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

A "Temporary" Goodbye

2007-05-14T17:02:00.001-04:00

Hey there folks.

I've decided to take a brief hiatus from blogging. Whether "brief" means a week or a year, only time will tell.

I've been blogging about my trading day every day for over a year now and it's almost as if no trading day would be complete without blogging about it.

But lately I feel as though I need to re-group. I guess you can call this hiatus an "experiment" - to see if I feel any different without having everyone out there reading about my day.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to try to help me in my trading. You can see from the numbers on the sidebar that since I've started blogging, I feel as though there hasn't really been any great improvement in my trading.

I have a feeling that I may have to change things up a bit so that I can get back on track.

I'm sure you folks have noticed that lately my heart really hasn't been into blogging. I haven't been responding to comments and my posts just feels like it lacks substance. I also feel that lately I've been wasting both the reader's time and my time by publishing these kinds of posts, so a step back from blogging may be in order.

Not only that, but the weather's getting warmer and I'd like to use that extra time to spend with my wife. This past year or so of blogging as really taken me away from her and I feel as though I owe it to her to spend more quality time with her during the weeknights.

So until I get my game back together, I'll bid you adieu and I'm hoping I'll be back sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, I'd suggest you check out DinosaurTrader and his Virtual Office.....there you'll find a daily posting of several bloggers' P&L's. Check out the blogs of those who participate in the Virtual Office - you can learn a great deal from those traders and I highly recommend you check out the blogs of everyone who is involved.

I'd like to thank all the loyal readers and all of the supportive comments you have provided in the past (I guess the nasty ones just comes with the territory!)....without you folks, this blog wouldn't have gone on as long as it has.

Don't worry - I'll be back (this isn't one of those "Goodbye Forever" posts). Maybe next week or next month, but I'll keep you folks posted (unless, of course, I really do enjoy life without a blog! :) just kidding of course!)

Another Useless Day

2007-05-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

Net: -$176.58
Trades: 67
Shares Traded: 40000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI): +$75.20
The Black & Decker Corporation (BDK): +$40.61
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (MER): +$30.70
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): +$22.68
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP): +$21.24
Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (VAR): +$19.09
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT):+$5.83
Titanium Metals Corporation (TIE): -$11.21
Foot Locker, Inc. (FL): -$19.04
McDonald's Corporation (MCD): -$29.06
MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG): -$37.68
KB Home (KBH): -$45.51
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): -$112.59
Spectrum Brands, Inc. (SPC): -$136.92

Another useless day.

Not much else to say.

I tried to do something new today - but it didn't work out as planned.....there were several positions in which I added to once the trade was going for me.....but this turned out to be a bad idea as I eventually gave up most of my gains on the trade or I would end up with a loser on my hands.

This happened every time I tried to pyramid up....it happened on MER, CP, MCD, VAR, and MTG. On all of these, the trade went for me and I added more to the position....but then it would move against me and I ended up giving up most of my gains on them, some of them resulting in a loser.

I'm not going to do that again for the next little while.

Also took two "spur of the moment" trades. These were downright stupid and again I don't know why I took them....these were on Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Spectrum Brands (SPC).

I didn't even really assess the trade - I just flipped to the charts, quickly got into a position on them and both just reversed once I got in. I literally didn't think about why I was getting in.

This weekend I'm going to review how I do things. Lately I feel as though I don't really know what I'm doing any more and I'm finding that I don't have valid reasons for getting into trades. I have to figure it out.

No good trades and no bad trades to review.

There will be no Weekend Reading this week....

Not sure if you folks have noticed, but I don't feel as motivated to blog as much these days. I haven't done my monthly reviews and my posts are getting shorter and shorter these days.....perhaps is it a sign of things to come?

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

There Was A Lot Of Money To Be Made Today...

