Wednesday Trade Review 4/30/2008

Another day where I just could not pull it off. To add insult to injury, I was in 4 good trades and found ways of screwing each of them up. I will leave it at that. I had things to do in the afternoon so I missed the decline.
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Tomorrow is a start of a new month.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross -57 net -82 shares 4800
Stock futures: none
Forex: none

Tuesday Big Mouth Stocks 4/29/2008

These were hard to make money off of. I tried but came up with nothing.

Tuesday Trade Review 4/29/2008

I do not know what to say. I drove about 500 miles between noon and midnight yesterday so I got in late. I ate too much and drank a little. Could not sleep and then over slept so I was not in a good mood. I drank a bunch of caffeine and got all pumped for the open and found this day to be really boring.
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I made 6 trades and all six I would put in the break even category. I could not find any action and I am pissed I did not think about playing MA or V. Dumb move on my part. Even the Big Mouth Stocks were useless.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +13 gross -1 shares 2600
Stock futures: none
Forex: none

Monday Big Mouth Stocks 4/28/2008

These were a gold mine today. I only got a hold of one of them. My daughter was visiting on my mind was not on trading.

Mondays Trade Review 4/28/2008

I need to cut this trading day short. My daughter is visiting for the fist time which seems like forever. I am going to drive her back home and hopefully her boyfriend will buy me dinner. If I get home early enough, I will post some charts.
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This trading day sucks anyway.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +104 net +100 shares 400.
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none

Childern

One of the last night hosts was asked how it was being a parent. He said his ex-wife said it best (and I hope I caught it correctly).

"From the moment a child is born, it is like your heart spends the rest of your life walking around outside your body".

I agree strongly.

Mystery solved

Over on the DT site, there are many stories of the common ups and downs of life. I never laughed so hard to his story of a crazy morning that ended with his 2 year old taking a dump on the kitchen floor. Here is one of my stories. I changed the names to protect the innocent.
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(smart-ass-daughter - calling on a cell phone) Hey Dad.
(dumb-ass-father) Hey kiddo.
(smart-ass-daughter) so what is the deal about visiting? (dad was to call daughter about when daughter could visit and transportation details)
(dumb-ass-father) I gave you a long voice mail on it yesterday afternoon.
(smart-ass-daughter) I did not get a message from you.
(dumb-ass-father) I called you about 3:13 and about 10pm the night before. (looking at his dialed list on the cell phone)
(smart-ass-daughter) I got no messages from at all. (looking at her call list)
(dumb-ass-father getting very frustrated) Well, I called you. In fact, I try calling you about 4 times a months every month since you got out of college.
(smart-ass-daughter) I think you have only called me once or twice since I got my my phone in September. What number did you call?
(dumb-ass-father) XXX-XXX-XXXX
(smart-ass-daughter) that is my old phone from the phone my old boyfriend gave me. He must have not disconnected the number.
(dumb-ass-father seeing he had the new in his phone book but the speed dial was still set to the old number) shit!

How to keep your broker happy 4/25/2008

The first trade was not bad and the third was an idiot trade but there was a ton of stocks with false break outs today and I did not take in account for that but I kept my broker happy.

Friday Trade Review 4/25/2008

This was my best trade of the day. A very quick in and out using a trail stop. TCK was going down a couple of cents with each trade and is thin so I was not going to allow my profits to go away.
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I did a lot of trading today and had a bunch of break/even trades. You can see the Big Mouth post below to see my TRN and look above to the post to see my AKS trades.
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Very frustrating to think about today. I need to figure out another method of madness I think.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +145 net +117 share 5600
Stock Futures: none (missed a big trade here by pulling an order too soon)
Forex: none

Friday Big Mouth Stocks 4/25/2008

I was really excited about two of these because they had big pops in AH last night. I was not as excited today because of the lack of volume. I did short TRN like an idiot I freaked out when the spread got large and a big bid showed up. I only made 1/3 of what I should have.

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Six out of nine big mouth stocks have worked this week.

