August was a tough one! I took this week off, and since I see others already posting their month reviews, I thought I’d go ahead and do mine.

Here are the stats for August (includes 7/31 and 9/01 so we cover full weeks):

If you compare with last month’s stats, you can see by the lower win rate that I struggled a little bit. I made more money, but not in proportion to how many more trades I took. It’s also apparent on the graph below (click to enlarge) that I had a stretch where my losses cancelled out my wins. Those are hard on me, as it doesn’t take long at all to feel like I’m in a rut.

Still, to have 9 R while taking a full week off meets my financial and personal needs. The way August punished so many of us, I consider it a real accomplishment, actually.

So, what lessons does August teach? I’d say this month reiterated the importance of listening to market context. We were in choppy, low-volume markets. I saw my performance, and that of other bloggers, lagging the norm. I saw highchartpatterns.com warning about a difficult month. So, I eased way up on my goal of riding my winners longer. Even when I let a trade run, I chose sub-2R price targets. I tried to avoid trading trendy, directional price moves, because those were turning back around so often by mid-day. Instead, I mainly wanted to trade high-volume breakouts of important price levels, because those seemed more reliable this month. Whether these adjustments helped, or whether it was just luck, I’ll never know. But, it’s plain on the graph that by mid-month I had broken out of my rut.

Did August trading finally punish me enough that I went looking for some programming work? :-) No, I’m doing just fine, thanks! But, I’m pleased to announce that I’m going to start doing some programming work on StockTickr, and also contributing articles to the StockTickr Blog.

If you’ve been reading the site at all, you know how much I use and like StockTickr. It hosts my watchlists, and tracks my trades. It’s been enhanced recently to produce and retain various charts of the trades, which makes reviewing them and posting them here very easy. That has saved me a huge amount of time recently. It’s obvious to me that StockTickr is run by an active trader, as its growing feature set is so well suited to active traders like myself. So, I like the service. I’m a fan! I’m also whiney and demanding…

In the process of suggesting various enhancements, I’ve gotten to know Dave, who runs the service. Dave’s been very receptive and insightful when it comes to feature requests. With my software engineering background, though, at some point I think the natural question became “why don’t you stop whining and start implementing some of these things yourself?” :-) Ok, I’m exaggerating…. but it was still a good idea, I thought. I think with two active traders contributing, the service is all the more exciting going forward, if I do say so myself.

Not only am I excited about the possibilities, I also wanted to tell you as soon as possible for full disclosure. I’ve mentioned StockTickr a lot on Move the Markets, because I liked, used, and paid for, the service. I’ll continue to use and mention the service here, but now I have an actual affiliation with them, and you should know that! Wish me luck!

Here, I’m going to cover the first 5 of the 40 TRIZ Principles, as they relate to trading. You might want to glance at the Kick-off Article on this series, if you haven’t seen it. Basically, these are principles derived from an international study of patents. The idea is to isolate the foundations of innovative ideas, which can be applied to any creative endeavor.

These principles, and the examples from trading below, are meant to get the mental juices flowing. The idea is to apply these principles to new problems. When you think about how to improve your trade execution, or your trading system, or the way you track your performance, or whatever else, you can read through the principles and see what kind of ideas emerge.

Perhaps some of you will read these and immediately think of other trading-related examples of these notions. If so, don’t be shy! Post it in a comment. The more the better, and there are no wrong answers. If the description makes you think of it, then it is TRIZ at work, and it is always correct. Let’s get started!

Principle 1: Segmentation
Segmentation is the notion of dividing an object into independent parts. It can mean re-use of parts through modularity. It can mean making an object easier to understand, one part at a time. It can mean making an object easier to assemble or disassemble.

So where do we see segmentation applied to stock trading? Let’s see…

• Price action is often segmented by units of time, as in bar charts or candlestick charts.
• Some traders break the trading day into zones of activity (like the opening, morning reversal, lunchtime lull, etc.).
• Traders divide the universe of stocks into sectors. This makes it easy to see the markets from an overview perspective.
• Some traders divide their workspace up among multiple monitors, whether real or virtual.
• Some traders divide time up on several levels to monitor and review their performance. For instance, I do weekly and monthly reviews of my trading.
• Some traders divide a trade into pre-trade and post-entry time frames, and operate under different rules for each. For instance, some traders advise that one should always choose a stop and a price target prior to entering the trade.

