End of Day Journal (9-16-10)

Summary:

Every single trade I make is more practice - every trade I put on gives me the opportunity to learn something about myself and the market.

Today was a mixed bag. traded the morning like a champ (as bouncy as it was). Then promptly fell apart over the early afternoon:

You can see I had a whole slew of losses over the afternoon - several consecutive. Three culprits: CF, AAPL and TNA. I went straight from the HOD cumulative profit for the day to the LOD. Looking back over the trade sequences, after the profit HOD, I traded ESI long for a stop, then PRGO short then long for two stops, and then CF, where I went long on the 1:55 breakout, stopped, short, stopped, long, stopped. The candle is a duzzy. After the last stop I felt tired, irritated and disconnected and should of stopped trading for a bit. But I didn't. I did ok until I read short on the 2:20 Q's (prior support) and jumped into TNA and everything went downhill for the next 20-30 minutes. I couldn't seem to find direction on either TNA or AAPL and all the day's hard work went 'poof' - gone in about an hour, most of it the last quarter of the hour. TNA and AAPL both look like my old busy charts.

Interestingly enough, I caught myself thinking I am tired and irritated - right after the last stop in CF (3 in one candle). That should of been the signal to re-focus.

I managed to get back into 'fun' zone after a breather and finished off the afternoon on an upbeat.

Here are the day's largest losses:

Looks like RDWR had a $0.40 per share - again, as yesterday, the spread was too wide. Some of these stocks change their spreads very quickly. When I entered RDWR had a spread of less than $0.05. I am starting to be able to tell by looking at the charts - big gaps between candle ends is not a 'healthy' sign. These types of stocks are not worth the trouble.

Here are the largest winners:

Looks like I had a $0.62 in RIG and a $0.65 move in ESI.

I watched the opening salvo much closer today, but still missed a few setups. APOL and XEC to name two.

Today was exhausting. I felt like I had to work my tail off this morning to keep things profitable, a lot of concentration and a lot of scrolling thru my list. It was fun - but I think the effort of it all was wearing on me, and by the time CF rolled around I was not ready.

The thing about keeping this fun - it has to do with expectations - 'Let me just try this and see what happens'. If the trade has direction, then I do the best I can to get out. For some reason this approach is more powerful than Douglas' mantra. When I make trading a game, it seems to keep me open to possibilities and tuned to what is happening and I feel like I am learning by leaps and bounds. This morning I was much more selective than I was yesterday - turning some morning breakouts down because they didn't look right. Of course, this all went kablooey after CF, but I managed to put on my game face for the last 45 minutes.

Again, every trade is more practice. Every position I establish is more time in the trenches. The hope is that with enough time and practice, all of this will eventually translate well to live trading. The powerful feelings I experience have more to do with thinking of myself as 'being wrong' (over and over again) rather than losing money. This keeps me optimistic.

Trade well. 

Details:

AAPL; pfft... that 2:40 to 3:00 stretch is a nightmare:

APOL; I had been watching ESI do it's thing and wondered why APOL was just spending the morning flat.... then all a sudden it wasn't. Got stopped on the first entry but managed to re-coup and then some:

BIDU; going to start passing on these long wick breakouts:

CF: the breakout looked good, but it didn't happen - so I reversed... which didn't happen either. So I reversed again... and pfft. The stops getting further and further out as the wicks got longer:

EOG; missed the 11:25:

ESI; I didn't trust the first setup:

JKS; again - the importance of timing - I came in on one of the largest greens of the day and big volume - I hesitated on the entry. By the time I was in I was thinking in terms of up from my entry, and didn't think about the size of my entry candle. I should have been looking for the exit. Not a very nice trading stock either, jumpy action:

MOS; scalped the first breakout (barely),  then tried to play the failed triangle:

POT; another argument for timing:

PRGO:

PSA; timing - late entry kept the stop closer, otherwise I would of had it on top of the prior high:

RHT; could of been played better:

RIG; looks ugly, but I managed to re-coup and then some by EOD:

SLG; out on the retrace, which looked like the thing to do until 5 minutes later. Try to cover on strength:

SPG; not to be:

TNA; don't ask...

VNO:

XEC; I was too busy losing money on everything else to notice the great late afternoon setup:

End of Day Journal (9-15-10)

Summary:

Heh - I debated about whether or not I should post the details today... but I figured, if I care that much about this, then I am caring too much to be having fun. So.. for whatever it's worth:

I think I smell a trend...

Interestingly enough - the distribution is not that much different from the past few days... at first glance... You can see that the losses are quite a bit larger than they have been, in fact the two $90 losses posted to 100 share trades (x2) making it a $0.90 stop. And that explains the day - I tried to catch some action on MA and ISRG just to see what would happen. A $0.20 spread on a >$200 stock doesn't seem that bad. Well, I found out I need some practice with those kinds of numbers. I believe I had one positive trade in the bunch, and it was on MA.

