SP Hourly... Clarifies why I'll be covering 880.. Numerous intersecting trendlines.. Probably should have taken the close as it may be "close enough". The declining wedge is bullish in the context of the oversold daily and the rising support trendline.. If 880 doesn't hold 860 probably won't but 820 surely will, in time for Inauguration play. Given all the earnings on tap should be crazy. Will post Equity thingy on Sunday.
The DREAM for this year is to frequently have the Equity chart flatline for as long as is necessary when the trader is confused (unstable). Steps to do this are.. Trade only at extremes Exercise Patience AVOID OVER-TRADING I must mentally put myself is a stable state before trading. On it's own the mind will do what it does best, act emotionally, has for years and always will. If I do all this the only limit to the ascent will the nice drawback of slippage. A good week for sure. All successful trades (there weren't many trades) were triggered. A victim of economic times, my business is nonexistent, so withdrawals will become frequent this year, for better or worse. Hoping the account swims the other way.
SP at 881 Sold: SKF 121.27 (took it 2 pts early.. itchy fingers) FAZ 44.4 TWM 67.56 (Lagging as it's resistance is 69) Goal now to stay very light (no getting back in Today even if they continue in my direction.. feeling remorseful) as I expect messy week.
2 very deep articles I've read lately.. http://leavittbrothers.com/stocks-o...1/the-end-of-wall-street-by-michael-lewis.cfm http://leavittbrothers.com/stocks-o...-end-of-the-financial-world-as-we-know-it.cfm
Congratulations to a good start! Last year, most of your trades are swing trades. What time frame do you focus on this year (or this month)? Do you trade mostly ETFs? Also, why do you trade both SKF and FAZ. Aren't they highly correlated? Thanks and happy 2009!
Happy 2009... Actually most winning trades were swing trades.. Most overall were daytrades.. Swing trades should be 3 to 5 days or until a prior day high/low is broken... hard for me to do but is my goal. Mostly ETFs and less than 10 stocks now. SKF and FAZ are one and the same except FAZ "should" have more volatility, which I want but not so much... So I have my Bear 2.5 combo..<ggg>
Thanks for the quick reply. I have been following your trades since last year, I have few more questions and hope you will answer them: 1) For swing trades, do you monitor them throughout the market hours, or set a sell/stop order using certain rules and turn your back to them? 2) Do you only trade stocks from your pre-selected list? Or you may trade 'stock of the day' as well. 3) Do you use any fundamental info when selecting stocks to trade? 4) How many stocks/ETFs do you usually hold at the same time? 5) Did you achieve your last week's performance using any brokerage margin? Thank you!
1) I monitor trades too often during market hours.. A lunch hour ajustment of stops is all that's needed (nightly probably enough for less volatile markets). Constant monitoring is an unnecessary stress to be avoided. 2) I avoid strays as much as possible.. one or 2 liquid names form key sectors all you need. 3) No stock specific fundamentals but sector fundamentals.. most liquid stocks ARE the sector.. POT, DRYS, FSLR for example. 4) I tend to lose control over 5 positions.. 5) Margin most of the time.
A bit of confusion today... mainly as there are so many broken wedges BUT S&P at hard support... Some poor trades in SRS, TWM, ISRG, UAUA... ending day Long UWM 18.03, FAS 18.05
Mismanaged the trip from SP 880 to where we are... Hopefully do better next swing.. SP has seen 820.. Will pickup small FAS and BGU trades later today.. or on weakness tomorrow..