Great opening today! I predicted that the market would pop in the AM, and the sell off is a good thing for the market as well. We didn't have a a real strong pull back, which again keeps me bullish. Day trades have been interesting, and some Blackwood Glitches have cost me some profits. I have no idea why this happens all the time, but there must be something wrong with the software. I was long 200 shares of ENER and was in the money for over 50 cents, I was pleased with the trade and tried to limit out to take profits into strength before the pullback. Then, my orders weren't going through and I was recieving error messages "U R Out. ENER Not Shortable" and "U R Out. Exceed Maximum Position Size of 200." This is definitely a problem and cost me a lot of profits. When I am long a position and want to put a limit order out to sell, I am not shorting... also what's the deal with Exceeding maximum position size. Overall, I was up over $100 and only took $28 profit while I was fighting with the Blackwood Software. Those are my gripes for the day, but I guess it could be worse.
My swing trades all look good! Did you see LDK today?!?!?! Talk about a rocket! LDK shot up to $7.40, pulled back to $6.50, and then popped back up to $7.87!!! I took profits in LDK today selling into strength. Profits on LDK were $2.89 per share! Too bad I didn't take much size at all in LDK. Still, I managed to get a 62% return! I am still holding PCX and HW. HW is very strong, and I will hold until my profit target is hit or I see weakness. PCX is pulling back, but is consolodating indicating to me that it may pop up.
That's all for now, I will update later.
---------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Update:
The afternoon did not go so well with my day trades. I was bullish today and was only looking for longs, and unfortunately, I got stopped out on all of my trades. My entries were based on the market, stochastics, and 3 time charts. Each time I got in, I would be in and out of the money, only to get stopped out. I am going to end my week of like this just barely being up for the week. Tommorow I'm going to paper trade until I am happy with my consistency. I will however be managing my swing trades which all look good. I am now up 16%, and am holding PCX and HW. Both stocks look strong and I am looking to take profits soon.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Today was a good day for day trades, but my executions weren't so great. I can now trade 200 shares per position and I was doing well for a bit. I was down $0.36 cents and got stopped out on JBHT. So, that put me down $72 since I had 200 shares. Then later on I took 200 shares of ERY and held if for over 2 hours. Basically I would be up 50 cents and down 30 cents, but never got stopped out. So, I put a limit order out to cover myself so that I would at least break even for the day, and I got filled pretty fast. Too bad I did because the market kept dropping and ERY just ripped straight up. If I would have held on I would have made 3 points for a profit of $600. Instead, I got out, waited, anticipated the market would pop up again, so I took 200 shares of ERX and got burned pretty bad on it. I gave ERX 50 cents to shake and it gapped down 60 cents on me for a loss of $120.
Overall, I'm not too concerned with todays trades. Days like this happen, and from what I've been told, read, and learned first hand, you need to remove all emotions from trading. When your right, your right! When your wrong, your wrong. It happens. Unfortunately, I was about an hour early when I thought the market was going to pop based on my indicators. 2 pm / 2:15 pm things started to look good on my charts, and then everything rolled over and the stochastics crossing over turned into the stochastics becoming embeded. We did have a nice close though which keeps me bullish for the week. We needed that pullback today in order for this move to continue.
My swing trades are still going well, and I am pleased with that. Last night I did some research and went over some chart setups with a friend over the phone and found a trade that I really liked. Ticker symbol HW formed a beautiful inverse head and shoulders that broke the neck line today. I took 200 shares at a price of $2.7899 and things look good. When the market popped this morning, HW jumped up to $3.40, but pulled back when the market fell off. As of now, my account is hovering around 10% up and things still look good. PCX is having some trouble breaking the $5.00 mark, and pulled back down to a low of $4.15 today, but bounced back off that low. LDK looks great, and I am still holding 50 shares. I am planning to take profits when LDK fills the gap at around $8.
Here is the chart for HW:
Overall, I'm not too concerned with todays trades. Days like this happen, and from what I've been told, read, and learned first hand, you need to remove all emotions from trading. When your right, your right! When your wrong, your wrong. It happens. Unfortunately, I was about an hour early when I thought the market was going to pop based on my indicators. 2 pm / 2:15 pm things started to look good on my charts, and then everything rolled over and the stochastics crossing over turned into the stochastics becoming embeded. We did have a nice close though which keeps me bullish for the week. We needed that pullback today in order for this move to continue.
My swing trades are still going well, and I am pleased with that. Last night I did some research and went over some chart setups with a friend over the phone and found a trade that I really liked. Ticker symbol HW formed a beautiful inverse head and shoulders that broke the neck line today. I took 200 shares at a price of $2.7899 and things look good. When the market popped this morning, HW jumped up to $3.40, but pulled back when the market fell off. As of now, my account is hovering around 10% up and things still look good. PCX is having some trouble breaking the $5.00 mark, and pulled back down to a low of $4.15 today, but bounced back off that low. LDK looks great, and I am still holding 50 shares. I am planning to take profits when LDK fills the gap at around $8.
