This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Two trades today on 30 minute charts. I am back to my 30 minute charts exclusively, as I find I don’t get chopped up as much. I am also going to stop trading at noon, eastern time. My wife was the one who told me Sealy had a cool ticker, ZZ for sleeping. I didn’t catch that at first, so cute :p

Trade 1: ORB

Trade 2: ZZ

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Here’s a quick rundown of what I traded today. I didn’t choose anything from my watchlist last night because none of it really moved :p Oh well, bad idea. On to my trades:

First one was a Muddy 10/60 in CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR). Here’s the chart–yellow is my entry, red my stop levels.

My entry was late, but I managed it okay. At least it was a win, though not a big one. I increased my risk from 1% to 1.5% of my equity, so my max R value is now about $15, though I busted that with this trade, as you can see below. Adjustments are tough sometimes.

Trade Summary:
CYTR Long 136 Shares
Entry: $5.17, Stop: $4.99, Target: $6.00
R: $24.47, Exit: $5.31
P/L: 0.75R, or $18.37

The other trade was Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (NASDAQ: TXRH). This was a failed Trader-X attempt. I took it because of the NR4, but I also didn’t follow X’s rules to the letter in that none of the candles closed above the OR high, and I ended up taking a sub-par setup. Stopped out for -1R within about 5 minutes.

Trade Summary:
TXRH Long 100 Shares
Entry: $15.86, Stop: $15.76, Target: $16.52
R: $10.00, Exit: $15.76
P/L: -1.00R, or ($10.00)

So, net positive on the day of $8.37, or roughly 0.8%–beats the market today, anyway!

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
CYTR	| |
TXRH	| |

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Here they are. Trade 1: ANAD

Trade 2: ZMH

Trade 3: WMG

Trade 4: WMT

Trade 5: ANAD one more time.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I have managed to wipe out my 5.5 of my 8.5 R in gains for the month in 3 days. I am busy studying Trader X and Tom C.’s trades. My printer should run out of ink if I do a proper job tonight.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Here’s some stocks I’ll be watching for a swing entry tomorrow. These come from a StockFetcher scan I’m playing with. I’m looking for stocks with a 500% volume increase today over the 90 day average. My strategy would be to buy in tomorrow as a stock makes a new high for the day, with a stop below yesterday’s low or close, keeping a sane position size.

PCLP, GSHO, CSWT, PTPSF, SSPI, SBJX (Why didn’t I hold!!), VMDC, NXNO, TRNO, BDSI, NYNY, LCRD, SWMX, ENTX, DFXN, MLSS

Many of these are OTC:BB and pink sheets stocks with low liquidity, so DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! If you do, Broker A will kill me for ripping off his disclaimer. And you may lose money.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

3 trades with 2 small losses and one medium size loss for -1.3 R total. Tough trading day I found. Trade 1: ZION

Trade 2: ZBRA (15 min chart)

Trade 3: IPS

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NASDAQ: TEVA) is a biotech company from Israel. I got the idea for this trade from the Motley Fool discussion boards.

1. Why did I take this trade?
Teva broke above its HoD from Tues Feb 13/07, and showed signs of follow thru momentum. I wanted to get a piece of that action.

2. What was the initial stop?
I quickly sold my initial attempt at a position was when I saw that it was not ready to continue upwards. The second attempt at a position was after confirmation that the chart was telling me it was truly going up instead of messing around. I entered a position @37.80 when TEVA proved that it could break above that resistance level.

3. Why did you exit where you did?
TEVA price action got pretty messy in the morning. I was not actually watching it when it dipped down to 37.60, but as soon as I started watching it, I did not like what I saw on the tape and promptly sold it no questions asked.

4. Is there anything you would do differently?

The daily chart shows that TEVA was oversold, which meant that it was a bit unrealistic to expect it to continue going upwards. Yeah, I wish I had known this sooner, so I wouldn’t have wasted any more time and effort stalking and tracking this stock.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
TEVA	| |

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I closed a trade in JSX ENERGY INC (JSXG.PK). I bought it because it made a new high on a volume uptick. I closed it today at my breakeven point. The stop was literally zero, so my position size was very small. My target for this was a double, but in retrospect I should have sold yesterday as it closed weak and volume dried up. This brings me to the conclusion that I need to revise my penny stock system. Not a big deal, since it’s still not even really a system. It’s more of a change of direction in my thoughts. Anyway…

Here’s the chart:

And the daily view:

Trade Summary:
JSXG Long 5 Shares
Entry: $1.85, Stop: $0.00, Target: $3.70
R: $9.25, Exit: $1.88
P/L: 0.02R, or $0.15

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Four trades today. I entered TIE but bailed soon after as I saw it was a poor setup for a scratch trade. I was proudly showing my daytrades off to my wife’s friends I met for the first time today. After I was done showing off, Bob told me he traded bonds in the pits in Chicago back in the 80’s. I ate my humble pie, and listened to some great stories! Trade1: KG

Trade 2: FDX

Trade 3: YHOO

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I finally pulled off a Trader-X play! I’m excited about it. :) I also closed one of my penny swings for a loss. I’m not excited about that. :( Here’s the details:

1. FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX)

I got FDX off my Prophet.net gapper scan, and watched the 30 minute chart for a low risk entry:

I also looked for potential resistance on the daily chart for trouble spots (black lines I drew):

I forced the entry kind of early since I didn’t want to miss the move, if it happened. Part of my justification was that the low wick on the fourth bar was caused by a single tick or two, as noted on this tick chart:

The tick chart also shows the price pausing at some of the daily resistance levels I drew. Interesting.

