obatrader

Moving to a new place

2009-08-24T20:07:00.004-04:00

I am getting ready to move to a new home. I need to get settled down before I can trade again. I got to get a new computer, set up an internet connection and all these other stuff. I should be posting again in 2-3 weeks. Good trading everyone!

Daily Summary

2009-08-21T16:03:00.000-04:00

7000 shares
+170

Daily Summary

2009-08-20T16:04:00.002-04:00

10800 shares
-105

I was doing ok early on with a $100 in profits and another $100 in unrealized profits. At around 9:55 I went into DKS near the highs and lost $100. I thought the stock was going to break out. The stock fails and promptly reverses. I had 200 shares of HAR at 28.49 and was going to let it run. Stock goes up to 29.12 and spikes down 60 cents. I punch out and all my profits for the day were gone. I traded some more and ended up losing $100.

Daily Summary

2009-08-19T15:50:00.000-04:00

18000 shares
-150

Daily Summary

2009-08-18T16:04:00.001-04:00

6800 shares
+25

Daily Summary

2009-08-17T15:22:00.000-04:00

7200 shares

+400

Daily Summary

2009-08-14T16:01:00.000-04:00

Went out of control today.

34600 shares
-240

My trading evolution

2009-08-14T05:34:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't posted any details about my trading lately so I'm going to spill some details now. I took a break from the end of May till mid July. I tend to do better after taking a vacation. When I started trading again I figured I would listen to my intuition. These days when I get into a trade and something feels wrong, I would get out. When I don't see any setups and my mind is telling me to sit it out I'll stop trading. Well sometimes I don't always listen to myself hence my above average lost the other day. I have 8 years of screen time, so I really got to trust myself more.

The good trade should work right away

My trading is not totally intuitive. I still use technical analysis like support/resistance, trendlines, chart patterns, and time/sales. Technical analysis does not always work. I think rely on my gut feelings more now when I see a setup. There is one stock market saying that I believe in now, "Goods trade usually work right away". If I get into a breakout trade or if I buy at a support level and the stock does not move in my favor right away something is up. I will scratch the trade with a small loss. If your analysis is correct then you will have another opportunity to get to stock at better prices. I use other support factors to make my decision. Some things I look at include - how the tape is trading, the stocks relative strength/weakness, and how the broad market is trading(breakout day, inside day, down day). But since there are some many things I tend to do it subconciously because it's hard to take all these things and analyze them when I am in the heat of trading. That is why I choose to trust my intuition.

I am still a scalper

I tried adopting the dummy style used by many acclaimed trading bloggers, such as Trader X, King Jamie, Maoxian, The Addict, Anarco, OONR7, Trader Mike. I have had some success but I did not like my consistency. I am also not comfortable with having wider stop losses. I think the major thing that affected my consistency is my lack of experience. I did not know how to separate good dummy setups from mediocre ones.

I also had the honor to be a part of Dinosaur Trader's little rag tag Virtual Office. We did a little private chat room for a few weeks. I had a chance to observe how Miss Trade, Dinosaur Trader, and Evolution trade. Everyone had their own style and they made it work. I am on a journey to find my own trading style and I think I am going on this path until I retire from the markets.

Daily Summary

2009-08-13T16:32:00.001-04:00

15006 shares
+69

Daily Summary

2009-08-12T14:42:00.004-04:00

16800 shares
-260

I tried to keep my green streak alive but ended losing. There was an inner voice telling me to stop when I was down around $50. I got to listen next time.

Daily Summary

2009-08-11T16:03:00.000-04:00

11000 shares
+170

Daily Summary

2009-08-10T16:16:00.000-04:00

7400 shares
+2

Daily Summary

2009-08-07T16:09:00.000-04:00

14600 shares
+260

Daily Summary

2009-08-06T15:33:00.000-04:00

16000 shares
+13

Daily Summary

2009-08-05T16:12:00.000-04:00

12200 shares
+150

Daily Summary

2009-08-04T16:02:00.000-04:00

5600 shares
+155

Daily Summary

2009-08-03T16:13:00.000-04:00

10800 shares
+275

Daily Summary

2009-07-31T15:25:00.001-04:00

18346 shares
+12

Daily Summary

2009-07-30T15:44:00.004-04:00

17000 shares
+400

I am happy with my gains but there were two trades which I could have done much better. After I got stopped out they ran over $1. I am posting the chart so I can remind myself next time I encounter similar trades.

Daily Summary

2009-07-29T14:52:00.000-04:00

11800 shares
+80

Daily Summary

2009-07-29T01:17:00.002-04:00

Tuesday

19600 shares
+45

Lunch Money

2009-07-27T15:47:00.000-04:00

6000 shares
+15

Daily Summary

2009-07-24T13:34:00.000-04:00

16400 shares
+165

Daily Summary

2009-07-23T15:02:00.002-04:00

13800 shares
+820

I had a decent day. My best stock was ALB. I also made some money in RTN, ACL and MAN. All the trades were from the long side.

Daily Summary

2009-07-22T15:45:00.001-04:00

19400 shares
+100

I overtraded today. I traded 12 stocks. If I just focused on a few I would have done a lot better.

Daily Summary

2009-07-21T14:14:00.000-04:00

8600 shares

+265

Had the bulk of my gains in LMT. I also made a little in KCI and LH.

Daily Summary

2009-07-20T14:43:00.003-04:00

9200 shares
+230

Traded JCI, ETN, MTB, GWW, and HAR today. I focused on trading JCI and ETN and caught some small scalps in the morning. I stopped trading after 11am since I did not see anything interesting.

Update

2009-07-20T06:46:00.003-04:00

I have been getting some comments with questions on what I have been doing lately.

I have gone on a long break from the end of May till July. I just started trading again around a week ago. So far I am up a little bit for the month. There are more earnings coming up this week so I hope I can perform better.

