FSLR 7/31/2007

Can some one tell this stock to make up its mind?? Is it a $100 or $120 stock??? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Too much unnecessary stress today. Got to layoff of the corn syrup. Time to go chase parked cars.

GIMME SHELTER before I ...... 7/31/2007

crap in my pants!!!!. Or should the title be "Let's party like it's 1929!!!!!" Ouch and as I write this the futures are falling apart again.
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Today was a day, I should just not trade. I had to get up early for a conference call which was cancelled in the middle of night but before I knew it I had made coffee and bathed - silly me. Then I decided it was a good day to upgrade my Anti Virus software(see note below) - silly me. So being not in a right frame of mind, I tried trading - silly me. As the totals showed, I lost $200 but each trade I fat fingered something about everyone of them and then panicked - silly me. I was off balance from the get go and never regain my footing. Then more computers problems and I said "F" it - time to go to work and have more fun - silly me.
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Don't trade when you are tired, too stressed, too hot or cold, too pissed off.
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The numbers:
Stocks: none
Stock Futures: Gross - 160 net -199 contracts 18
Forex: none - I am really wishing I had my head on straight to short the Euro.

Software upgrades 7/31/2007

I hate them. I like IB but they pushed something during the middle of the day and it took too long to install. Today - I renewed my anti-virus software. Threw a comedy of errors that the installations did not tell me about - it took 90 minutes to upgrade. Way to stressful. I have been in the business. I should know better - lol.

Mental Game 7/30/2007

Trading is such a mental game. The knowledge of the markets, trading patterns, even an edge I all know or have but the mental part is where I come short. I truly believe if I took all the trades I see I could have a 70% win ratio because I wait for the good setups. I also believe I would have bigger winners than losers on average. The combination of the two would be a winning trader. The stupid little thing call fear comes in to play. That is what is holding me back.
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I have for the most part conquered my fear in Racket Ball. Fear in Racket Ball??? Let me explain. When I played in the past against players equal or better than me, I would think ok if I can score X number of points I have a chance. Maybe if he has a bad day. And so forth. I was not thinking about winning but how close of a lose or game I could make it. This stupid mind set would never allow me to play my best. So players not as good as me, I know that and I would kick there ass. Players equal to me, I would a good chance of choking. Players better than me - I got killed.
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One day, a friend of mine asked me why I seemed to be a good player but played so poorly and I explained how I thought. He said I was an idiot. One point in the match has little to do with any other point. If you f-ed up a point or a play that does not have an effect on another. (Somehow does this sound like trading???). That you take each point of each game as a single event trying to win just that one point and forget the rest. How do you beat someone better than you one point at a time.
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It is weird now. By changing my thought process, I am destroying people on the court that I once feared to play because I would look bad. One gentlemen tonight I play, I usually beat very easily. He had a few good serves and I f-ed up a point or two and suddenly I was down 10-1 in a 15 point game. I paused and then took him apart one point at a time. After I closed the game within 11-8 his favor still, he died on his own mentally losing it on his own. It was funny. Once I had made the scored 10 to 4, I felt that I had already won the game and all I had to do was finish it. I then played a second match against a former feared opponent. I killed him. He looked at me after the game and said I played well and he had a bad night. I just said to myself - "I just now know I can beat you and I will".
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All of this relates to trading. I do the mental mistake of making each trade really important when it is not. It is just one trade in a long series of trades during a very long game called the market.
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I am amazed at traders like MT, Gary and Pinoy. From the way they seem to approach the market mentally, it is like they have already won when they get up each morning and if they don't, they will just win tomorrow then. No big deal.
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I can't wait to get into that mental state.
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I did good today. I doubled my best futures day again today.
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The numbers:
Stocks: none
Stock futures: Gross $520 net $474.16 contracts 20
Forex: none but I am getting excited about going short the Euro

Monday Morning Thought 7/30/2007

Most of the speciality programs the CNBC puts on I like - examples looking at Wal Mart or Mc Donalds but the series Being or Thinking or Wanting to be a Millionaire drives me crazy. The format is like a game show and Erin is over the top with her comments but in the last show I saw, a few points stuck out to me:

1) The Tax laws are written by the rich to mainly help the rich.

20 Poor people think like poor people, middle class like middle class and rich like rich.

3) Most rich people help each other stay rich or get richer.