Here is the chart for HW:
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Day Trading Post #23
Today was my best day I've had in the markets with my day trading account in a while. By trading 100 shares, one position at a time, I managed to make 3 points off of 12 day trades! I ended the day up $300.88 on my day trading account with most of my profits coming from SRS. My predictions about todays market were validated when we saw the markets initially sell off in the morning. I held off from taking a trade until 11am just to get a feel for what the day would be like, and I am glad I did. I mostly traded ETF's and took one momentum trade to scalp 17 cents in ORA which had good news that came out on it at 12:47 pm. Other than that, I took trades in ERX, IYR, FAZ (tested it out since I have never traded it before... but this ETF seems to be dead in the water after falling about 100 points or so in the past week or two), and SRS.
My trades in SRS were my most profitable. I managed to get just over 3 points out of SRS which are shown in the chart below. I decided to trade SRS because I know that the RIETS have been very active and very volatile lately. So, I was sure I could catch a big move or two trading the 2x ultrashort etf, and since it finally came under $50, I was able to trade it (...again restrictions on my day trading account would not allow me to trade this when it was over $50. This is being changed because I have been very consistent lately). My reasons for getting into the trades I took were based on the 3m, 5m, and 15m charts with the stochastics. Also, the E-Mini's on the 1m chart were used to judge my entries into these trades. Overall, this system has been working well for me. Click the chart below to see the trades I took in SRS:
SWING TRADES:
I am still holding 200 shares of PCX and 50 shares of LDK. Both stocks showed great strength, and PCX just missed my GTC limit order by 3 cents at todays high. Even though I wasn't filled, I really like the strength I see in it. PCX set a new 5-6 week high today. On top of that, I like how it closed above the 20EMA. Things look good and I will be taking profits soon. As of now I am up 10% in my MB Trading Account... pretty solid for 5 weeks of trading in this account!
My trades in SRS were my most profitable. I managed to get just over 3 points out of SRS which are shown in the chart below. I decided to trade SRS because I know that the RIETS have been very active and very volatile lately. So, I was sure I could catch a big move or two trading the 2x ultrashort etf, and since it finally came under $50, I was able to trade it (...again restrictions on my day trading account would not allow me to trade this when it was over $50. This is being changed because I have been very consistent lately). My reasons for getting into the trades I took were based on the 3m, 5m, and 15m charts with the stochastics. Also, the E-Mini's on the 1m chart were used to judge my entries into these trades. Overall, this system has been working well for me. Click the chart below to see the trades I took in SRS:
SWING TRADES:
I am still holding 200 shares of PCX and 50 shares of LDK. Both stocks showed great strength, and PCX just missed my GTC limit order by 3 cents at todays high. Even though I wasn't filled, I really like the strength I see in it. PCX set a new 5-6 week high today. On top of that, I like how it closed above the 20EMA. Things look good and I will be taking profits soon. As of now I am up 10% in my MB Trading Account... pretty solid for 5 weeks of trading in this account!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Day Trading Post #22
Wow! What a day in the market! I was bullish coming into this week but a close of +497 on the DOW!!! Thats amazing! Also, the S&P was strong today and exploded up once we broke the major resistance at 805.
I only took one day trade today because I had other obligations this afternoon, but I was profitable. I scalped 14 cents in ERX off the 1m and 3m chart when the stochastics crossed over indicating a move up. I made my real money today through my swing trades!
My plan finally played out and EBAY filled the gap! The gap was up to $13.06, and Ebay closed at $13.06. Because I couldn't be around for the close, and had to leave around 2:30pm, I put a limit order out to sell my last 100 shares of EBAY at $13.05. According to my trading platform, I was filled 3 seconds before the close, and I am totally out of my position on EBAY for a profit of $1.90 profit. So, I made 4.2% profit on the first 100 shares I sold, and a 12% profit on the second hundred shares!
I am still holding 200 shares of PCX and 50 shares of LDK. I like both the charts on these positions and plan to hold until my profit targets are hit.
That is all for today!
I only took one day trade today because I had other obligations this afternoon, but I was profitable. I scalped 14 cents in ERX off the 1m and 3m chart when the stochastics crossed over indicating a move up. I made my real money today through my swing trades!
My plan finally played out and EBAY filled the gap! The gap was up to $13.06, and Ebay closed at $13.06. Because I couldn't be around for the close, and had to leave around 2:30pm, I put a limit order out to sell my last 100 shares of EBAY at $13.05. According to my trading platform, I was filled 3 seconds before the close, and I am totally out of my position on EBAY for a profit of $1.90 profit. So, I made 4.2% profit on the first 100 shares I sold, and a 12% profit on the second hundred shares!
I am still holding 200 shares of PCX and 50 shares of LDK. I like both the charts on these positions and plan to hold until my profit targets are hit.
That is all for today!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Day Trading Post #21
Today was a very dull day in the markets due to quadruple witching. I originally told myself that I would not be taking any trades today, but I logged on to my account and traded anyway. I took a total of four trades today and none of them were spectacular. Using the Finviz Screener, I found 2 stocks that I took trades in, WRI and ARE. My trade in I was stopped out in my WRI trade fairly early for $0.30 cents, and ARE I managed to scalp $0.35 profit. After that, I took a trade in ERX on the 5 minute chart which turned out to be much more risk than I was willing take. So, I took a 35 cent hit, and ended the day off shorting BXP where I got stuck in my position and had to limit out after the close taking another small hit of $0.16 cents. Overall, for my day trades, I took 4 trades and had a gross loss of $0.46 cents. Not great, but definitely not terrible.