I am moving to a new place so between my time trading, I got a lot of packing to do. I also have to workout hard core to build my muscles. Posting will be light this month and August until I get settled down in my new home.

Books

2009-01-21T09:15:00.003-05:00

I was catching up on my blog reading and I found two links to some good reading material. I felt compare to share this great find. Jeff has compiled a list of books on his blog - Master of the Universe's Weblog. You can find it on the top right hand corner.

Back to the drawing board

2008-12-05T03:36:00.000-05:00

Since mid September I have been in a slump and it has taken a toll on my psychology. Usually I have high hopes of making a profit every week and month but lately I am just trying to keep myself from losing money. I have no set plan and it seems that I have been trading a myriad of styles but I have not mastered anyone of them. I find myself breaking a lot of rules that I have set mentally, like no bottom fishing, picking tops, chasing, and forcing trades. I need a comprehensive plan that can define clear actions on what stocks to trade and what setups to take. My plan should also cover psychological aspects like managing anger, anxiety, and fear. I need to set my $ risk/share size and only increase them when my consistency increase. I am going to peruse my trading books again to see if I can find some insights.

Not another blowup

2008-12-04T14:34:00.000-05:00

17700 shares
-1050

I let my emotions get the better of me and gambled. When my losses started to climb I took some 500-600 share trades and they all failed badly. If I use Attitude Trader's grading system, my AI is a -10 today. I need to make some changes because what I am doing now is not working. I need to take some time off so I can draw up a new trading plan. If I am going to take a 1k hit for the day I should be taking well planned trades with stops and targets. If I follow my plan even though I get stopped out of all my trades I will feel a lot better than blowing my money in bad trades.

Slow times

2008-11-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

I am wondering why I am stuck in a rut these days. Half of the month have gone by and I am only up $400. It is frustrating to put in the time and effort only to see minuscule returns. I did not encounter any big blowups. I had 2 days when I lost $200.

I think the volatility is good and the opportunities are there but my psychology is preventing me from taking advantage of the moves. I feel like I am getting even more conservative. A month ago I was able to make more trades and embrace the risks. My performance a year ago in November 2007 is much better than my results now. I had a lot more guts back then.

Since I am only up a little this month, I am afraid of losing my gains and being negative. It feels like a trading day when you make a couple hundred right off the bat. You get sloppy and take a series of loser and end up giving away most of your gains. Now you are in a situation where you are torn between making your money back and fear of losing more and going negative. I have had many experiences like this and I think most of the time things get ugly. This is how I feel about my month. The fear of ending the month negative is crippling.

Sorry to bore you guys with the depressing account of my trading. On the bright side I may be down but I am not beaten. I still have my hopes up and I will keep trying till I figure things out.

Finally recovered

2008-10-30T02:38:00.003-04:00

In my previous post I had an $800 loss. That happened 2 weeks ago. It took me 9 trading days to recover from my loss. I usually recover faster but the loss I had made me think about my trading style and I felt there was something missing. During these past 2 weeks I made some tweaks to my rules. I think the major change is the incorporating some chart patterns to my trade selection criteria. I think it helps me see some order in the market and it also helps strengthen my conviction when I put on a trade.

Lost it again

2008-10-16T15:09:00.003-04:00

I thought my blow ups are in the past since I have been trading small and exercising discipline for over 2 weeks. Today I lost it and got emotional again. I was cursing at my mistakes and praying for my losers to work. I was down around $280 and I took a 500 share trade and lost $150. After that I lost my cool and forced more trades. I lost $800 today and now I am down $200 for the week.

One of my better days in a long while

2008-10-10T16:00:00.000-04:00

I think there's going to be some big numbers DT's RO. I made $1100 today, effectively coming back from my bad week at the end of September. I made half my gains from going long in the late day rally. When my ~~Esignal~~ Nosignal crapped out I knew volume was exploding. I had to rely on my basic charts in my trading platform. They were a life saver. I was in early and there was this voice that told me to get aggressive and take some size. I did not do it and only took 100 shares of FLS and 200 SPW.

Looks like we did not get a capitulation day yet. I was expecting a reverse head and shoulders reversal and the market to close green. During the day I did not see much selling in the stocks I traded. They seem to be only trickling down. Looking forward to be a little more aggressive when the reversal day comes.

My first bear market

2008-10-10T03:18:00.004-04:00

I started trading near the end of 2002 which was the start of the bull market. It is eye opening to see a bear market unfold. If the stock market is still around after this crisis I think the experience I gain will help me in the next cycle.

Road to recovery

2008-10-07T05:19:00.003-04:00

I took the rest of September off after my beating. I think I had my biggest losing day and worst week since I started trading. Right now I am taking it slow and trading small. I ended last week green with a small gain.

My attitude changed for the better. Right now I am not upset about missing all these opportunities out there. I got into trouble because I let my mind get clouded by the thought of making big gains. I am reading Trading in the Zone again to refresh my memory. I am focusing on being patient and taking trades when I can accept the risk. I am just going to go at my own pace toward better trading. I want to get the confidence in taking the right setups and managing my trades. Profits will come as I get comfortable with my style.

Not so lucky this time

2008-09-25T12:27:00.003-04:00

I got myself into trouble again. The past two days I was able to make a come back from being down over $300. Today my confidence was gone. I lost $625 today. My lack of discipline is pretty alarming. It is tough to start every day losses. I think I am going to take the rest of the month and preserve the little profit I have left.

Another lashing please

2008-09-24T15:24:00.009-04:00

Yesterday I nearly got whipped and I was lucky to come out unscathed. Today I was asking for another dose of pain. I was watching STP at the open and the stock looked strong. I was playing the stock from the long side but my entries were terrible. I went in small at first and then added more shares as the stock went up. I would have a good size position and be in the money only to watch it reverse on me. The stock would go through my average price and I would get out with losses. I had some wins but my losses far out number my winners and I lost over $200 on the stock alone. By 11am I was down over $300 again and I was pretty disappointed by my lack of discipline.

