Today was not the kind of market I’m very interested in. Gap up, fall down, crawl up, then flat, then up big, etc. etc. etc.
I can handle the gap up then fall down scenario. We’ve seen that a bunch lately. So, I shorted ENSCO International (NYSE: ESV) when it broke through some intraday resistance at 40.88 or so. After moving about 8 cents in my direction it kind-of paused, which bugged me. I normally like to see a more pronounced move on a break. But, I decided to stay in and wait for a continuation. While looking for more stocks to short, though, I noticed that everything was acting a bit strong, so I moved my mental stop to break-even, and within a few seconds broke even.
Here’s the chart, which shows I made the right decision (click to enlarge):
I somewhat wish I would have persevered and tried to capitalize on what turned out to be a big up move in just about every sector I watch. But, I just don’t trust markets that are all over the place like today. So, I kept my eye on things, but mostly got some reading done. Later in the day, I nearly shorted Swift Transportation Company (Nasdaq: SWFT), because the transports were not acting as strong as the overall market (probably because energy stocks were up), and it set up nice. But, at the price I was waiting for, there were more buyers than sellers, and it never made a shortable move until I got tired of watching.
Here’s hoping tomorrow is more straightforward!
[...] Richard has done some trades during this kinda day. Read here. And Trading is Not Boring! [...]