I took two more trades today and in order to keep track of all my trades I created an Excel workbook trading log. Attached is a snippet from the log with all trades to date. I see that I really haven't been risking much on each trade except the first one. This is probability a good idea until I have a proven live track record showing that I can be profitable after dozens of trades are completed at a minimum. So far no trades have been stopped out and no profits have been taken.
Trade #6: My reasons for taking this trade are because the stock has been in a sharp downtrend for over a year and is now pulling back weakly on the weekly chart to the 40 EMA. On the weekly chart there is also a small trading range that formed last Fall which should act as resistance to the move up. On the daily chart, the pullback looks very choppy has recently closed the gap from the selloff from last Fall’s trading range. It would be much higher probability to wait for a bearish candle to close this week on the weekly chart and then enter short once price trades below that candle. By dropping down to the daily chart I am attempting to cut my $ risk down by anticipating and pinpointing the resumption of the downtrend to the day. This is similar to how I entered NXPI and is a low probability way to take this trade; however, the reward/risk ratio is higher than waiting for confirmation. Because the initial stop loss is so tight and I limit myself to no more than 20% of my funds in any given stock, my initial risk is less than 1% of my portfolio assuming price does not gap above my stop loss. Instrument: SAVE (US Stock) Timeframe: Weekly/Daily Setup: Reversal/Pullback Entry Price: $47.13 Initial Stop Price: $48.99 Trade Type: Swing Initial Target: $32.72
Trade #7: My reasons for taking this trade are because the stock appears to be trying to breakout of a large head and shoulders pattern that started forming in the Fall of 2013. Last month’s candlestick was a breakout attempt that failed and is now pulling back in to the pattern. On the monthly linear chart there is a clear upward channel forming from the late 2008 lows. The lower channel line is not far below the current price and should provide at least temporary support so that is why this trade is only a scalp. On the weekly chart the stock has been in a choppy downtrend since the summer of 2015. The pullback from the false breakout attempt in January had one strong bull day and then lost momentum by stalling at the weekly 40 EMA for the last four days. In addition, this pullback broke a minor downtrend line on the weekly chart which likely lured bulls into the stock. I am risking less than 1% of my portfolio on this stock. Instrument: STLD (US Stock) Timeframe: Monthly/Weekly Setup: Breakout Pullback Entry Price: $17.59 Initial Stop Price: $19.07 Trade Type: Scalp Initial Target: 14.30
The last two seem to make sense, at least you are going with the flow in the bigger picture. The market might be helping you out on these as well.
Well, I put it on my list of should it gets in uptrend to check out the dividend then. But I have a handful of stocks I bought in the 80s very low priced and still have them for dividends, reinvested into more shares, some of them been bought up by other companies. I think 401Ks should have a core.
A 7 percent div seems abnormally high. Is there a reasonable chance it's not safe?_I don't follow tech or stocks much
Seagate has been in business Seagate started under a different name in 1978, so I am guessing to last this long, they doing something right. I have bought them on/off in past for capital appreciation plays. As stocks go down in price cause overall economy is not doing well, I keep notes to what companies pay on dividends so if they were to get to ten bucks a share again, I would load up for both capital appreciation and dividends, but as you get older in age, dividends are very nice to get every so many months. There are even some services that come out monthly recommending stocks based on dividend percentages. I generally now only trade long stocks that have both dividends and options, sell short companies that don't have dividends-so I don't have to keep track and I don't want to have to pay dividends cause I am short.
I've traded GE from the long side as a market proxy. The stock trades well, and having the div is a nice net behind me
GE is looking real weak today and is looking like its breaking out to the down side, like STX was yesterday.