This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
I was busy all morning, but I got time to trade just before the Fed released their statement. I saw CFC taking a dive, and tried to scalp the action. My first entry was short at the bottom of a swing, and I was quickly out for a loss. Determined to keep swinging, I tried again to go short. This time the entry was good, but I didn’t partial out when I should have, and scratched the trade. Since trade #2 wasn’t a loss (2 strikes in the same stock and I’m out of it for the day) I tried again, this time looking long. My entry was terrific: I sent a market order to buy just as I saw price fall back from round number $27 and got filled at $26.90. CFC then snapped back to $27 and began battling it out, doing lots of volume a little above $27. This gave me an immediate cushion on the trade, and it ended up great, offsetting the loss from my first trade by about 2x. Here’s the chart:
Trade Summary:
CFC Short
Entry: $26.89, Stop: $27.08, Target: $26.50
Exit: $27.12, P/L: -1.20R
Trade Grade:
Trade Summary:
CFC Short
Entry: $26.96, Stop: $27.15, Target: $26.60
Exit: $26.92, P/L: 0.16R
Trade Grade:
Trade Summary:
CFC Long
Entry: $26.90, Stop: $26.80, Target: $27.50
Exit: $27.26, P/L: 4.34R
Trade Grade:
Wallstreak user Johnson also pointed out a beautiful base forming in JNPR, right at round number $33. I set an alert to tell me when it broke out. I held a very tight (for me) stop of S0.10, and it paid off very well. I traded off the 1 minute chart, though the 15 minute shows the base better, and I watched it for confirmation of the price and volume action I saw on the 1 minute. That’s kind of backwards to how I usually think (the higher timeframe guiding the lower instead of the other way around), but it worked out well and kept me confident to hold even though the 1 min looked scary at times.
Trade Summary:
JNPR Long
Entry: $33.09, Stop: $32.90, Target: $33.50
Exit: $33.59, P/L: 2.08R
Trade Grade:
I’m on a tear lately, and it’s a function of three things:
1) Good luck (I admit–I’ve gotten a few good breaks recently)
2) Freedom to trade at will from my Prop firm
3) An increase in my skills from my own experience as well as excellent mentoring from the exceptional traders on Wallstreak.
My prop account is up 10% since 7/25/07. That’s not only the best performance in two weeks I’ve ever had, it’s also the highest my trading gains have ever been. I’m finally making money by trading. Still, pride goeth before the fall, so I’m trying to be very cautious to avoid mistakes and not think I’m ‘home free’.
This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
