An NYSE Scalper's Tale - A Trader's Diary

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Blogger Problems....Please Stay Tuned....

Gross: +$1,232.86
Net: +$1,014.12
Loss From Top: 0
Trades: 106
Shares Traded: 197814

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
JP Morgan (JPM): +$290.96
Motorola (MOT): +$236.03
Micron Tech (MU): +$209.58
Bank of America (BAC): +$162.16
Corning (GLW): +$129.22
Home Depot (HD): +$58.13
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): -$21.31
Citigroup (C): -$50.68

The last couple of days there has been problems with Blogger and I am finding it rather difficult to log in and post. Blogger reports they are busy working on the solution, so in the next little while, my posts may be a little late and if I'm not able to post on a particular day, I will attempt to post results the following day.

I'm not even sure if this posting will be published properly or not...anyhow, back to business...

Yet another day to sticking with the same game plan, and another day with great results.

In fact, the last 3 days, I've been rather conservative using smaller share size (there were no 8000+ share size positions and there were only three 6000 share size positions). Perhaps tomorrow I'll step it up a little and creep my share size up a little.

Also, I won't stop trading even if I hit $1000. Today I ended my day early and missed the last half hour of trade. But tomorrow, I'll see how much further beyond $1000 I can take it (if I get that high).

Today I felt like I overtraded a lot. There were several times I traded when I shouldn't have traded and I estimate that these types of trades cost me around $400 today, including a $256 loser (see below).

The last three days I've incorporated a "bounce" trade in which I go the opposite direction of a strong Futures move. Since this volatility is alive and well, what's been happening a lot is that immediately after a strong Futures move (up or down), the Futures counters with a move back in the opposite direction.

I've been using small share size when putting on these "bounce" trades (2000/3000/4000 shares) and my profit outlook is usually 2 or 3 cents. I never realized that by doing this over and over again, all those $60, $90, and $120 winners really do add up.

Because I booked many smaller profits due to volatility, I only have one good trade to report. I did have one mental lapse that cost me big time and is the only bad trade of the day.

I just can't wait for the day when the chopping around stops and we get more follow through on any Futures move. That way, I can continue trading the way I currently trade, but the difference is that I can hold on to my winners for more of a profit.

Again, I can't help but think how much of a difference the bad day I had on Monday really affected my trading. And all it took was some subtle ways in which I trade so that I can be emotionally detached from trading.

Let's see if I can keep this streak going shall we?

Good Trades
10:54AM - Motorola (MOT) was downtrending as were the Futures. Suddenly I saw huge sell orders show up on the Level 2. I decided to throw out some short orders to see if I would get filled (Motorola adheres to the uptick rule). I was quite surprised I was filled right away for 3000 short and it made me panick a little (because this usually means that prices might be going higher). Then I saw even more big sell orders show up. I got price improved by the specialist for an 8-cent winner on the entire position ($240 profit before fees)

Bad Trades
1:15PM - Citigroup (C) looked like it was going to start an uptrend while the Futures were uptrending slightly. The Futures started ripping and I had to wait a little for Citigroup to reach a resistance level with big size on the offer. Well just as the Futures finished ripping up, the resistance level was about to break, so I got long 6000 shares. Bad move - especially in a volatile market and the Futures tanked back down. I got out as follows: 2-cent loser (400 shares), 3-cent loser (1600 shares), 5-cent loser (4000 shares) ($256 loser before fees).
  • I broke one of my rules in that I hit size after the Futures finished an extended move upwards. For this to be a good trade, Citigroup had to have already been at the resistance before the Futures ripped (and not arrive at the resistance AFTER the Futures ripped)
  • The position size was also too big. Not all criteria were met and so this should have been a 3000 share position (and not 6000 share)

2 Comments:

  • Good Progress! What's your next benchmark to obtain? Do you plan to include any other stocks in your daily trades or venture to holding longer as a position?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at June 09, 2006 1:15 p.m.  

  • Thanks for your positive feedback. My immediate goals now are to be consistent (make around $1000 per day). Once that has been achieved, the next stop will be $2000 per day. Then hopefully I can get up to where the top trader is at our branch (about $10,000+ a day). This may involve trading other stocks and may involve holding positions longer (I'll have to let my trading strategy evolve).

    I know that they'll come a point where I cannot squeeze any more money out of trading NYSE, but that will be when I move on up and start trading ETFs like the Spiders and QQQQs (where I can put on huge positions) and maybe trade the S&P Futures.

    By Blogger J.C., at June 10, 2006 9:51 p.m.  

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