4) The biggest line that stuck me is the middle class wants security while the rich want freedom. Freedom and security are opposites of each other in the business world. Think about it. Security is working for someone else. Freedom is working for yourself.

Chat Review - DayTradeAdvisors.com 7/29/2007

First of all I want to say I am not getting paid for this review. I am doing this review because Missed Trader (MT) has helped me a lot over the last few months with my trading and my thoughts of becoming a full trader one day. He helped me so much I thought it would be nice to try helping him to get his new service going at DayTradeAdvisors.com.
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I came across MT thru Virtual Office - the Dinsour Trader had put together on his blog. MT trading numbers were/are incredible. You can go see the totals at DT's site yourself or you can see the individual transactions at Stockalicious. Meeting MT and others like him on the web has been great learning experience for my trading. I have added many new tools and markets to my trading. MT was been very helpful in that.
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MT's service is something relatively new on the web - you are able to trade along and learn while the market is moving. There are many sites that have chat rooms both profession and non-professional but the difference here is MT is using audio. MT can call out his trades as they happen. He then types them out on the screen all in real time. Few chat rooms do that. MT can tell you so much more on what he is saying in the market than just to type it all day long. In this service he tells you the key levels of the market he is looking at, talks about the indicators and how to use this information to trade. You could just trade along with him or you could take what he is sharing with you to improve your own trading and understanding of the market. I try to do both.
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The guys is incredible. So if you sign up for a 6 or 12 month membership, you will be paying about an $1 an hour to hear him trade and analyze the market in real time. I do not know about you but for me when you can listen to this in real time - it makes so much more sense then reading it from a book or watching a video. I know and have seen others out there who have done this, but by far in my mind this is the smartest guy out there and he is a bargain. That is why I became a yearly member to the service and why I want my blogger friends to become members too. If you don't take his trades, you will learn a lot from his thinking.
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If you did not want to commit to a monthly membership, this is a $25 week long trial. Again I am not getting paid for this, I just really believe in this guy.

Good Day and Grrrrrrrr.... 7/27/2007

I am blogging this just as I get out of bed on a Saturday morning. I hope it makes sense. I really get frustrated with myself when I get to focused on one thing and miss a bunch of other things. As I have written before, I love trading the steel stocks - mainly AKS, NUE and MT. Even thou the market was a mess, it seems like people buy AKS most Friday morning thinking it will be the next steel to be taken over. As you can see in the above chart, it had a perfect buy setup. I like to trade them when I can get a risk of 10 cents or so, thinking I could make 30 to 50 cents. On Friday, this sucker ran two full points. A plus 20r trade. Grrrr...


Above is the YM futures again. It is crazy, but I had really not traded the stock index futures much since 1987. When I started day trading last year, from time to time, I would try pulling a few inter day ticks not of the QQQQ's. That was one big PITA. Once I became Blogger friends with MT, he convinced me that trading the Mini's were much easier and cheaper. After watching him in action, he has given me the confidence to trade and they are so easy to do. MT made a ton in the futures today and this week. I can not follow all his trades (reasons I have stated before) and I wish I could. I am not a robot following all of his trades. He picks out good areas in the market to go long and short and I many times game the market myself but he has taught me a lot.
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I had two trades in the futures today and made 44 points in the YM. That is not a lot but I am only using two lots at time and it is my best day yet trading the index futures. You get to learn how to crawl before you can walk or run. I would have two more trades but I lost my Internet connection for a moment (becoming a problem again) and IB pissed me off by wanting to push an software upgrade in the middle of the morning that took longer to install than I thought.
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The numbers:
Stocks: none
Stock futures: Gross +220.00 Net +200.80 contracts 8
Forex: none

