In my last post I mentioned opting not to buy into Grant Prideco Inc (NYSE: GRP) at 42.60. How did that decision turn out? I’d say it was right on. It did make it up 16 cents before reversing. But, 16 cents would not have been anywhere near 1R on that trade, and I’d have broken even if I was lucky. Here’s current 30 minute chart as of 12:48 or so:

I had Harmony Gold Mining Company (NYSE: HMY) trigger by breaking 17. It got all the way to 17.03 before falling back away… 30 minute chart:

Fairchild Semiconductor has been in range of breaking 15.54 for about an hour now, but so far can’t do it, and then it’s got round number 15.50 to deal with, which means I’d wait for 15.49 to do anything. 30-min chart:

AAI and ARNA, which reversed this morning, are still nice and reversed, so no joy there either. That’s all the evidence I need. Breakouts aren’t really sticking, today, and I’m not going to bother looking any longer. I really should get around to trying a completely different strategy for days like this. It would seem like the most natural extension “new” strategy would be to take the opposite side of the breakout trade, since I’m expecting them to fail. I have trouble making myself do that, though. I need to sit down and study it.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
GRP	| |
HMY	| |

Looks like another one of those days I don’t like, so far. I took a small position in Airtran Holdings Inc (NYSE: AAI). Here’s the daily chart, showing where I wanted to go short. But, I got out of it because it reversed and decided it would rather go up. rrrrgh..

I also took a small loss on Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM), which rushed up along with everything else around 10ish. So, with those two stocks clearly not acting like I wanted them to, I passed on Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc (Nasdaq: ARNA) when it broke 14. Which was a good idea, because it reversed from 13.99 and is only just now as I write this drifting back down.

I also passed on GRP at a minor (fuzzy on daily charts) buy point of 42.00. I was happy with my decision when it reversed, but then around 41.78 it turned back around and never looked back. My target would have been 42.60, which was a clearer buy point on the chart. When it got to 42.60, I couldn’t see buying because of how much a move it had just made, and because the dow and naz were dropping by then (again). Time will tell if that was the right choice. Here’s the 5 min chart so far:

So, not a lot of profit this morning. By which I mean, no profit. Or, more precisely, losses. :-) I wouldn’t say I’ve done well this week so far. But, there will be plenty more opportunities I’m sure. Due to my incredibly elastic (by which I mean, wacky) sleep schedule, it’s almost time for me to go to sleep, even though I’m in the USA. Maybe I will dream of profits instead.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
AAI	| |
AKAM	| |
ARNA	| |

Two of my StockTickr watchlist stocks hit their prices today, and I took a trade in one of them. Further, I held it to the close. I think this may be the first trade I’ve ever held for more than 3 hours. It’s kind of an anticlimax, though, since I could have gotten the same profit by exiting the trade in the first 20 minutes. Even though it didn’t run, the important thing was that it had a chance to run.

The stock is Grant Prideco, Inc. (NYSE: GRP). Here is the 10 minute chart:

The sloppily drawn arrow was my entry. That horizontal line at 45.05 is the R2 pivot point. Starting last week, I’m sticking with pivots on my charts on flat days, and leaving them off when the markets are moving. Since the 45 level was also resistance on the daily/weekly charts, it was an especially good prospect above that level.

The other trade that I could have taken was Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA). It pushed through my 70 price in the opening minutes, and I passed. I don’t like to trade the first 30 minutes. That was a good choice, as you can see, it fell sharply before long.

… However, it did set up again, and I chose to pass again. The pivot point at 70.31 bothered me, and it had acted as resistance early in the day. As it happened, APA did eventually push through that 70.31 level. Oh, well!

I took Akamai Technologies Inc (Nasdaq: AKAM) off my watchlist today, as it’s had a nice run from the time it hit my target last week.

Traffic Boost
My blog got a nice boost of traffic last night, primarily because Trader Mike linked to one of my stories. Thanks, Trader Mike! And, if you saw the blog for the first time yesterday or today, I hope you stick around. I’ve got lots of articles in various stages of completion.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
Stock	Links
GRP	| |
APA	| |
AKAM	| |