My God he is posting charts again 5/31/2007

Why trade with all the chaos in your life? Simple to get away from the chaos mentally for a while. This morning I had one of those eye in the storm moments where it gave me a little time to think and trade the markets. I went after the big Mouth stocks CLF and GLS. I played CLF perfectly for 50 cents where the max gain could have been 80 cents. I like 3 minute 50 cent trades. The only problem is CLF moved so fast I was going to leg into a larger position but only had 200 on for the trade. While I was paying attention to CLF, I was not aggressive enough with GLS which could have gone for 50 cents too. I had an 1000 share order that did not fill.

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The only other trade I got off was buying a pullback in the steels. A small trade but my favorite scalping method.

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On a side note, I want thank the many people who have supported thru this crazy time of my life and giving me many good suggestions especial MissTrade and DinosaurTrader. They are good guys along with all that hang out in DehTrader chat room.

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The numbers - Gross +149, Net +143, shares traded 1200 - Not a lot but it means a lot to me under what is happening. I hope very soon my trading will be back to full speed again once this storm passes.

Life Part two 5/30/2007

When it rains, it sometimes pours, or so the story goes. That nearly sounds good. Life keeps coming at me. If it not one thing, it is another. I have not been doing too much trading lately. I lost 30 dollars today and 150 on Friday. Yesterday I had the fun of getting a CAT scan done. My doctor found something in my lung and we are trying to figure it out if it something to worry about. During the procedure I have a serve reaction to the iodine they put in me. They shot me full of Benedryl. Enough to get a horse high. I am just being to come off the buzz. A little bit scary to say. Then I call up my dad this morning. He usually calls me every other week but he missed a few so I called to check on him. I found out he, at 78 years of age, fell down a flight of stairs. Somehow he did not break anything but dislocated something and is in a lot of pain. I may go visit him to help out him and his wife (step mother). Life keeps turning. So to my loyal readers, my postings may be hit or miss for the next couple of weeks.

Life 5/28/2007

Here I sit wondering what tomorrow will bring. Life has thrown me a lot of unexpected curve balls lately. Some of them good and some of them bad. All in all things are good. I have a good, beautiful wife, a successful career, a great and smart daughter who I have a good relationship with, and that daughter just graduated from Cornell with honors. I got some money in the bank and no debts really to speak of. Yes things are good. This week could really upset that. And it may or may not change things greatly but there is a sense somethings has got to give. A change is needed and big one. The next curve ball could be a big one. Life does not go one way, one path forever.
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It has been hard to trade watching all this happen. Like watching a movie where you know the bad guy should get catch but you never really know. Everything kind of goes in slow motion just before the wreck.
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Life is a wonderful journey. Don't ever stop enjoying it especially on a weekend that we honor the ones who are no longer with us.

Pink Floyd 5/24/2007

Roger Waters Tickets and my favorite Gal - Priceless
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See him if you can. It is a great show.
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The numbers - no trading

Wednesday 5/23/2007

How about that for a boring tittle. Did very little trading as it has been for the last few days. Broker must wonder if I am sick or not. Another day of insurance and doctors. I do have a couple of longer appointments over the next few days, and the long weekend and my daughter is graduation from Cornell on Sunday. Bottom line is there may be no posts for a while.
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Enjoy your long weekend and the start of summer.
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The numbers - gross - 42, net -52 shares trades 2000

Famous last words of a trading day 5/22/2007

After completing one trade for no gain, I get a phone call from my wife. "Honey a truck hit my car!". She was not hurt but the car looks like it needs about $3000 in repairs. It kind of kill the rest of the trading day for me.
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The numbers - Gross zero, net -5 share traded 1000
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Between life and the long weekend, I may miss a few trading days and posts.

Crazy 5/212007

Did very little trading today. Spent too much time dealing with Doctors and Insurance idiots (I am trying to get processed the claim from Hell - 9 months and 30 some odd calls later and it is still not done). When I did trade, I missed so many trades by a second or two. I got to learn when to do market orders to start a position. Maybe I am pig headed but I always try using limit orders to get in or out of a stock unless a stop loss is hit. I always use market orders for stops.
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The numbers - Gross +25, Net +19, shares traded 1000
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I need to figure out my life - if I am going to try doing this full time and leave the corporate world or not.
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As the words of a great song go through my head -
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"And did they get you trade your heros for ghosts
Hot ashes for trees
Hot air for a cool breeze
Cold comfort for change
And did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for LEAD ROLE IN A CAGE."
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Name that tune.

