Frustration 5/7/2007

A very frustrating day so if you do not like to read whining do not continue. You have been warned.
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First on all this has been a very flat boring day for most traders. For some mystery, I was given a lot of trades that setup to my liking. I wanted to do battle with the mouth again. His picks looked like good shorts. I tried and tried to get filled on GSS in the 4.85 to 4.95 area but could only get 100 shares filled. I made only $20 on the trade. Later after the open, I made $40 going long it before the collapse. I went after CYNO right after the open trying to selling 2000 shares 32.23. BID/ASK was 32.20/32.28 and I got 100 filled before it started falling. I chased but no luck. Made $25 there. I could have shorted the next bounce but I was looking somewhere else by then. Tried shorting 2000 BRLC in premarket at 8.55. No shares.
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Ok - on to my favorite steels which look red hot with the takeovers happening. Good buy signals on AKS at 31.40 (9:50am) 31.90 (10:15) and not great but ok at 32.10 (10:50). In NUE at 66.0 (9:50), 66.30 (10:05) and 66.35 (11:05). I got in late on two of the six and my stop took me quickly out of one.
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So why am I frustrated - I saw 9 trades today (along with a few I did not mention - bottom fishing HANS or going long AA/AL in premarket). All 9 acted the way I expected. All 9 should have gone for gains of $300 plus and my result - 6 trades, all winner and net +$160. Who is God's name goes 6-0 in trading attempting to trade 500 to 2000 per trade and makes only 160 dollars????
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This game is very hard to winner. On days that the market Gods smile on you, you must take fill advantaged of or you will not last in this game.
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The numbers - Gross +185, net +155 and shares traded 4600

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)

Dull day - 5/3/2007

Not much to say or much that happened. I spent the day making and losing very little on my trades today. Missed two good moves in AKS but other than that nothing.
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I did spend a lot of time reviewing my April trades and were amazed at the number of them plus or minus $20 dollars. I am sure my broker is very happy. I did notice one thing like at really big eye sore - I cut a lot of trades short before they had time to run. That is the main reason for so many small results.
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The numbers - gross -4.25, net -18.75, shares traded 2900

Lesson Time - A trading Dairy - I mean Diary

Over the years of trading, I heard so many times it is good to have a trading diary. I hate writing and/or typing. I am so bad when it comes to writing and spelling I feel like I have no first language (maybe charts could be) even that I have lived in the US all my life. Regardless, I know the importance of learning from your mistakes (and victories). Each night I print out 3 to 10 daily charts of stocks I either traded or tried trading and write notes all over them. I have the date/time of the places of trades or missed trades marks and a summary of either the idea and/or feelings about the trade or the market at the time. I have a 3-ring binder that is huge and must have 1000 charts in it. About every 2 or 3 weeks, I take an hour or so and go thru the entire book page by page looking at my victories and defeats, trying to learn something new each time. I find this method less painful of a way to do what I think is a great tool of learning - a trading diary.

Dropping the ball - 5/2/2007

I woke up this morning having a difficult time clearing the cobwebs. Look at the premarket for a while before life started interrupting my trading day. Different people needed to get a hold of me and before long I could not pay proper attention to the markets. On top of all of that, the wife needed some help buying software.
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Finally after a while, things calmed back down and I could look at the market again. Within a few minutes, I had missed 3 great trades. A stock just coming out of a pull back with a 17.80-85 bid/ask. Starting placing the order at 17.95 to insure I get shares. As I hit the entry, the bid/ask 17.88/91 then 17.93/95 and as I see my order go in 17.98/18.03 and it is off to the races. Stock runs a point and a half in the next 30 minutes. Missed it by a hair. Moments later another stock - bid/ask 30.49/30.50. Bigger seller on 30.50. Start placing the order to do a buy stop at 30.51 but notice the seller was nearly finished. Put the order in at 90 just as I see the bid/ask change to 30.50/30.51. Move to change the order and boom - the stock starts running. A couple of minutes later, I see another stock. Breakout point was at 128.15 and it seemed to have paused between 128.25 to 128.50. Put order in at 128.30. Wait for a while and do not get filled. Pull order. Stock suddenly drops toward 128.00. Look at longer chart. Support maybe good at 128.00 and place order back at 128.15 with stock trading at 128.25. As soon as my order goes in, it is off the the races with this one. At this point, I am about ready to throw my keyboard at the wall. So much frustration in so little time. It is just like feeling like the football hitting my finger tips before hitting the ground on a pass play that would have gone for a touchdown.
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I gave up with trading for the day and when back to helping my wife out.
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No numbers because no trading.
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A very expensive Shower - 5/1/2007

I always have this fear of blowing it at the end of the month, so instead I waited a day and decided to do something stupid the first day of a new month. In the pre-premarket, ACUS was moving after having some Phase III results confirmed. It look like it was going to run like crazy. It seemed to pause between 5 and 5.50 so for a moment I felt lucky that a could buy a few shares at 5 even. It broke 5 quickly and bounced back. I tried to sell at 4.93 then 4.90 then 4.85 with no luck chasing bids. I thought it had found a bottom at 4.40 so I thought to take a quick shower and have a chance at rounding out my position before the 8 AM bounce. I did not put in a stop loss order because the bid-ask spread was so big. When I got back from my shower, the stock had dropped nearly a point in 10 minutes. OK - we will still get some type of bounce at 8 AM I thought. It came and went - only a 60 second bounce before it started falling again. I got out. I only had 200 shares but over a $300 loss. Stupid Stupid Stupid. I should have never allowed that to happen and that is the first time in a long time I left my PC without a stop in a very long time and did I pay the price. Thank God I had a very small position on. A normal size position would have been 2k to 3k in size.
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The rest of the day I decided to go back to my old problems of the past. I started buying breakouts on a thought day where most of them were failing. If I bought pull backs, I think I would have been in the green even with my stupid mistake.
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The numbers - Gross -335.50, net - 355.50 shares traded 4000

Fast Review of April - 5/1/2007

Stock trades - Gross +1130, Net +580.77, shares traded 95,200

14 up days, 5 down days, 1 day no trades.

Net - +920.15 - this is all trades, fees and interest (including currency trades)

Better than a loss but my goal for the month was to make $3000. Not aggressive enough is the bottom line.