So I ignored that low on the 30 min. chart, and placed my stop as shown in the first red line in the tick chart. I moved it up to breakeven at 1R (second red line), and then had to go out for an appointment, so I left the stop at $177.00 even (the third red line). I came back, and it had passed the target, reversed, and hit the target again. I’ll take good luck any day it comes, and so I closed it out at the 138% fib extension. Successful X Trade!

This one was different in that the gap was smaller than some I trade, and maybe that made the difference in making it to the 138% fib. The only problem was that the stock was so expensive, I ran out of buying power and I had less than half the position size I needed! AARGH! Still, it feels good to make some big R’s :)

Trade Summary:
FDX Long 12 Shares
Entry: $116.35, Stop: $116.02, Target: $117.90
R: $3.96, Exit: $117.88
P/L: 4.64R, or $18.36

2. BroadVision, Inc. (OTC: BVSN)

I chose BVSN based on a stock screen I am working on, looking for stocks that have doubled, looking to catch another double from then on.

It closed strong yesterday, so I bought at the close with a very wide stop below the low of 2/12. Today, it dropped to very near the stop, so I got out to avoid a big gap down tomorrow. Reduce and remove. Of course I had a full 1% R size for this one :b The good news is that I’m holding a few others that are profitable or still near my entry.

Trade Summary:
BVSN Long 23 Shares
Entry: $1.93, Stop: $1.50, Target: $3.86
R: $9.89, Exit: $1.55
P/L: -0.88R, or ($8.74)

Thanks for reading!

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
FDX	| |

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

First Quantum Minerals Ltd (TSX: FM) is some sort of mining company that trades on the TSX. The idea for this trade came from watching RobTV.com.

1. Why did I take this trade?
Some analyst on RobTV.com put in a plug for First Quantum Minerals Ltd (TSX: FM) last week, so I looked at the chart for this company. I saw that the resistance @64 was a significant level of resistance dating back to 3 months ago. So last week, I added FM onto my watchlist with an alert level of 64. It fired off yesterday morning, but being unfamiliar with its price action, I decided to let it go, and wait for the second chance. The second chance came in the afternoon. I bought on the second break above 64.

2. What was the initial stop?
The initial stop was @63.60 63.70, about 0.5% below my entry, and also at an intraday support level.

3. Why did you exit where you did?
Buyers were exhausted by mid-morning and the slide back down started. I exited @67.86, when it broke below intraday support for the second time.

4. Is there anything you would do differently?

Yes, I should have recognized sooner that FM moved almost 2x its 20d ATR, so the buyer exhaustion was inevitable. Had I recognized that sooner, I could have sold sooner to capture another dollar of profits.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I haven’t traded yet this week… it’s a combination of relatively slow days, and I’ve been asleep during part of the market day. But, I woke up today around 10:30EST, and immediately saw Cienna Corporation (Nasdaq: CIEN) acting strong. Okay, a lot of stocks looked strong this morning. But, as the 5MAs caught up to the up stocks, CIEN kept drifting up, rather than sideways or slightly downward. I take that as a very positive sign. Here’s the 15 minute chart prior to my entry:

Add to that the fact that it was brushing up against round number 30, and a massive Ask size at 30, and I knew I was going to play the push up through it. This was a pretty satisfying semi-scalp, since I got out very near the local top, by reading the shakiness of the T&S data. I always feel powerful when I get a read like that correct. Here’s the 1-minute chart of the trade:

1.41 R. Nice. Now, the only question is if I should get back in, when it turns back around…. I’m never good at that. In fact, I’m probably missing my chance while I blog this… :-)

I got out at first sign of weakness, rather than holding, for a few reasons. First, 30 was a major resistance area, and the stock wasn’t doing anything close to 400% volume, or anything. Second, lots of big money was fading this move, as seen by the big ask levels every few cents, and the MM ids on the TotalView. Third, isn’t some sort of Fed speech going to happen today? I’m so out of touch… I need more sleep!

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
CIEN	| |

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

(The idea for this article came from this half hour video episode on workopolis TV, a show which discusses different aspects of your career. I have adapted it for the vocation of Trading for a Living.)

Impatience is about anxiety or frustration at the obstacles to getting what you want or the obstacles to achieving your goals and objectives. Psychologists have suggested that people who are impatient are likely to have higher standards and are more results oriented. This is not a bad thing at all. However, if you act on your impatience without managing it, you may harm a relationship or make rash decisions. If you are acting out of impatience, that means you are not acting with intention.