Good Trade/Bay Day 5/18/2007

I finally had a trade I could be proud of this week. The big mouth pushed CY Thursday night and it popped a lot in afterhours. I was hopping to get short about 21.75 and Mr Market allowed me to do that. I go filled at 21.73 and 21.79 and sat on my position for most the morning. As to plan with big mouth stocks, I covered near the open at 21.60. Not a lot of money but the plan was followed. I then looked to get long which there was no more breaking of the stock. I started to see a large selling in the market at the time of the open. There was no open pop and my attempt to short went unfilled.
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I could have made more by holding thru the open but that was not the plan. I felt good finally executing a trade the way I should have - start to finish.
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It then was too bad I chased two other trades and totally f-ed them off and ended the day with a small gain. Enough to buy a happy meal.
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The numbers - Gross +27.50, Net +7.50, shared traded 4000
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On a side note, there has been a lot of chaos in my life the last few weeks. I am hoping by the June starts, my life will be back to normal and I can truly think about stocks and trading again.

I can't think of a title tonight - 5/17/2007

Not a good day. Had too much sleep and could not wake up. No big mouth stocks to short. No BIO news. No earnings/news events. Steels got killed after the open. The first two trades I did I fat fingered the orders so I said today is just not the day.
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The numbers - Gross -45, net -55 shared traded 2000

Mouth Roars, Reverse game 5/16/2007

Sorry for the hard to read chart but sometimes you just have to say what the F....... Whenever the Mouth on TV roars 99 percent of the time, it makes a candidate to short. There is that 1 percent which I have found it is not. That is when he recommends a new issue (IPO) or a stock that you can't short. Today's stock was ACM. On the chart, I included the previous days action to show how much power he can have sometimes.

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And when that sometimes is a really hard stock to short, you look to go long instead of short. I look at the AH (after hours) action for where the stock should open. Amazingly, the stock many times opens near where it closes in after AH or in this case 23.35 but instead it was trading at 22.25 to 22.50 (a bargin). I went long assuming I could get a pop all the way up to 23.35 or higher at the 8 o'clock stupid money rush. It did pop to 22.85 before it start to drop, so I only took 35 cents out of the trade. I was hoping that the stock would fall back to the 22.35 area to go long again into the open pop of the stupid money rush. I got my chance and went long some shares at 22.40. I should have bought 5 times more but I was stupid in my own way. The pop came and I was a little too fast in getting rid of my shares and took only 25 cents of the move.-

After things cooled off, I should have been back for more about 10 am at 22.50 to go long again.

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But there you have it home gamers - a way to play the big mouths " I can't short so I go long" stocks. This one was easy and I should have made a lot on it.

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The numbers - Gross +225, net +217 shares traded 1400

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Wife is still sick so I did not have my eye on the market the way I like too.

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Come on guys and gals - leave some good insults to get my juices going so I can beat that evil market.

A sick day 5/15/2007

The wife was sick today so I spent a lot of time helping her with stuff. Played around with the EURO overnight and covered before the CPI report. Missed the big mouth shorts and the steels first bounce. Tried shorting the steels as the market declined in late afternoon with little luck.
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The numbers - Gross+15, Net -12.75 shared traded 3000

What we got here is "Failure" to pull the trigger - 5/14/2007

I am really running out of ways to beat myself up. Again I had 3 big mouth stocks to short. Nothing is the premarket. Any stocks I look at going too crazy. So I setup my orders getting ready for the opening. I had 500 share short of KCI 47.90 and another at 48.00. I had a 1000 share short of MEND at 21.40 and the same at 21.50 plus 500 at 21.45. I had a 2000 short of SIX at 6.31, 6.33 and 6.36. What I mean be had is, each of those orders were filled in and saved. I just had to hit transmit and they would be in. I submitted the 21.45 of MEND and the 3 SIX orders. Had no guts for the otherorders, even thou the stars seemed to have aligned in a way they could be great trades. The open hits and I get filled the 500 of MEND. I watch with my finger on the enter button for KCI click up to my price. In a flash, it was too late. Went to MEND. Had my finger on the magic button. It looked like I would miss again but wait a sudden bounce and if I had my orders in - I would have been filled. You can look at the charts for the results. Please - anyone who reads this - leave some really nasty comments to get me so pissed off tomorrow - I will hit the magic button and win or lose - be in the game.

