End of Day Journal (5-5-2010)

I completely got my butt kicked today...

The account was minus -$1117.20 at end of day. It seemed like I couldn't capture one decent move. Well - I did get my very first move: TRW on the 6:55 candle. Over a buck. But after the trade I realized that I had NT in simulation mode....

It pretty much went down hill from there. I won't spare any detail - but this is going to be quite painful to read and probably somewhat tedious. Hopefully I can learn something by re-capping.

I decided to plot the 5 minute series as well as the HA for the re-cap. Takes a little longer to setup, but I think the exercise will be productive.

Breaking high on AIG. It looked like it was stalling so I bailed.... only to re-enter again and later impose discretionary exit. I don't remember feeling jittery, but looking at the 5 minute I wonder...:

Breaking high on ANF. I entered short, and got stopped out. I then went long as it touched again to stop out once more. I shorted 3 minutes later. I missed the bottom and closed on a discretionary. I tried to reverse and got stopped out (stop was at $0.07). I shorted later and stopped out at $0.05 loss. The reason the stops are so tight is that I was trying something new for a bit in the morning and running the stop at the 7 bar EMA. Per yesterday's trades it looked like this was the reverse signal for the 1 minute HA:

ANR. What was I buying on ANR? I have no freakin idea... I think I was in the hot shot day trader mode. Well - here is how I think it played out. ANR had seen a little bit of a bump. And it looked to me like it was reversing (HA wick on the fast EMA). So I shorted as the candle descended past. Stopped out on the next bar.I tried to short again and stopped out on the same bar. This was a $0.57 HA candle. The five minute candle is at $0.98. Poor little ole me with my $0.12 default stop. Vicious. Of course I did not reverse. Until 4 minutes later. On a $0.40 HA candle. I rode with the trend but stopped out as the stop tightened, I tried to short later on a $0.30 HA candle. Stopped out two bars over. The flurry of arrows at the 7:40 minute was an attempt at a long entry. I would enter and immediately get stopped out. Way too many times. I finally gave up after two minutes only to watch it climb a dollar. I kept trying this all day long. Brutal, unforgiving, hostile are the words that all come to mind. Plenty of run, I just couldn't stay in:

New high on APKT. Lost most of the gain on the simulated stop. Waited too long to short and stopped out a few minutes later. Went long as it broke again and stopped. Tired to short the dojis but bailed as it continued to fizzle:

New low on AUXL with a fizzle:

AWI... err... this was another hotshot day trader entry. Makes a little bit of sense on the 1 minute HA. Stopped out before a small dip. Could of been a $0.20 gain:

Breaking high on BTU. What possessed me to call the short? I don't know, but it was right. Oh yeeah - it was the end of the 5 minute candle. Down it went, but with the low volume I bailed as it flattened a little. Re-entered and rode it down some more. I tried to go long a little early (HA touching the EMA again) and got stopped. Long again and bailed on the stall and low volume. Another new high on the 8:49. I went long, stopped, reversed, and finished with a discretionary exit:

Breaking high on JEC and shorted on the 1 minute HA doji. Captured a few points:

Shorted a bounce of the high on LULU. extied on the fizzle and tried to re-enter later and got stopped:

Long on a breaking high for NOV. Discretionary exit but did not reverse:

Breaking high on SNDK. As it fizzled I bailed. Tried to come in long as it touched again and stopped out. Another break and another long, with yet another stop. Shorted and rode it down. Reversed and discretionary. Reversed again and stopped. Another reverse would have seen a $0.40 climb. Came in late on the short action but caught a little bit of it:

Breaking high on TCK. On the beginning of the 5 minute. All the way to the end of the five minute. Tried to go long again as it touched, stopped, reversed and discretionary exit. Long again on the new break with a discretionary (lacking volume). Long again as it broke. Stopped and reversed but missed the bottom. Long on another break. Fizzle. Short and fizzle:

Ok - TRW. I started early this morning and picked up the bounce off the morning low. The first blue arrow is actually the simulation entry. I figured it out after the exit and by the next candle and from there it is live. Long. Small profit. Short, stop. Re-entered long. Stopped. Re-entered long, bumped out. Ended with a short gain at the end:

Long on USG's breaking high. Stopped out and reversed. Stopped out and followed up with the long. Discretionary exit and tried the long again as it touched. Discretionary exit on the fizzle. Nice steady drop 5 minutes later...:

That was the morning. The account was down -$385 at the break. I started earlier today and quit a little on the late side as well. Everything was moving.

I was not too concerned about the debit on the account. I knew one or two good trades would more than cover it. But I had something like 290 trades registering in NT - way too many (keep in mind sometimes 1 entry/exit is equivalent to 10 trades on NT, with the average being 6 to 8; about 42 positions). I decided that it might be best to change my approach a little - use the 5 minute for position entry and the 1 minute HA to monitor the trade.