What can I say???? 7/26/2007

What can I say? This is a market that traders love and investors hate. When I got up this morning and saw the premarket mess, I knew this was going to be a crazy day. We had already had a few. I noticed quickly my planned trades were going to be a bust and I could not find anything in premarket that excited me so I thought the best course of action was to watch MT trade today.
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I posted in the charts above a few of his trades during the time I could watch. (Damn day Job). As you can see from the results, he makes many thousands of dollars a day while I am still learning. In my defense, I will say I am getting closer.
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The chart to the left shows 3 trades in the NQ futures. The first trade went for 4 points and I was on the phone for work. The second went for 4 points - I nailed this one good. And the last MT got a great trade off but I only paid a commission. I was watching the tick and it looked like I could cover and resell at a higher price. That higher price never came.
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The chart on the right is two trades in the ER futures. The first was a small trade off the bottom. There was orders in the market to add to the position if the market continued to go down. MT got filled at 802.00 and had another at 800 even. I thought I would do him better and buy at 800.50. The low was 800.70 before we started moving up. Because the market internals were so bad, MT kept a close stop on the trade and closed it at 802.80 for a small gain of 0.80. The second trade was to load up again as the market retested the lows. The first order was at 801.50 with a second at 800 even again. I thought to be smart this time and I had my order in too at 801.50. The market dropped just enough to get filled before going on a quick 7 point move. Suddenly, I notice that my order did not fill. Why? I forget to transmit it. Idiot. MT again because the market internals sucked big time was not going to let any profits get away and was stopped out taking 6 of a 7 point move. Amazing. MT took a hit on a couple of stock trades today but made a ton on money on the stock index futures. And I believed he did not have a losing trade in futures today. The best thing about his chat room is I feel I am learning a lot on how to judge the market in realtime.
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The numbers:
Stocks: Gross -50 Net -52 shares traded 400
Stock Futures: Gross +190 Net +170.80 contracts traded 8
Forex: None

Internet Problems 7/25/2007

I am trying to get in a short post tonight. My internet keeps cutting out.
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Work was a great pain for me today amd I could bearly watch the markets. I can not get my trading account to display correctly now.
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The numbers-
Stocks: gross +86 net +82 shares traded just 600
Stocks Index: none but I had orders in a couple of times
Forex: none

F-ing Panic Again 7/24/2007

I continue to be painfully stupid. I am like a little baby mouse and the market is this big cat. An example of this is SNDK today. I wanted to short in the 57.50 t0 57.75 area. I had a beautiful opp to do that around 8:30 and again just before the open and right after the open. I wanted to be short 1000 shares and to do it in two pieces. I missed the pop just before the open - 9:28:00 so I shorted 500 at 57 even a minute later. Not expecting too much of a pop, right after the open it ran to 57.70 quickly in three minutes. I could see it running out of stream but my brain went into panic mode - time to cover. I said to myself - hold on for a minute. It looks to be dropping. It dropped nearly as fast as it rose pausing at 57.00 so I covered. Thank God - A break even trade as I watched it drop fairly quickly to under 56. I should have shorted the second 500 bunch at 57.50 for a cost of 57.25 and easily made a point or so. Idiot. It is only money - right? I wish I could think in terms of it being play money or chips.

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On a other note - MT at DayTradeAdvisors.com was on fire today. All trades went for profits today. He had stock, stock index, forex and option trades today. Green across the broad. He scares me. On the "I have my thumb up my A$$ " award - I got to see a couple of his trades today and like a dummy I did not follow along on all the trades.

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The numbers-

Stocks: Gross -8 net -10 shares traded 1000

Stock Indexes: Gross +100 Net +90 contracts 2 (should have been +300 if I followed MT)

Forex: None

Frustration again 7/23/2007

Words from a Pink Floyd song rang threw my head - "If you don't eat your meat - you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your Meat!" Translated - "If you don't enter a trade - How can you make any money. How can you make any money, if you don't enter the trade!!!!!"

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Four Big Mouth stocks and this is how they should have been played.

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First TSRA - short on premarket popped at 43.95, stop at 44.40. Quickly after open stop moved down to 43.90 and stopped out (break even). Later at 10:30 go long for a gain.

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Second GLW - go short on open 27.10, stop at 27.40. Follow stock down for a nice gain. No Heat.

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Third TOT - go short on open 83.05, stop at 83.75. After open moved stop down and get stopped out for a break even trade. Later around 83.05 go long for a half point gain.

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Forth CY - go short get stopped for break even. Go long and get stopped for break even.

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So you play TO and TSRA with 1000 shares and CY and GLW with 2000 shares. Net in my mind should be about $1700.

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I on the other hand only got the TSRA trade filled at 43.95 and made $25. I tried getting short CY at 25.70 on a opening pop but it never happened. So dummy me. I did not get any of MT's trades off (all small winners this morning) and I screwed up one of Gary's trades with a stop too close. On top of that I played one of my steel scalps and and lost. If fact lost bigger than I should because for a moment I forget to put my stop in.