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The numbers - gross +105, net 100, shares traded 1000

Blackjack - 5/13/2007

I was sitting at a Blackjack table in AC today and it reminded me of trading. I am relatively new at the game so I bring my little cheat sheet with me. I think out of all the hands, I played, I only play two not following the correct move. I also had enough money with me to deal with the draw downs. I did OK - made $120 after 2 hours.
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I watched the other players at the table. A gentleman who seem to understand the game well and made all the correct moves was losing. I said too bad and he said " if you play the game perfect - it is a 50/50 bet. I win sometimes and loss sometimes - that is the game". He knew what he was doing and what to expect.
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I saw the other players at the table. Sometimes making large bets - sometimes making small bets. Sometimes they were making plays that just made no sense. They seem to have no plan or any idea on what they were doing. The ones who were making the most correct plays, betting the same amount and had enough money to weather the ups and downs - stayed in the game and do not lose all their money.
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It sounds like trading especially day/swing trading.

A Do Nothing Day - 5/11/2007

There was nothing in the premarket to speak of. At the time of the opening, there were data issues with Nasdaq stocks, soon followed with bid/ask problems from PACX. I tried a couple of trades but this just too difficult to get an edge. Then very quickly volumes were slowing up and the steels were like watching paint dry.
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My hi-light of the day was chatting with MissTrade about gold and kids.
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It is frustrating to have a really good day trading last Friday (May 4th) just to have this entire week be a loss. I hope my life will get back to something more normal in a week or two.
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The numbers - Gross -85, net -95 shares traded 2000

A Mental Thursday - 05/10/2007

Life is being a really PITA when it comes to my trading. It is very hard to concentrate on trading when things are going crazy around you.

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I thought one of the big mouth stocks looked really good for shorting. I was not going to make the same mistake and try shorting in premarket a popular stock at a 52 week high. I waited until the open. Everything worked to plan except following the plan. I got short on the first pop right after the open. When the stock moved down quickly, I moved my stop down quickly - too quickly and was taken out on the second move up right after the open. I never got back in and you can see the results. DT hit it much better and you can get the details at his Blog Site.

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Life then cut my trading day short.

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The stupid numbers - Gross +8, net - 4, shares traded 2400

Pissed 5/10/2007

Late last night this morning, I have been thinking about my trading. Most of the time I am following my trading plan (90%). Nearly every trade I have followed my risk parameters(99%). I always have my biggest losses when I do not follow the plan to the letter. Either the trade is bad or the risk is too big. The other item is too many times I cut the trade off way way way too soon not giving it time to work. This prevents losses but also prevents decent profits and I mean decent profits.
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I have received at couple of life wake up calls this week that I got to be more discipline in my trading both from the plan side and taking risk side if I am ever going to get my chance to do this full time.
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I want a chance at my dream.

INCOMING!!! 5/9/2007

My plan coming into the day was to do battle with the big mouth stocks and go long the steels after the opening. One of the stocks was PAL. It was up a big amount and had never seen that type of gap before. I was hoping to short in the 11.00-11.20 range. It started trading very early. I was aggressive and got short 2000 shares at a cost of 10.97. It spent the rest of the premarket trading between 10.75 and 10.95. I thought I had a big winner. Problem was that the decline stopped around 8:30 and the stock started slowly moving up. The plan for these stocks is short at 8, cover after a decline or 9-9:15, go long if conditions look right, sell long into the opening pop and then go short once the speed of the pop dies.
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I didn't follow the plan. I thought the pop was going to be minor. Most of the big mouths stocks had not popped a lot recently. Boy I was wrong and to add to that, I had orders in to double my position just above the premarket price. Suddenly with in about 3 minutes, I had a position that was $2000 in the red. I wanted to add more to the position but never add to a loser unless it is part of the plan. So I sat seeing the big Mo was slowing and the stock started rolling over. I covered 3/4s of the position on the first dive down only pennies over my cost but I was stupid and held on to a quarter. I covered the rest at a much higher level fearing the highs would be retested. I nearly picked the top tick of the morning. All in all, I felt okay. I did not panic. Was able to reduce my loss a lot. The bad thing was paying so much attention to one stock, I missed beautiful buy signals in the steels. If I took them would have covered the loss easily.
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By time time I could think again - my trading mind was shot. Most important I walked away without a big hit. The lesson is do not predict the market but follow it.
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The numbers - Gross - 435 net - 485 shares traded 8000

