Broke about even The losers today were from new setups being tested. (not the testing part but they just didnât work out) I have been wanting to put some size on a few trades this weekend but the volitility has really dried up as we go into the end of the year. I expect that to change in a big way in the start of the next year as this years gains are booked and we all start at zero again. SYK â 70 PSYS â 122 NKBP + 39 FSYS + 165 +12 + 2552 Month
Tired This week has been a challenge and my trading was sidelined (during non trading hours) while I finished up finals week. I started out in the morning by getting back my results of a final I took on Wednesday to find I received a 99/100 so that was a boost in moral right at the start of the day. Once again though the action was pretty slow in terms of what I normally like to trade. No opening gaps again and it was hard to make a buck today. No overboughts that were worth much but I did get one oversold (marginally so I went and stayed small) with RX. RX for being a winning trade was very disappointing. I traded it like I normally do based on the technicals and made about the full target gain. What made this sad is the reason why it sold off and why it had such a huge risk to reward ratio. It sold off due to possible legislation in one house of congress without the support of the other. Plus the company is one that keeps track of data about doctors. The easiest way to explain why this was such a no brainer is to ask this question âwhen was the last time the federal government didnât want to keep track of something?â I actually would have never given it much thought after the trade was over but its name kept coming up on the wire so I read the info. I just shook my head when I realized that I not only went small but cut short one of the best trades in months in terms of risk vs reward. Yes it could have really tanked if the buyout offer was pulled but that was highly unlikely within the same day of the news. Once this is all figured out by the street of course the stocks going to regain the majority of the losses. This whole thing seemed so obvious to me that I started to think about the odds of it all being a rouse to get the price down and make some fast money for some of those working the strings. I will most likely never know but I am not one to believe that those things donât happen. RX + 127 DAL slightly overbought and adjusted my volatility down so that I could enter the trade. It came within a few cents of hitting my target and then moved back up where I was stopped out. + 58 CCM + 85 + 270 + 2822 Month
no complaints Today was a good example of how an informational advantage can work in your favor. OSK fell out of bed today due to news that they lost a bid with the military. While not a good thing of course I looked at the fall out and saw that it was down around 17%. As someone who has followed OSK and been backtesting it due to a loss I took earlier this year I was ready to get some of it back. OSK has been running very busy and the loss of the contract would not change that. Understanding that the reaction was overdone I started to step up to buy. I was a bit too conservative though and started out with bids of 100 share lots and bought almost at the dead bottom of the day. I was able to understand how good of a price I had though and carried the 100 shares for a gain of 1.13 (less comm) per share which was about double the goal. OSK then fell back down again although not as far down as before and I became a buyer once again. Again I stayed small but not as small and took another gain out of it. I did not get as much as I could have but very happy with the results in light of the almost zero pain in both entries. + 231 JAVA was a gap up that didnââ¬â¢t really work well almost from the beginning. closed out with a loss and moved on. ââ¬â 106 IOC was a news related short. After being a gapup + 2 one of the 2nd tier ââ¬Åinternet newslettersââ¬Â came out negative about the stock. IOC did react pretty strongly but then bounced back for the most part. I was able to catch some of the first fall and then shorted again to make a little more gain but was not much compared to the first move. low risk trade the whole way + 158 CAL + 59 AEP stopped out and never really went far after that. + 6 +348 +3170 Month
I was not expecting much today started out with BEAT but didnât get anywhere with it. Tried to follow along the gap up trend but it just fizzled out. + 11 I also went along for the ride with BBY and traded it in both directions today. + 225 WY was a gap up but most of the move was done before I entered into it. + 26 AMED did give a great overbought signal that was pointed out to me in the chat room and I was aggressive shorting it and very aggressive on the profit target. (perhaps not even as aggressive as I should have been with hindsight). I sold near the top and missed shorting even more by about three cents from the HOD. even factoring in some positioning scalps I was able to gain more than target on average for all the shares. I traded it again near the close but didnt put any size on the trade but it added anther 25 or so. +876 CSIQ was looking like it was going to go overbought but then broke through the intraday trendline to the short side and I took a few shares short to see if it would continue downward. Pretty nice trade for small shares + 79 FDS late day trade looking for a hard breakdown at the close. didnât happen so I walked near BE. + 1 + 1221 + 4391 Month