2007-05-10T17:23:00.000-04:00

Net: -$164.29
Trades: 61
Shares Traded: 34000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (ANN): +$84.58
Federated Department Str. (FD): +$73.90
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): +$67.81
Liz Claiborne, Inc. (LIZ): +$49.42
The Shaw Group Inc. (SGR): +$43.15
Diana Shipping Inc. (DSX): +$32.82
LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. (LFG): +$32.33
Barnes Group Inc. (B): +$15.47
Honeywell International Inc. (HON): +$14.88
The AES Corporation (AES): -$0.34
Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. (RAH): -$16.49
KB Home (KBH): -$30.51
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): -$31.86
MAXIMUS, Inc. (MMS): -$61.87
Kohl's Corporation (KSS): -$102.20
ConocoPhillips (COP): -$111.89
Aeropostale, Inc. (ARO): -$224.01

There was a lot of money to be made today....if you were able to catch a couple of good shorts. Unfortunately I would have none of it....

Why?

Well there were a couple of mistakes today.

I basically spent most of the day going long. I dunno why, but I did. I'd get into a position and then the Futures would tank hard and I'd get out for a loser and I'd do it all again on some different stock.

Maybe it's because we've had so many up days in a row and I just got in the habit of just going long. I dunno.

And so, mistake #1 - constantly going long in a down market.

For some reason, I kept trying to trade Aeropostale (ARO) today....and I was constantly losing on it. It didn't really have any real good moves during the day, but yet I continued to try to trade it. As a result, the losses on this particular stock added up quickly.

It was one of those "I don't really know why I did it" kinda things. It had lousy moves intraday and yet somehow I saw something that made me want to trade it.

That's mistake #2 - trading a stock with lousy moves for no particular reason.

It wasn't until about half-way through the afternoon that I admitted that I was a fool by trying to constantly go long in this kind of market.

So I went and looked for shorts.

And I got into a couple of good ones that quickly turned into a rather good winner. As soon as I was in these positions, they quickly moved down and I felt as though my day was going to turn around.

I placed orders to get out on many of these positions, but when I saw the velocity of the descent, I quickly cancelled my orders, opting to try to capture more profits.

Then I'd see these positions reverse on me and I was reluctant to take partial profits as the stocks moved back up for fear of missing out on another good run to the downside.

As a result, I ended up watching these winners turn into losers, some of them fairly hefty ones. This happened to me on RAH, CAL, COP, and KSS.

Mistake #3 - letting good winners turn into losers.

And since I saw many good winners eventually turn into losers, I had a fear that this would occur again on some of my other shorts and as a result, I'd quickly take profits.

Of course, the market gods know what you're trading and to make an example out of you, they always make the stock continue going to the down side once you are out of a position - and they'll turn a good position into a losing one if you decide to hang onto your position.

And so, mistake #4 - getting out too early (this kind of contradicts mistake #3, but if I simply followed what my charts were telling me, I wouldn't have mistake #3 and #4).

That was the story today....I made a few bills in the morning, lost a lot more bills during the middle of the day, and I just didn't have enough time to claw my way out of the hole.

No good trades and no bad ones.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be more aware...

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Wicked Fed Chop

2007-05-09T17:28:00.000-04:00

Net: +$686.61
Trades: 81
Shares Traded: 45000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
USEC Inc. (USU): +$465.42
Barnes Group Inc. (B): +$240.70
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN): +$138.78
Tiffany & Co. (TIF): +$133.91
Guess?, Inc. (GES): +$125.08
Deere & Company (DE): +$48.33
The Shaw Group Inc. (SGR): +$42.18
Manpower Inc. (MAN): +$14.72
KBR, Inc. (KBR): +$13.16
Automatic Data Processing (ADP): -$4.62
MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG): -$16.74
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CBI): -$18.42
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC): -$20.52
Uniao de Bancos Brasileiros SA (UBB): -$24.49
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (SID): -$27.93
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (WFR): -$49.05
RTI International Metals (RTI): -$58.29
L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (LLL): -$61.37
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB): -$151.61
CVS/Caremark Corporation (CVS): -$172.60

What a vicious hack, slash, and chop there was after the Fed announcement today.

I'm just glad I didn't get caught in any position while that nasty down, up, down, then up move occurred.

I couldn't really get much done after the Fed announcement and I felt as though I waited for it for nothing (as most of my profits came before lunch).