Thursday Trade Review 4/24/2008

Just a stupid day for me. Not in a good mode at all. I should have just enjoyed the nice weather. A good example of my stupid moves are I was long XLF early in the day and managed to stop myself with a net gain of $8 when if I held on I could have had at least a $300 or more. This whole week I have not been mentally together.
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I need to destroy a Yellow Jacket nest - fun.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +41 net +28 shares 2400
Stock futures: none
Forex: none

Wednesday Trade Review 4/23/2008

I am stupid period. I had a couple of trade today where I could make good money. I did not let them run. One of those trades was TRA. I shorted and made 14 cents. I fell nearly a $1.50 after I got out with no major rallies. And you can looked at my Big Mouth post below. I missed a ton of money there.
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In AH hours, I shorted AAPL and got filled a lot lower than I wanted to then AAPL crashed but as soon I did fill it start to rally hard - I put my stop in and got filled down 300 on 100 shares but then it turned right around to start dropping fast again. It traded around my price before dropping a fast 6 points. I am just stupid. I could handle this 18 months ago with no problem. I do not understand why my brain can't handle it now.
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If I do not get my trading shit together soon, I will have to go back to corporate America - something I miss once in while but really don't want to do.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +36 net +3 shares 6008
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none
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After Hours:
Stocks: gross -311 net -315 shares 400
Stock futures: none
Forex: none

Wednesday Big Mouth Stocks

I have out posted the Big Mouth Stocks for a while. One - they really sucked for a while. Two - I got sick of looking at them.

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I posted then today because the Big Mouth was back from vacation and I thought what the hell. I should have paid more attention today but I didn't. They offered great entries and good declines. It makes me sick that if I had play with them - this is how I would have done.

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ITRI - short at 103.75 covered at 102.75 with 200 shares or a gain of $350

NBR - short at 38.80 covered at 38.20 with 500 shares or a gain of $300

EP- short at 18.30 covered at at 18.00 with 2000 shares or a gain of $600

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Total over $1200 - hell call it a day.

Tuesday Trade Review 4/22/2008

All my trades are on the charts today. I very stupid day for me.

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MCD - I buy it just before open and it rallies off it premarket bottom. I spend a few minutes in in pain and scratch the trade - dummy me.

SLB - I buy the morning Breakout. It runs in seconds and begins to fall as fast. I get out with very small profit looking to get back in which I never do.

CNQ - I buy CNQ as it gets ready to break its HOD and look to add. I setup my stop order and enter it. Wrong price on order, I got sold out and I am not smart enough to get back in. Dummy me.

XTO - I buy as it is going to break out again but it does not and I sell just before it falls apart.

RIO - I am really pissed at RIO because I tried to buy pullbacks in the morning and never got in. So I short it when it hits a new afternoon low after missing the first point to short. I short on the next to low tick of the move. I am stopped quickly.

NUE - I buy a HOD trade. Market is running higher and I buy the first thing that looks like it is going to run. Guess what - I miss the high tick by 4 and it starts going no where. I get get not wanting to play a stock into the close.

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So there you have it. Three trades where I am just a couple of ticks away from the high or low going against me. I had to completely idiot for the day trades and one in hindsight an okay trade.

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The numbers:

Stocks: gross -75 net -90 shares 2800

Stock futures: none

Forex: none

Monday Trade Review 4/21/2008

A lot of traders are frustrated with this market and I am too. I was able to make a little from FDG but the way it goes up and down made it too hard to hold for my stomach. I then turned to the steels and lost some money there. I was going to have lunch with someone so I cut my morning short. Lunch then lasted a long time and once I got back I had computers problems. I was not up and running again until 2:30.

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There I play lets scare the stock game. Say a stock is trading bid/ask of 45/50 so I place an order at 47. At that second it moves to 49-54 so I place the order at 50 and then the bid/ask moves to 51/55. I play this game with 3 stocks and never got filed. So I got mad and on the next one the bid/ask was 64/67 so I place an order at 69 assuming I would get filled at 67. No luck the bid/ask went to 69/72. I said fuck it and that was the end of my day. I just wonder where I would get filled with market orders on these. And these are stocks that trade a million or two a day - not something like 100k. This is how slow the market is.