Looking back on the morning though, it wasn't all that bad. I probably should not have been trading ANR with this setup. From the looks of it though, I only came out with a ~$383 debit after the ins and outs. Not as bad as I expected. A broader stop would have helped a lot though, I had some good entries on the 1 minute. With that much price action though it is really hard to get the top and bottom. Maybe stay away....

So the afternoon started well. The first few trades were positive and I brought the debit to -$85. Then the blood started running.

 Doji on the 5 minute with some long red action persuaded me to short AIG. Stopped. Reversed and stopped. I think this was one of the last trades of the sorry afternoon - where was the mojo? I was pretty numb at this point and probably should not have been trading:

Shorted ANF because... I think because it was going down. Actually - it broke near term S/R and I thought there was more to come. Caught a little bit with a discretionary exit. Tried to re-enter and got stopped. Then shorted on the first minute of the 5 minute (12:00 p.m) candle and watched all $0.20 disappear 5 minutes later. Shorted at the beginning of the 12:20 to get stopped out on the first minute of the 12:25. Shorted the next round and it stuck with a discretionary - and way too early - exit:

A regular glutton for punishment, where was ANR? There it is... I shorted on the near term S/R break. Stopped out on the $0.20 spike. And... huh... it looked like it was still going down 15 minutes later. Which it wasn't:

Using the five minute for the entry, shorted APTK. It had been hovering on top for awhile and since it wasn't breaking thru, I figured it must want to come down pretty bad. stopped out before the cliff dive (well... some $0.40 worth anyways): 

Breaking low on AXP. After stalling several times I figured it was probably ready to go down. It was a good exit. The exit and re-entry here cost me $0.20 of the entire move (plus commissions), but I think that is all right. I re-entered as it broke again with another discretionary exit. This is how I like it to be. It was a $0.66 move from the first entry to the second exit and I captured 70% of the move. Scott probably would of had the whole run. I tried again later and got stopped. Again, with the profit disappearing and a stop. Same thing 20 minutes later. Someone was considerate enough to let me hold the cash for an hour:

Touching the low at the end of the day on BC. Stopped:

BTU was breaking afternoon S/R with a lot of energy. Discretionary exit as it turned around. And later? Well, 1 minute HA was pulling away from the fast EMA. Terrible entry. stopped out. Lots of green at the end of the day and I got stopped out:

COF was the first trade of the afternoon. It broke a high, I went long with a discretionary exit and reverse. I got out as the slope changed and left a dollar and change on the table. It would have been a nerve wracking slow ride for me unless more consideration would have been given to the 5 minute:

ESV was breaking lows. In and out, with a little bit of profit. Tried again later as the q's were dropping and got stopped. Shorted again on the breach, losing a lot of the profit. I guess it wanted to end the day strong:

Breaking high on FSYS. I tightened the stop and then it makes up it's mind. The 5 minute chart said to hold on:

New lows on HSC. Stopped. I think I would have been stopped out using the 5 minute chart on this as well:

JEC was breaking afternoon S/R. 5 minute says to stay put for a little more action:

SNDK. This was an 11:52 short. Volume uptick, and it looked like q's were headed down for good. I thought SNDK was slow in catching on. It had some bottom left, about $0.12, I lowered the stop and was out. I tried to short on the 5 minute candle interval but it was not meant to be. Tried again two minutes later with another bust. Then I went long because... well... because I felt like losing more money. Then I went short because I wanted to lose some more. And then I went short because that is what the little voices were telling me. They happened to be right - but was it worth 10 ticks? pfftt...

This chart just looked like it need some more color. I thought some purple and then some blue right afterwards would spice it up a little. Actually, I think it had something to do with the five minute stall and red hammer. And that at 12:13 the q's were setting up the 12:15 hammer. It just wasn't meant to be:

So that was it.

Per the record I definitely was not afraid to lose today. Not afraid to be right either, at least per the 1 minute HA record. I don't exactly appreciate being wrong though.

There has to be a lesson in all of this.

Maybe I can be the brokerage poster boy - 'Please trade like this so we can rack up commissions.'

This is just tough.

I am trading too much. I was sorting thru 14 instruments this morning. I need a plan.

Looking at the five minute charts on the top five on the sorted MA list (sorted by EMA(7, high) - EMA(7, low)): ANR, TRW, LULU, TCK, and BTU. There was plenty of action to be had.

Ok. Here is the deal. Tomorrow I am only trading the top five in the sorted MA, and new highs and lows if they look like a go. And like I had been doing - letting the 5 minute candle build S/R and use it for my stops. In fact, I am even going to turn off the TDA alert.


If anyone else has words of advice feel free =).