Time to go on vacation 6/28/2007

This is a stupid trade for me. Just before going on vacation having an okay to good month, I did not want to blow it. I went long on AKS with nearly a full position. Minutes later I saw the largest ASK amount I had ever seen posted on this stock - 145,000 shares. I stayed there for about a minute and before it left it freaked me out enough where I sold my position for a 2 cent gain. Seconds later the stock started on a 40 cents run never hitting my stop loss. I should have sat on my hands.

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The numbers - Gross +18, Net +9 and shared traded 1800.

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Vacation time.

A Deer in headlights 6/27/2007

I just could not pull the trigger today. I had many interruptions and a few technical issues. I got called by too many salesman today. You ask why answer the phone during trading hours - while my mom was going to the doctor and I had expected a call from her and/or the doctor and dummy me - I do not have caller id.
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I do not know if I will trade or post tomorrow. I am going to go to the home of Glen The Dehtrader for a much needed vacation - aka Vancouver, Canada. It has been too long since the last time I was in Loonie land and I have never been to Vancouver before. My wife is Chinese and Vancouver is home to the third largest Chinatown in North America.
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So if I do not post - Happy 4th to one and all and God Bless the United States of America.
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The numbers - no trades.

Something Different - 6/26/2007

Holly Sh#t - I did something new today. I am trying to add more tools to the way I deal with the markets. First it was day trading. Second was short trading. Third was Forex. Now today I am trying to dust off your knowledge on my futures trading. My first trade, I lost 1.60 points on the Russell. What I did not expect was now it would be reflected in my IB account. I thought I had f-ed up big time somehow and lost maybe $2000 instead of the $165. It took me a while to figure things out. A very big rookie mistake outside the trade sucked too. By the time I got my nerve back, the wife was calling and wanted to get together for an early lunch.
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I did not trade any stocks today.

I just did it (at least for one trade) 6/25/2007

My two panned trades are the charts above. It brings tears to my eyes when I make a trade as good as I did today. Sometimes I feel like I can walk on water (I know - very thin water in the middle of the winter somewhere in Minnesota - lol). Today I hit one. I have concluded the best way to try to get into a trade is using my IB account to maybe take advantage of the premarket pop and use my TD account to get into on the opening pop. I then if possible would go back to my IB account to add or fill out the position. This may sound crazy but it works for me. I would leg in at three points and leg out in two. This is really setup so I can sat on a winner trade longer. I have yet endured a losing trade with this method.

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Anyway - I caught the premarket pop top by a nickle and got top tick for the open pop. I was able to cover half as it fell and did not cover the other half until the stock gave me reason to. This was all in shorting OMTR. The other planned trade, I did not judge the pop well and could not get the trade off even thou I tried - GIVN.

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In both cases, it was stupid not to turn around and go long as I have said to do so many times.

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I then spent the day missing 6 buys signals on my favorite steel (AKS) and was not successful at anything else. But again this shows you, if you can have one good winner, it can make your day. Unfortunately if I had completely follow the plan, it could have been a great day. I am getting closer.

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The numbers - Gross +629 net +597.84 shared traded 2800 - now if I could get these numbers to net +2000 and shared traded to 10,000 I would be really happy.