I am still holding my swing trades, and they all came down off of yesterdays highs. PCX dropped off the bigges from yesterdays highs falling $1.32. I am now down on PCX holding 200 shares at a price of $3.82. I feel that this is just a pull back and I might even add to this position if I see it holding some strength next week. I am still up ).48 cents on 100 shares of EBAY, and am holding into next week as well. Finally, my position in LDK still looks good to me on the daily chart.
Despite the pull back in the market, I am still bullish going into next week. I believe that we still have a little bit left in this bear market rally. If I see weakness in the market next week and we show signs of a reversal (which will come soon), I will take profits next week. That's my game plan as of now.
That is all for now! See you in the markets next week!
I am still holding my swing trades, and they all came down off of yesterdays highs. PCX dropped off the bigges from yesterdays highs falling $1.32. I am now down on PCX holding 200 shares at a price of $3.82. I feel that this is just a pull back and I might even add to this position if I see it holding some strength next week. I am still up ).48 cents on 100 shares of EBAY, and am holding into next week as well. Finally, my position in LDK still looks good to me on the daily chart.
Despite the pull back in the market, I am still bullish going into next week. I believe that we still have a little bit left in this bear market rally. If I see weakness in the market next week and we show signs of a reversal (which will come soon), I will take profits next week. That's my game plan as of now.
That is all for now! See you in the markets next week!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Day Trading Post #20
Today has been an AWESOME DAY in the markets for both day trades and swing trades so far! I managed to catch a move on NOV as it was setting a 3 month high and approaching the high's from last November. I caught a pretty nice move on ERY when the market pushed down around 11:15am. Along with that I scalped 10 cents total off ADSK off the open. I only got out because I realized that I was late on my entry and that I was chasing.
My swing trades are all in the money now! PCX has shown great strength, gapped up 30 cents to open just under the $4.00 mark and continued up as high as $4.89 cents. I am still holding 200 shares to see if I can't take profits over the $5.00 mark. Ebay is showing decent relative strength in that it hasn't broken down much. Finally, LDK is such a small position, but I am slightly up on it, and the daily chart still looks good. One move I missed was a swing on another penny stock that I had put a limit order out on yesterday. I had CNO on my watchlist and it gapped up 20 cents today. I'll post the charts and details for my day trades and swing trades after the close today.
UPDATE AFTER THE CLOSE:
Afternoon trades did not go so well for me. My PC crashed while I was in a position and I took a hit that I shouldn't have. I ended the day up $0.39 cents after being up as much as $1.72 cents. Regardless of the 3 trades I took which went poorly, I would have to say that today was a good day overall. It would have been nice to not give back most of my profits, but it happens.
My swing trades are looking very good right now. EBAY held above the $12.00 level despite the market falling off at the close. On top of this, PCX is still showing good strength and I really like how it looks on the daily chart. I think it has a little more push left in it and I am planning to take profits around the $5.00 mark instead of the $4.50 mark. Also, LDK looks great on the daily chart and the stochastics are still oversold but trending up. I would like to see LDK break the $5.00 mark and get back up to $6.00 or more.
Here are my biggest winning and losing intraday trades of the day:
(Click on the images to read my analysis of the trades)
WINNERS:
NOV:
ERY:
LOSERS:
MT:
My biggest loser was due to technical problems. I was long on BXP and my computer crashed. By the time I logged back in I marketed out for a loss of $0.92. Unfortunately, I was unable to close out sooner due to tech problems, which has happened all too often in the past.
Overall, my day trades were profitable. As I continue to review my trades and refine my strategies, I am getting better and more consistent. For the past 2 months, since the begining of February, I have day traded a total of 20 days and of those 20 days, I have been profitable 14 days. Therefore, I am in the money with my day trading 70% of the time since I have changed up my strategies and taken it upon myself to read books, attend trading shows, and listen to the teachings of daytradingradio.com on a daily basis. This is an enormous turn around compared to the first couple of months I was trading.
That is all for now!
My swing trades are all in the money now! PCX has shown great strength, gapped up 30 cents to open just under the $4.00 mark and continued up as high as $4.89 cents. I am still holding 200 shares to see if I can't take profits over the $5.00 mark. Ebay is showing decent relative strength in that it hasn't broken down much. Finally, LDK is such a small position, but I am slightly up on it, and the daily chart still looks good. One move I missed was a swing on another penny stock that I had put a limit order out on yesterday. I had CNO on my watchlist and it gapped up 20 cents today. I'll post the charts and details for my day trades and swing trades after the close today.
UPDATE AFTER THE CLOSE:
Afternoon trades did not go so well for me. My PC crashed while I was in a position and I took a hit that I shouldn't have. I ended the day up $0.39 cents after being up as much as $1.72 cents. Regardless of the 3 trades I took which went poorly, I would have to say that today was a good day overall. It would have been nice to not give back most of my profits, but it happens.
My swing trades are looking very good right now. EBAY held above the $12.00 level despite the market falling off at the close. On top of this, PCX is still showing good strength and I really like how it looks on the daily chart. I think it has a little more push left in it and I am planning to take profits around the $5.00 mark instead of the $4.50 mark. Also, LDK looks great on the daily chart and the stochastics are still oversold but trending up. I would like to see LDK break the $5.00 mark and get back up to $6.00 or more.