Principle 2: Extraction
Extraction means separating out interfering parts of a system, singling out the necessary parts of a system.

Examples of extraction in a stock trading context include:

• Traders make use of technical indicators. These single out specific properties of the price and volume action.
• Traders compare trades by R multiples. This separates the quality of the trade from the size and overhead of the trade. It makes comparing trades accross different accounts possible.
• Many traders use slow charts to zero in on the overall price direction, and eliminate unwanted fast chart noise.

Principle 3: Local Quality
Local Quality refers to changing something about a system that is uniform, in such a way that makes it non-uniform.

We see examples of local quality in the trading world in situations like these:

• A trader moves from trading only stocks, to also trading options or futures.
• A trader uses equivolume charts, which differ from bar charts by using volume to feed non-uniform bar width.
• Many traders risk a percent of their equity on their trades, an amount which changes with their account size. Compare this to risking a fixed, uniform amount per trade.
• Some traders switch from linear chart axes to logarithmic ones. Each inch on the chart is a non-uniform dollar amount, but it helps them see moves by percentage more easily.

Principle 4: Asymmetry
Asymmetry is subtly different from Local Quality. It’s about changing the shape of something from symmetrical to asymmetrical.

Examples of chosing asymmetric ideas over symmetric ones:

• Traders choose trades with a potential reward larger than the expected risk. Thus, their exit point is further from the entry price than their stop loss. It’s an asymmetric exit strategy.
• Traders using options strategies often put on combinations of put and call positions that have asymmetric payoffs on the long and short side.
• Some trading systems with rules for long trades simply invert their rules to create short signals. Others adjust or add rules for their short signals. This customization is an example of moving from a symmetric system to an asymmetric one.

Principle 5: Consolidation
No, not price consolidation, like you’re used to. In TRIZ terms, consolidation refers to making operations contiguous or parallel in time.

Examples of consolidation from the trading world are:

• Platforms that support order-cancels-order options on orders. This eliminates manual and time-consuming steps that a trader would otherwis need to take.
• Traders set alerts on stocks that allows them to monitor more stocks in parallel than they could manually.
• Traders create macros and hot-keys on their platforms, which allow them to issue commands faster than they could otherwise.

I only traded Monday through Wednesday this week, and I have more-or-less decided to take next week off. These just aren’t very tradeable markets, in my opinion. I love my money too much to throw it at low-volume whippage. I would rather throw it at restaurants and hotels, and come back rested after labor day. I will still look at any alerts from my watchlist, and see if they look “obviously” good.

I’ll also try to use next week to put more articles up here on the blog. I know I’ve been posting a little less lately… time to fix that!

I consider it a minor personal trading victory that I’ve had no losing weeks in July or August, though two of those weeks saw only very small gains. There’s obviously a lot of frustration out there in the trading blogs. If you do trade next week, be careful, and good luck!

One trade today, in CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR). This one’s been on my Stocktickr watchlist since 8/16/2006, so it was especially satisfying for it to finally break my target price.

The first time it fell through my target 34.35, there wasn’t much volume, and it popped back up pretty quick. I waited for the second break to short the stock. That was after 3pm, but as I mentioned yesterday, I’m not sure avoiding the last hour of trading is doing me much good. As long as my win rate stays up, and I set my sights on, say, 1 R profit, I may give more late afternoon trades a try.

As you can see, the move I shorted had more volume. I got out the first time momentum seemed to be letting up. Late day trades are no time for greed!

I may not be trading the rest of the week. I have a number of social commitments to attend to. We’ll just have to see if I can get away. I’ll make every effort to at least keep my watchlist up to date, and post the daily scans.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
CKFR	| |

Well, it’s Tuesday, and I’m dead even for the week. Two trades: one win, one loss, for a total of 0 R. I am not finding this week’s market action very favorable for my type of trading. Volume is too low, and I am once again fretting about sudden market turns.

Monday, the trade was on AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR). It was a short play. It stopped me out without even thinking too hard about going my way. I should have set my stop a little higher, to get over those morning wicks (not that it would have saved me). I’m okay with my choice of entry, but not entirely thrilled. Overall, I give this trade a “D”.

