Marketgeometry

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thursday Trade Review 1/31/2008

I got skunked today. Four trades and Four losses. I had 3 longs and one short. The short was the Big Mouth Name of the day TUP. Regardless what I would have done with that name - it would have been a loss.
-
If I had held on too the 3 longs to the end of the day, I would have doubled my profit for the month of January. Crap Crap Crap. I usually have a stop in but if the stock does not move with in 15 minutes and I hold a loss, I get rid of it. In all 3 cases, the stocks would have not hit my stop loss. Crap again.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross -114 net -125 shares 2200
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Thursday Morning Thoughts 1/31/2008

It is a weird day. My head is not clear. I have good headache right now so thinking is not my strong point at the moment. I do not need to say yesterday's market action was very bearish. It seems like every blog under the sun is stating that fact. My favorite ETF to trade XHB had like an 8% reversal.
-
I am hoping that now we have the Fed out of the way for a while, we can have more normal markets. The two 1/2 days before the Fed Cut was painful. I am not good at searching for trades so when there are few trade ideas, I find none. A lot of good traders made a ton of money last week during Tuesday and Wednesday and have seemed to be nearly on vacation since.
-
As I stated yesterday, I have had a good month and do not want to screw it up. I hope to increase my trading size on Friday. Most of my trades since mid month have been double what I had previously traded share-wise. I hope to double that again soon. This may sound stupid but after I double the double again - I would be at where I should be based on my account size. In other words, my trade size should be about 50k per trade.
-
The numbers that just came out are killing the market. Fun.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Wednesday Trade Review 1/30/2008

My head is spinning - The Primaries, State of the Union, and the Fed meeting to just name a few this week. Super Bowl and Super Tuesday are next week. I am just thankful that tomorrow is the end of the month. I have had an OK month and I do not want to blow it. I should not think in terms like that but I do. I hope to be more aggressive on Friday.
-
After the cut, I was trying so hard to find a clean entry. A course than the market falls apart and I try finding a clean short to get into. I have to find a better way of having my charts setup.
-
I made a couple of dollars today. The time before the rate cut made trading next to impossible because of the boring range. I am so glad to get the cut out of the way.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +59 net +52 shares 1000
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Tuesday Trade Review 1/29/2008

Very hard day for the way I trade. No volume and no follow threw.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +69 net +56 shares 1400
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Big Mouth Stocks 1/29/2008


Very frustrating with these. I had the mind set of trying to short the pop on the open or with in 5 minutes, then I went to 10 minutes. I guess I need to go to 15 minutes and there has been a few examples recently where there was no pop at all, just a sideways movement for a period before falling. I guess I need to start playing them too.

The most important market lesson - Go long Monkeys

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 ! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere! Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Monday Trade Review 1/28/2008

Painful day. It was such a slow grind and none of the stocks wanted to follow threw much. I did not have one trade over +/-60 dollars. I made a little.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +81 net +67 shares 2200
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Monday Big Mouth Stocks 1/28/2008


Not easy on this day but still doable.

Currency Markets 1/28/2008





Right now should be long EUR/USD from 1.4700, long AUD/USD from 0.8800, short USD/CAD from 1.0190, still short USD/CHF from 1.1400 with a very tight stop and flat the other two - USD/JPY and GBP/USD looking for entry points.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Friday Trade Review 1/25/2008

I made a little money today. Played one of the big mouth stocks along with DE and CAT. I did not allow the trade enough time to work but in the last two days, I have had a lot more trades. A small sign of progress.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +104 net +90 shares 1800
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Friday Big Mouth Stocks 1/25/2008


I played CPRT a little and make a little. I forget about the other one when it looked like it was going to open flat - my mistake.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Thursday Trade Review 1/24/2008

The market sucked today. TD Ameritrade sucked again today. Not until lunch did I have most software things working okay.
-
The market bounced all around and many traders had problems today. Myself included. Made some trades today and my Gross was a big one dollar.
-
I did not know why but I have not been feeling this week. Friends want to blame it on the Packers losing but my blood pressure has been too high and I feel like I am riding in a balloon. It has made trading harder and typing even harder. I know my English sucks at times on this blog but I seem to have taken it to a new level this week. Hopefully my message is still coming across and the message yesterday was being very pissed.
-
I should have taken the Big Mouth Stock today. If I had shorted enough on HCBK, I could have made a week's worth of profits. I was thinking that the stocks would just run on the open. I need to do more trading and less thinking.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: Gross +1 net -12 shares 2200
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Thursday Big Mouth Stocks 1/24/2008



I expected the bounce off the low yesterday to continue making any attempt to short the Big Mouth Stocks useless. I was wrong. In fact HCBK would have been a nice easy trade to take.