Today I could have done a better job at trade selection as I traded way too many stocks with not-so-great setups.

But, I quickly got out of losing trades when things didn't pan out and I never hesitated to get out for a small loser.

Unfortunately I was fooled twice on Cooper Tire (CTB) and three times on Caremark (CVS) and I just couldn't read these two stocks properly.

So after lunch I started playing around (and traded stocks I shouldn't have) just until the Fed announcement. Again, I was anticipating a lot of opportunities and I was eyeing a few levels just before 2:15PM.

So when the Fed announcement came up, things dropped like a rock...."OK, wait for the first move before deciding on a direction to trade", I told myself.

Then the S&P Futures rips back up again back to the level it was at before the announcement..."Alright, let's see where it goes from here", I was thinking.

Then the Futures drop like a rock again..."Ok, is this going to be a short and will it keep going down? Perhaps I should get short here...."

Then the Futures rip all the way back up...I got in on some longs, but for whatever reason, they didn't want to move to the upside...I ended up getting them out for small winners.

Then the Futures continues to rip up and takes out the intraday highs. I got in on some longs yet again, but yet again, they didn't go anywhere.

So after all of that, I think all that moving around wasn't really worth waiting for (well, at least for me).

There were also a lot of trades taken today....mainly because I was trying to use larger share size and I was scaling out a lot more (I'd get in with 2000 or 3000 shares and I'd peel my positions off 500 shares at a time).

I know I have to do a better job at trade selection to try to cut down on all those unnecessary trades. I also should start really pushing myself in terms of share size if I really want to go somewhere (sheesh, how many times have you heard me say that?).

One good trade and no bad ones today.

I'll try and work on some of the things mentioned tomorrow....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

9:51:46AM - USEC (USU) was strong since the open as it was making new all-time highs. It approached the $23.00 level and when it broke, I went long 2000 shares. I slowly peeled out of my position and yes I do know I got most of it out waaayyy too early but I saw things falling back back and it kind felt like it didn't want to go further to the upside (but boy was I wrong)....this is something I have to work on. I got out as follows: 10-cent winner (600 shares), 25-cent winner (900 shares), 26-cent winner (100 shares), 28-cent winner (400 shares) ($423 profit before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $23.00 ; Out: Didn't record)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Just Waiting For Tomorrow....

2007-05-08T16:45:00.000-04:00

Net: +$316.64
Trades: 50
Shares Traded: 31600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC): +$212.32
The St. Joe Company (JOE): +$99.29
GrafTech International Ltd. (GTI): +$97.91
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): +$78.52
Florida East Coast Industries Inc. (FLA): +$41.35
The Home Depot, Inc. (HD): +$23.30
Chemed Corporation (CHE): +$10.89
Alcoa Inc. (AA): -$6.44
CIGNA Corporation (CI): -$23.00
The Brink's Company (BCO): -$27.56
Ameren Corporation (AEE): -$37.00
Fluor Corporation (FLR): -$73.71
Precision Drilling Trust (PDS): -$79.24

Didn't really want to do too much today and I was basically just waiting for tomorrow.

You can see I traded a bit more shares, but it didn't really do me any good. Most of them were on 2000 shares positions, but the stocks I was in didn't really move very much and I only captured a few cents here and there.

The bulk of my profits today was a result of a short on Computer Sciences (CSC) and was probably the only half-decent trade I had on today.

I went short when the $55.00 level broke and held this for almost an hour.

There were a couple of other moves that were half decent, but unfortunately I let go of a bulk of my position before they made any significant moves.

There were a couple of stocks that I was hesitant to get into....and the biggest missed opportunity was on Countrywide Financial (CFC). I wanted to get into that stock a couple times this afternoon, but I was either too slow or my attention was momentarily off of it before it took off.

Also, both FLA and CHE made pretty big moves but I managed only to capture a small piece of those moves.

Aside from that, I didn't really do much of anything today.

No good trades and no bad ones.

Sorry for another very short post, but the weather out there is just too great to pass up an opportunity to enjoy it.

