May 17

Wow, even though I was gone most of the day (as I am every Thursday), I still made two little trades. I have been very active in May, and am quite pleased about it. No point-and-figure trades today… these were scalps on level breaks. I nearly made 3, but was scared away from XOM by low overall volume.

As scalps, they don’t make very interesting charts, so I’m not going to post them here. I enter all my trades in StockTickr, which produces charts you are always welcome to look at in chart review. The trades were in SWN break of 43.80, and AQNT break of 36.

I’m going to look over my watchlist charts later tonight, and see if I spot any point and figure trades, and see if they would have worked or not. Today looked pretty choppy in a lot of stocks (after yet more up days, and heading into OPEX, it’s not too surprising). I may stick to little scalps tomorrow as well, depending on what I find.

May 8

I’ve been watching volume-based charts for the last two days, and I’m pretty happy with them. I think they clarify the overall stock movement when there are long, low-volume choppy periods. Primarily because these long choppy periods more-or-less disappear.

However, to keep an open mind, I’m still looking at all kinds of charts after-hours. And, I’m surprised to report that, today, Point-and-Figure charts would have been better charts to watch for both of my trades.

I have more-or-less ruled out tick charts, because I don’t intuitively understand why I would care about quick trades with no volume. And, if the quick trades carry volume, they will show up in my volume charts. Anyone using tick charts want to defend their honor? If not, consider their honor thoroughly stomped upon.

Anyway, on to the trades….
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