Currency Stops 1/24/2008

A bunch of stops where hit. Only the USD/CHF was not hit. On the USD/CAD, one should reverse to the short side. The others wait for now.
-
EUR/USD - short from 1.4650 stop 1.4620 stopped out do not enter long yet
AUD/USD - short from 0.8800 stop 0.8760 stopped out do not enter long yet
GBP/USD - short from 2.0600 stop 1.9650 stopped out do not enter long yet
USD/CAD - long from 0.9970 stop 1.0190 stopped out reverse short
USD/JPY - short 113.000 stop 106.75 stopped out do not enter long yet
USD/CHF - short 1.1400 stop 1.1050

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Wednesday Trade Review 1/23/2008

I am pissed. I am sick and tired that every time we have big volume or volatility so many brokers have problems. Yesterday, I had a fill delayed for over 4 hours at Fido. TdAmeritrades Level II was out of sync with their charts which was out of sync with their Streamer. They say upgrade the Command Center. Every time I do that, it crashes my PC. The quotes from TD did not match at times with quotes from IB. IB charts for the 3rd day in a row stop updating midday with weird crap showing up on them. Even today, TS have never failed me, froze a couple of times. People ask me why I use a combination of 3 brokers to trade with and this is why. If one fails or has problems, I can switch to the others. But for the last few days, they have all sucked.
-
With these problems, it makes it hard to being aggressive - one of my main problems to begin with. I did do seven trades today.
-
First was AAPL that I bought in premarket. I thought I had a good place at 137.75. I thought there maybe selling on the open but I thought it would only be a couple of points. I got stopped out but I had only a few shares. I should have been adding instead and get a full position on.
-
Second was XLF. I put an order in and missed the move. I forget I put it in and it got filled 10 minutes later. I freaked because things did not look good and sold for a small profit. After I sold it, then it runs a full point.
-
Third just a stupid trade with no setup in CSCO. Small lose.
-
Forth - SDS trade. I got in way too late - small loss.
-
Fifth - MON trade. I shorted this and it fall quickly. I was up nearly two points when I put a 50 cent stop loss in. The stock quickly rallied and took out my stop.
-
Sixth - was buying a breakout in USB. The range before it broke out was 20 cents so I used a 20 cent stop. Stopped out and USB fell another 15 cents before a dollar move with the end of day rally.
-
Last - bought MOS in the melt up and took only a point out of it. The stock did not give me much reason to sell other than at times, I had no idea where it really was trading. This really pissed me off because it ran another 3 points.
-
All in all, I lost a total of 70 dollars, but I feel I should have made a 1000 today. Stupid me, stupid software.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross -55 net -70 shares 1600
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Adjust Stops again 1/23/2008

If I was trading this system, I would not want anything the Fed may or may not do suddenly take a bunch of the profits away from me.
-
EUR/USD - short from 1.4650 stop 1.4620 stopped out do not enter long yet
AUD/USD - short from 0.8800 stop 0.8760
GBP/USD - short from 2.0600 stop 1.9725 new stop 1.9650
USD/CAD - long from 0.9970 stop 1.0190
USD/JPY - short 113.000 stop 108.25 new stop 106.75
USD/CHF - short 1.1400 stop 1.1150 new stop 1.1050

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Tuesday Trade Review 1/22/2008

I was expecting the market to rally then fall. The markets rallied but did not fall. I am pissed. I should have been more aggressive on the open. Instead I went into the mode to sell any positions into the rally. I am totally flat in my day trading accounts and about 20% invested in my retirement stock account.
-
No guts - no glory. I made a couple of wimpy trades as I am known for. I profit is a profit but not enough to pay the bills.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: Gross +107 net +102 shares 700
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none
-
Time to watch AAPLs earnings.

