I'll take it

While I wish every day gave me more Rs than I know what to do with... the days when I can work myself out of an early hole and into decent profit are just as satisfying. I executed my trades exactly like I wanted to execute them. I didn't tinker... followed my exit strategy and stayed green.

Traded LVS, BKC, CHL and JOYG. Here's a quick recap of each:

LVS: went long off the 10:50 bar high (:10) after it pulled back to the :30 ORH. Got choppy after the entry and I scaled out at BE. Left the rest to run at the original stop and sold all shares below the fib. ext.

BKC: went long off the 10:30 bar high (:10). This was a little riskier since the entry was below the :30 ORH and R2. The trade was doing pretty well but when it couldn't find support at R2... I bailed at BE. Since it was a riskier entry, I didn't want to risk losing money after being up more than 2R.

JOYG: went long off a break of the 11am bar high (:15). This was my 'bitch' trade of the day. Setup looked wonderful, nice pullback to ORH... lots of room to run, strong gap day. Then... it flopped and stopped me out.

CHL: went long off a break of the 12:30 bar high (:30). This trade saved my day. The entry was a nice pullback to the 5ema off a hammer-like candle. Worked right off the bat but just could not get past $48. Consolidated a bit and I just exited all my shares after it took a convincing bounce down from $48.

These gap and crap days really blow as you think you're in for a good day and then... pffft, nada.

Tuesday's trades

Not much of an exciting start to the week. Shorted X (10:10 bar low, :05) for breakeven after it hit 1R and came back. I then shorted CLF off the :30 timeframe (4th bar) and it came close to 1R but then bounced back up for a loss. 
Didn't really see anything else I was interested in. 

Seems like I tend to have a good first week of the month and then everything goes to crap.

TAP - Long

Today's TAP trade is what I absolutely look for in every setup. Strong first bar, orderly 3 bar pullback (2 down bars) into the 5ema. Entry bar was strong with very little upper tail. I exited my entire position after a 1 point gain (including the entry... there were 6 straight up bars in a row before I exited). The long lower tails on the bars after entry did make this a 'white knuckle' trade at times.

Same old story

Boy finds stock.
Boy shorts stock.
Boy adjusts stop to near breakeven after 1R gain.
Boy gets fucked as price hits his adjusted stop earning him decent change but then reverses and falls back down to the original price target which was the fib. ext and boy now feels stupid that he didn't just keep his original stop especially on the :30 chart which he knows he has to be patient on and then ends up writing one of the longest run on sentences in the history of daytrading blogs.
Boy posts chart.
Boy says goodnight.
Boy mentions he hasn't traded futures the last two days either.

EVVV, HWAY

There was good and bad today. First, the good: EVVV set up nicely on the :30 chart. I entered short on a break of the 8th bar low after a pretty weak move to the upside on bars 6 and 7. I got a nice fill and exited all my shares during the 3pm bar.

Now the bad. HWAY first showed up on my radar after printing a very nice reversal bar during the 5th bar (:15 chart). However, the high of that bar was never taken out and my order wasn't triggered. So, I waited a bit and thought I saw a good opportunity on a break of the 12pm bar high (inside bar after a failed reversal). But, it wasn't meant to be and I was stopped out and suffered some bad slippage. I think I'm going to start waiting for the close of my trigger bar to be equal above or near the close of the previous bar (at least for failed reversal plays). I should not that after my initial order wasn't triggered, I noticed the next bar (6th) was an inside, NR bar. Price actually blew past my stop-limit order and I decided to cancel as I didn't want to catch it on the way down.

HOLX - Short

If at first you don't succeed... try another timeframe. Isn't that the saying? I first shorted HOLX off a break of the 11:15 bar low on the :15 chart. Took a partial off a break of the 11:45 bar high then fully closed my position off a break of the 12pm bar high. Ended up with latte cash. Then, I looked at the :30 view and saw another setup and shorted off a break of the 1pm bar low. Exited the entire position at the ORL. I also liked RIG at 11:15 (:15 view) but I didn't like the relative volume at the time. Here's the HOLX :30 chart:

COGN - Long

The anatomy of 1.08R trade (COGN):

5-min chart

• Entered on a break of the 10am bar high which was an inside nr7 bar with drastically reduced volume (contraction) right at the intraday 38.2% fib. level
• After being up 3R quickly, I ended up partialing out and then getting stopped out for an .8R loss

15-min chart

• This is a trade I wish I didn't make. I tried to get all Trader-X like
• Entered on break of the 10:45 bar high which was an inside nr7 hammer right at the ORH (with fibs. drawn from yesterday's low)
• Exited for a full 1R loss 2 bars later

30-min chart

• Yes, you read correctly, I traded the 30-min chart. I actually studied a lot this weekend and I'm going to start looking at the 30-min chart for inside bar opportunities
• Entered on a break of the 6th bar high after bars 4 and 5 formed inside bars. Bar 6 was also an nr7 with increased volume right at the ORH and very close to the 5ema
• I exited on what is looking like the top of the move (as I write this at 3pm) at 50.35... it was getting late over here and I was happy to take a 2.88R gain

I also traded ABAT which is a more traditional trade for me

• Entered long on a break of the 6th bar high which was an nr7, closed above the 38.2% fib. level and sat on top of R2
• While the entry was pretty, the exit wasn't and after noticing resistance at the ORH in bars 8 and 9 I decided to just exit at the ORH with a gain