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.