Week Review 6/24/2007

ET did a very good job of reviewing his trading on a post at his Blogsite. I was in the mode for the same just not as neat. I have been doing some type of daytrading for about 15 months now. During that time I was more or less playing around with a few ideas until about October. I think in October I concluded I could do this and make it work. Before than I had tons of interruptions were I would not trade for days sometimes weeks. One point I only had done one trade in a period of 10 weeks.
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Back in March I had increased my account size from 25k to 75k and started trading like a madman. I had no idea what I was doing. In March alone, I generated over $1000 in commissions and made a big $61. One thing that also happened was, I found I needed to find a good method to my madness. In other words, create a trading plan.
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As I had wrote before, I did come up with one. Most days I tried to follow it well. Most days I fail. The plan is good but the guts to just go do it so far in a little lacking. I feel I am getting closer to taking the training wheels off and just have at it.
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This process was proved to me that I was not born a good trader but I can become a great trader. So much of what I see now makes sense that if I followed the plan and used good money management, I should be able to make good money.
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This has been a dream of mine for a long while. I first got turned on to the markets when I was 12. Somehow in life, I picked plan B and stuck with it way too long. The words from Pink Floyd keep going thru my head. "And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun." I love Pink Floyd but I digress.
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Last week was a prefect example of all most there. I had a ton of trades that I had planned or saw but could only get a few pulled off. And on the ones I did that worked out great, I only had a 1/2 position on. Last week was a good week for me, but it should have been my best week ever. I made $600 but in my mind it should have been $5000.
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I should not bee that hard on myself because of the distractions (medical procedure and parents) I had to deal with, but still, if you see it, you must attack, attack, attack! That was a movie, wasn't it? (Tora, Tora, Tora)
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So many new traders have the problem of over trading. I have the problem of under trading or not trading fast enough.
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This is my Sunday mind dump. This is where I am as a trader. I have gone a long way but I need to go a lot farther. I am still proud of the fact I have taught myself so much with not blowing up.

Friday 6/22/2007

A late post because nothing really happened on Friday. I found the volume dried up very quickly on the stocks I was playing and I did not think I could game the rebalancing. DT did a nice job on that. The steel stock MT had some news that did not look that bad to me so I was trying to find and entry point in the premarket and did not. Near the open my only planned trade looked not to be working so I started watching my favorite steels. I saw my favorite steel AKS with a really low bid of 36. I placed a bid at 36.20 then the bid popped to 36.25. I placed another bid at 36.30 and the bid to 36.40. I decided not to play games. Just before the open, the ask down to 36.50 so I thought I had a chance. I placed an order at 36.30 hoping to get filled. The stock started trading with a wide spread around 36.40 to 36.60. I move my order to 36.38 and even thou the stock again traded at 36.35 I did not get filled. I could give you the blow by blow of every tick but this is how my trades were going. I could not get filled where I want to.

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The numbers - Gross +6 net +2 shared traded 800.

Taking the eye off the ball - 6/22/2007

Dumb again - Somebody said based on my EURO comment a couple of weeks ago, I should be making good money there - duh! With all the craziness in my life, I totally forgot about the currencies and that the EURO had made a bottom in the area I thought it should and planned to trade. Hopefully it will give me a chance to get in now. Dumb Dumb Dumb.

Pissed Part 2 6/21/2007

This should have been a banner day for me. I should have been the top dog in the VO today. I made one stupid mistake and it snowballed into a small loss day. As I said in my previous post, I have been doing on the open limit orders on my TD account to start a position and then use my IB account to add or fill a position. Today for some moron reason I entered the orders on my TD as premarket/day orders. I gone hurt a while back doing this and said I would never do that again. During the last few days, I have missed preopen spikes in some stocks, so being greedy I decided to break the rule. I paid for it in spades.

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I found myself in a bad hole really fast when I missed judge the spikes. I went into save my ass mode because the spikes where too quick to place stop loss orders in. TD has where you can place an order and a stop at the same time but it is a pain in the ass to use.

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So instead of getting filled at 40.15 in BAM I was filled at 39.65 and for VGR I was filled at 20.80 instead of 21.25. Quickly I was down 50 cents on each so the first stupid things I did was to cancel my short order in DYN which would have been a nice trade. Then the next stupid thing was I did not add to my position even thou the trade still looked valid. The third thing I did that was stupid was to try to get out at even on the trades. BAM dropped to my break even point. I got out not even looking at the chart. BAM went on to drop another 75 cents. VGR did not give me a chance to get out even. The last stupid things I did was to let this effect me all day long where my trading was useless.

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The numbers Gross -70 net -152 share trade 4400

Pissed - 6/21/2007

I am so pissed this morning. I did not follow my plan I got greedy and I paid a big price. I use my TD to put shorts on the open and then fill out the positions in my IB account. Maybe that sounds mad but it works for me. I instead put my orders in my TD account to trade premarket instead of open. I got filled on two in premakret spikes on two big mouth stocks. Suddenly I was in a world of hurt. I then added to my stupidity by pulling my orders on the third stock.
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So by not trading my plan I have a -42 and a -123 trade. If I followed the plan, I would have a +500, +500 and a +200 and even more if I added with my IB account. Stupid Stupid Stupid.