For now, I'm just waiting for the Fed announcement tomorrow....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Not Much Happening...

2007-05-07T19:41:00.000-04:00

Net: +$138.67
Trades: 53
Shares Traded: 23400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
RadioShack Corporation (RSH): +$235.94
Wendy's International (WEN): +$210.51
USEC Inc. (USU): +$110.15
Abbott Laboratories (ABT): +$61.42
The Talbots, Inc. (TLB): +$9.63
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC): -$7.19
Brinker International, Inc. (EAT): -$14.66
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB): -$30.71
General Dynamics Corporation (GD): -$51.08
Armor Holdings, Inc. (AH): -$56.75
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): -$60.32
Vimpel-Communications (VIP): -$75.73
Manor Care, Inc. (HCR): -$91.10
Rowan Companies, Inc. (RDC): -$101.42

Gonna keep this short as there isn't really much to say about today's trading and there's other stuff I need to attend to tonight.

I let a relatively good morning go to waste as I put on a few too many pointless trades and ended up losing quite a bit.

I guess I just couldn't sit still during the sideways markets that persisted the entire day.

Though there were some movers on the day (RSH and WEN in particular), I wasted most of my gains made in these stocks in poorly timed entries on other stocks and I probably gave those poorly timed positions a little too much room to roam before I cut my losses.

No good or bad trades.

Just waiting for tomorrow....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For May 5 - 6, 2007

2007-05-05T07:33:00.000-04:00

In "Weekend Reading" I'll collect what I thought were the best posts and articles for the week from various bloggers.

The reason I do this is because I find it difficult to integrate links to other great blogs in my posts, so this is a way for me to give back.

I only focus on posts and links that relate to trader improvement or trading in general.

This week I may have missed a few good posts here and there as I was rather busy during the week, but nonetheless, here's this week's edition:

Glenn at the DehTrader asks some hard questions when it comes to his trading in Operation "Stop F'ing Up"

Here's another deep post about mental models by Pradeep over there at StockBee entitled Mental Models And Orbital Changes

Another free newsletter by The Stock Bandit - this week it's Protecting The Downside

Over at TraderFeed, Dr. Bruce Hong takes a look at the effects of Trading And The Adrenaline Rush

Tapeworm, a contributor over there at MoveTheMarkets explains how to use Pivot Moving Averages

TraderGav had this fantastic collection of Rules For Forex Trading

Lastly, Caravaggio at The3500 takes a look at Ego And Trading

OK - Something's Not Quite Right Here....

2007-05-04T17:37:00.000-04:00

Net: -$504.95
Trades: 40
Shares Traded: 15400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
RTI International Metals (RTI): +$21.15
UGI Corporation (UGI): -$15.51
Brush Engineered Material (BW): -$15.80
Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP): -$16.39
Transocean Inc. (RIG): -$29.55
Callaway Golf Company (ELY): -$30.31
Quanta Services, Inc. (PWR): -$30.77
Weyerhaeuser Company (WY): -$40.63
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc (HOT): -$77.16
Embarq Corporation (EQ): -$81.09
Arcelor Mittal (MT): -$188.89

Boy it's great to start the day off with 10 consecutive losers. 10!

Out of all the trades I took today, only one somehow was a winner...and that was only because it was starting to fall back down and luckily I got out when I did because it would have eventually become a loser too.

After that winning trade, I was going back to losers again and by 1PM I was just fed up with how unbelievably bad I was trading, so I quit for the day.

Ok - so what's going on?

Last week was fantastic - though I was very conservative I was quite surprised at the outcome.

This week has been absolutely lousy....

This is my second full week of using Trade-Ideas and while last week's results were nice and consistent, this week has been lousy at best.

Why?

I look at it this way.

Last week when I started using Trade-Ideas, I was somewhat skeptical as to what it could provide for me. As a result, I used very small share size and I was very picky about the trades I put on that I was alerted to.

I would only get into a trade if everything looked perfect and since I was somewhat skeptical, I kept my losers very small....if the trade didn't go my way right away, I was out. If the trade started running for me, then great - I'd take some off the table and see where the stock would take me.

