PointOne, I'm glad I could help. As we progress I hope that everyone has an ANGN type stock to contribute. I've gotten to the point now that I'm a little more lenient on what gets in to my universe. I don't want to confuse newbies so I'll just say that once you understand the system, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye open for up and comers that are not yet in your universe. As previously stated, I look at everything, with a special focus on only the Hershey picks for the day and a second focus on unusual price / volume activity from my entire universe.
Food for thought on whether holding for the standard 1 - 2 weeks is better or getting in and out on a daily (intra-day) basis as some are doing. Long positions in 'Current' sorted by Bought in descending order Symbol Last Change %Change Volume Position Bought Value Net %Change %Total Delete? BITS 9.70 0.38 4.07% 218,414. 300 01/11/2007 2,910.00 323.00 12.48% 14.00 Trade DXPE 31.55 -0.07 -0.22% 67,257. 100 01/11/2007 3,156.00 -85.00 -2.62% 15.18 Trade HWCC 23.91 0.70 3.01% 647,531. 100 01/10/2007 2,391.00 336.00 16.35% 11.50 Trade SWFT 30.48 0.04 0.16% 1,917,218. 200 01/10/2007 6,096.00 631.00 11.54% 29.33 Trade CTRN 40.50 -0.88 -2.15% 92,208. 100 01/10/2007 4,050.00 104.99 2.66% 19.49 Trade GIGM 10.88 -0.23 -2.07% 826,999. 200 01/10/2007 2,176.00 291.00 15.43% 10.47 Trade Total 20,779.00 1,600.99 8.34% The above 8.34% was achieved with little to minimum effort other than the hour required on the trade day.
Congrats on your success. Usually how much (% or $ wise) will you let a position go against you? Also, do you move your stop loss up to protect profits or move your stop loss to break even or stop loss will always remain at the original stop loss which is below your entry price? Also, when will you decide to take profits. Is it based on support/resistance levels or do you try to shoot for 10% profit. Thanks.
Congratulations on your trades. Great work! Here is my debrief of the profitable trade I did today. I did a short / long combo. It only took a few minutes this morning. I know it's a small profit, but it's a profit. <img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=1339855">
gooch and billip, Please let me clarify, I was attempting to ask a "food for thought" question rather than stating that those were trades I was still holding. I exited all of those trades at a much smaller profit than indicated there on that table. I left the table alone out of curiosity to see where it would be in 2 weeks time, i.e. the end of this week. So, thank you for the best wishes, but to be honest I can only "wish" I were so wise, hence the table and the discussion. I'm currently in: ANGN BITS GIGM HWCC SIM On 23 Jan 2007 I purchased: ANGN 17.42 GIGM 10.51 BITS 9.10 Sold BITS at 9.00 on 23 Jan 2007 at 9.00 I re-entered BITS yesterday, 25 Jan 2007 at a higher price. The selling and re-entry of BITS led me to visit the table. The point I was trying to make was that it might be better to consider a hold over days versus a hold over an hour or two, especially in the very beginning of this method. I know in a previous post I said something about not misleading a "newbie". I don't want to misrepresent myself as being an expert in this. I've lurked and studied this method for roughly the last 6 months, and this year in January, I decided to commit to an account exclusively for this. As far as when to take a loss and when to take a profit, I really don't feel qualified to answer. I've been holding for no more than 1 - 3 days, basing my decision to sell or stay in on the 30 min. And yes, on more than one occasion a winner has come back to my entry and become a loser over 1 or 2 trading days.