Today, I noticed Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) early on via the TradeIdeas scanner. I got in long, and in hindsight jumped out a few minutes too soon. I was watching the trade, instead of walking away. I knew 24.76 was an important level from a couple days ago. I gave it like 4 tries to push through, and it kept bouncing off. 24.70 was my 1 R point, so I decided it was prudent to take my 1 R. For your amusement, I’m posting the chart that makes me look dumbest (StockTickr makes several available to me automatically)… I got out right at the bottom of a very green candle:

Had I walked away, I probably would have picked 24.90 as my target, and would have made a little more. Until after labor day, though, I may put my “ride your winners” hat in the closet. We need some volume, and a clear market direction!

A few of my watchlist trades have hit their prices, but always in the last hour of trading. As a general rule, I don’t enter trades in the last hour. I’m looking at whether I shouldn’t reconsider, though. My rationale for staying out is that the last hour is choppy. But, lately, all day feels pretty choppy…. hmmm….

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
AMR	| |
AMD	| |

Tell me where this line of reasoning breaks down…. it’s just a thought experiment I did a moment ago.. I’ll take you through it, in the order I thought of things.

I’ve heard that a typical dummy trader (see here for examples if you have no idea what that means) has a 40 to 45% win rate. That means, if I take the other side of those trades, I should have a 55 to 60% win rate, as long as I always take profits at 1 R (where the dummy trader would have been stopped out). Luckily, with that kind of win rate, 1 R per winning trade is all I need to have a positive expectancy.

Of course, 1 R at 55% win rate isn’t going to amount to a whole lot of money unless I can find a whole lot of anti-dummy trades to take. But, what about this…

What if I set up two trading accounts. And, I always simultaneously entered my dummy trade and my anti-dummy trades? Then, when the dummy trade is stopped out, my anti-dummy trade mostly cancels out the loss (slippage and commissions make it not perfect). When the dummy trade works, 1 R of profit is cancelled out because of the loss I take on the anti-dummy trade. Again, it won’t be perfect due to the times the winner turns too fast, and you win less than 1 R on the dummy trade. But, overall, shouldn’t I come out a little richer (by like 10 R to 20 R per 100 trades) this way?

Even better than a little more profit, is the fact that my drawdowns should be pretty darn shallow. By definition, losing streaks in my dummy trades have equivalent winning streaks in my anti-dummy trades. Right?

Come to think of it, doesn’t it stand to reason that this scheme improves the profitability and consistency of any system that wins less than 50%? The lower the win rate, the more it helps. I’ve read that there are some trend following systems out there with like 20% or less win rates… in that case taking the anti-trades too would mean an extra 60 R per 100 trades, or so. Seems like that would make the drawdowns on those trend-following systems much more bearable, right?

I think I read about FX traders doing something like this, getting long and short the same position in two accounts… can’t recall where at the moment, though. Do any stock traders out there do it?

I wasn’t there, but as far as I can tell, in the 1930’s and 1940’s, there was a big push to apply scientific principles to just about everything. Science was going to perfect every aspect of life. See books like The Mathematical Basis of the Arts, or New Musical Resources in the art/music world, for example (I’ve read both of those, and think they are very interesting). Think of studies that led to the 1948 book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. There are examples everywhere, though many are becoming more obscure as time passes.

TRIZ
Around 1946, Genrich Altshuller started reviewing patents worldwide. The idea was to systematically uncover the essence of innovation, and distill it into principles that could be taught and applied across all fields of science and industry. 40 Inventive Principles were developed under the acronym TRIZ (a Russian acronym with English translation “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”).

Using the principles is like this: imagine you are going through a cave, and find a big rock blocking your path. So, you pull out a checklist that says “Can you climb over it? Can you crawl under it? Can you move it? Can you drill through it? Can you find another path? etc.” It’s just a bunch of abstract ways people have solved problems in the past. As such, they make for an organized approach to make sure you’ve considered lots of typically good problem-solving angles. So, when you are trying to solve a problem, or make an improvement in something, you can read through the principles and see if any of them turn on any lights.

I’ve tried to use TRIZ before in my past life as a software developer, with some success. The principles are sufficiently abstract that, for me, they kind of spark ideas through free-association. You know, like that game where you hear a word and you say the first thing that comes to mind? For example, one of the principles is “Segmentation: Divide an object into independent parts. Make an object easy to assemble/dissasemble.” An example of this idea in trading might be candlestick charts, which break the day into time segments. Another might be dividing equity among different sectors for diversification. Of course, these are existing solutions–the goal is to be able to apply the principle of segmentation to new trading problems, or to the same problems in different ways (P&F charts, anyone?).

