At work today I had some frustrating and stressful situations happening at the same time. I had a bunch in a row and they built up and I ended up not handeling a situation correctly. Reminded my of how the market could do that too you... You may feel frustrated by its moves and stressful especially after repeated stop loss hits. T - Best way to handle this is to still the mind and release your inner power of inner peace and strength.
- I started 'messing' around with some options puts/calls to keep myself interested in the game- I'll have to look up exact numbers (dont have them atm) ... But started out buying some puts On 8/28 (the semi large down day) Bought some COST and INTC sept puts ... I sold them both the next day for a loss (up market day). 8/29 bought some INTC Sept 25 calls average price (@.735 inc commision) Breakout from a trading range and poss. inverse h&s pattern target 26.5 (fill the gap and hit the high) sell if we break trendline with a 60 min candle and volume. 8/29 bought NVDA 55 sept calls for price (.3575 inc commision) bought the breakout from the retrace of a broadening formation. Target is 53~ Recent price action on the 15 min chart suggests we completed a asc. triangle formation and may pull back to fill the gap - would of potentially been a wise decision to sell on friday. Now we may pull back and take some time to continue up. Look to sell on tuesday if it looks weak. 8/30 bought AAPL sept 160 calls (@.3575). note - stock has gone up 2.35 from where I bought it but option price has only gone up .05 Breakout from inv. h&s formation; break out candle was a strong white candle and I decided to get in on the pullback when a hammer(doji) formed on the 60 min chart. Target is 148+ Sell if we break the support line forming the inv h&s. Comments: All tech stocks; with strong patterns supporting moves. INTC cheap and low bid/ask was the better deal. I'd been eyeing NVDA for awhile now (as it was forming the reverse asc triangle ie a broadening formation) was looking for the right time to get in. And I couldnt help but get in APPL - the chart just looked too pretty to pass up. My first 2 trades I was playing COST with the island formation on the 60 min chart. And INTC with a push down to support. Both stopped early and I waiting to see if we would continue so lost profits in both. But soon reversed postions to play the upside breakouts in the techs.
INTC 60 min 8-31-07 Showing my 3 trades - 1. Was a paper trade based off the large h&s top a few things to note - we completed the pattern in one day and reversed. Long wicks often touch the target and do a strong bounce off it. When this happens we usually can get a strong reversal. 2. I played the break of this trendline with some puts; it was also a strong down market day. I expected it to touch base at the lower support again so good for another point. But as we know the stock market rallied and took that out of the picture. 3. Once we broke resistance with a strong white candle I took a call position. Expected target is 26.5. We ended the breakout day with a 'tuck' underneth the gap (often can happen near the close). But the strong market day caused us to gap up. We based for a day - so look for a strong quick move next market day (up or down(to fill the gap)). Target is still in effect. pattern is a mix between a reverse h&s and a descending wedge
NVDA 30 miun chart 8-31-07 reverse asc triangle or broadening formation 1. breakout should be worth 6 points in the underlying 2. I thought we were going to have a bull trap there for a moment. (forget which is bull or bear trap) - meaning to trap the bulls because we have a fake breakout). 3 and 4. With the volitile market we pull a gap the next day and then the following day. The recent price action suggests we may pull back and fill the gap before we keep heading to 53. Its more then possible we'll head higher then 53 but I suggest looking for an exit as soon as 53~ is hit.
AAPL 60 min 8-31-07 nice large reverse h&s with a strong white candle breakout. Down at the head is a island reversal starting it all - playing island reversals are one of my favorite patterns (maybe they just look pretty Some things to note - I got in when we formed the hammer touching the support - hard to see but it is almost a doji. I didnt notice this at first but we are in a tight ascending wedge; so well need to deal with this. speaking of island reversals ... lets look at one that fails ... next chart
COST 60min 8-31-07 Failed island reversal play - A few things to note here - First off we were in a symmetrical braodening formation (which can be volatile in terms of price movement). I got in at the start of the 2nd red candle after the dbl top island reversal. I was a bit concerned at first if we would get held up by the recent support of the dbl bottom but we didnt stall. Next day was a strong day and I held only a little too long. Was 'hoping' (is this a word in trading) ... probably is but isnt one we shouldnt entertain. I was hoping that even thou we were moving up today that we would bounce off the gap and head back to 57 where I have my lower #1 pointer. As soon as we closed the gap I sold I figure my original target was out of the question now ie to complete the island reversal and head to the 57 level. Now I was wondering if we were going to break north and head up much higher. So things we learned: hope is greast if you are in a fox hole but in the market you will get eaten alive.
YM chart I am kind of wondering if we just formed a h&s bottom on the 60 min or perhaps broke out of a descending wedge The drawing on the chart is just for fun. I'm not going to try to guess what the market will do but I like to see if I'm anywhere near to what it may do. I do like to see what it does and then to see why it did that - sometimes a trendline makes itself more visable to me that way.
ER2 60 min 8-31-07 The horse formation - ya its new ... just decided to coin it. I'm sure you can figure out what the implications are from the picture. Mix between a dbl bottom and a dbl headed beast but looks more like a horse IMO. Stall could occur at gap and definately at the upper trendline.
Journal - I have alot going on in my life at present. So its hard for me to concentrate on trading or to where I should be doing 'mundane' things like coming up with a solid trading plan etc ... Looking at charts ... thats fun. Working on how to exit a trade when you are losing - not so fun. I figured out a fun way to start doing this thou. I'm going to work on a system that has been on my mind for many years. Only problem with this system is that I will have to be constantly adjusting the protocals and evaluating it. More like my own neural net - but with slower adjusting The system will have entry signals with certain strengths and exit strategies based on certain strengths.