I had a pretty unremarkable day today. I took two trades, and both of them took on the same pattern. Made a total of 0.45 R. My current R is about 1% of my account, so less than 0.5% equity increase today. :-(
First, I got into Rambus, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS), on the break of 18, but it just sat there. The markets were rockin’ right along with nice TICKs and volume, but RMBS gave out on me. So I got out for 0.08 R (enough for me to eat at Chili’s, and have an alcoholic beverage or two). So, basically, a non-event. Not bothering with the chart on that one. I should point out, it did eventually move my way, but it was like an hour later, and I’m glad I didn’t wait. Not the kind of trade I’m interested in.
The other trade I took was on Centex Corp. (NYSE: CTX), when it set up rather nicely (if I do say so myself) under 52. But, again, it pushed through and just sat there. Even fell back to the 51.80’s. So, this is the worst part of my generally wonderful day… getting into a second trade that had a nice setup, and good volume, and nice market context, and then… nothing!
So after RMBS I decided I might as well sit there and watch it stagnate for 40 minutes. It finally made a move again, at that point. Great! My normal procedure when a stock breaks through a big number is to watch for an over-enthusiastic move. You know, the overly vertical ones that you’re pretty sure won’t hold up? I generally bail near the top of those, if I can catch it. So, I cancel my stop, and I’m watching to see whether I need to put my stop back on, or jump out.
I wish I could say something amusing, like “I sneezed,” or “my cat jumped onto my keyboard,” but the truth is, my finger just twitched. Next thing I know, I’m out of the trade. That’s the first time in all my trading that I’ve accidentally issued an order like that. At least, I don’t remember any other times. So, I got out with 0.36 R in the middle of a nice move. It was just one of those days, I guess.
Here’s the CTX chart (click to enlarge):
Regarding the Markets
I’m pretty sure I’ve noticed that the last three or four options expirations weeks had bullish rallies. That doesn’t seem like a coincidence. All in all, it seemed like the indices and the TICKs were telling me what a strong market we had today, but the stocks I was watching told a different story. Not a lot of movement during the day, that I was seeing. Trade-Ideas wasn’t telling me about too many stocks with massive volume, either.
[Edit: after reading several blogs, I guess I have to come to the conclusion that it was just an off day for the high/low breakout stocks I had chosen to watch. Several people mentioned that stocks were really moving. Oh well.]