No Trades Today 6/20/2007

I had my procedure done and as expected nothing was found. Not eating for two days, my mind was to dizzy this morning to trade and then the rest of the day was shot.
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Bottom line and I mean it - if you can take all your routine medical tests at the times you should - please. If something is not right - go see a doctor. I have had too many friends that did not see doctors when they should have and now they are no longer with us.

Holy Sh#t 6/19/2007

There was no reason for me to be trading today (yesterday). I was prepping for a Colonoscopy so I was running (which I did a little of) the risk of not being at my terminal when I should be. I traded anyway.

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I was looking to short ACI, CNX, BTU, LNET and YHOO. I wanted to play with YHOO in the premarket but never saw a setup I liked. The other I was going to wait until the open. Only ACI popped enough on the open to where I got filled but I acted fast enough where I was able to get filled in BTU and CNX before they started falling too fast. LNET was a lost cause. I should have started a position much higher in premarket. I was very good in sitting on my hands and not taking my profit until the market gave me reason to. On the first rally of each stock, I covered my shorts. I should have held on to ACI a little longer by I got 85 cents out of it. I am pissed at myself for not being aggressive enough to put on full positions. I had only 300 ACI, 500 BTU and 500 CNX with none in LNET. I wanted to be short 1000 on all four.

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All in all this was my best trading day in months and only 4 trades. I lost a couple of bucks going long AKS. I just wish I had the full positions on or it would have made my month.

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The numbers - Gross +819.50 Net +768.47 and shares traded 3600.

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Excuse me I have to post this now - nature is calling again.

Life *&%$#$%# 6/18/2007

I really need to get an unlisted phone number. I missed (chicken out) of my first two setups of the day and then issues with my parents took over and killed the day.
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On Wednesday at noon, I will have a medical procedure done (think looking where the sun does not shine), so I may or may not trade and post during the next couple of days. Ciao.

Dumb Friday 6/15/2007

I did not do much on Friday. The big mouth did not recommend any stocks. I missed the first steel plays. My head was too busy with HANS. I owned the stock in one of my retirement accounts and was sick of it going up and falling back down. I assume now that I sold my position soon after the opening, it won't go down.
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My methods for finding stocks during the trading sucks. I am good at big mouth plays and following the steels but after that things get a little thin for me. I have used Pinoy's scan in TC2000 to produce a list. That list I import into Prophet.net so I can scan a large number of stocks in a short while. I still have not worked out the method yet that produces any results.
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Another idea of mine is to used Pinoy list for swing trading in my TD account. Pinoy's list seems to produce a lot of stocks that fit in the short term Pristine method using the 20/40 day moving averages.
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I figure I should be able on a regular basis produce days of 1 to 2k in profits just off of the methods I use now. I should be able to add to that another method maybe producing another 1 to 2k a day and I would be happy even thou I know I would have my off days where I lose a little.
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The numbers - gross -59 net -69 shares traded 2000

Buzz Saw 6/14/2007

The big Mouth recommended a couple of Chinese stocks. I was licking my chops thinking each would have a good pop at the open and it would be easy, er I mean fast money. Instead I ran into a buzz saw. I was looking to short FMCN at 45.75 so I had orders in at 45.60, 45.75 and I should have had one in at 45.90. I got filled. I had a half position order in on CEO at 106.25 and was filled at 106.28. An order at 31.25 on SSW and an order at 48.30 on CHL. I knew in a heart beat something was just not right so instead of waiting around, I cancelled the two unfilled orders and started working the others. I should have sat on the FMCN because it had signs of working but with the market running up I did not want to push it. I got got out at 45.57 for a small gain. I nearly got my CEO order killed before it got filled. Sometimes my guts just say "Get me out of here". I held CEO for a couple of minutes but saw so many stocks running, I took a quick loss instead of adding another part. So when I saw my plan not working I did not stick around. I should have lost about $750 if I just stuck it out, even more if I did not keep my stops. Bottom line - I walk away from this mess with a $47 gain.