Mixed day today Mostly a slow day of testing new signals and getting caught up. Then AIR came along and gave a great short signal and at one time I was thinking it was working out well and I even put on larger size than normal. It turned around and while thats not all that uncommon it really showed some buying going into the close. Still not all that uncommon but I would have rather have taken the money and ran. Before today it was a low volume stock and while I have adjustments for that I was still surprised at the very little this one gave. Closed a small gain but holding quite a few short overnight looking for the fall tomorrow. + 79 all other trades were test trades with small size WL + 8 NVDA + 48 GILD -1 DRI + 31 DBRN + 8 CSIQ + 32 First day of trying out tradethenews.com and I am also running flyonthewall.com to see how they compare. So far I like them both. On another side note I found out my fourth out of five grades today. Happy to report that I received an A. One class to go and I think that I will at least get a B to make it 4As and at least a B. +209 +4600 Month
closed out of my carryover with AIR at about even AIR was up during premarket trading and actually made it to the level I would be willing to short more but wanted to see how it opened up before committing more to the short. The peak was right about where I was willing to short more and it never saw that price again today. Not that big of a surprise but being able to have bullets when the market is actually open is paramount. +12 as I closed it out near BE in the opening. I bought some C for a hold today. Only 400 shares that will just sit there. Might write some mid 2010 calls against it but as the price is almost priced like a never ending option I will most likely just sit on it. I think this could be a 3-4 banger and with uncle Sam as my partner I think the under $5 price risk of BK is pretty small. MHS test of new signal + 7 BZH test + 20 DFS I went both long and short with discover and was not able to get anywhere with it. both long and short where from a new signal. + 9 WGO test + 7 I traded one contract of the ES looking for a sell off during the end but it didnât happen so I walked away when I started watching the EDU stocks as CECO was falling out of bed due to negative news. +7 CECO appears to be the buy the rumor sell the fact kind of trade. In afterhours trading as I write this the company issued a press release and the stock is performing well as a result. Tomorrow should be interesting RIMM afterhours. only 100 shares but still a good trade. + 52 + 118 + 4718 Month
12/18/09 CECO what a ride CECO proved that it had more downside at the open today. I donât trade fundamentals but I did read into this company last night and I became very comfortable with the idea of buying more at the open if weak. With over $5 in cash for every share and almost zero debt it was for me easy to see that this would bounce. I faded the move down and almost all my buying was done at the bottom as I started buying at 21.08 and lower until 20.45. I never went large in this trade as I prefer being short much more than long but at the lowest point even the few shares I did have were feeling some pain. I also received a long signal after the open and I bought some on the first but held back on the second long signal so that I would not start to become large in size. My average was 22.50 and as it approached the BE point I started to unload and upon breaking above I put a stop loss in at one cent above BE and it was hit so I didnât get anything from this trade and took a small loss. This is a good example of why I do like to fade big moves though. Even though this was a loser I put myself in a position to have a nice gain if it did bounce sooner and even when the bounce was small I was able to get out without a problem. â 13 CNW was a pain for me for much of the day. I put an offer in at one cent below the HOD (before it was the HOD) and was traded through without having my offer lifted. Then it went straight down to my target gain laughing at me the whole way. It moved back higher and then gave another short signal that is still being tested so I shorted on that. This went back and forth with stops getting hit and I putting on new trades. in the end it turned into my best symbol of the day but it was a lot of trades to make what I did get happen + 110 rest are tests that were stopped out WIN + 2 RIMM + 6 JPM BE ATLS + 12 Still long C and looking to add more on Monday. I really like C as a hold into next year. + 120 + 4838 month