I was wondering how many people are using the .22 level of unusual volume to enter into a trade, and if they are always using the .22 level. The reason I am asking is bc to me the .22 level might not work in all cases. For example, based on the unusual volume sheet .22 is really only to be used for a stock that is in DU (also based on the UV sheet). So what kind of unusual volume trigger would you use for a stock that is not in DU. For example, there is a stock with a perfect Bruno R setup on the daily, everything looks great for the trend to continue but the volume the previous day was 150%. Therefore entering at .22% UV by 11:00am the next morning wouldnt even bring this stock close to the volume that it has been doing. I know the answer that most people are thinking is to just figure out what kind of volume is needed to exceed the previous day based on the UV %, but is that what everyone is doing, plus volume almost always settles down in the middle of trend to lower levels before making a 20% run. Anyways, just wondering if others can share their ideas on unusual volume and how they use it with stocks that are not in DU or stocks that have shown a significant volume increase the previous day. TIA
Yes I use the UV table for my trading. I only apply it to the DU list that is generated each day. I have only used it for a couple of weeks and there have been few trades to enter during that time. One was BITS yesterday. I entered into the trade at 10:32 at a price of 9.80 and exited sometime after 11:00 when it hit the top of the channel at a price of 10.20. I classify my stock trades using a color code of green, yellow, and red. A green stock is near the bottom or mid channel with at least 10% from the previous close to the upper channel line. A yellow stock is the same but with less than 10% to the upper line. Red stocks are within 5% of the upper line and are not suitable for long positions. For today, the following categories applied: NVEC and MIKR were green with scores of 28% and 55%. ININ was yellow with a score of 8%. SIM was red with a score of 5%. Of course the score is directly related to where you have drawn your channel so results vary from one investor to the next. As to using the UV table I have found that I have to adjust the percentages listed in the table. I believe the table assumes FRV is 60% of the 65 day average volume. This is often not the case. I get my FRV value from the Wealth-Labs chartscript that Spydertrader made available. As a result I have to adjust the percentages that I am looking for. Here is the formula I use: Step 1: I divide FRV by the 65 day average (from whatever source you use). NVEC today was FRV=735800 and 65davg=565500. The result is 1.30. ( I round off the volume figure to the nearest 100.) Step 2: I multiply the UV table number times the number obtained in Step 1. The number in the UV table for the first 30 minutes of market activity is .1 (10%). The result is 1.3 * .1 = .13. I then use .13 * FRV for the first 30 minute volume target. NVEC would be 735800 * .13 = 95700 (rounded). The second fraction would be 1.3 * .17 (from the UV table) = .22; 735800 * .22 = 161900. That would be the volume I would look for from 10:00 to 10:30. Finally, the 10:30 to 11 time frame would be 1.3 * .22 (from the UV table) = .29; 735800 * .29 = 213400. If volume has not triggered by 11:00 I am finished for the day for that stock. Step 3: Repeat Step 1 and 2 for each stock in the DU list. Triggered volume must be confirmed by MACD, STOC, and PRICE. My initial target for all green stocks is 10% and I hold overnight if volume confirms. For yellow stocks I am looking to exit at the upper channel. I will hold overnight if volume requirements are met. I use the Ross rule (2%) for my initial stop and switch to 5% below the close if stock is held. But as I said there has not been many opportunities to enter this month. I do not short stocks but if I did I would use the UV table in the same manner.
Timdog, I only follow part of Spyder's method. This is mainly due to among other things having not read every single page/forgot a lot of whatever I read (1 day I will really read everything, hopefully before the journal ends) and my trading platform not having the ability to cater for Spyder's requirements. The main part that I do follow is volume. And yes, I certainly prefer it to be in dry up and 0.22%.
Thanks johnpinochet. Still congrats on your trades as I believe that you are making profits on it. The trade management is the one that I'm facing the most headache now ie when to take profits (ie assuming I'm in a profitable trade). As to your food for thought table : What is on your table seems to be better than what you actually gained. However, this may not always be the case. I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to manage a trade and my current thoughts (may vary in the future) are : a) Having a reasonable profit target for 50% of one's swing trade. [Thus, if it takes a few days to reach the target price, so be it. However, I will unlikely hold for more than a week. I will not let this portion become negative $ unless its due to gaps or price has not move out of its wriggle room for me to reasonably move stop loss to breakeven on this portion] b)The other 50% is based on how market move. [Thus, this could be taken off on the same day or a few days later or even in 2 weeks time. ] Also, I will be willing to have many more smaller losers instead of slight profits/breakeven trades in the hopes of gaining a few bigger winners. (this I believe will be overall more profitable although psychology wise is harder to accept). Anybody care to to share? Views are welcome. Thanks
What a day on Friday! If you take a look at the 5 min chart for BITS for 26 Jan 2007, right around the time it was testing the 9.50 lows and then going back up to 9.80, i.e. roughly 0930 CST, I got in at 9.80 to up my size to 1000 shares from 200. That was my only trade on Friday. No sales. Still holding ANGN BITS GIGM HWCC SIM from earlier posted purchases.