Trading HOTT is like going to the gym. I have to do it regularly to help build up my "patience maximus" muscles
+ $378 Short ORLY @ 32.70 using market order on open. It hung there a while and I was worried I might end up with serious slippage, but actually got a few cents in my favor once all said and done. I was distracted and missed a nice oversold exit and opportunity to short again. Covered later @ 32.49 for a $106 gain. Short DRI @ 28.26, covered @ 28.09 on strong buying volume for an $85 gain. I really need to be more patient in these exits. Trusting the stochastics wouldâve netted so much more. Offered 9.10 HOTT, filled; offered 9.20 and took 9.15 to add to the position. Thought about taking profits at oversold and stupidly did not. Set a target @ 9.01 filled half my shares for a $140 gain. On the rebound I offered 9.15 and got a partial fill, added some much later in the day, holding. Short ORLY @ 32.55, covered @ 32.33 off oversold round number bounce for a $108 gain. Short ORLY @ 32.60 overbought bounce. It ranged for hours and finally broke out later, where I added to the position for an average price of 32.86, holding. Very poor trading this morning, not taking profits properly. The problem is that I have some confusion between wanting to swing trade and wanting to day trade. I see the larger moves I miss by not holding positions over time, yet I get mad when I donât take profits and do it again, intraday. I really need to focus carefully on what I want out of each trade. It seems that taking profits at the opposite end of the stochastic spectrum and replaying it later is more gratifying for me (unless in the favor of a strong trend day; then best to let profits run).
LOL! You know what? I (not knowingly) did both yesterday/today! Let me explain: Yesterday, I shorted 300 of SWN at 27.60, then covered at 27.55 or so (I was scared as per usual)...only to find out this morning that I didn't actually cover at all! When I thought I was covering, I added another 300 to my short. So, while on the line with Fidelity rep this morning, I realized what I've done and quicky covered all 600 at 26.09. +840 or something, thanks to not paying attention. I should really not make anything that stupid anymore, what do you think?
Mad, you are silly! Bos, I've been there more than once! Last year I put in a limit order for CLF, canceled the order later and didn't know I got a partial fill before I canceled. I looked at my portfolio several days later and there was CLF to my dismay. It had dropped from my entry price of 101 down to 98 in the meantime and was at 102 and climbing by the time I even knew I owned it. And I've made plenty of similar mistakes since. My favorite was after I'd been shorting APOL over and over again. I covered a short position, then it dropped further and was really oversold at the LOD and at a major support level. So I went long at that point, and it moved up nicely. I went to sell it at a decent profit, only to find out I had shorted it. Bos, the question is, what do you do at that point?
So this is the Doji journal I have been hearing about. Great read and keep up the good work. Calling it a night and crossing my fingers for ORLY lol - Good Luck Pwn
you are making money; dont change anything but keep working on developing the swing strategy that you would like to trade. or keep refining the way you are trading right now. may be you should try trailing stops. change is good but do it very slowly. keep it up you are doing great.
+ $267 Iâm sure Iâm not the first person to say: âTrading is one of the easiest and hardest things you can do.â Yesterday in chat I called MVL as a strong swing short and someone asked my why. I explained it was up on strong earnings due to Iron Man DVD sales, opened on a huge gap, had a large short interest to drive it up further on covering, and I expected at least 50% retracement of the move. Did I put on a short position based on this excellent high probability analysis? No. Did it retrace 50% of the move? Yes, and it did it today! So Iâve come to the conclusion what I need is a trading room with about 100 traders. I call the trades, they do the trading, and I take 20% of the profits! The best part is when I indicate itâs time to cover a short position, my traders can thumb their noses at me and hold out for all the money I consistently leave on the table. Was holding a couple overnights, and covered most of my ORLY position for a $100 gain to free up some DT margin because I saw other trades beckoning, only to find that it did not free up my DT margin. Waste of an early cover. Short DRI @ 28.53 overbought and covered 28.32 oversold for a $103 gain, looking to short again off the bounce. Started analyzing some daily charts for options plays and missed it altogether. HOTT dropped solidly this morning and I considered taking some profits, but really felt strongly about this one for a better move, and Iâve been known to hold HOTT for weeks, so left my target of 9.11 in place, which was a penny away from the LOD. (My husband, on the other hand, who will trade HOTT any time I call it out to him as long as heâs not busy coding, took a nearly $400 gain, then took another $140 on a second short, then shorted yet again near dayâs end and took another $300. That husband of mine is a prime example of how well I would do running my own trading room.) Watching ORLY test and break the HOD and expected a test of near yesterdayâs high, so set a limit @ 33.25, missed by pennies. It dropped so hard off that double top I didnât want to chase. I spent some time watching the L2 to analyze what happens at the prices where buyers and sellers congregate. When ORLY fell so hard off the double top, I saw that it had a lot buyers parked just above and just below the LOD. This accounts for all the strong moves you see off S/R levels and I would guess scalpers love trading these areas. If the bounce off support or the pull back off resistance doesnât build momentum with volume, then chances are there are no large buyers/sellers and the move fades quickly. ORLY staged a bounce off 32.61, just above the LOD, but very weak volume. It then broke down to a penny below the LOD where more buyers were waiting. This bounce had a bit more volume behind it (double bottoms are strong long indicators). If it were to fail to stage a solid break thru previous resistance @ 32.78 and thru the 20-period SMA @ 32.80, we should expect new lows on the day. It reached 32.90 highly overbought and formed a perfect doji. This is where I am patient. Donât take action where action is not warranted. Iâm not a scalper, so I need to see where the indecision leads. Since this stock is acting strongly on an analyst upgrade, I expect a 3rd test of the HOD. And after all that excellent analysis above, I end up shorting ORLY @ 33.13 from overbought run up BEFORE waiting for the test of the HOD!!! Which indeed occurred, and wouldâve fetched me a fantastic price above 33.25. Covered @ 32.94 using L2 action just .03 cents from the bottom of the move for a $90 gain. Planned to short again on the bounce, grabbed a snack and returned to find it had already made a large climb near the HOD, and fallen back to my exit price which was oversold, all in a 3-minute bar. The market was very volatile at this time; ES traders mustâve been having a blast from oversold to overbought and back. ES traders: You guys HAD to be making money hand over fist today on those moves! Short ORLY @ 33.39 on overbought run up. It ran up lots more, and I ended up covering near dayâs end @ 33.34 oversold for a tiny gain, not wanting to hold too much overnight again and screw with my DT margin. (Needless to say I covered too ORLY!) :eek:
Be very careful about changing anything Nod. Especially if your basing the changes on a very small sample size (last few trades) Remember, Your mostly shorting and we are in a bear market. That Bull WILL come back and when it does it will be hungry and will move very fast. Even retracements in a bear market can be hard on a shorter. So, back test over a few hundred test trades and better yet, do the back test during a period of a bull market. If it holds up water during a bull market back test then you can feel like you can move your profit targets. Stringing together a bunch of wins is a good setup to giving it all back in a hurry if your not extra careful. otherwise good trading and keep up the good work !! Bob