Life 5/8/2007

Life got in the way today. I tried to trade a little mid-morning but my head was not set on straight. I tried one breakout (stupid as always) and one pull back. Both of them, I freaked on before they had turned positive. Never trade if you mind is not in the right place. Trading is hard enough. I may take tomorrow off. I am fried.
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The numbers - gross -75, net -85, shares traded 2000

Frustration 5/7/2007

A very frustrating day so if you do not like to read whining do not continue. You have been warned.
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First on all this has been a very flat boring day for most traders. For some mystery, I was given a lot of trades that setup to my liking. I wanted to do battle with the mouth again. His picks looked like good shorts. I tried and tried to get filled on GSS in the 4.85 to 4.95 area but could only get 100 shares filled. I made only $20 on the trade. Later after the open, I made $40 going long it before the collapse. I went after CYNO right after the open trying to selling 2000 shares 32.23. BID/ASK was 32.20/32.28 and I got 100 filled before it started falling. I chased but no luck. Made $25 there. I could have shorted the next bounce but I was looking somewhere else by then. Tried shorting 2000 BRLC in premarket at 8.55. No shares.
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Ok - on to my favorite steels which look red hot with the takeovers happening. Good buy signals on AKS at 31.40 (9:50am) 31.90 (10:15) and not great but ok at 32.10 (10:50). In NUE at 66.0 (9:50), 66.30 (10:05) and 66.35 (11:05). I got in late on two of the six and my stop took me quickly out of one.
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So why am I frustrated - I saw 9 trades today (along with a few I did not mention - bottom fishing HANS or going long AA/AL in premarket). All 9 acted the way I expected. All 9 should have gone for gains of $300 plus and my result - 6 trades, all winner and net +$160. Who is God's name goes 6-0 in trading attempting to trade 500 to 2000 per trade and makes only 160 dollars????
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This game is very hard to winner. On days that the market Gods smile on you, you must take fill advantaged of or you will not last in this game.
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The numbers - Gross +185, net +155 and shares traded 4600

Finally a decent day - 5/4/2007

Finally a decent day. Not a big day or killer - just a day of solid trading. A day I feel proud of. The first one I have had in a few weeks. My confidence as doing this is a little shaky right now because I can't seem to get out of this rut I am in. I need to be more aggressive, trade bigger lots and act quicker. Too many times I think about a position 30 seconds too long and it is gone. Or I bail way too quickly on a position before it gets a chance to work. I did a much better job of entering positions today quicker and with a little bigger size. I should be trading 1000 to 2000 shares on most trades but I find myself never getting above 200-500 shares. I need to let loose. I have enough money in the account to do it and I do not depend on my trading for a living (yet).
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I have been having the problem finding trades that our my own. Something I have said before in the past - you must trade your own trades. I do not mind being notified by others of stocks setting up but I try not to jump on a trade just because someone calls one out in the chat room.
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To combat this problem, I am trying to find a method of trading that generates enough trades for me where I continue to watch the screens. Each night I have my planned trades, but so many times those trades are done or don't work by 9:45 and so I am left with what now. I don't use Trade-Ideas (thinking about it) and my own methods of scanning for trades is lacking. So I have found a section - Steels - that have caught my eye. Two of my favorite stocks in that sector are AKS and NUE. Both of them I am trying to learn how they trade. The others are RS, X, RIO, CMC, GNA and GGB. Mainly I want a stock that trades a million plus per day.
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The trading plan for sector trading -

1. The general market needs to be up or going up or flat.


2. The sector needs to show some life.


3. Leading stocks in sector needs to be showing some strength.
   
4. Buy pull backs using the Slow Stochastic (5,3) if above conditions are meant and you get a bar or two of sideways action.


5. Add to position on additional signals if low of first signal is not broken or using any standard chart pattern methods (breaking of a trend line - etc.)
   
   

This is the game plan. We will see how successful I am pulling it off. I used this method three times today. I caught the pullback in AKS at 9:45 and 10:15 and NUE at 9:45. I should have caught both of them at about 12:30 when the steels stabilized, and the Stochastic signaled and the downward trend line was broken but I was at lunch.