Here are my biggest winning and losing intraday trades of the day:
(Click on the images to read my analysis of the trades)
WINNERS:
NOV:
ERY:
LOSERS:
MT:
My biggest loser was due to technical problems. I was long on BXP and my computer crashed. By the time I logged back in I marketed out for a loss of $0.92. Unfortunately, I was unable to close out sooner due to tech problems, which has happened all too often in the past.
Overall, my day trades were profitable. As I continue to review my trades and refine my strategies, I am getting better and more consistent. For the past 2 months, since the begining of February, I have day traded a total of 20 days and of those 20 days, I have been profitable 14 days. Therefore, I am in the money with my day trading 70% of the time since I have changed up my strategies and taken it upon myself to read books, attend trading shows, and listen to the teachings of daytradingradio.com on a daily basis. This is an enormous turn around compared to the first couple of months I was trading.
That is all for now!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Day Trading Post #19
Today ended quickly for me. I was up for the week gross $102, and I gave it all back this morning in ERX. For some reason I was bullish this morning, and looked for the signs to go long in ERX only to get burned twice. I gave myself 35-40 cents risk on both positions, and both times I took the hit. The second time though, ERX popped down 20 cents past my max risk and forced me out. Down $1.20 cents today for a gross loss of $120.
I guess it was bound to happen. I have been extremely consistent lately, and the past 15 trading days, I have been green 12 days and red 3 days.
Net profits for the week are $0.02 cents so far. I am taking the rest of the day off after two bad trades. No need to force anything and/or revenge trade to make it all back.
UPDATE @ 3:15pm:
Being that I am locked out of my day trading account for today, I went back to see what I did wrong, and I found that I broke my own rules. I was right about the trade I took but I was way too early. I got in because I was anticipating the stochastics to cross over, and 45 to 60 minutes later, they finally did on the 15 minute chart. Lesson learned! Wait for the trade to come to you!!! Don't Force the trade!!! I have been paper trading ERX and it has gone much better than my opening trades of the day. Too bad I can't take real profits on paper trades!
Swing trades are starting to look great! I scaled out 100 shares of eBay to lock in profits yesterday, and today it's up! So I have $0.50 cents profit locked in and I am letting the other 100 shares run! So far so good!
I doubled my position in LDK and have a total of 50 shares at an average price of $4.61. LDK is showing some good relative strength on the daily chart and the stochastics are trending up! Things are looking good!
PCX is finally popping up! I don't want to add to this position since I already have 200 shares, but wish I would have done so when PCX was hanging around the $3.00 mark. Oh well, as the saying goes "heinz eye is 20/20." It is showing good strength, and I am looking for it to break through the $4.00 mark soon. I'd like to take profits around $4.50 where there was some minor support back in February.
Finally, GGC... they say to never look back, but its hard not to when you pick a homerun and get out too early! I took a 59% gain on my investment in GGC and watched it get up to just under $2.00 today. If I would have held my position I could have been up over 500% on this trade!!! Should have, could have, would have... I had a plan and stuck to it. That's how life goes.
I guess it was bound to happen. I have been extremely consistent lately, and the past 15 trading days, I have been green 12 days and red 3 days.
Net profits for the week are $0.02 cents so far. I am taking the rest of the day off after two bad trades. No need to force anything and/or revenge trade to make it all back.
UPDATE @ 3:15pm:
Being that I am locked out of my day trading account for today, I went back to see what I did wrong, and I found that I broke my own rules. I was right about the trade I took but I was way too early. I got in because I was anticipating the stochastics to cross over, and 45 to 60 minutes later, they finally did on the 15 minute chart. Lesson learned! Wait for the trade to come to you!!! Don't Force the trade!!! I have been paper trading ERX and it has gone much better than my opening trades of the day. Too bad I can't take real profits on paper trades!
Swing trades are starting to look great! I scaled out 100 shares of eBay to lock in profits yesterday, and today it's up! So I have $0.50 cents profit locked in and I am letting the other 100 shares run! So far so good!
I doubled my position in LDK and have a total of 50 shares at an average price of $4.61. LDK is showing some good relative strength on the daily chart and the stochastics are trending up! Things are looking good!
PCX is finally popping up! I don't want to add to this position since I already have 200 shares, but wish I would have done so when PCX was hanging around the $3.00 mark. Oh well, as the saying goes "heinz eye is 20/20." It is showing good strength, and I am looking for it to break through the $4.00 mark soon. I'd like to take profits around $4.50 where there was some minor support back in February.
Finally, GGC... they say to never look back, but its hard not to when you pick a homerun and get out too early! I took a 59% gain on my investment in GGC and watched it get up to just under $2.00 today. If I would have held my position I could have been up over 500% on this trade!!! Should have, could have, would have... I had a plan and stuck to it. That's how life goes.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Day Trading Post #18
Today was a great day for trading. The morning was choppy so I only took one trade in ERX and took $0.61 cents profit. My analysis of this trade is in the image below:
I took another $0.30 cents profit in ERX on a similar long setup later in the day, and scalped $0.20 cents off of SPG at the close of the day. I lost $0.09 cents in RIMM on a trade that also had a similar setup to my ERX trades on the 3m and 5m charts. The only problem was that the 15m chart was showing the stochastics as being oversold, and hence the trade came against me for a small loss. Overall, I ended the day on my day trading account with a gross profit of $102 from four trades.