This is how my trades losing trades looked. Buy at the top and sell out at the bottom of a retracement.

My trades in STP. I traded 16000 shares in the stock.

I managed another comeback today with a short in CMI. After I came back I just stopped trading. Good thing I did because the market looked choppy and I would have lost money. I think I learned my lessons. I will have to see. If I were a candlestick maybe I formed 2 hammers this past two days and I should reverse to the upside.

Examples of impulsive trading

2008-09-24T13:19:00.008-04:00

Average Jay asked me what's my criteria for entering my trades. Yesterday I had a bad start and was down over $300 by 11:30 am. Here is a screen shot of my trades and charts of 2 stocks that I traded.

In the first stock, I think I went long PX when I saw a bounce in APD. PX did not bounce and made new lows. I shorted at the lows and it bounced. After I covered, I saw it drop again so I went short and lost the 3rd time. If you look at the higher time frames, 5 min and above it was ugly. There is no reason to be in the stock yet there I was.

The other stock I have up is JEC. I had 200 shares and made some money on my first trade. My avg price was 60.10 and stock drops to around 59.50 and makes a bounce back up to 59.89. Since I was down over $200, I was trading my pnl instead. I wanted any little profits I could get and was afraid that I would lose it all so I covered. After I cover the stock goes lower and I thought I might break new lows so I shorted again only to get a 35 cent squeeze on 300 shares.

I let my pnl affect my trading.

I have not adjusted to the decrease in volatility. A week ago stocks would move down $1 or more with little or no pull backs. I still think I can get such moves out of the market. I have loosened my criteria for entries as well as my stops.

No clear trading plan. When the market was volatile scalps and tight stops worked out for me. Now that the market slowed down I am getting chopped up by poor entries. I have abandoned my rules and acquired some bad trading habits.

Solutions

Have a clear trading plan with entry and exit criteria. Follow the plan.

Trade only when the criteria for the entry line up (confirming market action, supporting chart pattern, and tape action) When I do not see a trade I have to sit on my hands.

Close call..

2008-09-23T16:02:00.004-04:00

After yesterday's beating I was going to take it slow with 100 share positions today. I did not think I would lose much so I played around right after the open with APD and PX. After a few trades I was down $130. Things just got worse from then on even though I kept most of my trades at 100-200 shares. I kept getting bad entries in my shorts in JEC and I got squeezed for 35 cents on a 300 share trade. That trade put me near a $300 loss. I had some more losses after that and was down close to $350. Fearing another repeat I kept my size small and kept trading. I got good short entries in JEC and FLR but ended up taking small profits right before they dropped over $1.

I managed to make a comeback from the afternoon bounce. I am close to even for the day. What a relief.

Big loss

2008-09-22T15:52:00.003-04:00

I don't know what got into me today. The day started off alright and I was up $200. Then I lost all my gains trading during a chop. After that I just went on tilt and took big 300-600 share positions. My loss kept going higher and I was down over $900. I managed to trim it back down to around $460 during the early afternoon. Then I went on tilt again and took some overly large positions and I was wrong. I think the one that got me was a 45 cent loss on an 1100 share position on BTU. I am down $1100 today. I gave up almost half my months gains today. Funny thing is I am not really upset about today's loss. Maybe the effects would kick in later.

Mangled

2008-09-19T15:12:00.005-04:00

My losses started out very small and manageable and slowly got out of control. I thought I could make a come back, but I dug a deeper hole. My timing was terrible. It felt like every trade I do would quickly reverse on me. When the market was spiking down, stocks I short actually goes up. When the market goes up and I pick a long it drops. Down $410 today. On the bright side maybe I learned something if I can remember it next time.

Unprepared for the volatility

2008-09-18T16:00:00.003-04:00

Today was a wicked day with wild moves, but I was fighting with a loss for half of the day and I was trading scared. STT had $30 ranges. I saw the stock earlier on my TI filter but didn't watch it. Later on I see it down like 25 bucks. My esignal has been freezing constantly today. I should have an esignal indicator because it called the reversal of the market. My charts froze for almost the rest of the afternoon after the market made the sharp V reversal. I am looking for another charting service. Any suggestions?

Even if my charts worked perfectly and I do an honest assessment of myself, I probably would not have the guts to make good money today. I feel something is off with my trading lately. I don't know why I have been missing the out on this wild volatility. I ended the day with a measly gain.

Missed opportunities

2008-09-17T15:43:00.003-04:00

There were huge moves in many stocks. I don't know what I was doing today. I got tossed around by the market and lost my conviction. I was looking to go long and was expecting a strong reversal. When the market broke down to new lows I changed my mind. I jumped around and traded a lot of different stocks. When the market had double bottom at around 2pm I was watching ETR and missed out on some good bounces in UBB and FLR, two stocks which I have been trading more actively the past two days. I was getting pretty frustrated because I was missing moves and my charts were freezing. I ended the day with $100. I guess some profits is better than nothing since I worked pretty hard today.

Conservative trading

2008-09-16T04:41:00.005-04:00

After a slow week last week, I was pretty happy to make $500 bucks in the morning especially with the crazy choppy action. I was done trading mentally and couldn't really bring myself to take any risk in the afternoon. There was good opportunities to on the short side when the market broke down to new lows and I just stood by and and watched the action unfold.

My trading has been like this the past month. I would be very conservative on days with big movement. After the good trading days are over I would think about the money that I could have made. I start to get aggressive on the choppy consolidation days and lose money. My confidence gets affected and I get wimpy when the big days comes along again.

