A few trades

The bad:
MLNM - I shorted this stock on a break of the 10:30 bar off the 10-min chart. I knew about the strong first bar, I knew about bars 3 and 4 and yet, after entering and price worked against me... did I exit for a small loss??? No, I took a full hit. I need to start grading my trades and plan my exits around the grade. So, say it's a scale of 1 to 3 with 1 being the worst... I would look to exit or partial at the first sign of trouble. Need to work on this.
 
The good:
CMED - dropped like crazy from the open. But it started basing below the ORL on the :15 and I entered short off a break of the 11:15 bar low. Price action was really crazy so even though the chart looks steady... it was a wild ride. I bailed at $46.
 

 
CTSH - this was just the happy little stock that was willing to cooperate... never make me sweat and slowly ease its pretty little bars all the way down to my price target. Entered short off a break of the 11:45 bar low (15-min) which was a failed reversal setup. Exited at the fib. ext.
 

AAPL - Long

Missed a nice short entry in WNR (4/15 - a little late getting everything together today) that moved downward nicely. Took a long entry in AAPL off the 10-min chart after the 10:30 bar closed strong above the 10 and 15-min ORH. As usual, I managed the exit off the 15-min chart. Paritialed out on a break of the 1pm bar low and sold the rest right below $32.

Didn't really see much else today.

Active day

I felt like I traded a lot today when I really only entered 4 trades (YGE twice). I hesitated and missed some nice trades (COGT, ENOC) that were right in front of me. Might have to do with the layoff.

I entered YGE the first time when I probably shouldn't have as I don't really like indecision candles at the ORL (black arrow). However, I liked the contraction after the wide bar. I was stopped out a few bars later. My second entry was more like it. Decreasing volume, inside, narrow range bar right below S2 with a nice upper tail (very bearish). Sold all my shares at the fib. ext.

New week

Back from vacation. Took a nice 4-day trip to Luzern, Switzerland... which is absolutely beautiful. I keep going to different cities here in Europe and I always ask myself, "would I want to live here?" The answer with Luzern is yes. Reminds me a lot of Colorado except the city is right on this wonderful lake whose water is as clear as any pristine beach in the Virgin Islands. Problem with Luzern is that it's crazy expensive. While the franc is on par with the dollar right now... cost of goods is about twice as much as a typical store in the US.

I'll try to post some pics this week. Speaking of pics... this will be the last trip I take photos with a simple point and shoot digital camera. My Canon 40d SLR is due to arrive in a couple of weeks and I can't wait. I have a planned trip to Barcelona in March which should prove to be a wonderful place to 'break' it in.

It was a nice break and I didn't even look at a computer for a solid three days. Okay... well, I did eye one at the airport. Oh, then there was another at a Starbucks :)

Two trades

Traded FNM ( short 12/15) and was stopped out. I really thought price was gonna drop after entry. Also went short FRE (7/15) and managed to partial and get out with some cash before it moved against me. Pretty ho hum day.

I'll be away on Monday and Tuesday so have a good weekend good luck trading!

BPFH - Short

I was 1 for 3 today and you know what... that's just fine with me. I got stopped out of NTES (long) and took a loss in ONB (long) but did manage to partial out.
 
My big winner came from BPFH. I actually traded off the 10-min chart on this one. It really doesn't matter what timeframe you use, so long as you follow the same trading rules. So BPFH formed a nice 'failed reversal' at the ORL (bars 6-7 moved down, bar 8 moved up and bar 9 moved back down again).
 
I exited during the 1:10 bar as I was happy with the gain (tried to hold out till the fib. ext. but I just couldn't resist).

EDIT: Looks like I should've held on longer... dropping as I type.
 
 

TRAK, NDAQ - Short

TRAK AND NDAQ offered similar setups and I also looked at the price action in the opening few bars to determine whether I was going to stay the course of the trade or try to take profits early.
 
I ended up taking 2R from both. Exited TRAK during the 11:50 bar and NDAQ during the 11:40 bar.
 
Oh, and Jamie... thanks for reminding me of the volume spike tip. Came in handy with NDAQ today (really both trades).