I presume you bought before 9:50 am. So, by 10:10 am you were already up more than 30 cents. Why not tighten your stop there? Then GLD dipped down to 60.71 and you had a loss, before swinging up to 61.30, where I suppose you tightened your stop. But why exit before stop was hit? Looks like quite a risky way of trading. And a bit too good to be true. Do you ever take losses?
I take losses most every day, although very small usually 6-10 cents. I posted my Phelps Dodge trade the other day at the exact moment I placed the trade and any of you could have entered also. I believe that trade made 70 or 80 cents. So how is this too good to be true when I posted immediately and you could track? Today I went Long GLD @ 9:46 based upon the high of the 2 min prev bar. I went Long because of what happened when Aug Comex Gold broke thru risistance at the same time, even though GLD had not. I go with the cash market first. In addition Gold was in a rally mode so I was looking to go long from the open. When I was able to enter with very small risk I took it. Look at what happened on /GC6Q Gold Comex Aug @ 9:46. I only trade one market (Gold) so I get a good feel for it. I monitor Futures and GOX so I feel I'm in touch with market. In addition I trade the same 4 stocks plus 1 ETF every day, no deviation. You are correct, I would have gotten out sooner but I was on the phone having a huge arguement with my wife and I was not following my trades closely. I was simply watching my P&L, by the time it turned slightly Red it was cents away from my mental stop so I left it. Fortunately it moved my way again. Had I been wathcing my friggin trade I would have covered at 60.96 and gone Short @ 60.90 and picked up another 20 cents, then gone long again @ 60.95 off of 10:38 bar. Could have picked up another potential .35 etc... Instead my wife is on the phone crying her friggin eyes out about our daughter.
Ok. Thanks for the explanation. It's interesting to watch your trading. Hope your wife doesn't mess up with your stops again...
My wife started MENOPAUSE and she is F'n NUTS. One minute she Loves me and wants Nonstop SEX, the next day she F'n hates me and the world. I told her she needs to see her friggin doctor, she finally agreed to make an appt. Menopause suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. I just exited NEM Short off the 2 min bar @ 12:12 and covered at 13:04 for 20 cents.
Very emotional creatures, those ladies. Can cause a lot of headaches. Am a bit puzzled by your entries sometimes. Here I can't see any narrow-range bar or other low-risk entry at that time. What did you see on the chart? Or somewhere else?
dear mr F - T methinks in this type of market you stops are too close ... now if you really are careful and are not averaging down in GLD ... then I guess taking a small loss and getting back in makes sense esp if your commissions are low. I hope you keep an eye on some other stuff too besides GOX and spot gold price when trading GLD anyway ... keep up the good work I had another good week myself
Hey Seth, I have studied these stocks and ETF's until I am blue in the face. I spend more time with these friggin stocks then my family. My stops are tight, but they have proven over time that I am right most of the time when I get out. I initially look for 15 - 20 cents on my initial target. Usually I will pick up several of these trades per day. I risk 4-6 cents to make 15-20, a 3/1 return. My trading cost is less than 1.3 R/T so I do fine. At least once a day I will hit a stock and it runs 50 - 1.50, it has happened everyday for the last few months with this volitale Metals market. I completey expect these markets to last a few more years. This is not based upon Hope, but what is happening with Oil, Energy, etc... I made over $14,000 this week and I missed several trades that would have netted me at least $3,000 more. I plan to make hay while the sun is still shining. These commodity type stocks and ETF's are trending very well Intraday. F**k IBM, BA, GM, CTX... etc... getting whipsawed all F'n day for 15 cents. It's a lot less stressful trading commodity stocks right now. Starting July 5th, I plan to start trading 2k -4k lots. Now I am doing 1k-2k, but the market has been so easy lately. I'll see what happens. I'm worried about exiting a stock though when the market starts moving and I have to Dump 3k shares. I'm used to 1,000 - 1,500 which is rather easy. I guess my slippage will most likely increase, so I will have to monitor carefully. Most of my stocks trade 4 - 8 Million shares per day so I hope I won't have any problems. BTW, I only Averaged Down once in my life about 20 years ago. I lost over $50,000. I will never averge down again. When I am wrong I get the F out, I can reenter for less than a penny in trading cost. Mac
Are you looking at the 2 min bar? That's all I use for Entry. There is about a 27 cent move there. On NEM I will go as high as a 12 cent risk, that is my Risk tolerance. I go friggin insane if I go any higher. I remember when I used to risk 50 cents and thought that was tight. That's correct, "YOU" probably don't see why "I" entered and with Low risk. I do. I use other indicators but that is my EDGE and I am not willing to divulge. If I posted a chart of my trades YOU would completely understand why I entered. I could teach it to a skilled trader in 5 minutes. Keep looking at my trades and you will start to see a pattern.
Yes, I was looking at a 2-min chart. Just didn't find any narrow bar in NEM at that time. Perhaps we have different data in our charts. Posting your charts would probably help. Otherwise your strategy appears sensible. 12 cents risk (or less) sounds appropriate in the time frame you are using. Anyway your reward-to-risk is incredibly good. How many trades are you making in a day? Do you only trade NYSE stocks? Why do you think gold stocks trend better than others nowadays?
I only trade NYSE stocks with high volume, no less than 4 Million. I trade thru the ECN's, I hate NYSE and NYSE+. I trade anywhere from 6-12 R/T in a day. I hate trading cost and overtrading. I now trade Higher volume to make money vs more trading. I normally have 2 trades on at one time, the max is 3. I end up losing money and not being efficient if I trade more. I never trade Nasdaq or Amex. 12 cents is my max risk, I rarely do that. My normal range is 6-8 cents total + slippage. Look at NEM, FCX, PD, GG, and GLD. Check out the 2 min bars ONLY. Look at the runnups they have intraday. Gold NORMALLY doesn't have small runs like 20 cents. It tends to move in bigger moves say 30 - 80 cents. I was trading the Housing stocks the last few years (CTX, LEN, & RYL) they did THEN what Gold is doing TODAY. When Gold stops trading this way then I will move into the next volitale market.