Curreny Markets 1/22/2008

Stopped out of the EUR/USD short at 1.4630. No long for now. Very close to being stopped out of others. Stay tune.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Stop Updates - Currency Markets 1/21/2008

If I was trading this system, I would not want anything the Fed may or may not do suddenly take a bunch of the profits away from me.
-
EUR/USD - short from 1.4650 stop 1.4900 new stop 1.4620
AUD/USD - short from 0.8800 stop 0.9150 new stop 0.8760
GBP/USD - short from 2.0600 stop 400 pip trailing (1.9990) new stop 1.9725
USD/CAD - long from 0.9970 stop 1.0025 new stop 1.0190
USD/JPY - short 113.000 stop 109.500 new stop 108.25
USD/CHF - short 1.14000 stop 1.12000 new stop 1.1150

2007 Yearly Review 1/21/2008

My yearly numbers:
-
Wins: 343 Losses: 226
Avg Win: 65.82 Avg Loss: -89.19
Gross Trading: 2,420.50
Commissions: -4,116.69
Net Trading: -1696.19
Biggest Win: 440.00 Biggest Loss: -1,509.00
Data Fees: -419.45
Interest: 2,984.66
Account Net: 869.22
-
What a year. I had no large wins at all during the entire year. I did have a group of large losses. So I did not let my winners run but I did cut off my losers relatively well.
-
I guess I do not know how to look at the numbers in any helpful way. My avg losers where bigger than my avg winners 7 out of 12 months. My biggest losers where bigger than my biggest winners 7 out of 12 months. My total wins where bigger than my total losers 10 out of 12 months.
-
The thing that has my biggest concerns is I was doing ok trading before I went full time. After I did go full time, I lost 5 out of 6 months. Not good.
-
I will post more thoughts if I have them.

Happy F-ing MLK Day 1/21/2008

This is insane. I have never seen the YM futures down this much overnite. It closed on its low - 11586. Its low for the session. This should make for a crazy Tuesday Morning.

December Monthly Review 1/21/2008

My monthly numbers:
-
Wins: 31 Losses: 24
Avg Win: 38.88 Avg Loss: -66.04
Gross Trading: -379.65
Commissions: -340.54
Net Trading: -720.19
Biggest Win: 120.00 Biggest Loss: -399.00
Data Fees: -30.00
Interest: 308.47
Account Net: -441.72
-
I was not happy with December at all. I had many opportunities to make money and failed to pull the trigger or size my trades correctly. I guess I am still looking for the right instrument to trade where I can take enough risk and not freak out.
-
One thing that sticks out in this month was I fat fingered two trades. That cost me a total of about 800 this month and I would have been in the black. One of them I put in the wrong price in premarket. The other I was long 50 have I short 200 to cover the position.
-
As I said at the end of last month, I was going to trade the YM more. I did but did not see the results I wanted. This was many because I was only buying or selling breakouts or breakdowns when I should been following my YM system instead.
-
As I say every month, going forward now, I need to risk more.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Currency Markets 1/20/2008











On Friday the long EUR/USD (+130 pips) and AUD/USD (+80 pips) should have been reversed to shorts:
-
EUR/USD - short from 1.4650 stop 1.4900
AUD/USD - short from 0.8800 stop 0.9150
GBP/USD - short from 2.0600 stop 400 pip trailing (1.9990)
USD/CAD - long from 0.9970 stop 1.0025
USD/JPY - short 113.000 stop 109.500
USD/CHF - short 1.14000 stop 1.12000

Friday, January 18, 2008

Friday Trade Results 1/18/2008

I did not feel real mentally well today. I forgot to set my alarm and woke up very late. I did do one of the Big Mouth Trades but I really did not feel in sync with anything else today. I decided it was best to help the wife with tasks and eat lunch with her.
-
I did short one of the Big Mouth Stocks - WIND. I should have been just a little more aggressive in premarket. Just before the market, WIND dropped and did not have much of an open pop. I added to my short once it ran out of stream and it fell. I still should be trading a bigger size. I did trade 500 shares. I made 91 and was happy.
-
This week was my best week in months - up about $850. I did make a couple of bigger trades and I need to push myself more there. I also traded about half the big mouth stocks this week. Another goal of mine of mine.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +91 net +86 shares 1000
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Friday Big Mouth Stocks 1/18/2007


