Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Daily Summary

14800 shares
-20

Today I had some nice longs but made mistakes that cost me good gains. I saw ICE ripping up so I looked at NYX. I was long NYX at 63.70 at around 9:40 and the stock went up to around 64.25 and sold off back to 63.78. When it bounced back to 64 and had trouble moving up I sold 200 shares at 63.94. On the last 100 I made around 70 cents. I was also long 400 shares of BJ at 36.30 at 9:55. The stock spiked up pretty fast and I was letting it run. It went up to 37.17 and sold off hard. On the way up I sold 100 at 36.80 for a 50 cent gain and held on to 300 shares. I end up getting out of my 300 shares at 36.42 for 12 cents.

If I was not greedy on BJ, I could have locked in some gains at 37 for 70 cents on 300 shares. With NYX I was scared of losing my profits so I got out of my profitable position. The stock moves up $1 from there. I think since we are still in a down trend I should not be too greedy on my long trades. 50 cents to $1 gain is good.

1 comment:

bp said...

OBAT - yea, i have made some solid refinements to my plan and it calls for longer hold times.. Actually I realized as usual I was doing things bass akwards... holding losers long and getting out of winners fast.. I think I have turned that around..

Thanks
HR

About Me

I have been trading for 5 years. It took close to a year before I became profitable. I find that I am improving gradually each year. My method of choice is scalping. My edge lies in tape reading NYSE stocks and staying on the side of the specialist. That is the method I learned when I started. As I build up my capital I will try new styles and trade new markets. In late 2006 my trading hit a rough patch after the introduction of the NYSE Hybrid system. For most of 2007, I have been on a search for new strategies that would help me adapt to the market.