Tuesday's trades

About my only bright spot today was SGY. But even that turned against me later in the day. My initial position was off the 5-min chart, and I doubled up after a nice pullback on the 10-min. Like I said... it was all for not as price came back down.

Stopped out of ASML, CCL and breakeven on KMX. Finding this week especially choppy. I wonder if the way I've been trading lately just doesn't do well in 'uncertain' market days... like the days leading up to the FOMC.

Also, SpiderScan just came out with a new version which includes a new TDAmeritrade scan - along with some other new enhancements. Do yourself a favor and check out the free trial.

Lastly, I've been thinking for the past 2 months or so if I even want to continue blogging. Personally, I'm just not getting what I hoped (and experienced) when I first started a couple years ago. I don't post charts as a journal... I can do that with a folder on my desktop. I created this blog as a way to interact with other traders. This is a very isolating job and I figured the blog may be the closest thing to having an office-like environment. To bounce ideas off one another and to generally have some fun. Right now, I feel like I'm posting charts just to post charts. It's just not working out.

Granted, I haven't exactly put the kind of energy that I once did (Rise or Fall) but, still, the feedback and interaction is not there.

I'm really having a great time trading right now and personally feel like I've reached a point where I can truly consider this a career. It's taken some time to get here, but it feels good. Not every day will be a great, but what I've always hoped for is consistency and a trading plan I can depend on.

Moving forward, I will probably use this blog to post some very good, textbook trades instead of the day-to-day approach I've used since the beginning. Of course, I can only hope that I have a lot of those to showcase :)

Take care,

OONR7

Friday's trade

Didn't know what to expect today with OPEX and, well, just being Friday. But I ended up in a really nice trade with BHI. I took my first trade off a break of the 10:40 bar high (nr7) and the next bar was also an nr7 so I ended up buying more shares. At this point I was really looking at how price would interact with the ORH (:15) and it immediately acted at strong resistance. I sold some shares there and again as price came back down. However, since I bought additional shares I was still in good shape.

I ended up partialing on the way up and selling all just below the fib. ext. As you can see from the chart - price continued to skyrocket. Just glad I got nice chunk of the action.

Wednesday's trades

Some good, some bad, some missed. I really missed an AGCO gimmie play on the 10-min chart. GNA did well for me and since my entry spread was so narrow I was able to double up on my normal amount of shares and make the small move to the fib. ext. count. FO and TTM were duds.

Tuesday's trade

A very satisfying day. One trade, no worries... winner. Went long ASH (10-min) after it consolidated off the 5-ema and printed a strong bar above the $42 level. Actually proceeded to tag $44 but I exited safely below the fib. ext. (after some partials). Hope you all had a good one.

Friday's trades

Today presented a lot of opportunities early on that worked out well and it seemed like it was going to be a very good day. Unfortunately, the wind behind the early bullish sails completely collapsed... as did my profits. I watched half my profits slowly slip away but I was fortunate to scale out at the right time to end the week on a very solid note. I went long on all stocks: MGM, COV, CLF and TXT. I hesitated on JBHT (long) and BRC (short) and those went on to do very well.

Below are a couple charts and I hope you all have a good weekend.

Wednesday's trade

Just one trade today: ITW long. Price broke above the :15 OR then came back down nicely and printed a strong bar at the 5ema. Entered long on a break of the 10:35 bar high (:05) and exited just below $44. Textbook, pullback trade with very little stress.

Chop, chop, chop

Here's how I know today was very choppy: I entered 6 trades, 1 made money, 3 were BE and 2 lost money. However, in the end, I was down less than 1R. Go figure.

I was actually up a good amount early on and debated whether I should just cash in. But - as is always the case - I tried to wait it out... wait for the right signal and that ended up costing me cash. But I think that strategy will end up making me much more money than it loses.

Trades (all long): ATI (gain), MAS (BE), TC (BE), NIHD (loss), MTL (one BE and one loss).

Hope you all did better.

Wednesday's trades

Ever type a word and look at and think "that totally doesn't look right" but it's spelled correctly. Well, the word 'Wednesday' did that to me right now. You can have the last 15 seconds of your life back soon enough.

Today was a little bit of yesterday but not as bad. I was quickly killing stocks from my WL but managed to spot a nice winner in ABX and a loser in MTL.

ABX burst above the :15 OR but then came back down and printed a nice strong cande right at the ORH. The stocked traded beautifully and hit the fib. ext. in no time. I kinda screwed up and oversold at the fib. ext but then realized my mistake and quickly bought back the shares.

MTL was a nice setup with an unforunate result. Missed a good setup in PAY that I didn't want to chase... nice unrealized return :) Decent money today and a profitable week which should make us all happy. I will be off to London tomorrow for a few days and will be back to trading on Tuesday. Let's hope we see some nice action next week.

Oh... and if you haven't already gone to my twitter page, please do so:twitter.com/oonr7

I've been adding more than a few followers and actually had some back and forth comments which helped break up the routine.

Have a great week and weekend. Charts and proof of performance below.

Wednesday's trades

I was 1 for 3 today with my one winner bringing me slightly above profitability for the day. All happened within the same time span but only one proved to be textbook... ADCT below:

Couldn't take a screenshot of my trade log so you'll need to take my word that I didn't have a wildly profitable day :)

Wednesday's trades

Sorry for the rushed post, but time is in short supply lately. Took 4 trades, 2 wins, 1 loss and 1 BE. Attached are the charts - no time for descriptions.