Thursday, January 17, 2008

Thursday Trading Review 1/17/2008

Buggers!! I tried shorting the big mouth stock - ADCT. I started shorting too early instead of waiting for the peak. Once it got to the its peak, I was about to my level of pain. The stock hit a high of 14.55, went back down to 14.35, then right back up to 14.55, where it stayed between 14.48 and 14.55 for about 4 minutes. I just sat on my hands trying to give the stock enough time to start working.
-
Finally it started dropping. I should have doubled my position and put a stop over 14.55. Once the stock started bouncing around my Breakeven point, I got out with a small loss. Later, it went under 14. If I had doubled my position and held, it would have been my best trade in months.
-
I do take a small victory from it. Normally I would have panicked out of the position near the top of the move only to be really pissed that I did. Other than that, I played around with XLF and XHB and SDS with nothing to speak of.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross -38 net -51 shares 2300
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Thursday Big Mouth Stocks 1/17/2008





Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Wednesday Trade Review 1/162008


Very frustrating but better than having a losing day. I traded XHB perfectly today and did everything wrong with XLF. I got in at the wrong places. I got stopped out when I should have had more guts. And again, I am just not trading the right size. Both XLF and XHB, I am only trading 100 to 300 shares when I should be trading 500 to 1000 on each trade.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +216 net +198 shares 1800
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Wednesday Big Mouth Stocks 1/162008



I was able to get a little out of IDXX. It would have been great if I held the sold threw out the day because I fell sharply at the end of day. RVBD would have been great but I missed it - not quick enough.


Wednesday Morning Thoughts 1/16/2008

Frustrating - watching the INTC numbers come out and seeing the After Hours market getting crushed - I bought for my retirement account a few shares of QLD. I should have bought more and some for my Day Trading account. We are getting to the level where we should have a bounce. Damn. The market is down but no way near the mess expected. No guts - no glory.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tuesday Trade Review 1/15/2008

I wish all days were this simple. I said I would go after the Big Mouth Stocks and I was given a gift from the trading gods today. If the stock is very thin, many times on these stocks, I will place an Ask just below the lowest Ask. I do that just before 8 am EST or 9:25 am EST is when a spike in buying may come in. If you do it at the 8 am time, I am hoping some idiot will buy at any price. Once in a great while it works and today was great.
-
After I got out of the trade, I did not watch the market too closely. I had some guys doing some roof work today. I could have pressed my luck and maybe got close to a grand out of the trade. With out watching the market closely, I missed two trades in EMC another Big Mouth Stock.
-
I am just happy with a good day.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +627 net +624 shares 400
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Tuesday Big Mouth Stocks 1/15/2008






Monday, January 14, 2008

Monday Trade Review 1/14/2008

Same old Same old. I tried attacking the Big Mouth Stocks and just missed by inches. I am really going to try to trade the living day lights out of them. The only other stock I had a trade in was MOS. I bought a small position looking for a break out with more buy orders above. The problem was being about 3 hours too early. I got stopped out and was not in the right place at the right time when the break out occurred. I have bought a swing position in XHB which is doing okay.
-
The Numbers:
Stocks: gross -21 net -25 shares 600
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Monday Big Mouth Stocks 1/14/2008


I am going to make a big attempt again to trade these, even if it kills me in the process.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Currency Markets 1/12/2008

I am going to trying to get more detailed with my trade ideas here and try to update them thru out the week so:
EUR/USD - long from 1.4520 stop 1.4600
AUD/USD - long from 0.8720 stop 0.9650
GBP/USD - short from 2.0600 stop 400 pip trailing
USD/CAD - long from 0.9970 stop 0.9990
USD/JPY - short 113.000 stop 111.000
USD/CHF - short 1.14000 stop 1.12500

CHEESEHEADS WIN 42-20 01/12/2008

PERIOD!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Friday Big Mouth Stocks 1/11/2008


Friday Trade Review 1/11/2008

Not much trading. For personal reasons, I just did more watching an anything else today. Made one trade today and it was a Big Mouth play. I got in but I should have shorted a little more as the EPIQ more a little higher - instead I allowed myself to be stopped out. It could have been profitable but it trades so few shares.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross -10 net -12 shares 200
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Thursday Big Mouth Stocks 1/10/2008