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The numbers:

Stocks - Gross +54.50 Net +39.50 shares traded 3000

Stock Futures - none

Forex - none

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A do Nothing Day Aagain 7/20/2007

Had chart problems with IB again for the fourth day running. I took a break from Big Mouth stocks for a while. This month they have been much much much harder to game. i could not find many setups myself. The blogs were not getting much either except MT had a couple of good Futures trades.
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The numbers-
Stocks: Gross +7.14 Net +5.14 shares traded 84 - yes 84
Stock Futures: Gross +10 Net +5.20 1 lot
Forex: None

Back on a Pony again 7/19/2007

I would like to say I am back on the horse (brain thinks of a different meaning) again but I did not trade big or much. I wanted to regain a mental footing in the market today seeing I am having a bad month. I only did four trades today. In fact I had no other orders in the market. I was a nice simple day to put the brains back together and I am grateful.
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Two of the trades are above and are from MT and his new Blog service. Because I was trading small and slow I did not follow his trade ideas to a "T" but the way I did it, it worked out better for me. I made a fast $75 in CLWR and $55 in LVS with very little heat. In MT's chat room today, every single one of his trades were for profits - some small but all for profits. MT is the best trader I know on the net right now. I can only hope to be just like him when I grow up.
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I also got a trade idea from the Blog Wall Streak. I believe Ugly put it together. There are a couple of good traders there too, giving many good ideas. The ships were hot today and they were trading them there.
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I also spend time in the chat room Dehtrader - created by my friend Glen that I visited in Vancouver recently (His kids are so cute). There are a couple of good traders there too but the people there are more like family - very nice.
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You may ask - that is a lot of blogs and info to be looking at? While I have a set of planned trades each day, a list of stocks I follow and a couple of stocks I like to scalp, I many times run out of ideas to trade. I have not found a good way yet to generate a lot of ideas during the day so I turn to the blogs. I find you can learn a lot from some of these traders out there like MT, Gary and Pinoy. A lot of good people out there to support you when your down and cheer you when you are up.
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The numbers -
Stocks Gross +160 net +152 shares traded only 1200
Stock Futures - none
Forex - none

A nothing Day 7/18/2007

Did not sleep well. Had to get up for a early morning call. Had technical issues with IB. Could not get a web site to load properly. Again by seconds missed two good trades. In a very bad mood.
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What more do I need to say?
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The numbers -
Stock Gross + 6 net +4 shares traded 400
Stock futures - none
Forex - none

Mother told me there would be days like this 7/17/2007

I do not even know how to explain a day like this. It was a mess. There was four Big Mouth stocks to short - WGOV, ASD, DYN and PHG. I did not like the action in PHG so it was easy to skip. DYN - I tried shorting at 8:00 am but could not get an order off. I tried hitting the bids but they would disappear. I do not understand that but I guess it is part of the game.
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So that then leaves ASD and WGOV. WGOV has up big and I thought it was pumped too much. I placed an order just above the market. InteractiveBrokers was giving me trouble with premarket charts in Nasdaq stocks today. I was not following my stocks my normal way - I had the stocks in TD instead. Should have been a warning to me. I got my first short off and was stopped at 62 minutes later. The stock look like it wanted to fall so I shorted again at 62.08 and was stopped about two minutes later at 62.40. By this time I should have been long following my new rules of trading big mouth stocks.
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For ASD - I saw that soon after the open, the stock did not move - in fact looked like a delayed open. I started typing in an order to buy instead of shorting (being smart this time I thought) and just as I hit send, the stock opened and ran like crazy. Thank God I was not short but Damn why could I not get logn. That trade if entered, could have saved the most of the day. And then, I should have gone long again about 10:30.

To add to my pain, played around with the futures, trying to pick a break down point. That netted me a loss of $149. I had also placed my first currency trade in a while. It looked like the dollar might had put in a short term bottom against the majors. The Swiss Frac was the weakest so I thought the Dollar could be the strongest against it. It started moving in the right direction but I guess with the US stock futures dropping - the Franc died about 8:00 pm hitting my stop. Add another $450 to the ply of losses I had today.

Another painful event to add to all the pain - was while I was having my fun going hurt shorting WGOV - MissedTrade in his new premium trading room called out going short GRMN. I did not look at it carefully until it about hit its peak at 84.25. Once it started dropping, I placed an order to short at 84.10 which did not get filled. You can click on his name or on the link right below the my title line above.