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The numbers:

Stocks: gross + 47 net +39 shares 1600

Stock Futures: none

Forex: none

Does anyone trade like this? 4/19/2008

I do not know if I should try to trade this idea or not. It seems to me so many times a company comes out with an earnings report the street is not happy with. The stocks trades down a couple of percent and then soon after the open, the stock turns positive and runs. SLB did it on Friday and NUE did it on Thursday.
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Does this makes sense on a large cap stock to put a buy order out there when the stock hit even and cancel it if it is not hit by 9:45 or 10:00? Comments?

Friday Trade Review 4/18/2008

Above was the my best trade of the day but again as so many times, I left a lot of money on the table. It is so frustrating to do that. I try to sell a piece or two to take the pressure off but I have had too many trades recently where I am up 40 cents and suddenly in seconds I am down 20 cents.
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Another frustration is how to think or hunt faster. My eyes were glued to the steels first thing in the morning but they were going no where. I did not rotate fast enough to look at the Oils to catch many of the big moves there. Or I did not see the Ags roll over soon enough in the afternoon. Is the answer more coffee?
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +122 net +107 shares 2800
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none

Friday Midday Thoughts 4/18/2008

I am so bored I am listening to a traders tax seminar over the net - zzzzzzzzzzz.
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It is amazing so many things are moving so slow,

Friday Morning Thoughts 4/18/2008

Today is options expiration. Think of all the people being screwed by the big moves right now caused mainly by GOOG. This is why I never play this junk - only inter day stuff.
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Also if we hold on to these gains, this will be the first week in a long while where we had two big up days. On top of that, we are breaking some major chart patterns to the upside.

Thursday Trade Review 4/17/2008

Today was a fight. I missed a couple of great trades in the steels right out of the gate and the rest of my day was a mess.

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You can look at the charts above for some of my trades. The first one was RIO. I only had 200 shares on the first then 500 on the second. The third which worked was the trade I short 500 twice. I try building positions as they are winners.

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Today was not a big winner but I felt good. I really started off the day by screwing up and digging a good hole. I did not let that get me down and I fought back to even.

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The numbers:

Stocks: gross +55 net +29 shares 4800

Stock Futures: none

Forex: none

March Monthly Review

My March monthly numbers:
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Wins: 83 Losses: 38
Avg Win: 26.07 Avg Loss: -51.39
Gross Trading: 211.00
Commissions: -432.10
Net Trading: -221.10
Biggest Win: 128.00 Biggest Loss: -546.00
Data Fees: -87.00
Interest: 179.98
Account Net: -128.12
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No good news here except I traded more and larger share size in a year. My brokers are happy. My largest loss was a swing trade that went bad. My second largest lost was 140. The weird thing this month is that everyday I traded futures I made money - not a lot but all black days.
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I need to continue to increase my size and take more chances with out chasing stocks - simple bottom line.

Wednesday Trade Review 4/15/2008

It has been a weird day of having the wife work from home, trying to explain taxes to my daughter and exploding milk bottle that covered the kitchen.

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I traded okay. I wish I saw more opportunities to trade. I just recycle threw a set of charts so I miss a lot of things. I am getting better at seeing things but I have a long way to go.

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The top chart was my trade of the day. I told some friends to buy either AKS, NUE or STLD. All 3 worked out fine. The chart below that was my PITA trade of the day. Seldom do I wait this long to get into a trade - about 20 minutes. I finally got filled then filled for the second part. In about 30 seconds, CNX drops 40 cents and stops me out.

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The numbers:

Stocks: gross +109 net +88 shares 3600

Stock Futures: none

Forex: none

Tuesday Trade Review 4/15/2008

Happy tax day. There are two charts above - my first trade of the day and my last. You can guess why I took the trades. My trades in between net me nothing other than keeping my broker happy.