SWING TRADES:
My swing trades were great today. My penny stock play worked out much better than I had anticipated, and because I hadn't anticipated such a move, I took profits based on the plan I set for myself. I took profits when GGC broke the 20EMA on the daily chart and retraced back to it. I was up $0.20 cents which gave me a 59% return on my investment. That is a great return, but then at the close today, GGC popped up as high $1.38!!!! It closed at $1.27!!!! So if I would have just held on today, I could have cashed out with a 300% return!!!! I can't complain though. I took profits and stuck to my plan. I keep telling myself, "It's ok to leave some money on the table...." It's nice to hit a home run, but if you can consistently take profits, big or small, you will build up your bank roll and start to build up your capital. It's not the type of game where you look to hit a homerun ever time. The idea you have to keep in your mind is "I have to live to trade another day!" So, a 59% return is great! I am very pleased and would consider this a great trade. (On top of that, I am happy that I am able to make such picks!!!!) GGC Charts below:
GGC 15m
GGC Daily
Also, with my swing trades, I took 100 shares of eBay off the table today for a profit of $0.50 cents. I still have 100 shares in play and want to let that run for now. If I see a pullback, I may add to my current position. I am still anticipating a move up to $13.00 or more.
Todays gross profits for my swing trades was $150.
I am currently holding 200 shares of PCX, 100 shares of eBay, and 25 shares of LDK.
That is all for now!
I took another $0.30 cents profit in ERX on a similar long setup later in the day, and scalped $0.20 cents off of SPG at the close of the day. I lost $0.09 cents in RIMM on a trade that also had a similar setup to my ERX trades on the 3m and 5m charts. The only problem was that the 15m chart was showing the stochastics as being oversold, and hence the trade came against me for a small loss. Overall, I ended the day on my day trading account with a gross profit of $102 from four trades.
SWING TRADES:
My swing trades were great today. My penny stock play worked out much better than I had anticipated, and because I hadn't anticipated such a move, I took profits based on the plan I set for myself. I took profits when GGC broke the 20EMA on the daily chart and retraced back to it. I was up $0.20 cents which gave me a 59% return on my investment. That is a great return, but then at the close today, GGC popped up as high $1.38!!!! It closed at $1.27!!!! So if I would have just held on today, I could have cashed out with a 300% return!!!! I can't complain though. I took profits and stuck to my plan. I keep telling myself, "It's ok to leave some money on the table...." It's nice to hit a home run, but if you can consistently take profits, big or small, you will build up your bank roll and start to build up your capital. It's not the type of game where you look to hit a homerun ever time. The idea you have to keep in your mind is "I have to live to trade another day!" So, a 59% return is great! I am very pleased and would consider this a great trade. (On top of that, I am happy that I am able to make such picks!!!!) GGC Charts below:
GGC 15m
GGC Daily
Also, with my swing trades, I took 100 shares of eBay off the table today for a profit of $0.50 cents. I still have 100 shares in play and want to let that run for now. If I see a pullback, I may add to my current position. I am still anticipating a move up to $13.00 or more.
Todays gross profits for my swing trades was $150.
I am currently holding 200 shares of PCX, 100 shares of eBay, and 25 shares of LDK.
That is all for now!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Day Trading Post #17
Today was uneventful. We had a nice gain in the markets in the AM, and my swing trades were looking nice. I was up on EBAY 50 cents, I go out to run some errands in the afternoon, and then get home to see that EBAY fell apart! Go figure. So, I am down slightly on the close, nothing too bad though. I'll go into more detail below on my swing trades:
Day Trades for today were uneventful. I took 2 trades and made 22 cents. I took SLG @ $11.70 this AM, was up 50 cents, had a trailing stop setup (which didn't work!!!!) and closed out for 20 cents profit. I was up as much as 60 cents while I was afk ('away from keyboard') but my trailing stop failed to execute! Oh well, I took profits, so I can't complain. Then I took another trade, ERX, at the end of the day in the last hour looking for the market to pop up for a quick scalp. Even though the stochastics were way oversold on the 3m and 5m chart, there was no real pop. The bears had the muscle and kept the market down. So, I took 2 cents profit.
Swing Trades:
Ebay - I was up 50 cents, but ended the day slightly down. Looking at the daily chart, I am definitely scaling 100 shares out next time we break the $12.00 mark since it seems like there is resistance now at the $12.00 mark. I'd love to hold until Ebay makes its way up to $13.00, but I would like to lock in profits sooner rather than later.
PCX - Today, PCX showed good strength, got just over $3.50 and then fell apart. I am thinking about potentially adding to this, but holding off for now. I like the daily chart, and things are starting to look much better.
GGC: This is my first penny play. I am up 4 cents after the close, and think that this has a little more juice left in it. I am looking for about 15 cents profit, and would like to take this off the table this week.
LDK: I have such small market exposure in this trade, I am holding on. LDK started to show some strength today but then fell apart at the end with the market. I can handle 25 shares being against though. If LDK starts to show more strenght, I may add to this position.
That's all for now!
Day Trades for today were uneventful. I took 2 trades and made 22 cents. I took SLG @ $11.70 this AM, was up 50 cents, had a trailing stop setup (which didn't work!!!!) and closed out for 20 cents profit. I was up as much as 60 cents while I was afk ('away from keyboard') but my trailing stop failed to execute! Oh well, I took profits, so I can't complain. Then I took another trade, ERX, at the end of the day in the last hour looking for the market to pop up for a quick scalp. Even though the stochastics were way oversold on the 3m and 5m chart, there was no real pop. The bears had the muscle and kept the market down. So, I took 2 cents profit.
