sold all just below the fib. ext. Wish I could've been part of that explosive move above the FE but I was on the sidelines.

Thursday's trades

Day 2 of the crapfest continues for me. Went long GLD twice and the first entry (10:10, :10) went to 1R then came back down to stop me out. I was fortunate to bail on 1/2 my shares at BE. I re-entered on a break of the 11:20 bar high and it went nowhere - stopping me out quickly.

Shorted MOS off the :05 chart (11:15 bar low)... got close enough to 1R where I set a stop for 1/2 my shares at BE - which happened quickly (along with the rest of my shares at the original stop).

SFD was about the only bright spot but I wasn't able to see it to fruition. Entered long on a break of the 10:30 bar high (:15) after noticing a nice morning star pattern off the 5ema. It really didn't move much so I scaled out at the ORH then the rest as it came back down below the 12:45 bar low. I just didn't want this winner turning into a loser. Missed the move I wanted all the way up to the fib. ext. Overall, another losing day.

Wednesday's trades

Couple of FU setups that went my way (one more than the other). 

STLD

Went long off a break of the 10am bar high. I was a little hesitant for some reason and thought I would get stopped out. But price ended up going my way and I exited all my shares just below the fib. ext.

BBL

I actually saw a nice formation on the 5-min chart but couldn't find any of my 3 setups to enter. I flipped to a faster timeframe (3-min) and saw a good FU entry at the ORH. Entered long off a break of the 10:36 bar high (but I was late so I let the order slip a bit). Thought I would hit the fib. ext. early on but price fell back down. Had to step out of the apartment and ended up getting stopped out on a revised stop. Still a decent profit as I scaled out at 33.13.

Tuesday's trades

Another solid day to build on the momentum from yesterday. In other words... I held serve :)

IDCC

Shorted off a break of the 11:30 bar low (10-min) off of a quasi-FU type trade. Scaled out a bit at 1R and the bulk after .90. I got ancy at the end of the day as price chopped around and sold all my shares before the big move down. Sucks to miss it but I won't complain.

VRSN

Long off a break of the 10:20 bar high (5-min) on a 'hangin' out' setup. Like the NR hammer on my entry bar and exited all my shares just above the fib. ext.

BAX

Went long off a break of the 10:10 bar high (10-min) after a 'brick wall' setup at the 25% fib. level (and 5ema). Thought this would do better but there was stiff resistance at the 54 level and I emptied most of my shares there and the rest at BE.

Friday's trades

Sorry for the late post but it's been a busy weekend so far. Had a decent day yesterday and felt good that all my trades ended green. No time analysis but take a look at the charts. 

One thing to note is that my COP trade took place off the :10 timeframe. I still used the :15 OR as my area of entry.

Treadmill trading

Today would've been a pretty satisfying day were it not for 2 mistakes. My first mistake was going long PRU off a break of the 10:45 bar high. The entry wasn't the mistake... it's that it was technically a gap down candidate and I should've been looking to go short, not long. However, it totally looked like a gap up stock and that's why I entered. And it failed. 

I also shorted JPM on a quasi 'hangin' out' setup but I entered on an inverted hammer (12pm bar low) after it followed a shooting star-type candle. So, still a 'hangin' out' setup but I prefer to enter on a candle that closes below its open. Long story short... stopped out.

The one trade I should've only had today was RIMM. It was a keeper. I have to say there's nothing like a stock that trades perfectly. I've been fortunate to have that happen two days in a row with KO yesterday as well.

Anyway, shorted RIMM off a break of the 10:40 bar low on a 'FU' style setup. Exited a portion at 1R and the rest just above the fib. ext. A no-worry trade. I'll take it. 

In the end... it was an absolute BE day. Very similar to my week. It was good exercise.

Standing 8 count

The results of my first two trades certainly didn't set a good tone for the day. First I shorted NYX off a break of the 10am bar low. I usually don't get to the computer this early but it was there and I took it. Started off well, hit 1R but bounced back up, sold 1/2 at BE and was stopped out of the rest at the original stop. Then, went long CMG off a break of the 10:15 bar high and was stopped out later on (violently, I might add). 

I was down and contemplated whether to just call it a day but then I spotted KO. It surged above the ORH for the first time and then retraced back down near the ORH. Went long off a break of the 11:05 bar high. I usually like my entry bars to touch the ORH but I felt the close was very strong and the risk was relatively small. Worked out beautifully and I scaled out during the orderly rise to the fib. ext. which is where I exited the rest of my shares to get back in black. 

This has been a tough week and pretty damn choppy. Just got to stick with it and have confidence that the setups will follow through. 

Short day

Couldn't trade past 11:15 or so but I did get into one trade. A losing one. MMC. Went long off a break of the 10:55 bar high and was stopped out about a 1/2 hour later. Got within .02 of 1R but then just dropped. The other trade I wish I hadn't wussed out on was IPI. I actually had an order in to short the break of the 10:45 bar low but nothing triggered, I canceled the order with about :05 left in the 10:50 bar. As soon as I canceled... price drop to the trigger area. I thought for a second I was too late with canceling the order, but I wasn't. 

Ho Hum

Not a lot going on. Tried shorting WHR only to be stopped out completely. I think I bought very near the low of the day (break of 10:15 bar low, :05). I then went long FCX - you read that correctly - and made back all my losses plus some change.  Normally, I would be happy but when I looked at my chart I realized I drew my fib. lines from the PDL to very near the :30 bar high instead of the :15. So, when I entered on a break of the 10:35 bar high my price target was the fib. ext. at 31.28. I was able to get out completely at 31.25. 

A bit of luck never hurts. Although X recently blogged about using the :30 OR. I'm happy today is over but would really like to get back to solid trading days filled with opportunities.

Tricky day

In the end profitable but a lot left on the table. Took 4 trades all-in-all and V proved to be the breadwinner today. Now, when I entered V, the candle I entered on had closed positive and much closer to the high than what is shown on the chart. There were some weird spikes going on late in the day and I cleared the chart and then backfilled it again. After backfilling, I noticed my entry bar was negative and, if it's indeed correct, I would not have entered there. Even so, my entry bar was not the strongest and as I was waiting for the setup, I noticed the wild swings in price. So, I set my high/low entry spread to be the low of the 12:05 bar and the high of the entry bar. This helped tremendously as I would've been stopped out of the trade had I used the low of the entry bar.

I know this is long-winded but the bottomline is that sometimes making slight changes can help put the odds more in your favor. Luck also helps.

FU trade: AKAM

Brickwall trades: BBT, DLB

Hangin' out trade: V

I'm out

This was one boring day. Although I did get in a couple of decent setups that went to 1R and then I decided to bail for one reason or another. With SNH, I liked the setup (FU, :15, 7th bar low) but didn't like that it was inside yesterday's range. Once there was resistance at yesterday's low... I set my stop to BE.

With DIS, decent setup (hangin' out, :05, 12:50 bar) but my entry bar was a bit wide. Price moved down but then I just didn't like the action around the $19 level and set my stop to BE. 

I'll try to post charts when the market ends.

Fist full of hair

I was thinking this would be a good day as, statistically speaking... I was bound to have a good one after two lackluster performances. And things were pretty good. But my best trade of the day, GD, turned on me and, trying to be the good trader and practice good money management, I let those profits slip away. I was lucky to have scaled out at 3R to have some kind of saving grace. The rest of the trades had promise but never materialized.

F-U trades: GD*, NEM, BBY

Brick wall trades: FXI, AET**

*GD could also qualify has a brick wall trade.

**Rat bastard. Stuck around for over an hour with nothing happening, exited and then the stock moved.