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Again all I needed was to get filled on ASD and GRMN and the day would have been a big nothing. Get filled on ASD a second time, and I would have had a profitable day. Instead you can see the numbers below. So close yet so far- Damn.

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The numbers -

Stocks - gross -513.50 net -542.95 shared traded 3000

Stock Futures - gross -130 net -149.20 contracts 8

Forex - gross -430 net -435 one full contract

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Total -1107.95 --- OUCH

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Mother told me there would days like this.

Chicken - PERIOD!!!!!!!! 7/16/2007

I have once again become a big chicken. If you are going to make money, you need to risk money. Today was a great example of that for me. Since I took the little hit on Wednesday, the fear of losing has over taken my greed. This can not be. I need to get back into a more aggressive mode. My planned trades have been hard to make money from but if I followed the rules, I would be ahead by a lot instead of having a crappy month.
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I printed out each of my planned trades this month and wrote notes all over them reminding myself if I keep my head and use the risk factors I need to, I would be making money.
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I freaked out of so many trades today it was not funny. I did not get short when I planned to on the above stocks and I did not go long them as planned. I missed 30 and 50 cents moves in AKS. I missed at 70 cent move in MOS (nice call DT). I missed break even trades in MT and JOYG. All these stocks I had orders in that were filled or should have been filled and I should have let play out. Instead I had a couple of 3 cent gains and now I can treat my loved one to a nice dinner at Mcd's.
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Idiot Idiot Idiot
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I need to get myself pissed off at myself, review my mistakes (in the process now) and remind myself that I pick good trades most of the time and I WILL be a successful trader if I follow my plan.
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The numbers- Gross +60 Net +25 shares traded 5000

Gun Shy 7/13/2007

Gun Shy - that is what I am. After feeling ok about trading before my vacation and having a good month, the market has been a big PITA for me in July. I didn't trade for a couple of days and then had a few loses and my guts to trade has left me.
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I want to find another industry that I pick a few slow moving stocks and scalp them during the day. I think the big oil stocks are next for me. A simple small trade above for me but I was not aggressive enough to get in where my profit should have been a lot bigger.



This was one of the Big Mouth stocks I should have shorted like crazy. Not much action in the premarket and no pop at the open. After having a couple of problems getting into my favorite stocks, I was not aggressive enough on this trade and I missed a big move to the downside. This is the type of trade I could make and then call it a day. And following one of my new rules with Big Mouth stocks, once they find a bottom, go long - another big miss.


This was another big oil I was trying to get into and I just did not find a good place.
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The numbers - Gross +115 net +80 shares traded 5000

Mental Problem 7/12/2007

I try keeping a list of mental trading problems. I already have a long enough list of just pure mental problems. Something that caught me by surprise is dealing with heat (trade going against you) on a winning trade. Many times you can not pick the top or bottom of a move or get in just right. I really wanted to push my EMC trade today and get short 5000 shares hoping for a gain of 15 to 20 cents. Once I felt the heat, I just could not react and instead of sitting on my hands for a decent profit as soon as I could get out at even, I started to. I was short 3000 shares at a cost of 19.46. I should have been short 5000 shares at a cost of 19.50. The stock dropped soon after I shorted to a low of 19.35 - my 15 cents. If I sat on this trade during the whole day, EMC caved even another 20 cents.
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So I seem to be wired to find it easier to make $200 on a 1000 shares with no heat than if I was short 5000 shares with $500 of heat that turns into a $1500 gain. Sad So Sad. Got to fix that.

Better than a sharp stick in the eye 7/12/2007

Today proved I still have the mental problem of being gun shy after a bad day and a string of losing days. I, as I nearly do everyday, picked on the Big Mouth stocks. First on board was EMC popping about 40 cents or so. The after hours high has 19.47 so just short that would be a good place to short. I did not think there was going to be much of a pop so I had orders in at 19.42, 19.45 and 19.50. I was debuting about having orders also in at 14.55 and 14.60. Well, the pop happened and faster and harder than I expected. I did not put the other orders in because fear hit me. I got filled quickly on the 3 orders and was down 450 for a brief moment. As it moved up, I saw the volume slow. I just kept saying "don't do anything - don't do anything - don't do anything" but once the pressure was off, I wanted to get out of dodge quickly so as the stock fell I covered. I made 90 bucks but if I followed the game plan and had the other orders in and sat on my hands larger - it would have been a very good trade.

