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

My results today were not as good as yesterday. The most important thing is “Did I trade well”? For the most part, I did. My style this morning did not match market conditions, but the trades were technically valid, even though they lost. I chalk it up to lack of experience rather than mistakes.

As I talked about in the comment on Zoomie’s post, I planned to rotate through several styles today that I am familiar with: Momentum breakouts at the open, Gappers at mid-morning, and then managing the open trades and watching for StreetSmack shorts for the afternoon. I entered HOKU a few minutes before the open, and it promptly ran to my stop after the open. I should have waited until after the open, because it never breached the pre-market high. Yesterday in CBAK I pounced on the open because the price started to bolt above the pre-market values. I got a bit greedy in HOKU by trying to get ahead of the market, I think, and paid -1R for it. I have some thoughts about this that I will relate in another post. Bottom line: no more pre-market momentum trades for me, at least not just minutes before the open.

Well, I tried to buy momentum breakouts twice more, in CDS and SCON, and they also ran to my stops. Choppy low volume day, and there was no more buying pressure this morning for these already extended runners. So those trades put me down to a total loss of -3.5R. If the day had been right, these would have made money, and I used sensible entries and stops. It just wasn’t a day to buy momo breakouts, at least not on the names I was watching make new highs.

Next, I looked for gappers at about 10:30 ET. Saw MU break the OR high after a strong green candle, so I went long. MU went sideways for the rest of the day, and I scratched out at breakeven:

Last trade was supposed to be a Jamie style trade in JRJC, but I missed the break of a base by 5 seconds while entering my order. I didn’t want to chase, but then I did when we broke the OR high, retested and got a new buying wave. It was the right thing to do after my failed breakouts this morning, even though it would have made me more money in this instance. Just after entry, I had a lunch appointment I had to go to, so I left the trade on with my stop in place, thinking it would take a few hours to reach the 138% fib. Nope!

After I got back and saw I missed out on +4.5R, I tried to fine tune my exit and salvage what I could. Here’s a 5 min chart I was using:

I was watching my OBV / Tick chart, and it was very helpful today. After the peak, I saw way more volume coming through on downticks than on upticks–More bulk selling pressure than buying pressure. It led me to be very aggressive in protecting my profits, and it’s a good thing I did, since it tanked precipitously after my exit. Here’s that chart:

When I made my trading decisions:

And after:

And another look at the entire day for context:

It would have made a great short, but I didn’t think of it in time and also didn’t have any shares available anyway.

So I’m pleased with the technical execution of my trades, and my strategy (system choice) needs improvement. It’s so much less stressful learning how to trade without racing myself. Trading smaller, trading setups I see rather than “looking” for a trade and forcing one on something random, following my few systems I am comfortable with. No boneheaded scalps or revenge trades. Good day for me. Oh, I finished down -1.9R for the day! And I can accept it. This is great practice for the first step of my Seven Step Plan–trading well is most important, not being green or up or whatever for the day. Trying to chase the money just screws you up more. Trade a good system well and the money will follow.

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 took 8 trades today. Sounds like a lot, but they were all good trades, even though only 4 were wins. Not a single boneheaded play in there! I accept my performance–I didn’t bank coin like many others, but I traded well, so I won the battle with myself. I also pulled down +3.47R overall (about 1.5% on my equity), which follows when you trade well and get a bit of luck. Since trying to accept myself where I am in trading, I’ve been racing less, been less desperate and traded better. Step 1 of my Seven Step Plan is helping me so far. :)

Here’s a few charts:

I traded a Muddy play at the open in CBAK, Long:

It was up big in pre-market, along with anything else Chinese today. At the open, the bid rushed the ask at $6.34, and I bought with a stop at $6.22. CBAK took off, hitting $7 within 5 minutes. I sold half at $7.14 when the move stalled, and held the rest at breakeven. Well, the second wave didn’t come, so I was stopped out at my entry, but I still made +2.1R on the half of the position I took a partial on.

I’m liking the idea of trying Muddy plays right out of the gate, while I wait for the gappers to set up, which can take a couple of hours.

I also shorted PLCM as a Jamie-style Gap trade:

After the 4th bar closed weak, I shorted a break of that low. I had a bit of space before the OR low, so I felt okay taking the trade. Then it just got stuck at 25.50. Took a partial at the OR low, and then waited all… day… and covered the rest at the close. +1R overall.

Four more uneventful scratch trades, and then somebody called Richard, who told him to buy Bear Stearns, or something. I missed the whole run up, but it was so parabolic that the ghost of StreetSmack (who is not dead, but when he finally is, he’ll send it back in time to visit me today) told me to short the sucker.

Look at the 15 min:

First Attempt:
Got stopped out on a new high. -1.2R (but tiny position)

Second Attempt:
A few scary moments and then boom goes the dynamite.

Covered half at the 38% fib level when it started to bounce. I got whipsawed out of the second half, and it went on to hit my target at 122. Oh well, still a good trade! +2R. Would have been more, but I only kept my first entry on here, rather than piling on in like a normal SS short play. I wasn’t overly confident given the huge short interest in financials.

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 did not come to the markets today to try to trade and make money. I just came to browse. I was looking at charts of gappers, and saw Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE: ABX) looking like this:

I liked the lower volume doji at the OR high. I liked that 40 was the 52 week high. The 5-ema was fairly close, but not as close as I’d like. I put a buy stop above the doji at 40.02, and planned the sell stop under the doji at 39.78. I picked a half-size position (0.5% of my equity) so that the $ would be even less of an impact on things. And then I took my hands off the wheel and let the market do the driving. Here’s the result:

I almost pulled the plug when we were close to my stop at 39.81, but I had decided to stick with the plan completely, so I held. Well, I got a lucky bounce there, and up we went. Took a partial when we stalled just under the 138% fib target at 40.42, moved the stop to 40.20 for the rest (119% fib) and went to lunch. Came back, and ABX had run without me and retraced all the way to my stop. Somehow missed getting stopped out (we ticked 40.20 at least once) and then it fought back to my earlier exit. I sold the rest at 40.41, seeing it as a gift. Had I been watching the trade earlier at the 40.70 point, I would have sold the rest at 40.60-ish I think. Still, I was glad to get back to my partial point. It turns out that ABX went on to make even higher highs than before, but even if I had held longer, I would have taken the rest at my 40.47 target, so I never would have captured that move. Trading well and following my plan got me +1.75R :)

I’m glad I traded well, and traded according to my system rules for this setup. I got lucky a bit, but there’s always a chance that anything can happen in a trade, either in your favor or against you. I have to work hard not to kick myself for missing the extra profit I could have had. I’m trying to be satisfied with what I got and accept my trading insofar as I do the best I can with the info I had at the time. That’s all part of Step 1 of my Seven Step Plan. This trade is a perfect test for that, as I watch ABX go higher and higher (and higher!), and I practice accepting it. :) I also have to fight the euphoria of winning and being right and making money, and focus on the fact that I traded well and executed my plan. That is true success in trading! A good plan, properly followed, can’t help but make money. Focus on the money too much, and you’ll lose it all.

I’m not pushing to make any more trades today. I want to put my efforts into myself, and I plan on trading lightly, if at all, as I continue to follow my plan.

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