On days like today (no news days) your plan must be to trade off of S/R and to not expect too much movement. I would say that days like today, and 16 to 32 tick spike move days on news are like money in the bank. You must trade these two types of days well. The only mistake today was the late entry. Stocks: Out of HST at 27.62. On 200 shares that is roughly a 24 dollar profit. My commissions are less than 3 bucks so not bad for a first time auto-trade effort. Price went as low as 27.38, so I gave up some profit there.
Today we have: International Trade 0730 CST Redbook 0755 CST First trade of the day may be the 0730 report trade. If not, then, I'll wait until 0755 and make my decision then. Today after trading the bonds I intend to increase the number of shares I devote to the auto-trade as well as the number of trades taken.
0739 CST Bought 2 ZB 110 14. The above is a late entry due to charting troubles on my end. This is not a report trade. Target is 110 16 or better. Ideal entry was 110 11 or 110 12.
0749 110 16 target met. Now it is a matter of deciding to exit with 2 ticks or wait. Waiting for now. UPDATE 0806 CST Stop set at 110 10. Almost a given to be hit. UPDATE 0814 CST Stop price touched but no fill. Waiting. Volume was 41 lots, followed by 2, followed by 1. Not enough to get me so far. UPDATE 0817 CST Out obviously. That is it for now. I missed the easy money trade, i.e. entry at 110 11 or 110 12 with an exit below 1R which was 110 16, so 110 15 would have been possible.
0416 CST Bought 2 ZB 110 07. This trade is based on some recent observations on the 30 min around 0300 to 0400 CST. For today we have: MBA Purchase Applications 0600 CST Retail Sales 0730 CST Business Inventories 0900 CST EIA Petroleum Status Report 0930 CST The only one I'm concerned about is the 0730 one. I'll look to take my classic report trade. Until then I'll manage this 0413 trade looking for 6 ticks or better. The first target is 110 11 to 110 14, with 110 14 being the desired target.
0732 CST I got lucky. I'm looking to get out at any moment. 1 tick profit locked in. Hoping for test of the Pivot. 0734 CST Out of 1 at 110 13. Waiting on the other. Not bad. 0736 CST Out of 1 at 110 14. Probably done for the day. I have to admit, the wait at 0728 was nerve-wracking! I don't usually do this but it wasn't a major monthly 0730, and my 30 min NN studies were telling me to sit tight. My plan for today is to buy dips until my NN says otherwise. No, I won't short up here even though I feel like it. I've learned to only take the easy money trades since I began this journal last year. 0748 CST UPDATE Possible buy here at 110 12. The only thing is I hate taking a trade between R1 and the pivot. I'd prefer something around 110 08 or 110 09.
0754 CST Bought 5 ZB at 110 14. Looking for a break through 110 15. No break then out quickly. Must break 106 310 on the ZN's. 0756 CST UPDATE OK, that was easy. Now we must break yesterday's highs in the ZN (already did) and the ZB (110 16). 0803 CST UPDATE Lack of follow-through past 110 16 is troublesome. May exit with 1 tick loss. Waiting as 30 min says stay in. 0817 CST UPDATE Get ready to exit. 0820 CST UPDATE Just kissed 110 15. I'm waiting for the test of yesterday's high. This is the second time. My thoughts are it is 50:50. 0823 CST UPDATE Massive positioning going on. It is making me very uncomfortable.
0826 CST Out of 5 ZB at 110 13. 1 tick loss. I will say that this 5 lot trade was one of my most unusual trades that I've ever been in this past year. I absolutely had no idea how to interpret the time and sales I was seeing. Very weird numbers were coming by. I saw a print for 3531 (or thereabouts) ZN's, followed by all kinds of odd numbers. I usually see 1 lots, 5 lots, 100 lots in multiples followed by 1000 lots in multiples. Today was all over the place for time and sales.
0832 CST Bought 20 ZN 106 315. FWIW, my 30 min NN is still positive. I just got nervous earlier, hence the exit. I tried to enter back in at 110 15 but no luck. Took the ZN's on their brief 1 tick pullback.