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So while I was going mental on EMC, APD didn't go down the way I expected it to. About a week of so ago I came to the conclusion that once the Big Mouth puts a stock in play, it will either do well on the upside or downside. It did not go down so on the dark line on the above chart, that should have been by buy zone.

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The two other charts were stocks I watched closely and did nothing even thou the trading Gods gave so much time to get in.

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The numbers - Gross +74 net +14 shares traded 8000.

Nuts 7/11/2007

I traded a little more after my first post today and made back $7 of my losses. I am always concerned about trading after I get so bent out of shape. You must trade with a straight mind set.
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Again I am not going to post charts tonight. It is too late and I am behind on things thanks to Verizon. My phone's battery was acting up and I had this phone it seems forever, so time to get a new one. Went to my local Verizon store and there was only two sales people and 5 in front of me. After waiting for more than a hour and 3 of the people in front of me leaving, they point me to a back room clerk that had me checked out in 5 minutes. Why the hell didn't they do that 50 minutes ago? I knew the phone I wanted and options. Nuts!!!!
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The numbers Gross -481.70 net -557.23 shared traded 3600. My worst daily loss since Mid Feb.

Panic - not Profit 7/11/2007

Boy, did I screw up so far today. I had orders for 4 stocks in this morning. All shorts going against my Big mouth favorites. As I stated before, I try capturing the opening pop before or after the open using my IB account for a half position. I use my TD account to capture the on the open pop with a half position.
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There was no pops on any of the stocks just before the open and only one popped on the open - TCK. I sold a 1/4 position on top tick. I would have had twice the shares if I was a penny lower.
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I usually would pull the orders of the other stocks without a pop from TD right away but I didn't and the stocks ran right after the open. So I got filled on two where I no longer wanted to be. I tried covering as quickly as I could but before I could get both orders in, I has down 75 cents on each and to top that the top tick stock I short went down 90 cents and bounce 75 cents in four minutes.
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Like a dumb shit - I covered my winner too only to watch if flat line 25 cents under my sell price and give another sell signal.
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So I should have been short TCK 500 shares at 46.45 and 1000 shares at 45.20 and out at 45.65 for a profit of about 1000.
Instead I shorted 500 at 46.45 and out at 42.15 for +150.
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So should have pulled my COP order and shorted at 85.25 and out at 85.15 for +100.
Instead I shorted a 1/2 position at 84.75 and covered at 85.25 for a loss of 375.
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So I should have pull my ENR order and short at 101.75 and covered at 101.75 for an even.
Instead I shorted a 1/2 at 101 and covered at 101.75 for a loss of 375
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I am down -564 for the day where if I kept my head and followed the rules I should be up +1100.

Not a happy camper 7/10/2007

Today started out bad enough. I had a conference call with a customer from the Mideast at 7:00 that last until 8:30. Between the stress of dealing with an unhappy customer and getting a late start on the market, my head was not on right.
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I set a new record for myself today. I had entered 12 orders with out getting filled. Either I am not aggressive enough or it just was not my day. Some of the orders were away from the market but a couple of buys were on the Bid and a couple of sells were on the Ask and with two orders I was on the inside. No luck. I never worked so hard in the market with out having one order filled.
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Time to go watch the All-Star games and fall to sleep.

A very important lesson 7/9/2007

I am tired today so I am not going to post any charts, but I picked a bunch of bad trades today and lost a big 41 cents. Yes, I said a very big 41 cents. I have had a 3 day losing streak. The first one in a while. I traded stupidly on Thursday last week when I was just getting back from vacation and very jet-lagged. Not good. Friday I had some great setups but just failed to put it together. Today, the trades I made were not good and I had to work hard to break even.
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The point to all of this is I have had a bad couple of days but with proper cash management and not adding to losing positions and not trying to revenge trade, I lost a grand total of $100. On my good days, I make $300 to $700 dollars. You got to protect your capital to make sure when you do trade badly you have a chance to play another day. A very very important lesson for traders to learn.
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The numbers - Gross+52 net -0.41 shares traded 5400

911 7/9/2007

I usaully do not post video links but this is great - look for the 911 post.