Thursday Trade Review 1/10/2008

My head is spinning. Went long the Dollar against CAD and AUD and got my head handed to me quickly. I had to leave at the open to go do somethings and did not get back until 1:30. Once the CFC/BAC news came out, I tried to buy the YMs but it took a couple of trys before I did. Then I had my stop way too close but made a little money. I also started buying XHB in all of my accounts. In my day trading account, I took a fast 35 cents out of it. Between the two trades, I dug myself out of the morning hole. My head was not in the market today. Too many things to do, so I was very happy to get back to even.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +175 net +170 shares 1000
Stock Futures: gross +70 net +65 contracts 2
Other Futures: none
Forex: gross -188 net -198 contracts 5 minis

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wednesday Big Mouth Stocks 1/9/2008




Wednesday Trade Review 1/9/2008

How can you screw up such a big rally like the one we had today but I did. I needed to greatly increase the size of my stops today to keep on board during this decline then rally.
-
I was long the USD/CAD this morning and caught a nice move but screwed up my stop which cost me half my profits. Then I spent the rest of the day eating up those profits on badly timing YM trades. One day I hope I learn.
-
I did save some pride today. During the rally, I was buying stock left and right for my retirement. My retire account is divided into 2 accounts. Two thirds in an account I only have mutual funds in. That account is 95% long. My other account which I buy stocks in has 80% in cash. I got that down to 30% cash so I hope this is some type of bottom. I am expecting about a 4% move in the averages to relieve the over sold condition.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: none
Stocks Futures: gross -155 net -165 contracts 4
Other Futures: none
Forex: gross +155 net +143 contracts 5 minis
-
I got to think better when things are happening. I could have easily made the same stock buys in my day trading account as I did in my retirement account and be very happy right now but duh I didn't. I wish I knew why.
-
I was also so busy with the Loonie trade and watching the YM - it was a great day to short the Big Mouth stocks.

Wednesday Morning Thoughts 1/9/2008

It is funny with trading I lose track of time. I mean I do not know what week of the week it is or the date. I know what reports are out there but my brain just does not process the rest.
-
I am long the Loonie as a day trade right now. I markets did not fall apart over night. It is interesting that the Asia markets did so well last night.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tuesday Trade Review 1/8/2008

Not fun. This market was crazy today with back and forth crap. I bought the YM after it broke the pre market highs and got hurt. I was then able to short the YM when it broke down in the afternoon and recoup all my losses. I made some gains in being long SDS during the first decline and then gave most of it back after picking the wrong stocks to bottom fish. All in all I survived but I should have made a ton of money base on the moves we saw.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross +29 net +20 shares traded 1600
Stock Futures: gross +10 net 0 contract 4
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Tuesday Big Mouth Stocks 1/8/2008


I got short but not the other. PZE was the lucky one but the wrong one. CHTT would have been a lot better. Even thou I had orders to sell in to middle of a 40 spread where trades fired off above me, I did not get filled. By the time the move had finished, only 40k shares in CHTT had traded. Not easy to get in and out.

Tuesday Morning Thoughts 1/8/2008

Still trying to get my head around yesterday. I am glad I traded more - even a lot of trades in my retirement accounts that I seldom write about but I did lose money. My setups I took were not far from setups I should take. I only screwed up one stop yesterday and that only cost me $25 more on the loss. I need to just keep going at it.
-
I came across a good blogsite - The Lonely Trader . He has a couple of really good posts on how to look at your losses - some very well thought out and written stuff.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Monday Trade Review 1/7/2008

I f-ed things up today. I did not take any YM system trades but I did try shorting them during breakdowns. The bad news on that is my last short was just before the monster move this afternoon. I gave the position a little too large of a stop and got hurt a little. I also had a stop rejected by TradeStation for no good reason which like an idiot I used that as a sign from God to just create a stop where ever I wanted to. Not a smart thing to do. At least I was fairly active today for all of you wondering if I would ever make more than one or two trades in a day. There was no Big Mouth stocks to trade today.
-
The numbers:
Stocks: gross -102 net -105 shares traded 600
Stock Futures: gross -265 net -285 contracts 8
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Currency Marekts 1/6/2008






Crazy beginning to the year. The US dollar is getting hit against the EURO, Swiss Franc and Yen but is showing strength against Loonie and Britsh Pound.