That kind of thinking produced great results considering the number of trades I put on and the position sizes.

Well here we are this week and some not-so-great result.

I have a feeling it's because I'm starting to expect too much from my trades. Last week I saw how some of my trades really started to run in my favor as it would hop, skip, and jump 20, 30, and 50 cents at a time.

But this week I think I was expecting that to happen on every trade. This led me to hold onto losers a little longer than I normally would and I kept widening my stops, hoping the trade would eventually run in my favor.

And I kept trading as if the trades I put on would run and I wouldn't book profits because I wasn't satisfied with "only" a 10 or 15-cent profit. I'd eventually see these positions turn negative.

I also noticed that I was basically trying to trade every single alert that came through my scanner.....not a wise move and probably not the way the provider intended for it to be used.

Whatever it is, it's not working and I've really got to wake up and realize what I'm doing.

I've got to smarten up with my trading...

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

An Attitude Check

2007-05-03T18:43:00.000-04:00

Net: +$512.27
Trades: 70
Shares Traded: 29800

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Corn Products International, Inc. (CPO): +$258.95
Lyondell Chemical Company (LYO): +$218.16
Cemex S.A. B de C.V. (CX): +$89.58
Liz Claiborne, Inc. (LIZ): +$73.16
Eagle Materials, Inc. (EXP): +$52.89
Devon Energy Corporation (DVN): +$45.25
MasterCard Incorporated (MA): +$25.15
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ): -$13.53
salesforce.com, inc. (CRM): -$22.04
AAR Corp. (AIR): -$23.53
PetroChina Company Limited (PTR): -$24.78
Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (CNQ): -$30.72
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (EL): -$45.71
Prudential Financial, Inc. (PRU): -$62.79
Armor Holdings, Inc. (AH): -$74.21

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was trying to smoke the day....

I came in on those days with high expectations and I had full intentions of coming way with $1000's of dollars.

It was the beginning of the month and the previous week of trading showed promise and I thought to myself that if I came in with a killer attitude and try to smoke every position I put on, there would be no reason not to come away with mega profits on the day.

The only problem was that I was expecting every position I got in to be a big home-run and that I'd come away with 100's of dollars on the trade.

As a result, I hung around when the positions didn't go anywhere and I held onto losers longer than I usually hold them.

And going in with bigger positions only exacerbated the problem as this made the losers hurt even more.

Since I had high expectations for those two trading days, I came away really dejected at the end of the day....not only didn't I make the big $ as I was expecting, I couldn't even pull out some profits.

So today I came in with the thoughts of just trading.....I didn't have any expectations for the day and tried to keep a level head.

Every position I put on didn't have to be a home-run and if things started to look dicey, I just bailed......plus I kept my losers on a very short leash (unlike the previous two trading days).

But today I felt like I was the king of bad timing....

There were sooo many stocks that were moving in a nice, non-stop trend and I'd get in right at the top and once I was in, the stock decided to start to roll over and reverse....it seemed like time and time again I'd get caught in that trap.

But the one trade that had me fuming a bit was on PetroChina (PTR). At around 1:30PM I went long as I saw this one making new intra-day highs and it's trend was a nice gradual one....

So I get long and wait and wait and it just didn't want to go further....then it looks like it was going to roll over on a 5-minute chart....there were other stocks that were beginning to move and I was thinking to myself "Not again! Another one where I got in at the top and now it's going to roll over and move down!".

So I punch out for a small loser but wouldn't you know it....as soon as I got out, it just explodes to the upside! And the move was a powerful one as well! Level after level was taken out quickly and I tried to get long again at $117.00, $117.50, and at $118.00 but the bloody stock just blew past all the levels and I never could get long again.

PTR just continued to move up $3 or $4 from where I was originally long and I was a little upset as I just watched and saw how strong a move it was.....*sigh* all of these "bad timing" trades cost be quite a bit today - both in realized losses and lost opportunities......

One good trade and no bad ones today.

So tomorrow I'll just have the intentions of trading and I'll try not to have any expectations of the trading day (lest I not meet it and get all upset about nothing again).

