October Trading Journals

It was the game of two fills as I got a horrible fill in the morning and missed a critical fill in the afternoon that cost me what would have been an ok game. As it was, I was chopped into little pieces.

11200 shares on 6 of 13 shooting, +368 before commissions, +45 after.

This is the kind of day you absolutely need bottom-up plays to get the flow going. I just found a trading group that trades news, the group leader spends 10-12 hours a day at the firm to answer questions and help new guys out. Every morning he hosts a morning meeting and both before and during market hours he puts up bullets and shares them with guys who can't afford to put them up (the minimum is 1500 shares and that is a lot of money for guys trading 200 share positions). One guy in his group started fresh out of college and 2 months into the game he already scored a check, even more impressive, he had 6 four digit day's this month trading 400-500 share positions, while I still think it is a fluke (since one of my friends is in that group and not doing so well and not so happy), it is hard to argue with the leadership. Granted, he doesn't give good commission rates, but he really helps his traders to the best of his ability. They caught EK today and the entire group scored 22K on ENE yesterday (granted, most of it probably went to a few guys as more than half of his group is made of newbies), CAH too was a play from yesterday and the group leader had the bullet up for his traders during market hours. His strategy is combining news with daily's, and watch the tape for size BID/ASK's when the market actually opens, then just bullet away. Simply yet effective, if you can interpret news as well as he does that is. I am going to harrass my friend every day now and see what did he play each day and why.

One day, if I have my own group (and don't laugh, because people started their own group at this firm with numbers worse than mine, although I want to max out my own potential before I even think about touching others), that's the model I am going after, unlike Mrs. D. who has her own group but not a single group meeting nor lecture. Although I will be easier on commission rates, the news trader lost some loyalty points because he had too hard of a grip on people's commission rates.

The good news is that First Alert is finally up and running, I have recreated four of Tony's filters that interest me (3 day pullback/reversal, 20 day breakout/breakdown) and I will let you know how they work. I am also looking for new scan ideas, as the program is flexible enough for just about anything I can think of, whether a big BID stepping up taking out size or a hammer at the end of a certain downtrend. If you have a bread and butter set-up and don't mind sharing, please do. (Keep in mind that the fact that Tony is a good trader has nothing to do with his set-ups as they are dead simple, it is the way he executes those set-ups that make him who he is, not the magical set-ups).

Overall however, this program requires itself to be on literally all the times to download data and re-calculate user defined formulas, so now I understand the need for a second computer just to run this (and I am going to add addition scans as time progresses, my fifth screen can probably fit 10 filters. Unless you want the total package, as it comes with its own charting/order entry system, I would say you are better off getting some other filter program to do the job. Even if you do need the whole package, I would say you get more for your money with something like Trade Station Professional.

In other word, I personally would not pay for this program, there are smaller and faster real time scanners out there and there are better full packages out there, this program is somewhat in the "no man's land", but since it is free I am going to milk it for the time being.

Pre-Market: DD/PX positive earnings (CEX strength, ouch did I get that one wrong), positive earnings news in DRG/BTK.

9:30: What's up? CEX is tanking hard, bullet first ask question later, I bulleted PPG when a big offer showed up, sold 1000 at 49.76, it collapsed as the index tanked 2% in seconds, there was an offer at 49.26 where I can get out of the whole thing and I got out half. That happened to be the intraday low and it took me a few failed attempt to "sell more into the squeeze" before I realized that the morning earning will probably create a serious rally. Why did CEX sell-off so hard today? It could be the oil prices too as it went up substantially this morning, but oil stocks didn't go up. Anyway, I kept my long biase on CEX so I took ROH/EMN/DD long at various times, got a quarter point on DD and missed the rest of the move, got a dime out of EMN as it was a weak stock, lost a dime or two in ROH as it was very choppy.

10:00: Ouch, OSX rally, I thought it would be like yesterday! Took DO and got a horrible fill at 27.90, high print of the first 4 hours! Lost half a point on that plus some extra churns. Took NE at 28.50 and as soon as I saw SLB showing weakness I dumped it for flat.

10:30: Didn't get back into PPG in time to score that half point. Took PX instead and got a 40 cents move. I really focused on CEX this morning. Took a little MMM at 107.10 and it was a failed breakout as futures quickly collapsed and I was out for a dime loss.

12:00: Shorted 100 NYT at 42.27 from OZ's 3 day pullback scan and my stop was too tight, lost a quarter and it closed on the low. What can I say, my filter was finally complete and I was really excited to try it even tho I know it is not a good idea to use it during the dead zone.