DT and his office made a killing today. In due time I will get to that level. I need to get that hunger and drive to move forward.

I got the right idea but failed in my executions

2008-09-11T15:22:00.003-04:00

The s&p futures were down over 17 points and Lehman losing over 40% of it's value premarket, I was expecting bounce today. Maybe I was trying too hard to make money since my idea was playing out. Some days things just click and trading just flows. Today I put in a lot of effort but I could not find my rhythm. Every time I got long I get this fear and ended up getting out with small losses or small profits. I would get back in again as the stocks goes my way but with even less conviction. My stats show that I made a total $745 but also lost $692. I traded a lot of shares and ended up with a small loss today after commissions.

Struggled with losses the entire day

2008-09-10T15:50:00.004-04:00

I find it hard to trade these choppy up trends. I gave back all my gains from yesterday trading in this chop. When can I learn to stand aside?

Chopped up

2008-09-05T14:18:00.005-04:00

I planned on trading cautiously today but failed to follow my plan. I lost money early and made it back. I had 2 profitable shorts which would have given me over $250 in profits for the day if I took profits. I got greedy and shorted 300 OII near the lows and got squeezed. I then messed up my other two trades by covering one too soon and holding one of them too long until I lost all my gains. It was all downhill from there. I could have stopped with a small loss but I kept trading. I tried going long but every time I jump into long trades I get shaken out by pullbacks. I tried shorting but got squeezed each time also. I traded a ton of shares and was gross negative today.

Bunch of toppy patterns on the MONTHLY CHARTS

2008-09-05T08:21:00.009-04:00

I am seeing a lot of topping patterns forming in the monthly charts. These stocks could be making multi month down moves so there should be some good money to be made. Here's some of the cleaner ones. I am going to focus on these stocks on the short side. Looks like they have a lot of room on the downside if these patterns do confirm.

CHARTS:
BG, BGC, HSC, JEC, OII, UBB

Also check out EMR, APD, PH.

Good volatility but I'm putting on wimpy share sizes

2008-09-04T16:16:00.003-04:00

The volatility has been great. I found many stocks breaking down and managed to catch some $1+ moves the past 3 days. Today I made most of my money in CMI, FLR, and UBB. I could have had some big days if I took larger share sizes. Since I traded small (100-200 share positions), my days were just slightly above average.

I think I got to be more cautious tomorrow since we already had a big move. From reviewing my trading stats, I usually have a tough time trading when the markets or my stocks put on inside days or narrow range days following big moves.

Update...

2008-09-02T13:12:00.003-04:00

I ended the month of August with some profits. I was going to take the last week of August off, but I decided to trade. I ended the week with small loss. Even though the loss was small my confidence took a blow. I was already on a vacation mentality and the last thing I want to do is take a big loss near the end of the month. Since I was afraid of losing money, my trading got sloppy. When I had a negative pnl, I found myself looking for nickel and dime moves instead of good setups so I can break even.

I am starting this month slowly. I will see if I can build some momentum and end this month strong.

Doing a little project so I can get a better understanding of my trading

2008-08-16T11:05:00.003-04:00

I read that successful traders keep a detailed journal of their trades each day. They make daily, weekly and monthly reviews to find their weaknesses and strengths. This is one area where I need to devote my time on.

Right now my journal usually consist of a brief entry of a few sentences. I would write stuff like, I was impatient today and traded impulsively, or I started out with losses and they got worse because I forced trades so I can make my money back. I want to improve my trading at a faster pace and this kind of info in my journal is inadequate. I need more in depth analysis.

Today I got a idea. My trading software has a trade analyzer feature which creates a break down of my trades each day. It includes the shares traded, stocks traded, pnl, # winning trades, # losing trades etc. I have been collecting the data dating back to 2006 but haven't really done anything with them. I am such a lazy trader. You might have seen this format before if you follow Dehtrader's blog. I think we use the same broker.

Here is an analysis of Thursday's trading. The day I got hit for a $700 loss. I did not get any big hits. The little losses were the ones that killed me. I had a terrible win rate of 18%. I traded 9600 shares and lost $375 during the midday chop period.

I am going to input the data into excel and do some analysis. It is a tedious task but I think I can get a good understanding of my some of my weaknesses. I am still gathering ideas on how to analyze my stats.

Just when my confidence was improving...

2008-08-14T14:24:00.004-04:00

I had three above average days and was beginning to gain some confidence. I thought I am finally getting the consistency I want in my trading. I was dreaming of taking bigger size so I can get those $1k days. Everything was was looking good until the market gave me a blow and knocked me back down to the ground.

I was negative the entire day and more losses just kept getting larger. I just couldn't find anything today. Since there was a big crack in my discipline from being overconfident, I took trades without careful planning. I thought my trades would work out like the other days. I could have stopped myself when I was down $180, $250, $300, $400, or $500 but I kept going. I thought I could catch that one trade that would bring me back or cut my loss down. I began to take trades which I classify as low probability or bad trades. On some trades I knew I don't have a good chance but I took them anyway. Like all my other bad days my day ended in capitulation. I gave up at 2:30 when I lost another $60 bringing my losses to $700 for the day. I worked hard for my gains this month and I gave away a big chunk today.

What's with the rally?

2008-08-08T13:04:00.004-04:00

I did not have much stocks on my watchlist today so I had to rely on some new trade idea filters that I just made before the market opened. While I was fumbling around looking for stocks the market ripped hard. I was caught completely off guard. I was lucky I did not short anything. Most of the stocks that I found had big moves in the 1st 30 minutes so already I was too late.

Yesterday the market was down over 200. Today it is up over 200 even though the news ain't so good. I don't know what's going now. I am am going to end my day early with a small loss since I don't have any good trading ideas or stocks to focus on.