TRIZ and Trading
People have pre-tailored the TRIZ principles to specific fields, so that the wording and examples are immediately more relevant. A good place to look for that, and other TRIZ info is The TRIZ Journal, which is an active on-line journal of TRIZ-related articles. I found The 40 Inventive Principles of TRIZ Applied to Finance (pdf) there.

I thought it might be fun to try to run through the principles with more of a stock trading focus. Maybe I’ll make 4 posts of 10 principles each? I’m certain than when you all see the principles, you’ll immediately think of examples and insights that I didn’t. Post ‘em!

I didn’t take any trades yesterday, in part because I only traded about a half day. Today, I thought I was going to pass as well, but around noon Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ENDP) pushed through 34 and held up pretty well desipite a bit of nastiness in the QQQQs at the time. That was a good sign. Also, related companies (courtesy of google finance) were up. So, I got in, with an aggressive stop.

I should point out, too, that this was another highchartpatterns selection. Actually, three of my four winning trades this week were from them. Thanks, HCPG!

The chart (click to enlarge):

As you can see, I was almost stopped out right away. When that didn’t happen, I picked my price target, and tried to enjoy myself elsewhere. I am trying really hard to hold trades until either 1) I get stopped out, 2) they go where I think they might, or 3) the market close. The best way for me to do that, at least initially, is to just get away from my screen when I’m not trying to enter trades.

Note, too, that my target (34.35) was almost the exact top for the day. It hit 34.40 for like a microsecond. Earlier this week, I had picked the exact top on the other trade where I used this approach. Clearly, I am some kind of top-picking savant! Ok, obviously not, but that would be really cool. Actually, I wanted to be alerted at 34.35 so I could consider adjusting my stop. But, when I saw how vertical that move was, I thought it was more prudent to get out altogether. I am happy with that decision. If there were more time left in the day, I’d have considered getting back in if it based again and recovered.

Nice way to end the week. Hope your week ended well, too!

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
ENDP	| |

I’m considering two options moving forward. One, I could get a real-time data feed, and build my own trading platform. Two, it looks like I could migrate to TradeStation, and do a lot of custom programming in their EasyLanguage or add-on APIs.

So, anyone out there a tradestation user? If so, I wonder if I could ask you a couple questions. There’s a couple things that aren’t obvious to me from the website. If you aren’t a programmer, that’s ok… some of my questions are about the platform itself. I wish they’d let me download it for a trial in demo mode, or something.

Alternatively, if any of you out there are using a real-time data feed from someone, can you recommend them to me? I’ve been looking, and the most promising one I can find is: IQFeed. They are windows-only, though, and I’d frankly rather have a Unix-friendly solution. Still, I’d be interested in hearing about other windows-only solutions as well.

For either case, if you can help, please either leave a comment, or email me at richard@movethemarkets.com. Thanks!

This was a better week for me than last week. Last week, I could only find one trade I liked. This week, I found seven, and got close to a 60% win rate. My personal preference would be to get as close to 80% as possible, even if that means smaller gains per trade. I don’t mind getting rich 1.5 R at a time–it’s the drawdowns I hate. On with the stats:

This week I learned some important lessons about market tone. Most importantly: Don’t assume you know what’s going to happen for the rest of the day. I left a lot of profit behind, assuming that the market would turn. I need to think harder about reliable ways to gauge market mood. I’ve got some sector ETFs/Indices on my screens, and the QQQQ, and the TICKs. Maybe I should start looking at futures quotes.

On a more positive note, this week I had two trades where I actually entered a stop order, picked an exit target, and walked away. I’m especially pleased that, both times, my target was hit. This is really good positive reinforcement for me. Obviously my brain knows that it wouldn’t mean anything if two trades were stopped out while I wasn’t watching. But, emotionally, it’s always good to start off on a winning streak when trying something new. Maybe I will somehow become a hold-til-the-close guy after all.

My two goals are pretty much unchanged… I still want to make more like 12 or 15 trades a week, so I’ve got more progress to make, there. And, I want to let my winners run more. I think I’m making a little progress in that regard, but overall I’m still failing at that.