2:00: Every Wed there is some sort of news release at 2PM on energy supply, and most of the times nothing more than a little move happens and I usually lose money trying to play it, but today a huge rally hit and I missed it completely. I switched to SGY (lagger) when he was offering some shares at 35.42 at 2:01PM, I wanted to grab them all but someone did it first and fortunately I used limit buy, next print was 36.25. Took a 15 cents scalp out of NOI on a pullback but really churned NE as I tried to short it after OSX pulled back, but the stock was so strong and it refused to give in.

3:00: Tried HRB (3 day reversal) and CSC (20 day breakout), I was too desperate, those were not good set-ups and while I only did 100 shares it was a waste of time. Churned some more NE and realized that futures won't do anything today, did someone switch the calendar to August today?

5 games left, up 5K for the month, I would love to close the month out with a rally.

 

wow hitman you are really doing great. how do you think you will spend the $45?

 

doogie,
you're a real friggin jackass.
we've got this straight up guy Hitman, sharing his day with us, and all you can do is mock him. I'm betting you're nothing but a piker, 16 yr old a-hole who never traded a baseball card let alone 50k of a stock. Why don't you just spend your day lookin at animal porn or something. BTw, this is the last time I answer to any of your posts...'cause it just aint worth the time.

Hitman,
Good job! Everyday is good if you learn something. A day you don't lose is better, and a day that you win is better yet. I know you don't need this but , keep believing in yourself. I know that most of the guys here learn from you and are always on your side. I for one always look forward to your posts, 'cause I know you're honest with yourself and us. And thats what it takes to be a winner. Just be honest. You admit when you're wrong. And thats half the game. I'm still coming down 1st week in Nov...
"the onlything we have to fear is fear itself"

 

uptik2000: “doogie, you're a real friggin jackass.”

Man, that sounds familiar. Where did I hear that before…? Oh yea, ME! Who says history doesn't repeat itself?

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=12727#post12727

New suit, same RX.

 

Yeah tymjr...I never noticed that, but I'll say this...having been in the brokerage business for 5 yrs you're always gonna have some guy who has nothing but negative crap to shoot...and it always turns out that they're the first to fail...so they go to another firm(or change their name) so they can continue to try to make excuses for their own failures.
Thankfully, there are more of us(99% of the people on this site) who know that a positive attitude is needed to win...and even though in a sense we compete against each other , we are strong enough to spread and share our positive energy.
I'm ALMOST embarrassed to reply to that jerk, but it'll be the last time.
"There is no try. Do or do not."

 

Magna: “tradeRX = shortnfool = Bucky Lee = Buck Naked = Doogie Hoser”

LOL. I remember your post. I’ve got my own little list of the nefarious tradeRX aliases.
Hey RX, what happen to the good ol’ days of the “What if…” thread.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1592

I enjoyed your thoughtful and controversial ruminations. What happened to that guy? Where’s the love?

 

Put TraderX or whatever she is now called on IGNORE.

Life is great without her whining.

 

Blew the morning gift lay-up in energy but managed to make a little more in the afternoon (not as much as I thought I would), overall a solid day and I am not going to complain. 7500 shares on 6 of 11 shooting, +1092 before commissions, +760 after.

Our order entry system went down at 2:45PM and never recovered, a first for this firm, and I sure as hell hope I get some rebate for it, at least the 3 positions I cleared through Agency desk I should not pay $35 a trade for those, I requested the rebate of $100 in commissions plus some extra opportunity cost, we will see how it ends up. I should end up with $900 or so for the day.

I had to tweak the filters further as I had some bad coding in there, and I need to add high volume requirement (haven't thought about the right algorithm for it yet but I have to) for breakout/breakdown filters. I mean you can't say "higher than average volume of last 20 days" for a real time filter because it could be 9:50 and the thing already did a quarter of its average volume and you want it to show up immediately. I need to somehow code it to eliminate the garbage signals, as I had 46 breakout signals today. The overbought and oversold filters are working properly, but the biggest issue with those is that they work best off the open, and I trade my sector stuff off the open, and I have no time to flip through charts. I have adjusted my screen so I have the BID/ASK size on the filters and if I see a serious BID/ASK I will flip to it quickly. Ideally, the stock on the filter is a stock that typically follows an index, something I already trade so as soon as I see it I can look across the other screen for the index, then make decisions accordingly.

A new feature I noticed in First Alert is the ability to create your own index, fantastic, this may be the cure for one of my biggest issues with certain stocks that trade together but has no index to follow, such as defense, home builders, and auto parts. This feature may pay off more than the filters themselve in the end . . .