Swing Trades:
Ebay - I was up 50 cents, but ended the day slightly down. Looking at the daily chart, I am definitely scaling 100 shares out next time we break the $12.00 mark since it seems like there is resistance now at the $12.00 mark. I'd love to hold until Ebay makes its way up to $13.00, but I would like to lock in profits sooner rather than later.
PCX - Today, PCX showed good strength, got just over $3.50 and then fell apart. I am thinking about potentially adding to this, but holding off for now. I like the daily chart, and things are starting to look much better.
GGC: This is my first penny play. I am up 4 cents after the close, and think that this has a little more juice left in it. I am looking for about 15 cents profit, and would like to take this off the table this week.
LDK: I have such small market exposure in this trade, I am holding on. LDK started to show some strength today but then fell apart at the end with the market. I can handle 25 shares being against though. If LDK starts to show more strenght, I may add to this position.
That's all for now!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Day Trading Post #16
Well, today my day trades weren't so good. I actually only took one trade, and the setup was there on the 3m and 5m chart, but not on the 15 minute chart. On top of that, I was in the money for about $0.25 cents and let it come against me. Then when I was only down approximately 20 to 30 cents (risk on position was $0.35 cents) and it was popping up, all of the sudden it gapped down and I was out of the money over 50 cents!!! So, I marketed out and took a 60 cent hit. Shit happens, and I am gross green and net green for the week with my day trading account. Check out the image posted below for a breakdown of my bad trade and my performance for the week.
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Swing Trade Updates:
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Ebay: Looks like some resistance again around that $12.20 cent mark. I'm still holding 200 shares. I may scale out 100 shares today to lock in some profits and let the other 100 shares run. If I scale out, I am looking to do so at $12.15 ideally but we'll see.
PCX: Still shaking around the $3.00 mark. Stochastics on the daily chart are trending up which I like. There is no real volume yet though. If stochastics roll over towards the bearish side, I am considering taking the hit on this position. Otherwise I'm holding on.
LDK: This is such a small position, I am riding this one to the ground. I bought into the bad news, held through the sell off, and now LDK is a yoyo going up and down. Since I only have 25 shares, I am not concerned about this position at all.
GGC: I just took this position today. I like the Chemical Sector just based off of some information I got from a family friend who works in the industry. I took 500 shares at $0.34 and am looking to take 15 cents or more profit on it. This is my first penny stock trade, so I didn't want to take any real huge size. The daily chart is below with my notes on it:
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Swing Trade Updates:
-----------------------
Ebay: Looks like some resistance again around that $12.20 cent mark. I'm still holding 200 shares. I may scale out 100 shares today to lock in some profits and let the other 100 shares run. If I scale out, I am looking to do so at $12.15 ideally but we'll see.
PCX: Still shaking around the $3.00 mark. Stochastics on the daily chart are trending up which I like. There is no real volume yet though. If stochastics roll over towards the bearish side, I am considering taking the hit on this position. Otherwise I'm holding on.
LDK: This is such a small position, I am riding this one to the ground. I bought into the bad news, held through the sell off, and now LDK is a yoyo going up and down. Since I only have 25 shares, I am not concerned about this position at all.
GGC: I just took this position today. I like the Chemical Sector just based off of some information I got from a family friend who works in the industry. I took 500 shares at $0.34 and am looking to take 15 cents or more profit on it. This is my first penny stock trade, so I didn't want to take any real huge size. The daily chart is below with my notes on it:
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Day Trading Post #15
Today was another great day in the markets! My swing trades are finally coming together, and I am in the money on EBAY!!! Day trades this morning were great for me personally and I have noticed that I am becoming very consistent with my AM trades. As long as I stick to my rules and give myself the proper risk, I am profitable almost every time! (Watch me jinx myself by saying this LOL!)
Anyway, for day trades today, I decided that I wanted to trade some more volatile stocks that were in the $0-$50 range because even though its nice taking profits, I want to start taking some bigger profits! Since I'm so limited at the moment on my day trading account, I figured I'd trade some of the triple powershare ETFs. These are dangerous and when you make a mistake, just remember that its magnified 3x more than a normal mistake. Anyway, my trades were in the Ultra Long Energy (ERX), and the Ultra Short Energy (ERY). ERY is a beast and when it moves, and IT MOVES! Also, it gaps. So if you are wrong, you are going to take a hit. That's why I only took the trade in it when I was absolutely sure that everything lined up perfectly on all time frames (3m, 5m, 15m) and that the market was trending down. My trades in ERY and ERX are shown below in the charts. ERY was a great trade and it only came against me 10 cents at the most. If I would have held on to the position longer, I would have made just over 2 points on the trade, but good old blackwood software decided to malfunction and I was stuck in the position. So once the software and/or server connections were reestablished, I marketed out immediatly. I only took a profit of $0.86 cents. Still not too shabby.
My other day trades were scalps off the 3m and 5m charts, and everything went well until the end of the day when I started to watch the RIETS. Unfortunately I got stuck in another position (thanks blackwood), and took a $0.51 cent hit on SPG. I scalped it and got $0.15 cents back, but then took a $0.30 cent hit on BXP at the close. These were my dumb trades of the day that were based on impulse and were momentum plays that were risky. This is the sort of trading I am trying to train myself to stay away from. Anyway, a good lesson learned... DON'T CHASE... EVER!!!!
