Good opening ES range trade 5/20/2016

I love it when everything works out perfectly.
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Coming into the opening, the ES was near the top of a 4 point range. I was hoping for a pullback to the middle of the lower part of the range or about two points. When on the opening minute of trading, the ES goes in the opposite way of the current basis, trading against that direction is highly profitable. The stoc was bullish so the basis in my mind was bullish. The market had been going sideways after a good movement up. I wanted to enter around 2043 with the stop below 2042.  Usually I take most if not all of the trade off at one point but this looked like a good opportunity to try for the top of the range at 2046. Once the market paused at 2043, I entered at 2043.25 and trailed with a one point stop that got hit at 2046. In hindsight, I could have gotten more if I had just a tick or bigger stop, but I will take the 2 3/4 gain.
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Moments later the market gave two great entries to buy the pullbacks at 2046.75 and 2046.25. Both I failed at by trying to get filled at 2045.75 which was a 50% pullback.  Got to be just a hair more aggressive.

perfect ES trade 4/12/2016

Not much to say on this one. Morning range of 2039 to 2043 was broken. Just before open the market retraced to break down point. Most of the time the first minute of trading is in the wrong direction of the first 5 minutes.  Shorted 2039.25 and filled for a point shortly after.

perfect ES trade 4/1/2016

On Friday - they tried to take them lower but couldn't.  The they tried to take them higher, and I bought at support.  Perfect trade, executed perfectly.  My only regret was that the train left the station so fast and just kept going, I could not find a good entry point to get back in.  It is fun when trading is this easy and thats no joke.

Chart Porn - 06/05/2012

My first good trade in about two weeks. Saying I did a lot of things wrong. I should have entered with two units based on the setup and how the market was moving. The first unit I should have kept the tight stop I used or maybe just take 20 cents. The second unit I should have had a trailing stop. It has been a while since I managed a 2 unit trade successfully.
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Anyway it was a good trade and I feel like I got a monkey off my back.

Chart Porn 5/17/2012 - the Thursday idiot version again

From an entry point of view - this was the first since last Thursday I broke my trading rules and just like last Thursday, I paid dearly for my mistake. During the last week, I have entered using my rules about 80% and each time either made money and broke even.  During the 20% of the time that I entered not to plan, I took a lose each time and the loses were enough to cancel out my gains. I did exit only 50% according to plan which if that was higher, I would have also made to over come my stupid entries.
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Even thou I feel stupid - when I stick to my trading plan - I make money. I can at least take that away.

Chart Porn - 05/15/2012

Another good trade today. The two others were break even.  So far this week, I have only screwed up one stop royally and the rest of the trades have been by my rules. Last week started out good, but that Thursday mind melt was bad.

Chart Porn 5/14/2012

Everything is on the chart.

Chart Porn 05/09/2012

Another fast a simple trade. I love them.  My only other trade was a mistake that I was able to get out of for a $30 gain.

Chart Porn -5/6/2012 I love quickies

I love it when a trade happens so quick - you have no time to think about it.  Too bad I was trading only 1 contract when I usually trade 2 to 4 but the Sunday night trading was crazy.

Chart Porn 05/04/2012

The first was the only crude trade I made for the day.  I was proud of myself from the fact I got up - fired up my charts - and took a trade I saw before I was even awake yet. Never in my wildest dreams I thought crude would totally fall apart after the jobs report. It could have been a great day for me if I had more balls.

Days go by and still I think of you... 8/14/2007

Good song and I should have stay longer.

Very slow morning 8/3/2007

That missed EURO trade is a real PITA. Made a couple of future index scalpes and made $190.

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

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.

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.

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.

Good Trade/Bay Day 5/18/2007

I finally had a trade I could be proud of this week. The big mouth pushed CY Thursday night and it popped a lot in afterhours. I was hopping to get short about 21.75 and Mr Market allowed me to do that. I go filled at 21.73 and 21.79 and sat on my position for most the morning. As to plan with big mouth stocks, I covered near the open at 21.60. Not a lot of money but the plan was followed. I then looked to get long which there was no more breaking of the stock. I started to see a large selling in the market at the time of the open. There was no open pop and my attempt to short went unfilled.
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I could have made more by holding thru the open but that was not the plan. I felt good finally executing a trade the way I should have - start to finish.
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It then was too bad I chased two other trades and totally f-ed them off and ended the day with a small gain. Enough to buy a happy meal.
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The numbers - Gross +27.50, Net +7.50, shared traded 4000
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On a side note, there has been a lot of chaos in my life the last few weeks. I am hoping by the June starts, my life will be back to normal and I can truly think about stocks and trading again.

Mouth Roars, Reverse game 5/16/2007

Sorry for the hard to read chart but sometimes you just have to say what the F....... Whenever the Mouth on TV roars 99 percent of the time, it makes a candidate to short. There is that 1 percent which I have found it is not. That is when he recommends a new issue (IPO) or a stock that you can't short. Today's stock was ACM. On the chart, I included the previous days action to show how much power he can have sometimes.