Thursday's trade

Someone asked yesterday whether I considered proximity to a round number before entering a trade. I said yes, depending on the chart setup. My trade today with FLR is a good example. I entered long off a break of the 11:30 bar high. My entry was $47.99 but if you look at the chart, you'll see that it was a strong candle that formed right at the ORH and price action was very much in an upward trend. To me, it was a strong looking stock - regardless of the round number.

Now, after making an initial move... price became very choppy and I exited the trade with money in the bank. It continued to move where I wanted it to - just below the fib. ext.

Also, if you haven't checked out SpiderScan... do yourself a favor and do it now.

Thursday's trades

What a slow moving day. I actually had some personal things that distracted me during the trading and - thank God for that as I most likely would've started banging my head on a table or something.

My first trade was a short of IWM off a break of the 10:35 bar low. I wish I was thinking a little more on this entry. Looking at it again, I really don't like it. I particularly don't like how the second bar dropped so much. Made the same mistake with SO earlier in the week. This can be easily corrected.

The better trades on the day - in the sense that I didn't lose money - were ERY and IYE. Went long ERY off a break of the 10:50 bar high (:10) after price retraced to the ORH and printed a textbook hammer. It jumped a bit but the choppy action later on just took me out on a revised stop.

Shorted IYE off a break of the 11:10 bar low (:10) and - just like ERY - after the initial downward move, price stalled and my revised stop was hit.

I wish I had another crack at VXX (11:10 bar high, :10). Just wasn't on the ball to take advantage of it.

It's been a good week so I can't/won't complain. Hope you all have a great 4th of July. And to all all my non-American readers... just have a good Friday and weekend.

Wednesday's trades

I feel like I put in a good day's work. Things started off with a questionable entry in GIS off a break of the 10:15 bar high (:05). When I entered, the candle was more hammer-like as opposed to what you see on the chart (I had to clear the chart later in the day and the backfilled info was a little different). In any case, it was a questionable entry because it did have a bit of an upper tail and I prefer my first bar to be more convincing. I actually stopped myself out of the trade a few bars later as price closed below the 5ema. More on GIS in just a bit.

I then entered SNX long off a break of the 10:45 bar high (:05). I really liked the entry and things looked good at first. But price came back down and went sideways eventually closing below the 5ema. So, I stopped myself out for a small gain. My original stop - for both SNX and GIS - was never hit. SNX would've been a nice gainer (I missed an opportunity to enter later).

Back to GIS. Further on in the day, price moved above the OR (notice the nicer looking first bar on the :10) and then pulled back to print a nice hammer and I entered again off a break of the 12:20 bar high. Price came pretty close to the fib. ext. and - as it was getting close to the end of the day - I decided to exit about .20 below my target. This worked out well as price dropped at the very end.

Monday's trades

Not a whole lot happening today in the way of great setups. But I guess we just need to peck away until we find something nice that's within our rules. That's basically how today's trade in FUQI worked out. Entered long on a break of the 10:45 bar high which formed at what I thought to be the ORH. I've been basing my OR off the 1-min chart and looking for major intraday pivot areas. FUQI's early pivot high was 19.16.

My entry was smack dab on the ORH and I managed to partial near $20 and exited the rest after it went sideways later on. A nice return are a very low volume day.

Friday's trade

Not much to look at on my WL. I did take a long entry in WBS (10:15 bar high, :05) that went south. ACN looked interesting after the 12:15 bar high (:10) but it was a bit too close to the :30 ORH and I was already in the hole for the day.

Thursday's trades

Only traded BBBY... long 10:30 bar high (:05). It was a risky entry but I liked the shallow pullback on decreased volume. Just didn't work. Missed some decent moves in ADI and MDRX.

Wednesday's trades

With the crappy volume and the FOMC announcement... I was happy to have a profitable day. Took 4 trades, 2 were green, 1 BE and 1 a loss. I'm having a pretty decent % of winners to losers this week and look to keep that going.

Went long with WNR, SONC, MGM and AGCO. WNR stopped me out fairly quickly (I probably should've put more weight into the long upper tail a few bars earlier). SONC and AGCO came through for me on fairly ho-hum moves. Again, just happy to find some good opportunities and leave with cash in my account.

Friday's trades

What a wicked day. Entered HUM and TPX long at the same time (6/10) and things looked very good at first. But then price just reversed on me. I managed to exit 1/2 shares at BE on both but got stopped out later on. In hindsight, maybe there was too much of a move before my entry. That and the market tanking.

Enjoy your weekend (too lazy for charts).

Tuesday's trades

As Tyler would say... 'Today was a good day'. Found a nice long setup in RS off a break of the 4th bar high (:10). Price moved and came back a bit but I was still in the trade with my full position after it found some resistance at the ORH. I was also eyeing the :15 chart later on and noticed a nice setup on a break of the 11am bar high so I added more shares (I'm starting to add to winning positions when I can). I was pretty loaded up and price proceeded to go north in a nice, orderly fashion. I scaled out near a $1 gain and the rest just below the fib. ext. It continued to rise but I was happy with my return (close to 7R).

Other than that, there wasn't much else for me to write about.

Monday's trades

Not a good start to June... but when do my months ever start out well??? Went long PWE, SOHU and BHP. Got stopped out of PWE and SOHU and managed to make cash back with BHP (and a little luck that my stop wasn't triggered). Enterted BHP on a break of the 11:30 bar high (:15) and after a nice gain - and trying to hold for me - I ended up selling for a relatively meager gain on a break of the 2:30 bar low.