7 of my 9 day trades were profitable and I am not going to review them all in detail. I took trades on RIMM, ERY, ERX, and SPG in the AM and during the lunch hour. These were all profitable trades, and my parameters for getting in were similar to yesterdays chart of RIMM that I posted in post 14 as well as todays charts in this post. Check them out and let me know what you think!
As for my swing trades...
ERX
ERY
Anyway, for day trades today, I decided that I wanted to trade some more volatile stocks that were in the $0-$50 range because even though its nice taking profits, I want to start taking some bigger profits! Since I'm so limited at the moment on my day trading account, I figured I'd trade some of the triple powershare ETFs. These are dangerous and when you make a mistake, just remember that its magnified 3x more than a normal mistake. Anyway, my trades were in the Ultra Long Energy (ERX), and the Ultra Short Energy (ERY). ERY is a beast and when it moves, and IT MOVES! Also, it gaps. So if you are wrong, you are going to take a hit. That's why I only took the trade in it when I was absolutely sure that everything lined up perfectly on all time frames (3m, 5m, 15m) and that the market was trending down. My trades in ERY and ERX are shown below in the charts. ERY was a great trade and it only came against me 10 cents at the most. If I would have held on to the position longer, I would have made just over 2 points on the trade, but good old blackwood software decided to malfunction and I was stuck in the position. So once the software and/or server connections were reestablished, I marketed out immediatly. I only took a profit of $0.86 cents. Still not too shabby.
My other day trades were scalps off the 3m and 5m charts, and everything went well until the end of the day when I started to watch the RIETS. Unfortunately I got stuck in another position (thanks blackwood), and took a $0.51 cent hit on SPG. I scalped it and got $0.15 cents back, but then took a $0.30 cent hit on BXP at the close. These were my dumb trades of the day that were based on impulse and were momentum plays that were risky. This is the sort of trading I am trying to train myself to stay away from. Anyway, a good lesson learned... DON'T CHASE... EVER!!!!
7 of my 9 day trades were profitable and I am not going to review them all in detail. I took trades on RIMM, ERY, ERX, and SPG in the AM and during the lunch hour. These were all profitable trades, and my parameters for getting in were similar to yesterdays chart of RIMM that I posted in post 14 as well as todays charts in this post. Check them out and let me know what you think!
As for my swing trades...
- EBAY is looking great. I'd like to see it run up to $13.00 or more, but I can't just assume that it will. The 50 EMA is just around the $13.00 mark, so my options are to A) lock in profits, B) scale out, C)hold on to the position. Right now I am holding the position, but I am looking to scale out 100 shares around $12.50 if I see some hesitation. Then I will let the other 100 shares run. Thats the plan so far.
- PCX is ok. I Like todays close, but I am not a fan that the 20 EMA is 20 cents below my original entry. I will be watching this one closely.
- LDK is okay for now. I have such a small stake in it I am just waiting and watching to see what happens. On the daily chart, the stochastics have just crossed over. This has potential but again, I am just watching it for now. I am also thinking of buying the bad news anticipating a move up once all of the bad news sells off. This is just a thought though and not set in stone!
ERX
ERY
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Day Trading Post #14
The market ended up 3 points on the Dow and it closed at 721 today. I am still bullish for tommorow, but news may shake the market tomorrow (the mark to market issue). Regardless, today was a great day for intraday trades even though I was only limited to 100 share lots and 1 position at a time. Apple released their new Ipod Shuffle, so I decided to watch tech stocks and I focussed on RIMM. I pulled in $1.13 cents profit today which totalled $113 dollars of profit!
My trades are explained below in my chart. My gripes for today would have to be the fact that good old blackwood software decided to crash today. The server went down and it cost me 20 bucks. I got stuck in 2 trades and marketed out immediatly once the server came back up and ordres could be processed. I guess you could say 'Shit Happens' but regardless it is annoying.
The trades I got stuck in aren't even worth going over because they were momentum plays off the end of the day when the market imbalances were released. Oh well!
As for my long term trades, PCX is still holding above $3.00. Stochastics are embedded on the downside which I don't like but I still haven't hit my stop. Ebay is starting to look great! It finally came back and I was in the money a few cents at one point today. It closed 3 cents down from my entry of $11.65. Things are looking good for this trade. Finally, I bought 25 shares of LDK yesterday as a little gamble for the earnings play in case there was a gap up. Well, there was no gap up and LDK reported bad earnings. Im still holding because I have such a small position, and because the daily chart looks decent in regards to the stochastics being EXTREMELY oversold!
Here is my chart showing my trades in RIMM today. Notes about the trades are on the chart as well:
That's all for now!
My trades are explained below in my chart. My gripes for today would have to be the fact that good old blackwood software decided to crash today. The server went down and it cost me 20 bucks. I got stuck in 2 trades and marketed out immediatly once the server came back up and ordres could be processed. I guess you could say 'Shit Happens' but regardless it is annoying.
The trades I got stuck in aren't even worth going over because they were momentum plays off the end of the day when the market imbalances were released. Oh well!