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After that I tried getting into the steels with no luck and missed a great trade in CLWR that was calling out in the DehTrader chat room. Then worked called.

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The numbers - gross +59 net +47 shares traded 2400

Socks and Screens and Brokers 6/14/2007

Laundry got backed up so much I have been wearing Dockers for the last few days when I normally wear jeans. If is funny how a little thing like a dryer dieing effects your life. Wife is happy now but was going nuts before. This is a household were I am not allowed to do laundry or dishes.
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I am trying something new. I rotated my 24 inch monitors where I can us the real estate on the screen better. If this works and I do not go crazy looking at them, I can add a 4th monitor without stacking them. Weird looking.
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Brokers - I am using both IB and TD right now. I do not know if it best to use one broker or two. I like IB but I am growing unhappy with TD. I am thinking of going with TradeStation or moving all my money to IB. If anybody has any thoughts, please leave them as comments.

Damn Dryer 6/13/2007

Not a fun day. Just as I was seeing if my on the open orders were going to get filled, the doorbell rang. The new dryer from Sears had arrived. They said between 9:30 and 11:30 so I was expecting them to show around 1 but guess what, they were right on time. I canceled all my orders and started to help. They had it in fast but after they left, I noticed that the dryer was just an 1/2 inch bigger than what it had replaced. It took me the next hour to adjust things to make it fit right to get the damn doors back on. The dryer, and washer for that fact, are in a closet. I had to have it setup just right for the wife.
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After cleaning up, I went to lunch with the wife and went to work. Quickly I finished the task I wanted to and started looking at the market. As I had been screaming to so many traders in the chat rooms, you must follow your plan. What did I do? I didn't. I bought a breakout when I have said over and over that I would stop doing that. The breakouts I find fail for me about 50% of time. I break even 20% of the time and make money 30% of the time. Instead, buying pullbacks for me seem to work about 50% of the time. Break even 30% of the time and lose 20% of the time. Much better odds.
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Well - the bottom line is my 9 day winning streak is gone. Time to start a new one.
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The numbers - gross -91.52 net -133.52 shares traded 2000

Good Trade Missed Traded 6/12/2007

Not much of a post tonight but I keep on hearing traders in chat rooms not following their plans. A good trade can even be a losing trade if the plan is followed. I had been complaining about not getting filled on my near opening shorts, so today I put half on using an on the open market order. I had a limit order for the other half. Both got filled. I had a mental stop of 20 cents above HOD and planned to take half off at the first sign of a bottom and follow the rest with a trailing stop. I had an average price of 67.13. I saw a big bid at 67.00 so I pulled a half off at 67.01. The stock then hit 66.90 twice and I decided with the market so weak - why am I short a stock showing strength? I put a market order in and got filled at 68.08 - not really where I expected. The bottom line is I had a plan and the stock did not follow the plan so quickly I got out and made a small profit on what could have been a losing trade.

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CROX on the other hand pissed me off. I was following it most of the morning thinking if it hit a new HOD and failed it would be a good short. Instead it was a great short but I was playing around with my good old steels and missed it - pisser.

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The numbers Gross +80.95, net +39.95 shares traded 2400

Green is Green 6/11/2007

DT told me that after I whined about my trading today. I only got one trade off and it was a good trade. I captured 24 cents of a 40 cent move in AKS but my problem, I only could get 300 filled before it moved. I had and order in for 500 and I was looking to add another 500 if it moved in my favor. While it moved too fast for me and I am still not using market orders. I did not with the guts to play my two preplanned trades. The thin volumes scared me. Also some of the calls in the chat room were good but I just did not pull the trigger.
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This is my 8th green day in a row. I do not remember when I last did that. The problem is that it really should not be happening because I should be taking more trades and more risk were I expect my days to be a lot bigger in profit with a few losing day in between.
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The numbers - gross +72, net +69 shares trade a big 600.

Life Part 342 - 6/8/2007

My parent are going to be the death of me.

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Three of the four charts above were planned trades to be done after the opening. Why I am unable to trade three stocks at a time on the open is beyond me. I did get into a short of XTO and caught it well. I only wish I sat on some of all of the position until the market gave me a reason to get out. It did put in a nice bottom soon after its collapse with a couple of small green bars. That would have been the indicator to get out.