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

11:27:21AM - Corn Products Inc. (CPO) had been making a strong move up since about 10:45AM and when it came up to the $42 level I went long 700 shares when it broke. I held it for a while and got out as follows: 30-cent winner (300 shares), 40-cent winner (200 shares), 45-cent winner (200 shares) ($260 profit before fees ; Long 700 shares @ $42.00 ; Out: 12:04:34PM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Frustration Nation

2007-05-02T19:13:00.000-04:00

Net: -$240.23
Trades: 86
Shares Traded: 45200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): +$123.21
WellPoint, Inc. (WLP): +$95.91
Eaton Corporation (ETN): +$68.75
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (WYN): +$44.15
Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI): +$29.54
McDonald's Corporation (MCD): +$27.61
Owens-Illinois, Inc. (OI): +$20.67
McDermott International (MDR): +$18.32
Danaher Corporation (DHR): +$12.19
Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (WPI): -$18.32
Idearc Inc. (IAR): -$23.39
Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (VAR): -$26.91
FedEx Corporation (FDX): -$28.74
Whirlpool Corporation (WHR): -$41.02
R.H. Donnelley Corporation (RHD): -$47.07
Constellation Energy Group, Inc. (CEG): -$47.12
W-H Energy Services, Inc. (WHQ): -$61.02
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD): -$83.20
Hartford Financial Services (HIG): -$87.40
Oil States International, Inc. (OIS): -$104.95
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): -$111.42

What the hell.

These last two trading days have really really sucked.

Today the markets moved, but the moves made by stocks just really really sucked. Unbelievable.

Literally every trade I got into didn't want to do anything. Even when the overall markets were ripping, the stocks I happened to be in didn't want to move.

I dunno - maybe it's been my attitude these past two days....I've been wanting to get May off to a roaring start and maybe I'm coming in too aggressive by taking trades that may not be all the best.

I've also been going in with larger positions but like yesterday this only amplified the losses I was taking.

For whatever reason, nothing wanted to move or run.

And my mistake was that when I did have a position that was profitable, I waited and wanted to book a big winner on it....but by waiting, I missed out on my opportunity to get out and as a result, there were many trades that were initially winners, but turned into losers.

And there were just soo many trades where I would get in and I'd sit there and wait and wait. I felt like I was just wasting my time by sitting there waiting for the stock to make it's move. When I could have been focusing on other potential positions, I'd wait and wait and in the end, I'd either book a loser and a very small winner that was hardly worth the time.

It's not that I lost a lot of money today, but for some reason I really felt ticked off today.

Usually when I get frustrated (or desperate), I end up taking a lot of trades and trading a lot of stocks.

All afternoon I kept going from one stock to another and I'd be thinking "Damn this stock, oh yea, well there's another stock over there that'll probably move!".

What I think I have to do is to go back to the way I was trading all last week....by picking the opportunities and waiting for a good trade. Today I was trying to trade everything that came up as an alert (mainly because I was frustrated).

I had been up in the morning...then I proceeded to lose close to $600 during the course of the afternoon.

For the rest of this week I think I'm just gonna call it a day after lunch....I'm finding that the afternoons moves are not like the mornings and the same setups don't seem to work as well in the afternoons.

Ahhhh forget about it. I don't want to think any more about today.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Having To Fend For Myself

2007-05-01T18:51:00.001-04:00

Net: -$330.25
Trades: 61
Shares Traded: 29800

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Avon Products, Inc. (AVP): +$135.88
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (FDP): +$121.78
Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI): +$83.53
Genentech, Inc. (DNA): +$48.73
Liz Claiborne, Inc. (LIZ): +$19.15
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): -$14.89
Honeywell International Inc. (HON): -$23.35
RTI International Metals (RTI): -$71.42
IMS Health, Inc. (RX): -$123.31
Celanese Corporation (CE): -$154.91
Drew Industries, Inc. (DW): -$168.82
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): -$182.63

So there I was, all ready to get a new trading month off to a roaring start. I came in with no fear and I had intended on upping my position sizes a bit.

