Just two games ago, beating January 2001's numbers felt impossible. At the time, just being up for the month felt like a herculean task, and January 2001 which was my first profitable month ever, at $2800, was totally out of question. Well, what a difference two games make, a gift of a day, then a gift of a trade pushed me over the top. 10900 shares each way on 5 of 9 shooting, +2378 before commissions, +2080 after, 1 bullet. I beat last January by exactly one hundred dollars, while beating your amatuer month is nothing to be proud of, given the way my month started, I can't ask for a better finish. Hopefully the momentum will carry me into a much better February. I did 12K last year in the same period and it will be an incredible feat if I beat it. Pre-Market: Positive news on Chemicals, finally I got scoring from one of the my bread and butter sectors. 9:30: AXP gapped down and I went for the gap-fill and stopped out for flat. DD opened down and came in a little but I thought it was a shake out, went long 1300 shares by accident (only wanted 700) as two of my limit orders got filled and scared out of the position. Held just 300 shares for half a point. Got PPG for 70 cents. APD was really choppy today and he had a seller in him, I lost commissions after churned him a lot. Hald EMN for half a point. 9:45: This is probably the single biggest winner I have ever had in a long, long time. I took some DOW a little below 28 and eventually put together a 900 share position (for some reason with a 900 share position it is just a lot more comforting for me than 1000). Futures wasn't strong but I had a bullish biase for chemicals so I held a little, the stock never went against me so I held on. As soon as it broke 28 a big BID showed up, and the stock just ran and ran and ran with the BID stepping up with authority. I pulled 1.75 point off 900 shares on this trade, it really was a 1.75 point scalp as the stock went up so hard and strong and fast, when I was in the money by a point I had stops one penny below the last printed price, he didn't have to hit the BID, all he had to do was to make a single downtick and I would have been out. Pure luck there, as my greatest weakness as a trader is still the inability to hold a full position for 1 point through a quarter point wiggle. Until I address it, I will not be a legit top tier contender. It would have been a much better display of my skill if I held through DD for 1 point. 10:00: Market came in, DHI bullet and lost money after commissions again. Tight defense saved me from serious damage, but I did some fundamental analysis on home builders and I was stunned to see that despite of the run-up none of them has a P/E more than 10! I will wait and I won't mind if I miss the first day of a big leg down but right now this sector is immune to any broad market moves. Churned a little bit LM/SPF but with that kind of lead I was super conservative in the afternoon and didn't take anything more than 300 shares. I sure hope that I am out of the woods. I need to re-establish myself at the leadership position on my squad, and carry this team. When I was in a slump myself it was hard to do anything, but now I must take over the game as out of 6 traders I have, only one is profitable YTD. My goal is to have a 50% survival rate (assuming I survive myself).
DOW's move was fantabulous! Nice one, Hitman, you made a few hundred more than me today... I am getting lazy in my old age!