Now, I have read Tony's new book and as much as I hate to say it, it is just not as good as his first book, like the way very few sequels can match the impact of the original. It lacks the meat on its bones and frankly if I didn't know who Tony Oz was I would have easily confused it with any other amatuer book had I came across it at Barnes and Nobles, not to mention How to Take Money from Wall Street is a really cheesy title that probably would make people think it is some MBA never traded in his life before trying to make a killing.

This is by no means implying that the second book is bad, it is still a very solid book and if you have never traded before it is a very very good starting point, for someone who traded for a while it is possible that they will pick up a tip here and there (shooting star/hammer's should have a tail twice as long as their bodies to make it worthwhile, for example, which I was taught in one of our company's candlestick video lectures way back, little notes like that), but for people who didn't like his first book, don't even bother, the set-ups you see in his book can all be seen from his web site. Still, if you are trading and going nowhere, you should definitely give it a shot, many of the little tips are helpful (anticipate the second bottom of a double bottom instead waiting for the confirmation breakout, which I do all the times).

His first book however was much much more fun to read, with a blow-by-blow analysis of his own trading that reads like my own journal except the author knows how to trade I highly recommend it if you missed it, if just for the fun of reading about how people kept one point stops for intraday trades and made 2-3k a day on 100-200 share positions, back in those 99-00 days. The good old days Get his first book, as it provides a lot of bang for the buck and it does a much much better job illustrating his trading style (support/resistance), if you like it, the second book is an update, but not the must read its original is, which I consider to be one of the best trading books I have ever read, if just because of the trading journals.

Maybe I have been trading full time for a year but all of his set-ups were transparent to me the second I looked at them on his web site, so the book's slightly more detailed explaination didn't really add anything. Still, I appreciate what Tony has done for me but I have to be honest.

Final Rating:

How To Take Money From Wall Street - 6.5 out of 10, one of the best books out there for unprofitable beginners, but packs very very little value for people who have been in this business for a while, who already read www.tonyoz.com and his first book.

How I Make A Living Trading Stocks - 9 out of 10, as it truly is an all time classic and the very reason why I gave his new book a lower score, the original blows the sequel away in every category.

Pre-Market: APA/APC beat earnings by quite some margin.

9:30: APC had a big offer and it stepped down, I didn't know whether this will be another CEX yesterday (when DD/PX beat and it sold off hard) so I waited a little, every other gas stock up and running I took a little at 55.81. It rocketed to 56.75 and I made some horrible executions there, I wanted to take the full point profit and waited to buy the pullback, but I got a bad fill on exit as I sold at 56.48 on slippage, and bought back at 56.55, and I kept a really tight stop on it and stopped out for a 15 cents loss before it took off another point. I should have packed $500 easy in that trade instead I only made $270, should have kept some on something with this much momentum so just in case I mess up on the buy the dip I still have some left to ride it up, the gas index already broke out, HOLD! CEX index tanked and I bulleted PPG and I really messed it up when he did a half baked squeeze, I really thought it will make a new high and I covered my entire position and he tanked, on the way down I sold again but didn't have enough shares so I just barely got my bullet cost back.

9:40: Took SGY and got a half point, but my size was not there as my biggest position at the time in PPG (CEX was down 2.5% again) wasn't working. Took a little TER as I thought SOX will bounce but got out for a nickel loss when it appeared that it won't happen.

10:20: Took DO long and out for a dime profit as I didn't believe OSX had legs. Shorted TGT on a RLX breakdown and 20 day breakdown but stopped out for a 15 cents loss fortunately it was just 200 shares (OZ experiment

11:50: Took AGN long on a breakout, out for a nickel loss, stock did go up in the afternoon but that's no problem with me.

2:30: Took MGA and out for a nickel profit as it went nowhere, took SPC long for a dime profit as it barely moved despite of IUX strength. BWA however was a good trade as I got a 55 cents move on a double bottom breakout, auto part stocks trend pretty well, I am going to get that custom index up for those.

3:00: No trades as order entry went down, firm handled it quite professionally I have to admit, and not a lot of screams were heard across the floor as futures trended up, imagine the same scenario off the open as people get short and futures starts to reverse. This is the first time I have ever seen the system go down for more than a couple of minutes, something really bad must happened, sure hope it doesn't happen again, and sure hope I get a little rebate for it as I liquided all of my positions through agency desk.

 

Hitman,

Two quick questions. What is your current payout and commission schedule? Which of the following contracts would you prefer:

1) 98.6% payout, $.013 per share, ECN fees

OR

2) 58% payout, $.007 per share, ECN fees


Thanks