I brought up my scanners from Trade-Ideas and focused intently on the "Upside Momentum" scan, as I have been using this particular scan the most (since it has provided me with the most successful opportunities).

I waited.....and waited....and waited.....hmmmm, nothing was coming up on the Momentum scan.

So I toyed around on some other stocks to kill some time - or should I say "lose some money".

Then I came back and waited for the Momentum scan again....I waited for the very first alert for the day....and I waited....

I thought something might have been wrong with the connection, so I restarted it again, but still no alerts.

My other scans didn't really give me much to work with so I ended up straining to look for stocks to trade....I checked the most actives, the gappers, the most % up, the most % down....

I traded a bit here and there - without success.....

I went back to wait some more for the Momentum alerts....still nothing!

I checked other places for stocks to trade....and lost even more money! What the hell!

After close to two hours into the trading day, I still had nothing showing up on my scanner and I was in the hole $600. Without anything to trade via the scanners, I felt like I had to fend for myself and find things to trade on my own.

But as you can see, I didn't have much luck.

Then the first alert comes in at around 11:30AM and for the rest of the day, it seemed like only 3 or so stocks came up. I tried to make a comeback, but failed miserably.

I probably should have followed what the alerts did for most of the day (which was to do nothing), because you know that if Trade-Ideas has trouble finding trade ideas, it's because there truly are no opportunities out there.

I really should have been more patient today. If my scanners aren't picking anything up out there, that should be a warning sign as to what kind of day we were in for.

I tried to trade some of the short ideas the scanners provided, but I never really felt comfortable with them because all I ended up doing was chasing prices down trying to get short....and if I did get filled, it was because prices were moving back up and I'd have to bail out for a loser.

For the past week or so I had a great time trading off the ideas that Trade-Ideas provided.

But today (because of the lack of opportunities and hence the lack of alerts) I really felt lost when nothing was coming up....it almost felt as if I didn't know what to do and I ended up taking bad setups just for the sake of doing something.

And it was also unfortunate that today was the day I intended on upping my position sizes as this just amplified my losses.

Even when the overall markets made a nice move downwards, then a nice move upwards, I found that the stocks I was in just didn't want to follow....instead I found myself in stocks that just felt like meandering around doing nothing.

Anyways, the next time I see that there are few alerts coming up on the radar, I should take it more as a warning about the day that is about to transpire rather than trying to take matters in my own hands and try to make something out of the day.

No good trades and no bad ones.

It's not exactly the kind of started I wanted for May....I've got to be a little more disciplined tomorrow...

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Trading Against The Clock

2007-04-30T17:37:00.001-04:00

Net: +$645.31
Trades: 59
Shares Traded: 30600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
International Securities Exchange Hldgs (ISE): +$229.34
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (WFR): +$187.82
MasterCard Incorporated (MA): +$116.24
Payless ShoeSource, Inc. (PSS): +$98.57
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$87.93
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM): +$78.60
Corn Products International, Inc. (CPO): +$54.13
3M Company (MMM): +$38.60
Target Corporation (TGT): +$9.95
Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN): -$1.46
ONEOK, Inc. (OKE): -$26.86
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM): -$31.35
Tesoro Corporation (TSO): -$196.22

I've got a really bad habit.....

With some consistency returning in my trading, I'm finding that I seem to always want to trade against the clock.

And this has happened the last three trading days or so.

I'd constantly find myself saying "Well, it's 11AM and I'm usually up by $X around this time, but today I'm not" or "It's just after lunch....I'd usually be up by $X and I'd usually call it a day, but right now, I'm not anywhere near $X".

The result of this thinking is that I'd force myself into trades and not wait for good setups before entering trades. In my mind, I'm thinking that the day is slowly winding down and as the clock ticks away, there will be fewer and fewer opportunities.

I then start over-trading and I begin to take unnecessary losers....but this just spurs me on..."Well now it's 2PM and I'm usually up by $X, but now I've just lost $Y and now I need to make it back...".

And so the vicious cycle continues.