Chart patterns are improving my trades

2008-08-07T15:29:00.005-04:00

I took some trades in AAP and made some money. By drawing some trendlines I was able to see a triangle forming. I bought after it broke out and made a quick scalp. It then consolidated and formed a box pattern. I bought some shares again when it broke and made another scalp.

The pattern that I didn't take. What a nice move. Next time when I see this I should grab some.

Update....

2008-08-06T13:39:00.003-04:00

I ended the month of July with some decent profits. Since there are still a lot of earnings coming out I am able to find some stocks to trade every day. My pnl has also been consistently green. In the past 18 days I had 1 losing day. I have been seeing good setups almost daily but instead of taking some larger share size, I am still hesitant.

I have switched back to trading off the 5 minute chart. I still don't have the patience to go with the 15. I try to focus on 1 stock at a time and get a feel for the tape before I enter a position. I also have been drawing trendlines and using a little chart patterns. These little things seem to be helping me gain some conviction in my trades.

When the earnings reports die down I will have to work harder to find my stocks. I think I am making money now because I have a good list of earnings stocks to trade. The key to making money each day is to trade the right stocks.

Proprietary trading firms are getting into blogging

2008-07-29T14:34:00.004-04:00

I have been reading Keystone Trading Group's blog for awhile now and they share some good trading insights.

Today I just found SMB Capital's blog and I spent some time going through their posts. Yes they are the same guys from Wall Street Warriors Season 2. They got some good posts there dealing with trading styles, psychology, and trading day summaries.

This post got me doing a little reflection about my own trading. The post is about the work ethic and ambitions of 2 new traders in their group. The time I spend on daily research and trade review pales in comparison to those guys at SMB. I need to boost up my efforts.

Updated 8/11/2008
Found this one through Dr. Brett's blog. Here's a new blog by Trading RM, a Chicago prop firm.

Anyone reading blogs by other prop firms?

Not giving up my profits

2008-07-25T13:19:00.004-04:00

Today I had a couple of trades that ran well. A little while back I really want to milk these kind of trade for big profits. Since I am trading small, 100-200 share positions, I always want to capture $1-2 moves. I usually end up giving back all my gains by holding too long. A lot of times the stock would pull back and stop me out before it runs again. In many of my trades I would be up over $1 if I had taken profits, but end up with only 1/3 of that. Now I am not going to be that greedy.

I think taking profits is helping me psychologically, since I am taking in steady gains during the day. I am able to see things more clearly and take more trades.

Here's a 1 minute chart a trade I took in EMN. The stock runs down over $1 and bounces $1. If I hadn't taken my partial I would probably punch out of all my shares near the top of the retracement.

I had a quick profit of $265 in ITT and I took it. If I choose to hold on for a bigger gain, I would have lost most of my profits.

Update..

2008-07-24T14:59:00.003-04:00

I averaged around $300 a day for the past 5 days, but considering the crazy volatility with the commodity stocks, I think my performance is mediocre. It seems like everyday I see stocks with $5 ranges or more.

I have made a little adjustment to my profit targets. Right now I take profits whenever I can instead of trying to get the perfect exit. I have been trading a lot more shares since I am doing more scalp trades. I am not going to get excited over my 5 days of above average gains just yet. Let me see if I can keep up my performance and increase my profits.

Progress?

2008-07-18T16:03:00.004-04:00

I made some money this week but every day was a struggle. I am still trying to find some kind of strategy which I can comfortably take more size instead of my 100-200 share positions. I think there is a light bulb that is flicking on and off in my head. I need to get it to stay on. If I can put all the pieces of the puzzle together I may make some progress. I just got to keep going.

Daily Summary

2008-07-15T14:38:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted for a week. I have hit a brick wall and I am trying to find a way around it. I did not lose any money but I did not make anything either. It seems like every day I had the chance to pocket $200-$300 but I end up making nothing because I held on too long. Today I had $300 in the pocket if I had closed my shorts in DHR and COL, but I held on until most of my gains are gone.

The List - Tuesday 7/8

2008-07-07T20:31:00.003-04:00

Did not trade today. Did some research and found some stocks for Tuesday.

Shorts

Daily Summary

2008-07-03T13:07:00.003-04:00

I messed up my chance for a good day. FLS was one of the stocks that I plan to short. My esignal crapped out a few minutes after the opening bell. I switched to the generic charts in my trading platform. I did not have the futures up so I did not know what the market was doing. I was trading blindly. I forgot about FLS.

Since I don't have my charting layout up I decided to watch the coals stocks. I tried to bottom fish BTU and lost $1.75 with my 100 share position. That's what I get for not cutting my loss. I probably got out at the lows. I dug myself into a deeper hole as I tried to short FLR using the 1 minute chart and I got squeezed. I was pretty disappointed at my lack of discipline. I wonder why I was even trading when I don't have my charting layout.

I had to uninstall esignal and switch back to the older version. I got up and running again at 11am. I was following FLS at around 11:30 and I got short at 121.65 with 100 shares. I covered at 119. I got short 100 shares again at 118.81 and covered at 116.69. I recovered my losses and made a small gain for the day.

State of the market

2008-07-03T06:51:00.001-04:00

The List

2008-07-03T05:17:00.004-04:00

Shorts

I found some stocks that are not too over extended on the short side trading near important support levels. The bulk of the stocks are from the oil service and equipment sector. Maybe they will break them down like they did with the coals and steels.

I'm looking for XEC, FLR, and WHQ to fill the gap. FLR is a monster, maybe it can finally crack.

Longs

Things look ugly out there. I don't see anything that looks good on the long side.

Daily Summary

2008-07-03T04:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had a list of longs but none of them worked out. On the short side MT had a great move. I made some money in it but it was pretty sad. I think I only caught a $1 out of the $9 drop. I also made some money shorting BTU and ACI but again I only caught a small part of the move down.

