1. Read the tape too damm much. Have to trust the sector, the futures and my own pick. DO NOT GET SUCK IN WITH ALL THE SPEC.'S TRICKS. 2. Too eager to place a trade when it is clear that the market was dead. While it is good to place trade when the sector is moving one way or another, it is important to realize that there wasn't much volume, and the sector move can be exaggerated a little. 3. The most important thing, is to set up a minimum take profit for myself. I will not considering taking profit if my stock is not giving me at least $150, of course this depends on the futures and the sectors. The point is to ride my winners as long as possible and not be happy just to see green numbers on my P&L screen, this will ensure me at least 50c winners. 4. The second most important thing DO NOT EVER GO BACK TO A LOSER IF IT IS MORE THAN $70!!!! Look for other opportunities in other stocks. 5. If I feel like I am churning my account, STOP for at least 20 minutes!!!!!! You can't make all the money in the world, but you can lose all you have. 6. JUST REMAIN CALM, AND I WILL DO BETTER.
The market did rally and I made $1000 today, but I am going out to have a drink, will post details later on. But here are some tidbits.. 151.41 ALK 88.79 AMR 82.60 BK -49.72 CPN 87.00 DAL -49.36 DME 193.65 EOG 221.50 EPG -59.65 JHF 142.83 LSI 114.79 TXN 73.84 UAL
Mr.T was right, how did he know? 64 thousand question. I don't care anyways. This was perhaps the easiest trading days in a while, the market opened up a little, and right away I noticed strength in airlines, with Russia unwillingness to cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day is actually good news for airlines since oil prices will remain low. I loaded up on ALK, AMR, UAL and DAL. Also saw that XBD and BIX was started to rally, should have bought more banks, got BK, DME and LAB. They moved but I got out too soon. Made some decent profit in these stocks but I left too much on the table. But I was happy with the profit I had, had I been doing size this would be a great day !!! Later in the day OSX, XNG and UTY bounced, (Russia did agree to cut by 500K barrel per day ) should have loaded up the truck, but I picked EOG, EPG and CPN , these stocks were still down for the day. There was a big seller in CPN and the stock didn't move. Made some decent money, but still left a lot of money on the table. Later still in the day SOX started to rally, bought some TXN, 200 shares got burned 2 days ago and some LSI, these 2 stocks were still negative, what a gift??? Worst trade of the day was JHF , stock was still down after IUX and BKX rallied to new high, decided to pick a bottom in this stock, didn't want to move at all, luckily I got out before the stock got spreaded down. I think I did pretty good in general today, I did force myself not to look at the tape that much, still a little churning in CPN and JHF when they didn't move but not much. Beat Mr.V again today, he was down $300 by 10 a.m. and decided not to push his luck. Mr.V, G, Z, K, J and I went out to a local bar for a little drink, it was fun to hear first hand the mistakes that they are making, not too different from mine, but today I blew all of them away! I also requested that Mr.T increase my share limits next week, I told him that I am up gross 9 out of the last 9 sessions and up net last 7 out of 9 days. Hopefully, he will agree. I ended up making a little over $1000 today. It's good to know that I beat Hitman too today !! I am sure it's just beginner's luck. I will check in throughout the weekend for new posts, have a nice weekend all.
Stockk, congratulations on a good day! However, please do as you said you would and post the times of your trades. Have a great weekend!
-78.56 ALK Bought the airlines early in the morning, I was in the money for a while before the market turns and I ended up flat in all these stocks. went back in a couple of times and lose even more money. What a tough, choppy day. -25.43 AMR 13.09 APA Thought XNG was going to bounce, bought a bunch of them at around 2 p.m., they rallied for a brief while and then just crumbled. Made the same mistake by going in again a few times into these stocks and lost money!! I had a long bias whole day, and I think there is just not enough volume to push these stocks higher. 31.47 APC 87.00 AT should be my best trade of the day, really strong. Bought it at 12:15 at $62.55, sold it at $62.90. The stock went to a new high, $63.75. 43.32 CB Bought this at around 2 p.m., $67.82, sold it at $68.02, when I thought IUX was coming in, turns out that CB doesn't follow the index that much, eventually went to $68.50. ???? -80.60 DAL Made a small winner into a loser!!?? 16.65 EOG I went back in when I had such a small profit and lose more, too choppy today. -89.62 EPG I was up $10 in this stock, got back in when I thought XNG was going to go up at round 3:15 p.m. Churned myself again. -19.60 JNJ This stock is too thick and it doesn't follow the DRG much. -43.68 KSS Bought it too soon at 10:45 a.m. @$68.09, sold it 20 minutes later at $68.00, the stock eventually went to $68.85 -55.50 LIZ Same thing as KSS -43.48 LM Bought this at $47.65, Sold it at $47.56 when the bid disappeared, and the next bid was the figure!! Stock is trading at $48.50!!!!!!!!!!!! What the hell? 112.83 LSI Pretty good trade, only traded it once, didn't give me much profit though. -26.35 ROH Bought this at the low, $36.03 and sold it at $36.00 when the stock is not going anywhere, eventually went to $36.25. Did not get into a rhythm today, after the loss in the airlines, I could not figure out the direction of the market. Missed a couple of good moves in the BTK, DRG, and XBD. This was a stealth rally of some sort and it is really hard to pin point as to what to do. Lost $260 today after all is said and done, although I am up gross still. Too much churning and hence too much commissison. what a dumb thing to do. I was upgraded to 500 shares today, didn't start trading that size yet, figure in a market like today, probably do more damage than anything else. Mr. V is down again today just like me. But a surprise, Mr. K is up over $800??? what the hell? He bought all the right stocks, the techs and HD and MWD, he was on today unlike me. Damm, have to do better tomorrow.
On my daily blotter, I always asked Mr.T how I did the day before as compared to my group and the firm and you know what? From a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. I scored a 1 when compared to my group and 2 when compared to the firm !!! How embarrassing??? . He said I missed 2 big winners, GTY and PB. I scored 5's on Friday. The stock gapped up from $18.75 to $20.00, and eventually settled back to $18.50, $1.50 move. Could have made $300. PB, gapped down later in the day, just a 50c gap, but retraced a 100%. Today seems like another choppy day, I have to play a cleaner game. Have to concentrate on doing these, 1. Keep tighter stops. 2. Don't let ANY decent winners turn into losers 3. Don't churn 4. Be flexible on the sectors I trade, missed BTK and DRG yesterday. 5. Don't EVER convince yourself that you can't make money on Mondays. A 1? Can't believe it, can't belive it, man!! Gotta trade better today!