In theory, one way to deal with impatience is to be more realistic and to better manage your expectations. Managing your own expectations during trading can help stave off feelings of impatience. Traders like me tend to underestimate the time frame required to let a trade work out, or underestimate the length of time required to wait for the right setup to come to me. It’s not that I have such a short memory and forget these rather simple truths, but in the heat of the battle, probably the last thing on my mind when I have 4 or 5 trades baking at the same time, is, “oh, I’ve underestimated the time frame required for this trade, so I had better give it a little bit more time for the trade to work itself out.” So for me, it is good to be continually reminded of these simple truths.

Another way to deal with impatience is to take a broader perspective of things. Yesterday (Feb 13/07), I was pretty steamed at the getting stopped out not once but twice (on two different stocks), only to see the stock reverse back up. But in the bigger scheme of things, it was much ado about nothing. There’s going to be a million more stocks that will stop me out before reversing back up. I had better get used to it, otherwise, I would be wasting quite an excessive amount of energy getting mad over essentially a meaningless event.

What I have learned, is that being patient is not always all about waiting. There are other things that can be done to lessen the focus on waiting. While you wait, you can practice the other 7 habits, or start looking for the next great trading idea. Again, this is a simple truth, but again, it never hurts to be continually reminded of the benefits of taking the patience pill.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Three trades today for a R-0.3 loss total. I am busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. I hope to get Monday’s trades out before the end of the week. Trade 1: CEPH

Trade 2: PCLN

Trade 3: AA

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Here’s another pile of trades I closed out today–one Trader-X inspired daytrade that went awry, but in a good way, and four other swing trades of various degrees of sanity, brought to me by Zecco’s commission-free trading. I’m trying to get something going where I risk the whole position in a volatile penny stock hoping for a home run–some with a stop of basically zero. (He’s off his rocker!) But since the whole position is only about 1R total, swing for the fences! This only works on a small part of my trading account, so I still try to daytrade in a sensible manner with the bulk of the account funds. It worked well today, and I’m fine tuning things, so I’ll keep you posted in how it does. NOTE: I do not recommend to anyone to take these trades. Probably not even me!

1. New Century Financial Corporation (REIT) (NYSE: NEW)

NEW got kicked in the junk based on accounting restatements and a recent rise in foreclosures. I wanted to play the dead cat bounce. Here’s a daily chart:

And the intraday and tick charts:

I was shooting for the 32% fib retrace. It went against me, but not to the point of my real stop at $16.50. I say real stop, because I screwed up the position size, and wound up with more risk than I wanted–I revised it to the $16.97 shown below. Then today it opened back in the money, and went down again. I sold as it broke $17.00 at about -1R. It later shot back up to a profitable position! Whoops. Just poorly played all around, though the trade premise may yet prove to be right…

Trade Summary:

NEW Long 15 Shares
Entry: $17.63, Stop: $16.97, Target: $22.00
R: $9.90, Exit: $16.92
P/L: -1.08R, or ($10.73)

2. Subjex Corp. (OTC BB: SBJX.OB)

Bought based on a new high on volume. Sold for 100% gain. Sounds impressive! P/L: only $4.00–that’s 0.4R in my usual daytrade size, though.

A more clear chart from Yahoo:

Trade Summary:

SBJX Long 50 Shares
Entry: $0.08, Stop: $0.01, Target: $0.25
R: $3.50, Exit: $0.16
P/L: 1.14R, or $4.00

3. Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONXX)

Big gap, bought based on making a new high. Sold ’cause it looked tired on the tick chart.

15-min chart:

Tick chart:

Trade Summary:

ONXX Long 1 Shares
Entry: $20.43, Stop: $10.43, Target: $30.43
R: $10.00, Exit: $25.95
P/L: 0.55R, or $5.52

4. Amish Naturals, Inc. (OTC BB: AMNT.OB)

Gotta love electronically trading a stock with “Amish” in the name! Another dead cat bounce fib play that actually worked. I entered from a break of the open, and closed at the 62% fib retrace:

Intraday:

Daily:

Trade Summary:

AMNT Long 10 Shares
Entry: $2.45, Stop: $1.45, Target: $4.00
R: $10.00, Exit: $3.32
P/L: 0.87R, or $8.70

5. Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI)

Trader-X inspired daytrade that I screwed up on in my favor. I traded this one from the tick chart instead of a standard time chart, mostly because I missed the NR bar entry on the 15-min chart:

I had a stop order in at $42.62, and near 1R profit I wanted to move it to breakeven. Zecco just introduced trailing stops, so I tried to change my stop to a trailing stop on the fly that would lock in the breakeven, and trail the profits by 1R. Apparently that doesn’t work, as my stop was immediately triggered and I sold at market. Lucky for me, since it all went south shortly after! I’ll admit when I’m lucky as well as when I screw up. Hopefully skill will come in time.

Trade Summary:

DRI Long 35 Shares
Entry: $42.81, Stop: $42.62, Target: $43.13
R: $6.65, Exit: $42.96
P/L: 0.79R, or $5.25

Please feel free to comment!

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
NEW	| |
ONXX	| |
DRI	| |

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com