I am so tired of August! I can’t believe there’s still two more weeks of it… I thought July was difficult, but August has been the most punishing stock-picking month of the year, in my estimation. Still, I have been green every week, so I can’t complain too much.

If I gave myself an “F” yesterday, I’ll give myself maybe a “B” today. Let’s see why….

First, the stats: I made three trades for 3 R. That was 2 winners and 1 loser. Not bad, especially for an under-trader like me.

The first two trades were on Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM). On the first entry, which was earlier in the day than I like to trade, I sensed weakness, and feared a big drop. I didn’t wait for my stop and got out for -0.45R. It’s always ironic when your blackberry beeps to confirm that you lost money on RIMM! :-) So, that’s the first reason I can’t give myself an “A” today. I didn’t trust my own stop, which was a pretty tight stop in the first place.

Then, a few minutes later, things looked rosier and I jumped back in with an aggressive stop (click to enlarge):

Even though I made 2 R this time, this was the heartbreaking trade of the day. Just look at the other 10 R I didn’t make! :-( I was watching the Qs, and the TICK when I got out, and I thought they looked weak. But, RIMM didn’t skip much of a beat, and kept on rolling. I could’ve gotten back in, but a third trade on the same stock felt too much like revenge. (Yes, you can take revenge on a stock even after winning).

Later in the day, I traded Trimble Navigation (Nasdaq: TRMB) for 1.45 R. First the chart, then the story (click to enlarge):

So, after seeing what I had done on RIMM, I was determined to be a “hold-to-the-close” guy on my next trade. When TRMB set up, I bought in. I put a stop in the market (which I almost never do… I’m a mental stops man). I set an email alert for my target of 49.50, and I just walked away. (If you must know, I watched a couple episodes of Alias on DVD).

At the time, I imagined I’d be writing a blog entry like this:

I really love this new trading style. Is there anything better than making money while relaxing? I’ve done my job, getting into the trade, and now it’s just carefree money-making time.

… but what I really felt like was more like this:

Any second, my blackberry’s going to beep. Aaaaany second. And it will either be my stop executing, or my target getting hit. Yep, should be soon. Maybe I should check that the alerts are set properly. No, that’s silly. Sure has been a while, though. I hope the markets are holding up. Geez, this is nerve-wracking. In a minute, I think I better check on it.

I was far from relaxed! But, I may keep at it, and try to get used to it. Anyway, eventually I did get the email, and I had managed to pick the exact top as my target. I was able to get out for just a few cents less than that. If my platform had order-cancels-order options available, I wouldn’t have even had to do anything to get out of the trade, but it doesn’t.

Highchartpatterns.com
Both stocks I traded today were from Highchartpatterns.com. Last night I had someone send me email saying “If your watchlists work, why do you need to use a stock picking service?” Well, I don’t need to, but today is a good example of why I might want to.

Yeah, I have lots of setups I’m watching for at all times (right now there’s 25 or so active on my StockTickr watchlist, and I’ve started posting my most useful nightly scan here on the blog every day). But, those setups can take days to materialize. So, even with 25 stocks on my screen, some days none of them are tradeable by my standards. Today was one of those days, with only Time Warner Inc. (Nasdaq: TWTC) hitting my price at the end of the day.

So, on days like this, it’s really nice to have access to some ideas by another set of traders. Since their style is similar to mine, I find their picks natural to trade. Since their style is a little different than mine, they tend to find different stocks than I do. Perfect!

So, this isn’t the first newsletter I’ve subscribed to, and it won’t be the last, I’m sure. You can never have too many ideas to work with!

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
RIMM	| |
TRMB	| |
TWTC	| |

I’m going to categorize today as a mistake, even though I made money. Just look at the long side of the “30-day high” list I posted this morning. Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM), OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSIP), Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU), American Eagle Outfitters (Nasdaq: AEOS), and Wynn Resorts Ltd. (Nasdaq: WYNN) all offered substantial tradeable gains today. Maybe even more that I didn’t even notice. So I did great, right?

Right??