Looks like a nice double top, stock quickly reaches target.

The List

2008-07-02T06:34:00.002-04:00

Here' are some stocks I am watching for the week. Building a list is easy but finding the right entries during the day is what I have to work on.

Longs

shorts

New locations for the Virtual Office

2008-07-02T02:09:00.006-04:00

DT has passed the torched to Tokyo Trader. TT is now the new host of the virtual office. DT did offered me the opportunity but I declined because there was a catch. I would have to meet up with DT for a weekend in a love hotel and perform some services for him. Being a hot blooded male I respectfully declined the offer.

Wincity a former VO member is also running his own Virtual O ffice. He took it up a notch by automating it and allowing anyone to post his or her pnl. Looks to me like an excellent idea. Damn those computer programmers. I got to go back to school an get a degree in programming.

Being free from his VO hosting duties, DT is now enjoying his extra time by playing with his male midget, dwarf and hobbit friends.

Pnl Hiatus

2008-06-27T00:42:00.003-04:00

My first post here in blogger was in October 2006 and I have been posting my pnl faithfully every day I trade. I went though a slump in 2007 as I struggled to adapt to changes in NYSE stocks. Sometimes I wonder if posting my pnl affect my trading performance. I know I constantly try to keep my pnl positive everyday. Sometimes I am fearful to take trades I see because I do not want a negative day.

Recently I feel my trading has been plagued by constant dollar counting. I will be in a trade and I keep adding up the gains and losses in my head has the stock moves. Most of the time I get shaken out of good ideas. There was a time when I would get into a stock, place a stop and just relax and let my trade work. As the trade goes in my favor I would trail my stops down until I get stopped out. I had good winners and they felt good because I followed the plan. I got to find that experience again.

Just got news that DT plans to suspend the VO for awhile. I will take this as a cue for me to make some changes in this blog. I am going to do a little experiment. I am not going to post my pnl for awhile and see how it affects my trading. I am still thinking of what type of post I will do since almost all my posts are about my pnl and trading day.

Daily Summary

2008-06-26T14:33:00.005-04:00

6000 shares
+159

My 3 day break from trading was refreshing. I thought about taking the rest of the week off but I am starting to feel guilty for not trading. The FED meeting is out of the way so maybe there would be some good directional moves.

I felt a little lost today. I tried shorting DE at around 10am and lost money. I was down around 80 bucks. I made my money back later. There was two trades that could have been nice winners if I handled them correctly. I got a great short in AKS. I even told myself that the stock would be a big winner if I just hold on to it. Well I got took profits again and missed out on the big move. I had a good short in CRM and I wasn't going to let go of my winner so I held it when it retraced only to watch my 50 cent gain on 300 shares evaporate.

My thinking was right but I need to work on my trade management.

Daily Summary

2008-06-20T12:05:00.003-04:00

Tuesday
2000 shares
+74

Wednesday
2600 shares
+9

Thursday
5400 shares
+18

Today
3400 shares
-126

This week was tough. Every day I struggled just to break even. I had no confidence with my trades and every time I entered I had a feeling I would lose money. I need to review my rules again because I am trading without a plan right now. I think that is why I feel so lost.

I was going to take the day off, but got drawn into the morning action. Since I was trading half heartedly and with fear I lost money.

Daily Summary

2008-06-16T15:33:00.002-04:00

4800 shares
-121

I made around 80 bucks after my first 2 trades. I should have stopped trading then because I did not have a feel for the action today. I lost all my gains and then some more.

Daily Summary

2008-06-13T15:20:00.004-04:00

7400
+228

I had messed up another play today. The market was moving up and I was late to CMI. I should have been in at the 15 min OR breakout. I went in on the 30 min OR break instead. The stock shoots up 65 cents from my average price of 72.85 and then pulls all the way back. I was scared of a reversal so I got out of 200 shares near break even only to watch it bounce strong. I added 200 shares at the break of 73.50. I sold 100 shares at 74 and held on to my other 200. Then it did the same thing to me again trading back down to my average price. I got out of 100 only to watch it bounce. I added 100 again bringing my average price higher. I got stopped out eventually and lost money with my higher avg price. When a stock already made a good move and I get a quick 50 cents I should take it. CMI ran from 70.26 to 74. That's a huge move. I wasn't looking at where it came from when I picked my profit targets. The 1 minute chart shows how this stock was messing with me.

RRC brought my pnl up. Nice OR breakdown. This stock was weak relative to the market. I had it on my watchlist for a daily range breakdown. It formed a narrow range doji at previous day's lows and broke down. Stock drops over 50 cents but I was greedy. It bounced and I ended making 30 cents. I shorted again near the 15 narrow range lows at 63.24 and rode it down for a $100 gain.

Daily Summary

2008-06-12T15:34:00.002-04:00

Wednesday
3200 shares
+403

Today
6800
+94

The market had a nice sharp move up in the morning and then lost all its gains. I was just up slightly for most of the day. I had a great short in DE near the end of the day but messed up on my trade. I shorted at 78.60 and was letting it ride. Stock drops to 77.90 and makes a bounce. I held on when it pushed up to 78.20. Then I had power surge and lost my cable connection for few minutes. Once I logged back on I saw the stock trading at over 78.23. I did not want to lose all my profits so I covered at 78.28, right at the high of the retracement. If my cable had stayed off a bit longer maybe I would still be in the trade. I had a chance to take profits at 78 but I did not. I experienced both fear and greed in this trade and they gained the upper hand. Next time I will win.

