11-29-13 It was a day of making something out of nothing. No signals and I didn't expect any. A few stocks I wanted to short didn't have borrows so they were obviously quickly dismissed. I did manage to short (FRO) several times including in premarket. I worked it from $3.20ish down to $3.05ish several times during the shortened trading day. When it was over, near the closing bell, both my broker (because of the number of shares traded) and I were happy with the results. The other stock I shorted was (DSS), but I missed the first sweet move above $2 that I would have clearned up with. I did take the second run higher, but I didn't get very aggressive in light of the shortened day. Still did ok and I go into the weekend better than I may have otherwise. With that said, I still can't claim it was a profitable day after accounting for Black Friday shopping and my wife crawled (almost literally) out of bed to buy some future landfill for my sons...LOL (FRO) 806 (DSS) 251 1057
12-3-12 Traded (OMED) for a win and then a loss and (GOGO) for a win. Will update tomorrow as I need to take care of snow because I neglected to put up the driveway poles for the snowplow service. Urggg
12-13-13 I traded this week starting again on Wednesday,and today was the best day, but I haven't been writing much and that includes the journal. Wrist issues and have held me back. All three days were decently profitable, although Wednesday I carried overnight one that I wasn't comfortable with but ultimately profitable. Today had three tickers only, and that included (CYTR), a stock I started scalp shorting in after hours yesterday. I stayed small and did ok for as many shares as I had. (YRCW) gave me a little bit of a scare as I became big a little too early, but as you can see by the gain, it turned into a decent winner. I did trade it several times today, so it wasn't all from the first large move. I will be watching (LULU) on Monday for a possible long fade. (CYTR) + 123 (INSY) + 72 (YRCW) + 1313
12-16-13 Only one ticker today. I traded (AER) for much of the day. I wanted to buy (LULU) at the end, but I went to a school project for my son instead. Some investments are better than money and this is one of them. I will try again to buy (LULU) in pre-market and have left my bids live. (AER) + 617
12-17-13 I had a fair amount of shares traded today. I started by buying (LULU) in premarket at $57.76, shorting (FTR) right before the bell, and shorted (BIOD) almost right after the bell. My biggest trade today was with (IRBT) and that made up the lion's share of trading today. I kept going back to the (IRBT) well because it really looked attractive as a short most of the day. At one point though, the first trip above $38 had me slightly less than comfortable, but the story was solid (for shorting) and the trip above $38 was after I already closed out a round of shorts with it. I also shorted (LULU) calls against the shares as a hedging means. I closed out (LULU) (within my primary trading account) for a nice net net gain after factoring in the hedge, and the only other trade of note is (PAY) in after hours. I shorted (PAY) into the climb after dropping heavy when earnings was released. It gave me a little bit of a run when it moved above the closing price, but as per usual, the first lower direction was the correct one. I've seen stocks bounce and crush shorts and it appeared a lot of shorts were looking for the exits when (PAY) moved back above $25, but I heard the results over the squawk and didn't worry (much). LULU $60C - 19 (BIOD) +16 (FTR) + 25 (IRBT) + 1325 (LULU) + 125 (PAY) + 198 +1670
12-18-13 Busy day with lots of shares. I found bitcoin's fall from grace today to be interesting. I can't recommend buying bitcoin to anyone at these levels. I did look into shorting it after writing my second (TST) article, but there isn't an efficient (and seemingly safe to me) method to do so. Lots of shares in (PAY) traded today. In the afternoon I gave some gains back, but all in all it was a good ticker for me. (PAY) reported earnings last night and it was good, at least from a trader's point of view. As I write this (ORCL) reported and I have shorted and longed it, with a clear overall short bias. I'm off to get a massage and then hang out with a financial advisor friend of mine. After hours promises to be a fun time. I traded a little differently than I'm known to. I've always had trouble fading stocks that are falling. In a case of "if you can't beat em, join em" I started to short weak gapping down stocks. I haven't done it a lot yet, but all indications point that shorting weak stocks on bounces holds a lot of promise. I still haven't figured out how aggressive to be, and I am waiting on back testing results to help guide the way, but one thing I know for sure, when it comes to equities (the same doesn't apply towards commodities), mirroring my short signals to create long signals doesn't work well at all. For some ETF's that are based on oil, gold, etc.. they work great, but that's way too limiting.in opportunities. I also had a few scalps today, mostly with (ARIA), but I traded around positions too. In after hours, I traded (ORCL) as I mentioned earlier. The price didn't break in time for me, so I stopped out and gave my gains back, but overall I can't complain about the day. I'll take another look in the morning and may re-enter my trade again. (HALO) was a nice one called out in the chat room. Not a lot of gain, but it's not one I would have seen otherwise so it's more or less like pennies from heaven. (ARIA) + 15 (EONC) + 181 (HALO) + 77 (ORCL) - 46 (PAL) + 884 + 1112