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The other two shorts I had nailed perfectly but only in the planning stage. I tried going long AKS during that first dip. I tried for a couple of minutes to get long but I just did not get filled before it took off. After that, my parents became the for front of my worries and I had to stop trading. I could have been worse. My first and only trade of the day was a good one. I have made money (not a lot) for 7 days in a row. Now I just have to make more trades and get bigger fills.

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What happened to the Steels at 1:15 est? Many of them went crazy moving 5% within 30 minutes. I could not find the story or trigger for it. I wish I was watching the markets at that time.

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The numbers Gross + 275 net +254 shares traded 2000

Euro thoughts 6/8/2007

With the big break in the EURO (interest rates in US going crazy), I am now looking for the EURO to maybe make a bottom in the 1.3200 range instead. I would like to see a couple of more big down days followed by a sdieways action just like the decline in December of last year. That I think would be a perfect setup.
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I also agree with MT on the idea RACK is setting up around 12 for a swing. It looks like a low risk trade with a lot more upside than downside.

Life Again - 6/7/2006

Have too many parent issues to deal with. Got one trade off before life side tracked my trading day.
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The numbers Gross +10 Net +5 shares traded 1000. A little pissed at this traded. Had the stop too close and got stopped after moving it to break even. If I had just given it a little more room ( 1 cent), the move was about $200.

Five Days in a row 6/6/2007

Today felt good. I was nearly on track. Did not trade a lot of shares but made more trades in one day for the first time in a long while. I had a problem with getting filled again. The premarket was not helping but from the chart above, I had two good trades where I only got filled 100 shares out of 1000. Also on the trade I did get 1000 off, I had another order sitting at 14.25 for 1000. The high tick that move has 14.22 which turned into the next trade when the market touched 14.25.

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I played around with the steels again or should I say always. I started going thru my May trades and found that half my trades that month were in the steels. Maybe I should rename my Blog to the steel trader.

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I was proud of how I traded today. I has been about 3 weeks since I could say that. It was about the right number of trades but I wish I had filled each of them with 1000 instead off of some with only 100 or 200. My profit would have been over $1000 if I did. I do not like to trade like a mad man. I would like to make 4 to 8 trades, at 500 to 1000 shares a piece, unless they are under $20 a share and make $500 to $1000 net a day.

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The numbers Gross +275 net +249 and shares traded 3600.

I am tired today 6/5/2007

I am really tired today. I could not sleep last night which is surprising for me even with all that is happening. None of the stocks on my list today did much. The one thing I have talked about in the past is how I like trade the steels. With things better in Asia - I was expecting good things out of them but I was a sleep at the switch. With NUE, I missed both of the early morning bottoms. For AKS, I caught the first bottom nicely and rode it for the whole move but only got filled for 200 shares. The second bigger movement I totally miss and the third I placed orders in a couple of times but missed. I go back and forth with the idea I should use market orders to get in but I am looking for 20-30 tick moves with a 10 tick stop and the spread hangs at 3 or 4 a lot of the time. If the bid/ask is 2000 at 87 and the 500 at 90, I put my order in at 88 most of the time.

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The numbers Gross +88, net +76 shares traded 2400

Life Part 3 6/5/2007

I feel like the perfect storm has just come thru. In the course of two weeks, my dad got hurt, my mom is having old age mental problems, my daughter graduates, my daughter needs out patient surgery, my wife interviews for a new position, wife gets new position with a big learning curve, wife car gets hit, I need to find a new position at work and I find I have growth nodes in my lungs.
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My growth nodes should be no big deal but needs to be watched. Wife is stressed but very happy at her new job. Her car starts to get fix tomorrow. My moms problems I hope can be put on hold for a while. My dad is not as bad off as first thought but he is being difficult by not taking pain pills and not eating or drinking enough. I told him if he did not put food in his mouth, there are other places one could get food into the body. My daughter will do just find. This will be a good lesson on how life works and she needs to learn to take care of herself. I decided to not find a new position at work right now. I am going to take some time off after my current project ends and regain my mental footing.
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One most take of themselves. I have seen too many people be too stupid about their health. It is one thing to blow a trade. It is another to screw up your life. I have had a couple of friends who had great health insurance but refused to go to a doctor until it was too late. One died of cancer and would be alive today if he only saw a doctor a few weeks earlier.
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Again if you need to do stupid things in life, do stupid trades and take care of yourself. Also it is a very simple fact, you can not trade well if you ill or your head is not in the right place.