Daily Summary

2008-06-10T15:26:00.003-04:00

Monday
11200 shares
+50

Today
7000 shares
-10

There were pretty good volatility in these past two days, but I got nothing to show for. Yesterday I got a $150 loss and had to work my way back. I was making the same mistakes again today and lost around $200 early on. It was good to make a come back but I am pushing my luck. I did not wait for things to settle down in the morning. I thought there would be a lot of quick momentum moves so I was putting out trades only to get stopped out. I go to stop impulsive trading and wait for good setups.

Daily Summary

2008-06-06T14:19:00.003-04:00

6800 shares
-46

What a reversal. The market was weak the entire day and I tried to go long gold stocks most of the time. I picked BVN and ABX which did not move much while AEM the one that I passed on blasted off. I picked a couple of stocks to short last night but I did not watch them. EDU was one of them. When the market is weak why look for longs. The easy trades are from the short side. I got to remember this the next time.

Daily Summary

2008-06-05T15:57:00.001-04:00

7200 shares
+465

Trading was much better today. My opening range breakouts finally worked. I think it is because the market broke out of a downtrend today by breaking over previous day's highs. I was trading MTL, NUE, PX and they all had nice moves. Too bad I only had 100 shares of MTL and NUE. I made around $1.50 on both. I made 50 cents on PX with 200 shares.

Daily Summary

2008-06-04T15:26:00.003-04:00

8600 shares
+109

I dug a little hole again in the morning. I was down around $60. I noticed that the coal stocks were weak so I was watching them. There was a little spike up at 10:30 and I noticed that CNX and ACI reversed quickly. I thought I can catch a quick reversal so I shorted BTU without thinking. I got a bad price and I covered with a $65 loss. With another couple of scratches I was down $150.

I made a comeback with a long in MAN. I got a great price at at an average of 64.96 on 300 shares. The stock ran to 65.29 and sold back down to 64.04. I think the thought of money is dictating the way I trade. I was in the money for $90 and I watched it disappear. I did not want the stock to reverse on me, since that has been happening quite often these days so I got out. I watched the stock creep up again. I averaged in again and this time my price was 65.50 on 300 shares. I got out of 100 at 65.90 and 200 at 66. I watched the stock go up another 70 cents.

I was flat until I caught a $100 short in TRA near the end of the day. I had to really work for my gains today.

Daily Summary

2008-06-03T15:12:00.003-04:00

4400 shares
+140

I made some money going long KCI in the morning and decided to call it a day. It has been a long time since I had a $100+ day. I was watching the fertilizer stocks and got a feeling that they will reverse. Awhile back I remember making money playing these reversals. Now I am scared to take these trades. Maybe after some more green days I can play them with small size.

Daily Summary

2008-06-02T15:35:00.001-04:00

10800 shares
-140

Daily Summary

2008-05-30T14:54:00.003-04:00

9000 shares
-89

I got chopped around early on and lost around $130. I made a comeback going long HRS and was up $70 bucks. Then I lost my gains again and went negative.

Daily Summary - Where's the light in the tunnel?

2008-05-30T06:06:00.006-04:00

Wednesday
6400 shares
-18

Thursday
5400 shares
+88

I am not sure what is happening to my trading. I was doing well the first two weeks of May. I thought I finally saw the light and steady improving gains are along the horizon. Then suddenly the power went out. I have been wading through the darkness this past two weeks and my trading is being crippled by fear. I told myself maybe the market trend has changed and I am looking for the wrong setups. Everyday I feel like I am trading blind and I cannot seem to see a decent setup. I take trades but I did not have the clear conviction. Most of the time I am worried that I will stop out and lose money and that came true.

After some soul searching I have come to the same conclusion. I have to conquer my fear and trade. There are moves in the market everyday. I missed them because I was fearful. I kept telling myself the market would be slow and I am going to lose money everyday. At the end of the day I either lost money or end up flat. I got to keep trading and follow my plan. I am going to cut my size down to 100 shares if that will help me trade without fear. I feel if I can get some positive days I can get my rhythm back again.

The Dinosaur had some breakthrough in his trading yesterday. Can you throw me a flashlight DT?

Daily Summary

2008-05-27T15:05:00.002-04:00

2800 shares
-22

I had a gain of 80 bucks and was happy. Then I tried to play a bounce in MR at around 2:45pm. I got 200 shares at 39.61 and I watched with disbelief as the stock dropped to 38.60s. The stock bounced up and I got out at 39.10 for a loss of $101. This is just another one of those bad trades that keep repeating itself from time to time. Stop trying to pick bottoms or play bounces.

Daily Summary

2008-05-21T15:35:00.005-04:00

9800 shares
-28

I got hit with a $192 loss in BRC on my 2nd trade. I took 400 shares at 35.05 and 200 shares at 35.29. The stock did not act right and I knew I was trapped. I was also long HOS and that stock helped me recover a chunk of my loss. I was still down for the day and with a little more churning I soon found myself down over $130. I made most of it back around 1pm so I decided to take a break. While I was doing my workout the market sold off and there were some nice moves on the short side. I think even if I was around I would probably have missed the sell off. I am still trying to go long and I am skeptical of shorts. After today's action I might have to lay off going long and start looking for shorts.

Daily Summary

2008-05-20T12:49:00.003-04:00

10200 shares
-473

Today was ugly. Out of all my trades I only made $20 and the rest were losses. I lost $200 going long and over $200 going short. I wished I had taken the day off instead.

After yesterday's huge reversal, I had a feeling it would be tough to go short or long today. I started out with a small loss of around 80 bucks. I did not see any good setups or have any conviction in my trades. I slowly racked up my losses. As my losses increased I wanted to make them back and my mentality changed. Instead of waiting for good setups I got desperate and took sloppy trades.

I will probably cut down my size to 100 shares tomorrow or take a day off. Just when I am gaining some confidence I get slapped down again. I was making money when the market was trending up but there's a change today.

