As a calm, noise (including dangerous personal opinion) free trader trading dailies, I would have been long Friday as 3 to four red bars followed by a white (with LOOONG shadows) were everywhere and definitely would not have been short. So I deserve the loss today... Game plan is to stick to what I have been working hard to do.. avoid the first 45 minutes of trading no matter what... I already have an 18 point gap down on my hands... no need to panic out at open.
Currently Short DRYS, EAC, JRCC.. young positions unlikely to be profitable as they are quite oversold... so why did I take them? The charts 2/3 down this page with charts show holy grail charts but for external reasons I did not capitalize on what has become a short bonanza in commodities... Painfully mixing daytrading (whether I want to accept that or not) with swing trading... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115745&perpage=6&pagenumber=111 A good swing trader holds positions until they stop going in his/her favor... regardless of external events.. The problem is figuring out when a reversal has happened.
To think the 114.8 SKF entry (sold 105) has now become profitable.... speechless... Conviction (the baseless kind) a paradox. At times it will doom you, at times a hero it makes you. Liars and thieves everywhere I look. In my lifetime I will find something to trade less affected by criminals.
I use Strategy Desk, courtesy of Ameritrade... Also use TC2000 a bit... That said, taking full advantage of patterns on a small list of clean stocks will provide better returns.. OR find a program that really finds patterns... specifically flags and wedges and you'll will be rich in no time with a HEAVY helping of discipline, which unfortunately cannot be bought.
retire45, for the software that finds patterns, have you looked into finviz.com? I don't really use it for the charting patterns so I can't say how useful they are, but maybe it's worth a look
yayt, I do use FINVIZ.. probably the best Financial web app I have ever seen.. very deep.. I mean deeeep.. just have to learn to use it...