You got to hit them when they are hot - 6/4/2007

This is how stupid I can be. The system I have figured out has had 15 profitable and two break even months in the last 17. During this year, it has only had four down weeks and 3 really bad days. In the months of April and May which were average months, there were 122 trades possible. 18 were great trades. 54 were ok trades (small gains). 25 were break evens (plus or minus under $50). 23 for small losses and 2 for big losses. For a conservative profit of $13,500 for the two months. I should be trading the living day lights out of this, but I am not. I am trying to out think it. Only picking the winners and not the losers. If you have an edge use it dummy.

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The trading is not easy and I am trying to simplify it. Above are 4 examples of items I should have been short. The way the action was on these I should have shorted PDLI and NSC with a market order on the open. I knew ONXX and NVT were going to be trickier so you scale into them as they go up. For NVT I should have had orders to sell at 45.50 (1/3), 45.70 (1/3) and 45.90. The gap on the daily started at 46.25 and wow the opening surge stopped at 46.25 with a big order to sell after a nice run in the stock. The plan for ONXX would have been the premarket high of 34 so the orders should have been 33.50 (1/3), 33.75 (1/3) and 34.00 (1/3). This would have gotten me into each of the stocks based on thier action in premakret and their daily charts. I just do not have the balls to do this yet but if I am going to be successful I need to. The only major problem with this system is that as you see, you will have 2 to 5 stocks fire off nearly at the same time.

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The results - I wanted to be short 1000 to 1500 shares of NVT. With an average cost of 45.75 one could have picked up 75 cents or more before the market gave you a reason to sell. With PDLI, a 1000 shares and to cover 60 cents lower. With NSC it would be a scratch trade with a 1000 shares. ONXX would give you an average cost of 32.75. I would have wanted the trade to be also 1000 shares. I might have cut the trade short for little but if I had the other 3 trades on and 2 of them working well quickly, I might of had the guts to hold on longer. This is the type of trading I want to do. This is the type of trading I know I can do. I just need to stop being a chicken and think like a Turtle - the system works dammit just trade it. So I think I should have an easy day and had made about $2500 with out even thinking about my steel scales. Instead I only traded NVT after the peak and only got a position of 200 on because the damn thing moved too fast.

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I love how MT tells me over and over - it is just a game.
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The numbers - Gross +44, net +37, shares traded 1400 - isn't that sad after you see the trades from above.

A bit of a better day 6/1/2007

The attack of the Big Mouth stocks - he recommended three of them last night. The first above has a good but not perfect trade for me. Instead of legging in like I tried yesterday, I just sold a 1000 shares at 28.45. Again just missing the top by 10 cents. The stock started dropping but the bid/ask gap big at times so I quickly got nervous and covered at 28.25 and 28.20 and left way too much money on the table. I have notice many Big Mouth stocks bottom soon after the open and can rally with the rest of the market. After CCIX formed a nice base, I should have gone long.

Second stock was FCSX. I had an order ready to go in at 44.75 but did not submit it. I should have because that was the plan. As soon as the stock dropped soon, I would/should have put the stop loss around break even. Again if a Big Mouth stock makes a good chart formation or breaks the HOD, it is good for a long play and this one would have been great.

The last one had a nice opportunity to make money but there was no shares to be sold at IB for me.

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Very slowly I am getting back into trading.

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The numbers - Gross +223, net +208 and shares traded 3000. If fact I would be very happy if I made $200 on 3000 shares everyday for a month. My goal once I start trading regularly again is to make $4 to 5k a month.

Euro Thoughts 6/1/2007

I am trying to look at the Forex more for long term plays. I am hoping the EURO bottoms in the 133.50-133.75 before moving higher. The recent moves have been long and drawn out. I will start a position in the 134.00-134.25 if we keep moving sideways for a while. My target would be 10 handles or more.