Wrong. I took one trade, on MU, for 1.6R. How did this happen? Should I go to a mirror and search for a lobotomy scar? No, it’s simple to explain:

Preconceived Notions
Moments after the markets opened, I “knew” how the day would play out. I was fooled yesterday, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again! No, I am too smart and savvy for that! We gapped up 100 Dow points, and, by gosh, by noon we were going to be falling back to 0. And I was going to be ready to short everything that looked even remotely weak. Soon, it would be time to buy a new Ferrari each week to match the TV Guide.

I can’t think of one time I’ve had a plan in my head for the overall market direction, and went on to do well. I know better than to do that! I guess I forgot, today.

But, it underscores an area of my trading I need to work on, which is, how to tell when the markets have changed direction. I watch the TICKs, but they fluctuate pretty wildly. I glance at the QQQQ charts occasionally, but they dip every now and then, just like any other stock. The question is, how to tell when a dip is a dip, and when a dip is the start of a market turn. If I had a handle on that, i would always trade with the current market, and always change my bias when the market does.

No matter what, sitting on the sidelines on a day like today, waiting to short things, is cleary not the right move.

Anyway, the Trade
Courtesy of StockTickr’s new pro feature, here is my one trade today (click to enlarge):

You can see, I got out at a local top, which I was pretty happy with. It would be a little while before it made higher highs again. When you consider that I was expecting the markets to turn within an hour, you can see why I thought this was the perfect trade at the time. I gave up lots of gains trying not to relive yesterday’s downturn.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
CRM	| |
OSIP	| |
MU	| |
AEOS	| |
WYNN	| |

It was a hard, hard, hard, hard day to make money. And I did worse than every link in that last sentence. I lost money.

The worst thing is, it doesn’t even take a very long memory to remember the last time the markets gapped up and then fell apart. I should have been ready. Or, at least, I should have seen it and gone short on something, anyway. After all, the turn started at noon. I even had a watchlist entry trigger short in the early afternoon, and couldn’t take it (reason was, the alert fired in the opening minutes and then reversed, and I didn’t reset my alert, so I didn’t get the second email). So, not the best performance from me today.

NEW Easy Charts
But, there is at least one bright side… I can show you my losing trades easier than ever now. StockTickr has a new feature for Pro members that I’m trying out. After the close, it generates tons of charts on each of your trades, annotated with entry, stop, and exit. You get 5, 10, 15, 30 minute versions of the trade, and QQQQ and SPY reference charts. The feature is brand new and still being tweaked, so the exact set is still in motion. I’m sure they would like suggestions and feedback. What a time-saver, though! It used to take forever to go capture my charts and annotate them. This is the kind of thing that happens when the site owner also trades–you get features that matter to traders. Good job!

My first failure of the day was Dillards (NYSE: DDS). When I saw what a big “up” day we were having, I checked the NYSE top gainers list, and there was DDS. It quickly rejected a little drop below 33, which was also the top of the opening range. So, I got in expecting new highs in no time. WRONG! Stopped out a little later for -1 R (click to enlarge):

Second failure, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD). It set up (decently, I thought), surging above 63 on volume. But, alas, it got to 63.27 and then tanked. I knew from experience to set a wide stop on GILD, or really, any biotech. But, as the chart below shows, that didn’t save me. -1 R (click to enlarge):

Watchlist Possibilities
The watchlist success for today was Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI). If you were smarter than I was, and watched for a second entry opportunity today, you would have been happy. Heck, if you were faster than I was, and got in the trade at the open, you would have made money if you got out quick. I heart my watchlist.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
DDS	| |
GILD	| |
BHI	| |

Life got in the way last night, and I didn’t get to update my watchlist like I would have liked to. If I had, I would have seen that I wanted to short Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) under 22.50, based on the weekly chart action. But, I missed it. There’s a tiny chance I’ll enter some other trades I’m watching, but at this point I’m doubtful enough that I’m going to go ahead and post my weekly performance. (such that it is)

Good Grief! One trade. It’s enough to make me want to get out my TotalView windows and scalp all day. At least, my one trade was a winner. I said yesterday it was 1.5 R, but stocktickr says 1.4 is more accurate. So, 1.4 R this week. Looks like August is going to be a dry month, profit-wise!

I can see from reading other blogs that several active traders are hitting rough spots these last couple weeks. So, I can tell it’s been hard on all of us. In my case, I’ve just not been seeing the kind of entry opportunities I want to see. So, I’ve been mostly out of the action.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
CAL	| |