End of Day Journal (5-23-2010)

Summary:

A rough day on Friday: -$1230.48 for the day and -$1237.21 for the week. Here is the summary as presented by NT:

Per my subjective qualitative grading scale (good price point, probable pattern, usually involving some indecision), I scored a 26/44 on my entries, or a little less than 60%. This is better than some days, but not as good as others.

What really hurt today were the stops: I missed price points, or did not even consider them at times. On EDZ there was bid/ask action without trades occurring and surpassing the stop, turning a 6 to 12 tick stop into a 20 and even 35 tick stop with slip. That got very expensive.

Overall though I consider this a decent day, chalk one up for experience. For the most part I traded well. There was some over trading (i.e., over two entries inside the 5 minute), but not many. And I noticed something on TNA with respect to volume and general trend that seems to apply across a lot of the stocks traded today. I think I can work this into next week's trades for some profit.

New day, new week - here is to some profitability. Trade well!

Details:

I went short on APA late after the change and a failed bump against the day's high (0:54) (1/1); never positive on this due to the late entry. Shorted again on the next candle with the same criteria (0:02) (2/2) with the stop breaking thru on the next candle; unrealized positive of 26 ticks. The stops in both cases were not tight enough. I was going against general market sentiment at the time. (-$134.54)

Long on ATI as it broke thru the high for the day and a good price point (3:04) (3/3). I am fairly certain I gave this way too wide of a stop, probably due to the rest of the day's seemingly constant stop violations. 3 ticks positive at the most  (-$81.87):

Long on CLF with the stalled doji and a good price point (2:25) (4/4). I didn't like the way it was retracing, so I exited while I had a profit. 26 ticks unrealized at best (3:36) (+$49.27):

shorted CMI a few seconds prior to the change (4:56) (5/5) with much too generous of a stop. 18 ticks unrealized (-$76.11):

Shorted EDZ after the long green but not close enough to candle change - it retraced and went green right after I sold (4:43) (5/6). With the early entry, I adjusted the stop to the high wick and it broke thru. I then tried to go long after the candle change (0:06) (6/7) and set the stop to the prior low wick. I tried to go long again on the next candle as it showed some color (0:16) (6/8) with the stop placed at the prior close. Terrible fill. I went long as it touched and retreated from the new low (2:30) (6/9) with another horrendous fill on the stop. Long after the long red and an uptick in volume, and a final bad fill on the stop.

A few notes on EDZ. I don't believe any of these were positive, but I did get the direction right on the first three entries with over a point in potential. the last two were bad entries, but feasible. the spread on EDZ was about $0.01 to $0.04 which was not that bad. What hurt was that the bid and ask were all over the place - violating the stops by some 20 ticks without an order taking place. When the order placed, I realized significant losses. The potential reward seemed worth it, but I probably should have reconsidered after the 3rd try (-$558.47):

Long on FCX after the doji, but a little late (2:02) (7/10), 9 ticks unrealized at best with the stop filled where it should have been. I then went in with a late short (3:23) (7/11) with a best unrealized of 45 ticks. I exited as everything turned green (4:53). For some reason I went short on the next candle. I think this was because of the long green and the promising color (1:32) (7/12), but this was a haphazard entry (-$110.70):

Shorted JoyG on the price point with what appeared to be some support from the Q's (0:49) (8/13). A little bit of slip on the stop with 14 ticks at best (-$41.91):

Started with a short on TNA with the general market trend (0:03) (9/14) which turned out to be the wrong thing to do. I was bringing the stop down and hesitated too long. I shorted on the next candle change (0:02) (10/15) and was at 81 ticks unrealized. I sold as it re-traced and the next candle showed green (0:11) for less than half of the best unrealized. I went long right away (0:12) (11/16) and got stopped on the same candle with a good fill (17 ticks unrealized at best). I shorted 11 seconds later (11/17) and got stopped out with a good fill 20 seconds later. Believe it or not, I went long again in the same candle (4:55) (11/18), this time with a more generous stop which still got hit. I waited a bit and decided to go short as the red candle got longer (1:15) (11/19) with a very generous stop.. Unrealized at about 15 ticks before retracing and going green on the 9:20. I followed suit with a reverse (0:21) (12/20) and was at 71 ticks unrealized before it retraced and I closed for about half the best.