Again, here are the largest profits & losses. I post these to give a sense of how the large the wins and stops were per share.. NT seems to arbitrarily distribute the 200 share lot trades between 100 shares (x2) and the entire lot at once. It may have something to do with the bid/ask, but I am not sure. I post the top few after I sort the list by either largest to smallest or smallest to largest. I generally select down to the ~ +(-)$0.20 mark at 100 shares.

Largest winners:

So - the largest gain was the RDWR at $1.18 per share - it beats out the MA and SPN that were traded in full lot sizes.

Largest losers:

And there we have it - the $0.90 loss per share on the ISRG. Several trades were beyond the $0.30 that I am comfortable with, mostly MA, ISRG, RDWR, and a few more of the quick movers. These are simply harder to trade - I had to set profit targets to get out of positions, or I was leaving a lot of money in the spread. From now on I will try to avoid these.

But ISRG ranged >$13... so I figured why not? Scott posts >$75 moves on SDK, not sure what the spread is on a day like that, but I am guessing that it is more than a few pennies. It was practice.

Anyhoo - today seemed long in terms time. I was ready to take a nap late afternoon, but I took a stretch and went back at it. I stopped trading after the big move at 3:35. I didn't feel like there was much more coming.

I feel like I am soaking this stuff up (even if the bottom line is still lacking). A few things that were driven home today - a guy needs to stay sensitive as to what constitutes a big/flash move - or as Fozz would say the 'swoosh' (much better). There are so many factors that come into play - time of day, market, the recent activity of the stock. Staying tuned to this is imperative to booking those smaller gains. I really don't have much of a problem holding onto trending stocks (though I miss them as well), SVNT offers a great example - things just feel right. Other times a guy just needs to book the profit on any kind of a 'swoosh'. There is no shame in taking $0.10 if that is all the market is offering. A 'swoosh' is a 'swoosh' - within its own context. My job is to figure out the context ( and I can't do this while I am nervous - so having fun is key). Try to always cover into strength - never in weakness. Go with the swoosh. I can always get back in, and the swoosh seems to inevitably lead to some kind of retrace.

Another thing that I learned today - timing is imperative (I think I knew this - but it came home again today). I have been justifying entries based on the setups and my comfort with the stop - but when the market is lacking momo, that first bump is all a guy gets sometimes before it turns back around.

And - last but not least - I need to make it a point to watch what is already on my list. Since they are already on the radar, I have the timing advantage when the setup occurs. I missed several great setups after the initial entries/exitsroday. Sometimes I get them timed well with the scanner, but better to concentrate on what I already have first, and if they flatline, go back to the scanner.

I found a much faster way to get everything ready at the end of day, so I am back to posting quite a few charts - only the ones I found interesting. My trading is definitely not as busy as my old charts indicated... in/out, in/out. I am watching/waiting for what I think are setups and trying to trade them.

Trade well.

Details:

AIG; I didn't trade this - it came up on the scanner and by then it was too late. The move wasn't fantastic, but it is pretty cool how this stuff works out.

AMZN; on the EOD breakout:

APA; plenty of setups later in the day, but I was too busy watching the scanner. Shorting on my stop and the failed breakout was the move of the day - if only I had pulled it off:

APD; I missed this one - can't recall why, but there is the momo, right on the breakout:

APOL; several attempts that failed, but finally got things straightened out. I got it after it popped up on the scanner and broke thru again:

ARG; a great example of why timing is so important - but I guess a guy never knows:

AVB; this came up early, but I quit watching it, and missed the breakout:

BLK; Another beauty - I am pretty sure the spread was on the high side which kept me on the sidelines:

CAT; lots of wedges, not a lot of action, another argument for timing the entries:

DE; things don't always work out, the first trade was the breakout with the stop a little tight, the second was another try:

DRN; another setup and run, I do not recall when I listed this one. Both of my exits left something to be desired, but they were profitable:

FCX:

G; this was on my list early, as it hesitated around the day's open, I thought it was poised for a rally; pfftt... it went all the way back to yesterday's close:

GOLD; there was money here, but I sat on it. I managed to get some in the flash - caught the bottom, and the blue arrow at the top was an attempt at an add, but I ended up covering soon after:

GS; a little late to the party, and early on the exit - great example of why never to cover on the weak side:

ISRG (the infamous); doesn't look like much of a stop, but things tend to appear that way on a $13 move:

MA; again - the gap and big move made it a little different to read the chart. The first trade was on the breakout, and I did all right, just left lots of momo on the table. The afternoon was a big fail:

MOS:

RDWR; did pretty well with this until the fiasco at the bottom. Short at the top anyone?:

RIMM; not sre why this keeps coming up, not the prettiest, that is, until you see the 15 minute doji:

RL; entered on the breakout for a small gain:

SLB; the breakout bounced around and took me out. Triangles fizzled:

SPN; late to the party and a big stop on the first, managed to re-coup some losses:

SVNT; long holds - would of been better to cover into strength on the first move, but I will take it:

TWC: drop, setup, drop some more. Should of been watching:

UNP; fizzles happen:

V; and... they happen again. But watching for good entries and covering the swoosh would of been a good day:

VMW; faiiled breakout, later on the triangle - reversing would of been the schnizzle:

X; because it is interesting... cover in the swoosh: