NoDoji's Day Trading Log

Jegnyr, you've completely pinpointed it! I'll remember what happened with a stock the day before and think, "Oh, it will do that again" and because I missed "that" the day before, I put on the trade even though it hasn't set up yet!

The discipline required to trade well is huge. I can see why 98% of traders fail.

The good news is I suddenly realized why I was not a disciplined trader today: After months of having frozen blueberries in my morning smoothie, I had none this morning. The freezer was bare! I ended up drinking a SUB-STANDARD smoothie, not realizing the powerful negative effect it would have on me!

I've just rectified the situation and look forward to a profitable Wednesday

 

LOL on the blueberries.

Yet also unfortunately rings of truth. I am way too much a discretionary trader, not enough rules in force, and allow my surroundings and feelings play far to much in my bottom line. ha ha yet hmmm.

Maybe you and me need a big deluxe smoothie, massage, and feel good trader interventions before the open tomorrow for our record returns!

 

+ $423

Started the day with a good workout at the gym. Followed by smoothie WITH BLUEBERRIES!

My goal for today was to ONLY take strong setups. I passed this test completely: A+. My secondary goal was to trust my indicators for exits. I scored about a C on that one. My ongoing goal is to always follow my plan: C-

Shorted MA @ 147.90 first thing in the morning because it is trading near major resistance ~ 150 allowing me to feel comfortable with a bracketed trade. It rallied above 150.00 briefly and nearly stopped me out, but was so overbought at that point that it suddenly fell sharply, easily hitting my profit target for a $100 gain.

Shorted TIF on an overbought run up @ 24.71 and covered a couple minutes later @ 24.54 for an $88 gain. I didn’t patiently trust my indicators on this one and left abut $40 on the table, not too bad.

Shorted POT @ 80.51 on an overbought run up just past the nice round number 80.50, and covered @ 80.11 for an $80 gain because I thought such a strong up trending stock would bounce off 80.00. Again, if I trusted my indicators (both stochastics and trend line), I would’ve set a target @ 79.50 for an additional $120.

Now here’s the interesting thing: After I covered this POT trade, it dropped a bit more and reached a deeply oversold condition which was a strong long signal. I wrote down what would’ve been my entry price of 79.51, but didn’t actually trade it because I “thought” that having had such a major run up over the past couple weeks as well as this morning, it would pull back significantly before rallying again. Turns out my long setup signal and entry price were nearly the bottom of that pullback and it then rallied all the way to 82.99 before reversing. By not trading this high probability setup, I missed a fantastic $700 trade.

Shorted AMGN @ 59.19 on a massive run up, which continued all the way to a test of the 59.50 HOD. Had I waited for the stochastic cross down, I would’ve shorted the top of the run. I was a bit impatient, but I expected a strong retracement off the HOD, which occurred. My profit target of 58.99 was filled easily for a $100 gain.

Shorted HIG @ 17.33 when it tested the HOD in an overbought position. Instead of taking a small profit when it pulled back a bit and then pivoted, I decided to allow it to play out. It was very close to its last major resistance price of 18.12, from which it had dropped precipitously. So my plan was to double my position if it rallied above 18.30. Not the brightest plan (better plan, exit b/e and re-short later), but still it was a plan! Instead of paying attention, I looked at other things, grabbed a snack and it rallies to 18.44 and drops without me following my plan. Next time, I place a limit order so whatever I do, the trade takes place without me. My plan would have resulted in a $100 profit at the oversold target following the rally. Instead I hold the damn position all day, never even doubling down @ 18.80 because I figure at that point I’d rather just have a small position to work with and patiently wait for retracement. It did retrace within pennies of my price and I decided to hold the position overnight and I see shares going out in the 17.30’s after hours, so hopefully this one won’t bite me tomorrow!

 

I realized that part of my journal was not copied into the last post, so here is the rest of my day:

Shorted AMGN again @ 59.41 on another strong run up close to the HOD, test of which failed and my profit target of 59.21 filled for a $100 gain.

Then I made my mistake of the day. I shorted MA @ 149.82 when it stalled at the day’s resistance and pivoted down from the HOD. My plan prior to putting on the trade was to place a bracketed order with a stop @ 152 (which would signal a break through major resistance), and a profit target @ 148.82. Instead of setting a hard stop, I simply placed my limit profit target order. Then when MA rallied hard and started to approach 152, I manually closed with a market order @ 151.80, which was basically the top before it dropped sharply, eventually passing right through my profit target. I placed a bracketed order on the first MA trade and it worked perfectly. Why not this time? Who knows! So I took a $200 hit on that one.

AMGN running up again and overbought, so I shorted @ 59.35 and covered a minute later via market order @ 59.18 for a $167 gain based on the trend line target. Since the stock had begun to trend down by this point in the day, I could’ve trusted my stochastics instead for a much larger profit, but I had put on a double position size for this trade, so went with the conservative trend line target instead.

Late in the day none of my usual suspects were setting up, so I glanced at some favorites on my watch list and saw APOL near that nice resistance point of 76.00 and shorted @ 75.83. My 75.63 target was hit 30 seconds later for a $100 gain.

 

+ $64

Terrible focus and trade management today. Today’s grades: Only taking strong setups: C. Trusting my indicators for exits: D. Following my plan: B (but my plans were not good ones). Staying focused and following up: F.

Started well, shorting APOL @ 76.91 coming off highs with a stochastic cross down, and covering @ 76.51 for a quick $200 profit.

Shorted THOR @ 30.90 as it bumped its head solidly against 31.00. Set a tight stop at 31.10, which was hit in rather short order for a $95 loss. This was smart trade management: I was attempting to pick a top based on what appeared to be a major stall at the HOD after a large run up and set a tight stop. No complaints here.

Shorted AMGN @ 59.63 when it stalled at the HOD and stochastics crossed down. I did not set a stop because AMGN always retraces after hard rallies. See my mistake? I am assuming stock behavior. This spells disaster for a trader. I really should’ve set a tight stop just above the HOD, the re-entered the trade. It rallied pretty hard and pulled back where I covered @ 59.59 for a $40 gain. This was a total waste of time and effort because of poor trade management.

Shorted MA when it stalled at 155.90 and it bumped its head against 156.25. This was only a medium probability trade because it had not yet failed to make a new high, nor did it have a super strong run up. Set a stop @ 157.20 which was hit for a $134 loss. It took me out on a strong run up and my mistake was failing to follow up there, which was the short of the day.

Shorted WYE @ 37.86 when it approached overbought condition. Very stupidly I did not wait the for the test of the HOD, which you know will occur 90% of the time. That was the first mistake. Worse, I “thought” about the stock and placed a very wide stop @ 38.36 “figuring” it would never go that high and was “due” for a retracement before ever going that high. After entering too soon, the least I could’ve done was to place a stop @ 38.16 just above the HOD and look for a better entry if stopped out. It crept up all day and took me out for the $500 loss, rose a few pennies higher and commenced to fall all the way back to well below my entry price. I exercised no proper followup with this one either, as I could have re-entered the trade and caught the best move.

Shorted APOL @ 76.87 when overbought stochastics crossed down and covered @ 76.57 when oversold for a $150 gain. Strong setup and good management on this one.

Shorted BBBY @ 26.23 on overbought not far from the HOD, but covered soon after @ 26.19 for a $40 gain because it did not produce the move I expected.

OK, so I was still holding HIG short from yesterday through thick and thin. Let me state for the record: When you can get out of a trade end of day close to b/e, take it rather than holding overnight. I could’ve closed HIG yesterday for a $40 loss and I held it instead. Could also have exited HIG this morning for a small loss and didn’t. Also didn’t double the position at highs and take profits at the pull back. When it tested the 17.65 range for 3rd time late in the afternoon and bounced again I decided to exit and take a $195 loss rather than keep holding on. HIG had fallen a very long way in a couple months and was holding up well in up and down markets, so I felt better exiting at this point. Then late in the day a 4th test of that support level failed and HIG dropped to 16.56, and easily would’ve hit my original profit target. Very poor trade management all around with this one.

APOL is trading close to major resistance levels and has been trading within a $7 range for quite some time now. When overbought on the 30-day chart it has a nice $2-$5 pull back. Today it reached an extremely overbought condition, so I shorted @ 75.99 for a swing trade. I set an intraday target of 75.59, just in case there was a pullback and damn if it didn’t get filled for a $400 gain.

Shorted APOL again upon its retracement to my initial entry price, willing to hold for a swing trade, but put in a target just in case of another pull back. Sure enough target was just hit end of day for a $300 gain.

IMPORTANT LESSONS TODAY:

1) With high probability intraday setups, tight stops are comfortable to implement and the trade can be re-evaluated if stopped out. Use the tight stops; looser stops are for swing trades! This worked very well with THOR and MA today, limiting losses.

2) Stay focused and re-enter the trade if stopped out. You put on the trade for a reason; if it stops you out making a hard multi-bar run against you, the reason may have just gotten better because pivots are very strong after multi-bar runs. At the very least, watch for a test and failure to break through the new high/low.

3) If you can close a day trade close to b/e and avoid holding overnight, do it!

 

+ $872

From the profit, it’s hard to believe I actually made a couple bad trading mistakes today.

Had MFE on my radar early because after a strong multi day run up to an overbought condition, they then gapped up in after hours on the news they are being added to the S&P. Shorted first thing @ 33.50 and covered @ 33.30 for a $100 gain.

Shorted APOL @ 75.87 as a swing trade, looking for the usual $2-$5 share move it makes over a couple days. As I watched APOL have very nice moves in the morning I realized I could’ve taken significant profits twice in the time I held it and then decided to continue day trading it. So I eventually covered the short @ 75.77 for a $100 gain. Not trading its intraday moves in the morning cost me over $900 in profits!

Shorted AMGN @ 58.92 on overbought stochastic cross down, but I impatiently did not wait for test of the HOD. It rallied further and when it finally came back near my entry price it seemed to have found strong support in an oversold condition, so I covered @ 58.89 for a $20 gain. The support was quite short-lived and it dropped to 58.03 before staging a comeback!

Shorted DRI @ 27.59 because 1R and mad_badger were happily shorting it and this was my “everyone else is doing it” setup, which as we know is very high probability. I covered @ 27.36 for a $117 gain.

Shorted DRI again on overbought stochastics @ 27.44 and covered way too soon @ 27.33 for a $55 gain.

OK here’s the really bad thing that happened: I haven’t gone long a stock forever and a day, and APOL had tanked all the way down to 75.35, extremely oversold and pivoted, so was going to actually (gasp) go long, but obviously was incapable of such a thing and accidentally entered a short order @ 75.43 (close to the LOD). By the time I realized my error it was already trading around 75.90, so I figured I’d wait for it to retest the HOD, double the position, and cover on the pull back. So I shorted more @ 76.40 and covered on the pull back @ 75.85 for a $120 gain (instead of the lovely $800+ profit I would’ve had going long in the first place).

Quick MFE short again @ 33.39 on overbought stochastics, covered @ 33.19 for a $100 gain.

Shorted AMGN again @ 58.93 on its big retracement to an overbought condition and covered @ 58.72 when oversold for a $106 gain. Oversold my ass, it dropped all the way to 57.52 before rebounding.

Shorted DRI again @ 27.74 and covered quickly @ 27.69 for a $25 gain because I didn’t like the action. The Level II got that look to it that said “watch out” and sure enough it rallied to 28.30 just seconds after I covered. It staged a massive late day rally despite a MOC sell imbalance and I put on a small short to hold for a partial retracement of that gap on Monday.


Shorted UNH @ 26.32 on overbought condition not too far from the HOD, tight stop. Covered @ 26.22 for a $46 gain because it was moving too slowly for me.

Shorted APOL @ 75.57, willing to hold, but it hit my target @ 75.37 for a $100 gain.

Shorted APOL again @ 75.98, definitely to hold because I figured it would not come back down to my 75.68 target, but it did for a $150 gain.

 

nodoji said.............................. IMPORTANT LESSONS TODAY:

1) With high probability intraday setups, tight stops are comfortable to implement and the trade can be re-evaluated if stopped out. Use the tight stops; looser stops are for swing trades! This worked very well with THOR and MA today, limiting losses.

2) Stay focused and re-enter the trade if stopped out. You put on the trade for a reason; if it stops you out making a hard multi-bar run against you, the reason may have just gotten better because pivots are very strong after multi-bar runs. At the very least, watch for a test and failure to break through the new high/low.

3) If you can close a day trade close to b/e and avoid holding overnight, do it!
.....................................................................................................

A little tip: (actually a BIG tip) You are progressing, keep up the good work. Now we all know we learn at our own pace and cling to what we know even as we ride the learning curve clinging to what makes us comfortable. No problem there at all, we are who we are.

When we buy a loaf of bread we are conditioned to consume that loaf of bread from the opened end because thats the way it arrives from the store. If that same loaf of bread came with both ends opened but closed with the same type of closures at each end then it would be consumed from either end just as easily with the same results.

My point: in #2 you stated that AFTER the mkt STOPS you out after making a multi bar run against you..............

Well, why not work the loaf from the other end also? We never know which end of the loaf will make a run to the other end of the loaf, think support as the other end of the loaf if you went SHORT and the other end of the loaf as resistence if you had an epiphany and actually went LONG.
:eek:

Work both sides of the mkt if you daytrade, think twice the fun, twice the money. Keep up the good work, just throwing in a tidbit here and there, not meaning to criticize.

My personal way of working both sides of the loaf is to watch for a setup being formed and when a GOLDEN SIGNAL confirms my suspicians i go for it. If the price action makes me nervous i look to get out (price action is dependent on our own interpretations), i look to get out before the MAX stop is hit, sure sometimes we hold but experience has shown that the first inclinitation of a bad trade is usually our best bet to "get lost". Then once we are flat we reevaluate the price action and look for the NEXT setup and that all important GOLDEN SIGNAL. then and only then will a trader reenter............... Guess what? The next signal could be to get another slice from either end of the loaf.

 

Hog, this is really excellent advice. I've learned the hard way that when I get that "bad feeling" about a trade it's time to get out. Usually it's those trades that are testing the day's high or low and are stagnating, the bulls and bears not sure who's gonna win, then suddenly boom it's off to the races. It's those stagnant moments that give me the bad feeling and I need to exit at that point and jump on board in the direction of the breakout/breakdown, either way.

I generally place a tight stop on my trades, because the main setups I trade on are high probability and I expect the trade to go my way. Sometimes though I think too much, get into a lower probability trade, set a wide stop and sure enough those seem to always be my losses. When I place those wider stops I have an uncanny ability to pick the top or bottom, then I'm pissed when the trade ends up reversing after taking me out and going completely in my favor. The trader's first thought is "That's it, no more stops" (I think I remember Neke saying this at some point this year in his thread), and wow isn't that a dangerous thought? In reality, the best adjustment to strategy is to simply wait for setups so good that a tight stop will rarely get hit and if it does, you've hardly lost anything!

Hog, I really have to play my trades both ways more often so I don't get so stuck trading one direction that I accidentally short something at the bottom again :eek:

 

+ $441

Had OSTK on my short list after an ET thread sparked a technical analysis this weekend (which you can read here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148481&perpage=6&pagenumber=2). Tried to short it first thing this morning and no shares available!

DRI was downgraded this morning and I covered my short from Fri for a $146 gain.

Shorted APOL @ 75.54 and covered @ 75.26 for a $140 gain. This was the day to have held this one as it made that big move I'd been waiting for. It had a tremendous end of day run up, so will be watching again tomorrow for the short play.

Shorted DRI @ 27.93 and covered @ 27.71 for a $110 gain.

Shorted DRI again @ 27.30 and covered @ 27.10 for a $100 gain.

CAL running up to test near term resistance, shorted @ 17.39 with a tight stop @ 17.52 which was hit for a $65 loss. Forgot to keep an eye on CAL for the failure to make a new high; it was a good drop after that.

Shorted DRI again @ 27.32. Target of 27.12 was partially filled for a $60 gain. Still had shares remaining and added to the position later. My target on this position was not filled, so I am holding for the retracement.

DRI shorts were all based on stochastic signals.

Shorted BIIB @ 47.66 and covered when it reached oversold condition @ 47.59 for a $35 gain, not getting the expected larger move. The 47.59 was the exact bottom of that small move, but a later short on failure to make a new high would’ve produced a lot more. My impatience with staying with a stock is showing again.

 

Nice trading on such a slow day !!!