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The numbers:

Stocks: gross +129 net +116 shares 2600

Stock futures: none

Forex: none

Monday Trade Review - wow he posted a chart 4/14/2008

Today was a pain in the ass. As I stated last week, I had to go to traffic court to fight a ticket I believed I did not deserve. That killed most of the trading day. I only made two trades - one in AGU (the chart above) for a ok profit and MOS for a break/even. I did find an honest lawyer that told me if I wanted to fight the ticket, I would cost me between $500 to $1200 for the lawyer. I would still likely have fines and courts fee of between $180 and $400 - win or lose and I had a 2% chance of winner only if I had good evidence that the cop was wrong. Stupid system.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +74 net +70 shares 800
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none

Friday Trade Review 4/11/2008

A better day for me - 3 trades - 2 winners and one B/E. Even though we had a nice down day - stocks did not move much. Monday will be interesting for me. I will be in court fighting a traffic ticket. I did not break the law. The cop thought I made an unsafe u-turn - fun.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +139 net + 126 shares 2400
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none

Thursday Review 4/10/2008

I do not know what to say. I take pride in the fact that most days most of my trades are winners or scratches. Today just sucked for me. I made 8 trades and all were losers. You could count 4 of them as scratches.
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I did not lose much money - only about 340 dollars but it just sucked. I would have lost a lot more if I had used my old method of trading where I put the entire size on right a way. Instead I put on one third to one half and add to the position as it goes my way.
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This month sucks for me. I have had 4 bad days and only one so so day. Some people are finding lots of setups but in the stocks I like to trade, I am not or I am being late to the party. Case in point is AKS. When it broke to a new daily high and ran two points. That is a type of setup in the steels I like to take.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross -247 net -264 shares 3000
Stock Futures: gross -65 net -75 contracts 4
Forex: none

Wednesday Trade Review 4/9/2008

Stupid day period.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +1 net -14 shares 2800
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none

Tuesday Trade Review 4/8/2008

I continue to dig the hole this month. I had two trades today that really screwed my day up. I bought V on at buy stop over 67 early this morning looking for some follow threw. I got none. In fact, it dropped very quickly after the buy. going past where my stop should have been. I try getting cute with selling the position but somehow I sold it twice. I find myself short with the stock now going up so I covered. My lost should have been around $80 instead it ends up being $160.
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To make matters worse, I some small profits on my futures trading going into the Fed notes at 2 pm. From the reaction to the notes, I thought we would have a good chance to break the lows of the day. I got a little too aggressive and ate up all my future trading profits and turned them into losses.
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This was just a bad day for my style and every time I force something - that was a stupid mistake.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross -123 nets -135 shares 2600
Stock Futures: gross -55 net -70 contracts 6
Forex: none

Monday Trade Review 4/7/2008

For being so pissed at things I can not control, and at myself, add in the fact I can't seem to go more then 60 seconds with out coughing, I traded ok. I am sorry but a lot of things are just plain messed up in my life.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +100 net +90 shares 2000 (4 trades)
Stock Futures: gross +10 net +5 contracts 2
Forex: none

New beginning/new ending/totally confused

I just do not know. I am tired. I am tired of being sick. I am tired of fighting with people. I am tired of dealing with so many assholes in this world. I am tired of cops giving you tickets because you deserve one instead of breaking the law. I am tired of all the people who want to get something for nothing and bitch they didn't get any.
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I am so so tired of all the pricks on TV making promises on what they will do for us. I am so tired of the people who understand what is happening to economy or markets but only say what the interviewer or crowd wants to here.
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I am tired of not being able to trade better after all this time and work.
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I am just so so tired of being tired.
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I hope tomorrow is the beginning of a new day for me. I need a break.

Friday Trade Review 4/4/2008

I am feeling better. I put clothes on today - haha. I am still trying to get my bearings on this market. I made 3 trades today and nothing crazy like yesterday. This again is going to be brief. Even thou I do not feel well, one of your toilet is leaking and needs to fix. And it is not going to be the wife.
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I did watch most of the trading for the first time this week.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +40 net +38 shares 400
Stocks Futures: gross -65 net -80 contracts 6
Forex: none

Thursday Trade Review 4/3/2008

Stupid to trade while feeling sick. A couple of bonehead moves trying to get back into things.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross -172 net -215 shares 4800
Stock Futures: none
Forex: none

Wednesday Trade Reviw 4/2/2008

Still too sick to trade - I should have said I died yesterday as an Aprils fools joke. I felt like it.

Tuesday Trade Review

Still very sick.