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The numbers - Gross +450, Net +407, shares traded 8600 (charts added Sunday night)

Dull day - 5/3/2007

Not much to say or much that happened. I spent the day making and losing very little on my trades today. Missed two good moves in AKS but other than that nothing.
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I did spend a lot of time reviewing my April trades and were amazed at the number of them plus or minus $20 dollars. I am sure my broker is very happy. I did notice one thing like at really big eye sore - I cut a lot of trades short before they had time to run. That is the main reason for so many small results.
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The numbers - gross -4.25, net -18.75, shares traded 2900

Lesson Time - A trading Dairy - I mean Diary

Over the years of trading, I heard so many times it is good to have a trading diary. I hate writing and/or typing. I am so bad when it comes to writing and spelling I feel like I have no first language (maybe charts could be) even that I have lived in the US all my life. Regardless, I know the importance of learning from your mistakes (and victories). Each night I print out 3 to 10 daily charts of stocks I either traded or tried trading and write notes all over them. I have the date/time of the places of trades or missed trades marks and a summary of either the idea and/or feelings about the trade or the market at the time. I have a 3-ring binder that is huge and must have 1000 charts in it. About every 2 or 3 weeks, I take an hour or so and go thru the entire book page by page looking at my victories and defeats, trying to learn something new each time. I find this method less painful of a way to do what I think is a great tool of learning - a trading diary.

Dropping the ball - 5/2/2007

I woke up this morning having a difficult time clearing the cobwebs. Look at the premarket for a while before life started interrupting my trading day. Different people needed to get a hold of me and before long I could not pay proper attention to the markets. On top of all of that, the wife needed some help buying software.
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Finally after a while, things calmed back down and I could look at the market again. Within a few minutes, I had missed 3 great trades. A stock just coming out of a pull back with a 17.80-85 bid/ask. Starting placing the order at 17.95 to insure I get shares. As I hit the entry, the bid/ask 17.88/91 then 17.93/95 and as I see my order go in 17.98/18.03 and it is off to the races. Stock runs a point and a half in the next 30 minutes. Missed it by a hair. Moments later another stock - bid/ask 30.49/30.50. Bigger seller on 30.50. Start placing the order to do a buy stop at 30.51 but notice the seller was nearly finished. Put the order in at 90 just as I see the bid/ask change to 30.50/30.51. Move to change the order and boom - the stock starts running. A couple of minutes later, I see another stock. Breakout point was at 128.15 and it seemed to have paused between 128.25 to 128.50. Put order in at 128.30. Wait for a while and do not get filled. Pull order. Stock suddenly drops toward 128.00. Look at longer chart. Support maybe good at 128.00 and place order back at 128.15 with stock trading at 128.25. As soon as my order goes in, it is off the the races with this one. At this point, I am about ready to throw my keyboard at the wall. So much frustration in so little time. It is just like feeling like the football hitting my finger tips before hitting the ground on a pass play that would have gone for a touchdown.
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I gave up with trading for the day and when back to helping my wife out.
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No numbers because no trading.
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A very expensive Shower - 5/1/2007

I always have this fear of blowing it at the end of the month, so instead I waited a day and decided to do something stupid the first day of a new month. In the pre-premarket, ACUS was moving after having some Phase III results confirmed. It look like it was going to run like crazy. It seemed to pause between 5 and 5.50 so for a moment I felt lucky that a could buy a few shares at 5 even. It broke 5 quickly and bounced back. I tried to sell at 4.93 then 4.90 then 4.85 with no luck chasing bids. I thought it had found a bottom at 4.40 so I thought to take a quick shower and have a chance at rounding out my position before the 8 AM bounce. I did not put in a stop loss order because the bid-ask spread was so big. When I got back from my shower, the stock had dropped nearly a point in 10 minutes. OK - we will still get some type of bounce at 8 AM I thought. It came and went - only a 60 second bounce before it started falling again. I got out. I only had 200 shares but over a $300 loss. Stupid Stupid Stupid. I should have never allowed that to happen and that is the first time in a long time I left my PC without a stop in a very long time and did I pay the price. Thank God I had a very small position on. A normal size position would have been 2k to 3k in size.
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The rest of the day I decided to go back to my old problems of the past. I started buying breakouts on a thought day where most of them were failing. If I bought pull backs, I think I would have been in the green even with my stupid mistake.
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The numbers - Gross -335.50, net - 355.50 shares traded 4000

Fast Review of April - 5/1/2007

Stock trades - Gross +1130, Net +580.77, shares traded 95,200

14 up days, 5 down days, 1 day no trades.

Net - +920.15 - this is all trades, fees and interest (including currency trades)

Better than a loss but my goal for the month was to make $3000. Not aggressive enough is the bottom line.