I went long on the 10:00 candle change, but waited a little for some green (0:07) (13/21). The stop became a reverse which turned into about 47 ticks at best. I covered as it continued to turn green. A reverse here had plenty of room for profit.

Shorted on the 10:40 candle change (0:01) (14/22) with a good stop. The stop became a reverse which was covered with a generous stop. Long on the 10:50 candle change  and color (0:26) (14/23) with an all too generous stop again. Lots of room for some profit on another reverse, but definitely would have been stopped on  the long wick two candles over.

Long on the 11:20 candle change (0:04) (14/24) (horrible entry - see the volume spike on the next candle? That should have been the entry) and I had no business setting the stop that low. The stop became a reverse (0:52) (15/25) with an unrealized of 42 ticks before completely retracing and coming out negative. This was another reverse (2:44) that met with a spooked  21 tick profitable exit. The next candle change turned out to be a perfect candidate for another reverse.

Short on the 12:05 candle with increased volume (0:03) (16/26). Stopped out 53 seconds later (much too generous) and came in long as it looked to be picking up momo (3:14) (16/27). The stop is where it should of been given the late entry - which is too say, far too generous for this game. I shorted the 12:15 candle on the price point (0:17) (17/28) with another generous stop. Shorted again on the next candle (1:06) (17/29) and got a lucky profit which turned into a reverse (0:04) on the candle change and another spooked profit (31 ticks realized versus 71 ticks potential).

Shorted the 12:30 candle change (0:02) (18/29) but the stop was far too generous again. I shorted as it turned into a doji quite a bit before change (4:27) (18/30) and got another lucky spooked 21 tick profit. A reverse here would of made the day at something less than 2 points.

A note on TNA. This was not traded well. The trades reveal my inexperience. What makes this tough is that if I would of followed thru on 2 more reverses, there was quite a bit of potential for some bigger money. And several unrealized profits would of added quite nicely to the account. Not all of the entries were good ones though, and some of the reverses I hesitated on. The entries don't have to be good if the stops are tight, but I would like to slim down the trading by trying to characterize the greater probable-s.

The trend here for most of  the afternoon was down, and perhaps this is key.  The larger volume spikes on the downbeat (direction of trend) seem to signal exhaustion, while the updraft on lowering volume seem to signal a return to the trend. Then late in the afternoon, increasing volume on the updraft seem to signal a reverse. Very interesting - and something to keep in mind for next week  (-$134.26):

UNP and short on the doji (0:56) (19/30). Looked promising. Tight stop, and a little too early (-$49.90):

Shorted V on the change after large green and got stopped (0:00) (20/31). Shorted again in the same candle (4:38) (21/32) and got hit again on a clean stop. I shorted after the stop (3:59) (22/33) and was at 44 ticks unrealized beofre the retrace and discretionary. I then went long (3:03) (23/34) only to be stopped, and long yet again (4:16) (23/35) with another stop. The stops were reasonable, the entries were something of a desperate move.

Plenty of action later, and finally got something right on the 12:40 doji (0:22) (a little late) (24/36) . Exited 12 seconds prior to the candle change and went long again on the next candle and some color (0:21) (late again) (24/37). Exited as it retraced (3:58) and then tried to short as it went back up towards the end of the candle (4:43) (24/38). Stopped on the next candle. Entered the last canlde short on the change (0:01) (25/39) with a reverse (1:11) (26/40) and a little bit on the long side (+$246.40):

Shorted VNO on the doji and somewhat late which left something to be desired on the stop placement (3:13) (25/40):

Long on VXX and I am not quite sure why I have no idea why (4:39) (25/41). Scalped a profit. Later came in short and late after some indecision (1:23) (25/42) and got tagged for it on the stop. I turned the stop into a reverse (4:05) (25/43) and got hit again with a tight stop. Then I got the direction right with a long (0:56, another reverse) (26/44) but it drifted back down prior to candle end and I got bumped. Poor entries killed me on price point and stops (-$272.11):