A day of frustrations 7/6/2007

A lot of frustration for me today. Today could of been and should have been a great day for me. The charts above are two examples. The first one is INFY. Gary in the DehTrader chat room called the setup on this one. I filled out the order and started looking at other charts. Quickly I saw it move thru my buy market stop. Looking for my fills I found none. WTF??? Then I noticed I had not hit the enter key on the order. Talk about a bonehead move.
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The second chart shows CRDN - a big month stock. I was looking to short it and there was no pop at the open. Many times if there is no open pop, I look to get long at the first sign of strength. The first little circle is the breakout of the morning range. I went long and it fell back into the range. It hit my stop. I nearly went short when it broke the bottom of the range but I thought the market would rally. Then to add insult to injury, I did not place my long order again when it broke out and ran a buck in less than 15 minutes.
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I had a couple other situations like this today like holding on to a stock to got worried and scratch the trade just before it moves 50 cents in your favor.
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The numbers - Gross -62 net -77 shares trade 3000

EURO part two 7/6/2007

The EURO for me pulled a prefect setup for a trade and I missed it. A new event (Jobs report) pushed it to a new low (weekly) and then it bounced back into the range. I usually wait 15 minutes and a retest before I trade a news event. If you look at the charts, it was a near perfect buy say in the 1.3575 area on the retest. I should have bought two lot, sold one in the afternoon and kept the other over the weekend. The EURO continues to be a pain in my side because I just can't seem to pull my head out of my ass to trade it.

EURO 7/6/2007

This EURO is a pain in my side. With the job report, it gave a brief entry point this morning for a short term play. The EURO on the jobs report went to a week low then came back. That was a buy signal - maybe for a 50 pip move or so. I am hoping it would pull back to the 1.35 area. That would be a good place to buy for a test of the recent highs.

June Results 7/5/2007

I have not figured out a good way to post over results of a month - maybe a Google spread sheet. For the month, I was up by my accounting method $2088. This marks the first month of daytrading for me that I broke the $2000 mark. I had 22 wins and 13 losses with an average gain of $129.45 and average loss of of $50.73. Biggest gain was $372 and the biggest lost was $160 (my only futures trade that month). Stat wise this was a near perfect month. I would like to get the trade number to double and the profits to triple. This is my current goal. I was also proud about these numbers for the fact I had a lot of personal things going on too. Also the fact the majority of my trades were from the short side with the market being sideways.

AKS 7/5/2007

I only did one trade today and lost a couple of happy meals. One of the things I am thinking about is to focus on one stock. My favorite right now is AKS. I pointed out in the above chart all of the possible buy points. I would compare each of these points with how the overall market is doing and how mother steel (United Steel - X) and some of the other steels were doing. I should have bought the first move because the market was stable and most of the other steels were moving up slowly. AKS was not trading that many shares at the time but spent enough time were a full position could have been put on.
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I like to trade this stock with 12 to 15 cents stops and once I am up 10 cents bring to move the stop up. Most of the trades would have made money but only the first being a great trade. Usually I do not take trades late in the day.
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The numbers - Gross -19 Net -23.50 and shares traded 1000

Vancouver Results - 7/4/2007

Some of things the Wife and I did while in Vancouver and the results -

• Landing in Vancouver on June 30th. One of Canada's busiest travel days - Bad Trade.
• Using the car rentals driving instructions to get to hotel - Bad Trade.
• Staying at a Hotel outside of the city (North Vancouver) - Great Trade.
• Paying a lot of money expecting great seafood but not guaranteeing it - Scratch Trade.
• Finding out that Stanley Park is mind blowing beautiful - Great Trade.
• Buying a car ferry ticket to Victoria thinking it was cheap but find it is only one way - Bad Trade.
• Going to Victoria on Canada Day, the crowds, you are nuts - Bad Trade.
• Wife getting the guts to go over two suspension bridges - The Trade of the Decade.
• Finding a good local breakfast place - Good Trade.
• Wife wanting to read map and getting us very lost - Bad Trade.
• Seeing the city from the tallest building - Great Trade.
• Being in a city with a lot of really nice looking ladies with wife around - Scratch Trade.
• Playing 6 hours of Blackjack at 3 different casinos and only losing $15 - Good Trade.
• People at the front desk of hotel being very helpful - Great Trade.
• Spending sometime with Glen (Dehtrader), his wife and his really cute babies - Great Trade.
• Spending the day on Grouse Mountain and seeing the bears play - Great Trade.
• Remembering how beautiful this world can be - Great Trade.
• Spending quality time on vacation in a great fun city with the women of your dreams - priceless.

I would highly recommend spending a vacation in Vancouver.