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)