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And when that sometimes is a really hard stock to short, you look to go long instead of short. I look at the AH (after hours) action for where the stock should open. Amazingly, the stock many times opens near where it closes in after AH or in this case 23.35 but instead it was trading at 22.25 to 22.50 (a bargin). I went long assuming I could get a pop all the way up to 23.35 or higher at the 8 o'clock stupid money rush. It did pop to 22.85 before it start to drop, so I only took 35 cents out of the trade. I was hoping that the stock would fall back to the 22.35 area to go long again into the open pop of the stupid money rush. I got my chance and went long some shares at 22.40. I should have bought 5 times more but I was stupid in my own way. The pop came and I was a little too fast in getting rid of my shares and took only 25 cents of the move.-

After things cooled off, I should have been back for more about 10 am at 22.50 to go long again.

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But there you have it home gamers - a way to play the big mouths " I can't short so I go long" stocks. This one was easy and I should have made a lot on it.

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The numbers - Gross +225, net +217 shares traded 1400

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Wife is still sick so I did not have my eye on the market the way I like too.

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Come on guys and gals - leave some good insults to get my juices going so I can beat that evil market.

Finally a decent day - 5/4/2007

Finally a decent day. Not a big day or killer - just a day of solid trading. A day I feel proud of. The first one I have had in a few weeks. My confidence as doing this is a little shaky right now because I can't seem to get out of this rut I am in. I need to be more aggressive, trade bigger lots and act quicker. Too many times I think about a position 30 seconds too long and it is gone. Or I bail way too quickly on a position before it gets a chance to work. I did a much better job of entering positions today quicker and with a little bigger size. I should be trading 1000 to 2000 shares on most trades but I find myself never getting above 200-500 shares. I need to let loose. I have enough money in the account to do it and I do not depend on my trading for a living (yet).
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I have been having the problem finding trades that our my own. Something I have said before in the past - you must trade your own trades. I do not mind being notified by others of stocks setting up but I try not to jump on a trade just because someone calls one out in the chat room.
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To combat this problem, I am trying to find a method of trading that generates enough trades for me where I continue to watch the screens. Each night I have my planned trades, but so many times those trades are done or don't work by 9:45 and so I am left with what now. I don't use Trade-Ideas (thinking about it) and my own methods of scanning for trades is lacking. So I have found a section - Steels - that have caught my eye. Two of my favorite stocks in that sector are AKS and NUE. Both of them I am trying to learn how they trade. The others are RS, X, RIO, CMC, GNA and GGB. Mainly I want a stock that trades a million plus per day.
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The trading plan for sector trading -

1. The general market needs to be up or going up or flat.


2. The sector needs to show some life.


3. Leading stocks in sector needs to be showing some strength.
   
4. Buy pull backs using the Slow Stochastic (5,3) if above conditions are meant and you get a bar or two of sideways action.


5. Add to position on additional signals if low of first signal is not broken or using any standard chart pattern methods (breaking of a trend line - etc.)
   
   

This is the game plan. We will see how successful I am pulling it off. I used this method three times today. I caught the pullback in AKS at 9:45 and 10:15 and NUE at 9:45. I should have caught both of them at about 12:30 when the steels stabilized, and the Stochastic signaled and the downward trend line was broken but I was at lunch.

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The numbers - Gross +450, Net +407, shares traded 8600 (charts added Sunday night)

The Good, The Bad, and Why didn't I wait - 4/11/2007

First the good - if you look at HSC between noon and a little after 1 pm, you will see what I thought was a nice head and shoulders bottom forming. The lead steel X was beginning to move again so I bought HSC at 46.70 and sold about 10 minutes later at 46.85 when it looked like it was finished. A very nice quick trade. I do think I should learn to hold on longer and break my sells up. I excepted a 20 cents move based on the pattern but only took 15 because I got nervous too quickly. I should have sold half and the rest at the target.



Next the Bad - this is one of my favorite patterns to trade. Why I did not jump all over it I do not know. I like to bottom fish earning warnings. If I played this correctly, I would have tried buying in premarket at 18.35 soon after 8 am and would have been stopped out hopefully at even 30 minutes later. I would go in again at the next sign of a bottom at 18.15. If then on the open, the stock does not take the low out and starts showing green bars, I know I should have a winner. I would then try to add to the position. The stock gave a great entry point of 18.25. I would take half off at plus 50 cents and guess the other half would have been plus 35-40 cents. This is how I should have played it. Instead - I took a couple of ten cent moves out of it when it was in the 18.20 to 18.50 range not trusting it was a better setup.




Now - why didn't I wait? I love it when big mouth recommends CHTR (or BRCD or LVLT). It is a fun stock to short. My plan was to try building a short position of about 6k shares with a cost if possible of 3.05. I had orders in at 3.03 thru 3.08. I did not get filled at 8 am (top tick was 3.02). So I waited for a minute or so and hit a bid at 3.01 for 1000 shares. Saw a bid at 3.00 for 5000 shares but was greedy and wanted my higher offers to be filled. They never did so instead of building a position at 2.99 to 3.00 I got bored with it and dumped the 1000 at 2.99 about an hour later. Reloaded my previous order hoping for a 9:30 spike and did not get it and stupidly did not short a bunch at 2.98. If I was only patient and waited, it could have been a good trade blowing it out at 2.92 once a bottom formed. Overall it was an okay day and again I traded a lot more shares than I usually do. I am beginning to believe it will be more profitable to go for a lot of smaller trades than a few bigger trades.