Thanks for the advice! Even is S/R is subjective, if enough people see it and act accordingly, then it becomes tradable right?
Understand what S & R are. Resistance for example may be a fund selling at certain price over a a period of days. It can be traders who bought previously that have watched the stock fall and now that it's come back up are selling to get out even. And can be a self fulfilling level as traders act on these prior level. Watch how price acts near these levels. Does it slow as it approaches, does it break and retrace, does it break and hold. There is an art to trading learned through study and experience. But you can't passively watch price. Try to understand why and what it's doing. good luck !
No trading today. Taking the day off to study charts and try to refine my "edge." I've been meaning to do this for 3 days now, so I'm just gonna sit down and git'r'done. Might trade during the late afternoon if there's time.
Was looking over charts, and marking areas of major S/R on my 5-min chart. I just recently fired up Sterling Trader and saw what looked like support around 188.10 on AMZN today. Decided to jump in for a quick trade. <b>(31.00)</b> I was feeling conservative today, as I'm not fully in the zone, just kinda passively watching. I noticed a bottom forming around 188.10 with the 1:15-1:25pm candles and bought the breakout. I was filled at 188.08 and momentum quickly brought it down to 187.78 at which point I covered my short. I left a LOT of profit on the table. I'm now realizing that if I had been in it with more shares, I could have scalped the 31 cent move I made and then left the other half to ride down whatever else was left. Which, apparently, was about 70 or 80 cents more. On the bright side, I still made a bit of profit, and so far I'm keeping what I've made over the past 3 days.
Just caused myself some more pain. <b>(-157.00)</b> The 2:05, 2:15, and 2:20 candles had highs of 187.27 and 187.30. I saw this as well as what I thought was a short downtrend and figured a swing high had just occurred. I shorted 300 shares below the low of the 2:15 candle and then the market went against me in what I later realized was just some consolidation before a breakout to the upside. What I thought was a downtrend was just a leg spanning from a swing high to a swing low. In fact, now that I look at the chart, I realize it might even have been a small triangle with a breakout to the upside. I still have a lot of learning to do! The chart shows everything. Any advice on what others see in the chart? Obviously it wasn't any sort of pullback. Haha, did I fail miserably at trying to read the chart?
Granted it's not even 11am, today is a good day so far! <b>(218.00)</b> I noticed the bottom forming around 189.00 on the 5-min chart of AMZN. I bought the breakout when support finally failed and was filled at 188.93 for 300 shares short. Covered around 188.20. <b> (12.00)</b> Attempted another short below the 10:40am candle's low, but held on too long. With both of these trades, I found myself getting a "feel" for when price was about to rise. I think this is considered "reading the tape" and getting in the "zone" everyone always talks about. I'm working on keeping to only 2 or 3 setups and learning to trade those very well. One setup for trending days and then maybe 1 or 2 for ranging days.
Took another trade while on the phone. <b> (23.00) </b> Bought a breakout as price rose above the 20EMA line and above the high of the last bar (12:20). Was filled at 188.18 for 300 shares. If I hadn't been on the phone, I could have totally let my profits run and made a lot more. Oh well. Attached is my P&L for the day, doing 300 share lots.
It's the weekend! Hope everyone is enjoying theirs! I have. I'm finding that I actually like writing in this journal a lot more than I thought I would. Haha, I think it helps me feel connected to other traders in some way! Anyway, there are certain people on this site that I look up to, as I've read their journals or gone through their posts, and they all seem to recommend finding a specific security and sticking with it. If you know the stock you trade like the back of your hand, you can spot your setups easier. Not only that, but it becomes easier to spot the best setups throughout the day. You can figure out profit targets, areas of major support and resistance, and how large your average stops should be. Once this all becomes ingrained in your head, trades can be executed simpler and easier with less thought involved. This all makes sense on the intellectual level but, on an emotional level, it was harder to stick to. What I mean is that when I first started trading, I heard about all the benefits of sticking with one security, but every time I tried to watch only 1 stock during the day, I grew impatient. <i> I'm missing great trades on a bunch of other stocks! What good is watching this stock when I could be making money watching better stocks?? </i> Well, I've found that those thoughts come from the same self-destructive part of my brain that drives my impulses to over-trade and not use stops and other terrible ideas. For me, I need to stop thinking I know what's best. Because surely I don't. I'm sure that maybe, just maybe, someone who has successfully traded for years and years might know better. And having learned from their experience, they are trying to help me skip their mistakes. They're trying to show me what works. So, with all this in mind, as anyone who has read this journal will see, I now stick with only one stock. AMZN. It's got high volume, and moves pretty quickly. I like stocks that get to the point. From May 6th, I've printed out the daily 5-minute chart every day and reviewed each one. Friday, after the market closed, I looked over all my charts and I found that my successful trades all have a certain characteristic in common! I have defined my edge! Specifically getting to know AMZN has helped in many ways. Last week I felt I was onto something, and just from Friday's review, I now know several very important things: -I know that for my main setup, the probability of the trade working in my favor is high. (I still have not quantified the actual probability, but I will soon.) -I have an initial profit target of 50 cents. -My stop can be larger than my profit target. Lower risk to reward, but the reward is more frequent. -I know that once I hit my 50 cent target, I can move my stop to break-even, take profit on half of my shares, and ride the rest out, moving my stop to just above the high of each previous bar for shorts, or just below the low of each last bar for longs. -The trade ends when I am stopped out. As I accumulate more screen time and get that sixth sense, maybe I will be able to exit earlier for additional gains rather than be stopped out. Sorry for the long rant, but these are just my thoughts for the weekend. EDIT: Last but not least, probably the best gift of watching just one stock as others have suggested is that it has resulted in better patience. When I am watching for my setup on AMZN, I don't switch back and forth between charts, I just watch. And it helps tremendously with discipline!
Happy Monday morning! <b>(29.00)</b> First trade was on a breakout of a doji's high. The 9:45 bar. I was filled late and found myself chasing the trade a bit. Still, I made some money on it. Covered half at a target, set a stop to just above breakeven and was filled. I stuck with my plan, albeit the floppy, ungracefully executed version. But of course, Chris had to lose some money for himself! <b>(-100)</b> Thought I saw a turnaround when the 10:00 candle broke through the previous candle's low. According to my plan, I would have had to set my stop larger than I was comfortable with. In the heat of the moment, I forgot to overlook that fact as I only saw dollar signs. Once the trade <i>was</i> put on, I set my stop smaller than what it should have been, and was stopped out for a full loss. So now I'm down 71 for the day, and I'm sitting on my hands. If I see a great opportunity, perfect! Otherwise, I'm not budging one inch!