Daily Summary

2008-05-19T15:11:00.004-04:00

10400 shares
+376

I caught a nice longs in UA and TK. UA was my biggest winner. I had a 200 share trade in TK at 52.05. I sold 100 at 52.70 and 100 at 52.03. I went into CCJ four times but got shaken out on all my trades and lost money each time. That stock had a nice move though on a break of 42.50.

UA 5 min chart

Daily Summary

2008-05-16T13:41:00.002-04:00

8400 shares
+231

I made $100 in ATI from going long a break of 82. I was a bit slow and missed the shares at 82. I got in at 82.13 and 82.16. I sold 100 at 82.35 and 100 at 82.98 for a gain of $106. Right after my ATI trade I jump into 200 CRS at 61.21 and ended up losing all my gains when I got out of the nasty reversal at 60.68. I hesitated too long and had a big loss. RDC was my biggest winner. I got into 400 shares at an average of 45.08. I got out of 200 at 45.61 and 200 at 45.56 for a gain of $212. I made up to $300 in profits and then gave some back.

Daily Summary

2008-05-15T15:58:00.003-04:00

Wednesday
8000 shares
+273

Today
14000 shares
-37

Today was a bit frustrating. I decided to boost my size to 300-400 shares positions. I was not patient in the morning and I kept forcing trades, instead of waiting for nice setups to come along. As I started losing, I kept taking more trades and lost some more. It seems like on days that I try to get aggressive and make money I lose money. I was down over $300 at noon. I managed to recoup most of my losses by going long JCP when it broke out of 45.39, a daily chart resistance. I got 300 shares at 45.39 but got shaken out at 45.35. Then I got 300 again at 45.59 and held on. I sold 100 at 46.50 and the rest at 46.25. I wish I had more shares, but since I was down over $300, it was hard for me to go aggressive.

Daily Summary

2008-05-13T15:20:00.006-04:00

11000 shares
+230

I did not catch any big movers today. My biggest gain was around 90 bucks. I caught a few scalps on the long side.

I found a pretty good website(finviz) for trading research thanks to Brian from Alpha Trends. For a free site it has pretty powerful screening tools. I played around with it today for a little bit and I like it.

I like how it shows the chart of all the stocks from the scan. It also draws trendlines and finds patterns for you. Nice.

Daily Summary

2008-05-09T13:17:00.002-04:00

Wednesday
6600 shares
+237

Thursday
13600 shares
+18

Today
5800 shares
+263

I had a good week last week, but this week I find myself trading defensively again. This has helped me some what because I am very skeptical about most of the moves. I kept my focus on stocks with earnings and stayed away from trading other stuff. I haven't had much success trading them for the last month or two.

Daily Summary

2008-05-06T15:20:00.003-04:00

Monday
6800 shares
+162

Today
18400 shares
-126

I was forcing trades early on and lost around 180 by 9:39. My pnl was seesawing between positive and negative for most of the day. I was down around 36 bucks until I made an aggressive trade in COV at around 2:15. I bought 600 shares at 49. I wasn't too confident so I got out of 200 shares at 49.04. The stock dropped fast and got out of my 400 shares at 48.75. I wanted to make a comeback but I could not find any trades. I also had a hard time trying to stay awake so I guess it is best not to force anything.

Daily Summary

2008-05-02T15:25:00.002-04:00

7800 shares
+670

I had a nice trade in BWA.

Daily Summary

2008-05-01T14:53:00.004-04:00

6200 shares
+1528

After 2 weeks of watching earnings stocks run up 2-3 bucks from the open, I finally caught one of them. I had the golden touch today and most of my trades are winners. My total losers only added up to $55.

ASF was my money maker. I took 400 shares and rode it up taking partial profits along the way. If all trades move this fast then trading would be easy. I made 761 in ASF on 400 shares.

I also made some money in TRN, MGA, MSA and N in the long side.

Daily Summary

2008-04-30T15:09:00.005-04:00

10400 shares
+334

My trading was not going anywhere and I was up only hundred bucks at noon. I saw JLL break down to new lows. I was skeptical and have no conviction so I got only 200 shares. I made the bulk of my gains in this trade and called it a day.

Daily Summary

2008-04-29T15:28:00.000-04:00

11400 shares
-59

Daily Summary

2008-04-28T14:51:00.002-04:00

7000 shares
-199

I had 2 costly mistakes in the morning which added up to most of my losses today. I did not trade the fertilizer stocks for awhile and today I tried to play them. I spotted TRA going up so I went long MON. Instead of moving up MON continued down lost 46 cents on 100 shares. I thought maybe TRA was going to follow MON and the other fertilizer stocks so I shorted 200 shares of TRA. I got squeezed for 86 bucks as TRA continued up. One good thing is I covered instead of waiting or my loss could have been much greater. I have stopped taking trades like these because they involve to much guess work. I guess my old habits crept back today. I did not catch anything else the for most of the day and lost a bit more.

Daily Summary

2008-04-25T14:49:00.003-04:00

6000 shares
+112

I did not catch any big trades today. I took it slow and with small size. I am heading out for a 5k run soon.

Daily Summary

2008-04-24T14:51:00.007-04:00

12600 shares
+520

I had a sloppy morning today. I got caught in a failed breakout in LTM. I was in 200 shares at 34.10 and the thing just reversed hard. I lost 80 bucks when I got out at 33.70. I went through a bit of a choppy period and lost $200. I made a come back and some extra cash later when I caught a short in WCC, longs in SSP, BCR, and a small pop in CMG.

Daily Summary

2008-04-23T14:51:00.005-04:00

6800 shares
+215

There are a lot of earnings this week. Today I had a list of around 18 stocks. I had a long in R which did not reach my target. I was looking for a $1 gain. When the stock stalled at 66.50 and sold off I panicked and got out. I was scared of a reversal. I was down around 70 bucks until I caught LII and made a come back.