As for my long term trades, PCX is still holding above $3.00. Stochastics are embedded on the downside which I don't like but I still haven't hit my stop. Ebay is starting to look great! It finally came back and I was in the money a few cents at one point today. It closed 3 cents down from my entry of $11.65. Things are looking good for this trade. Finally, I bought 25 shares of LDK yesterday as a little gamble for the earnings play in case there was a gap up. Well, there was no gap up and LDK reported bad earnings. Im still holding because I have such a small position, and because the daily chart looks decent in regards to the stochastics being EXTREMELY oversold!
Here is my chart showing my trades in RIMM today. Notes about the trades are on the chart as well:
That's all for now!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Day Trading Post #13
So, today the Dow closed up 379 points, and the S&P closed above the resistance at 716. This is a good sign for a bear market rally. Tomorrow should be interesting! From the chatter I have been hearing online, it seems to me that there is talk that the market will gap up tomorrow after showing such good relative strength into the close today.
Day trades today for me were uneventful. When you are limited to only trading one position at a time with 100 shares and a risk limit of 50 bucks, its tough to make any real profits. Think about it this way... yes, you can make a point or two in a day but its tough to do that because you are so limited on risk. If a trade goes against you and you are right about the trend, you might get squeezed out even though you know you are right just because you have the idea in the back of your mind that you don't want to hit your risk of $50. (These are the parameters setup for me with my current day trading account with my boss... no more details can be revealed!!!)
Anyway, my long term swing trades look good. I talked to some people in the multiple chatrooms available on Daytradingradio.com and realized that my original stops I had set were too little. So after reviewing and revising, I moved them back, and I am glad I did. If I didn't, I would have taken an unnecessary hit on my personal trading account. Anyway, Ebay is showing great strength and now that the market is popping, ebay is shooting up fast. Im not in the money yet, but another day like today and I will be!
PCX, my other swing trade that I'm long on is ok. Stochastics are embeded on the oversold side but they turned over again. Thats a good sign. On top of that, PCX has been holding above the $3.00 which is good. We'll see if it hits my stop.
Also, today, I checked out LDK (a stock I've been watching for a long time now since I know of someone through my father who aided in the developement of this company). Anyway, LDK is reporting earnings tommorow and the daily chart is set up nicely for a gap up. Stochastics are way oversold and starting to cross over. Because earnings are coming out, I didn't want to take a big position, so I took 25 shares at $4.71 (closing price of the day). I am looking to take a quick profit on this one tommorow if I can. What I am really looking for is a gap up. If it gaps up I plan to take profits immediatly even if I sell premarket.
Anyway, things are starting to look good! Can't wait to see things starting to grind their way back up. Also, as a side note, my prediction is that since we broke through that resistance today, I feel that the S&P will grind up to around 780 or maybe even 800, and then we'll see it fall apart again.
That's all for now!
Day trades today for me were uneventful. When you are limited to only trading one position at a time with 100 shares and a risk limit of 50 bucks, its tough to make any real profits. Think about it this way... yes, you can make a point or two in a day but its tough to do that because you are so limited on risk. If a trade goes against you and you are right about the trend, you might get squeezed out even though you know you are right just because you have the idea in the back of your mind that you don't want to hit your risk of $50. (These are the parameters setup for me with my current day trading account with my boss... no more details can be revealed!!!)
Anyway, my long term swing trades look good. I talked to some people in the multiple chatrooms available on Daytradingradio.com and realized that my original stops I had set were too little. So after reviewing and revising, I moved them back, and I am glad I did. If I didn't, I would have taken an unnecessary hit on my personal trading account. Anyway, Ebay is showing great strength and now that the market is popping, ebay is shooting up fast. Im not in the money yet, but another day like today and I will be!
PCX, my other swing trade that I'm long on is ok. Stochastics are embeded on the oversold side but they turned over again. Thats a good sign. On top of that, PCX has been holding above the $3.00 which is good. We'll see if it hits my stop.
Also, today, I checked out LDK (a stock I've been watching for a long time now since I know of someone through my father who aided in the developement of this company). Anyway, LDK is reporting earnings tommorow and the daily chart is set up nicely for a gap up. Stochastics are way oversold and starting to cross over. Because earnings are coming out, I didn't want to take a big position, so I took 25 shares at $4.71 (closing price of the day). I am looking to take a quick profit on this one tommorow if I can. What I am really looking for is a gap up. If it gaps up I plan to take profits immediatly even if I sell premarket.
Anyway, things are starting to look good! Can't wait to see things starting to grind their way back up. Also, as a side note, my prediction is that since we broke through that resistance today, I feel that the S&P will grind up to around 780 or maybe even 800, and then we'll see it fall apart again.
That's all for now!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Day Trading Post #12
Well, I am still holding my longs as the market sets new lows. We'll see what happens soon. Anyway, this was pretty funny... Looking at the daily chart for the S&P 500, people were trying to call what sort of pattern was forming... some people were calling an inverse head and shoulders but I saw one post that nailed it.... the black swan!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Day Trading Post #11
Well, I didn't pay attention to the markets as much as I normally do last friday, but I am still holding my positions. Ebay dropped 5% or more and PCX closed $0.07 cents below my entry. Im still confident about both positions, and I really liked what I read about ebay in some articles. Here is one of them:
Ebay Inc Attracts Spike in Call Trading
Anyway, that's all for now.
Ebay Inc Attracts Spike in Call Trading
Anyway, that's all for now.
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