The last three trading days I had these thoughts running through my mind and I had to stop to try to get my bearings straight again. The reason I traded against the clock these last few trading days is because I can't seem to bag a good winner or catch a great run on the stocks I've been trading.

It's because of this, I start looking at my P&L and I start thinking that I need to get a move on and that I need to capture more profits.

Today I found that in the morning I couldn't seem to book a good winner. As a result, by about 11:30AM, I was at about break-even in terms of profits and I started trading against the clock.

I had to stop myself after I found that I started trading some lousy setups and I kept going from loser to loser.

Thank goodness there was a downside move made by the markets in the afternoon as the bulk of my profits came from that downward momentum which helped me make a day out of it.

Perhaps I should do what MissTrade, DinosaurTrader and One Bad-Ass Trader do and simply hide my P&L for the whole day so that I don't start trading against the clock.

I tried to do that this afternoon, but I felt like I just didn't know where I stood for the day (well duh! That's the purpose of hiding your P&L!) and I didn't really feel comfortable for whatever reason.

But at the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my P&L so perhaps tomorrow I'll continue to do the same thing.

As mentioned, today was another day in which I couldn't bag a good winner. Just nothing seemed to follow-through on their moves this morning and I ended up taking profits on half my position and a loser on the other half of the position.

No good trades and no bad ones.

Tomorrow a new month begins and I really do think I need to step it up a little more.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For Apr 28 - 29, 2007

2007-04-28T10:47:00.000-04:00

Here's an excellent post by Woodshedder at his Trade While Working blog in which he tells us to be mindful in Avoiding Recency Bias

Brett Steenbarger at his TraderFeed blog did a great job in collecting other traders' views on handling the pressures of trading and he did it in two parts - here is Handling The Performance Pressures Of Trading: Perspectives From Reader Comments and here is More Views From Readers

Recently I've had to do this - it's The Most Important Question To Ask When You're In A Slump at TraderFeed

A brief, but important thing to remember - it's The One Candlestick Pattern That Screws Everyone by Craig at the TAZ Trader Blog

TheStockBandit continues with their free newsletter - this week it's Letting The Charts Decide The Next Move

TraderGav continues to post quotes from the trading greats - here is a Quote From Tony Saliba

Here are a couple of suggestions by Brett Steenbarger - here are his Favorite Techniques For Overcoming Performance Anxiety In Trading

I recently came across The Trading Digest blog and here is some excellent advice for new traders in The Trading World Is Flat...

Are you a part-time trader? Here, The Market Speculator responded to some questions people have been asking and has collected some of his past posts that describes his way of doing things in Answering Questions About Part-Time Trading

Too Much

2007-04-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

Net: +$398.47
Trades: 76
Shares Traded: 33400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
MasterCard Incorporated (MA): +$229.13
Noble Corporation (NE): +$192.48
DeVry Inc. (DV): +$148.97
Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT): +$140.16
National-Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV): +$91.31
Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH): +$64.79
Service Corporation International (SCI): +$49.05
Curtiss-Wright Corp. (CW): +$28.62
Jefferies Group, Inc. (JEF): +$23.26
ONEOK, Inc. (OKE): +$3.84
Transocean Inc. (RIG): -$3.63
Cornell Companies, Inc. (CRN): -$8.94
Waste Management, Inc. (WMI): -$21.70
Boston Properties, Inc. (BXP): -$29.40
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): -$57.17
Eaton Corporation (ETN): -$71.52
Emerson Electric Co. (EMR): -$71.97
GlobalSantaFe Corporation (GSF): -$86.72
3M Company (MMM): -$96.37
Cummins Inc. (CMI): -$125.71

Today there were just too many trades, too many stocks traded, too many "not-so-great" setups taken, and just too much of going nowhere fast.

This morning I found that I was having difficulties making some good trades out there....it was another day in which I felt out of sync with the S&P Futures.

I'd get into a long position and just when the stock was about to run, the Futures would make a hard move to the downside and would stop the stock in it's tracks....I'd dump half my position and hold the rest for quite a while, but most of the time, the stock just couldn't continue to the upside.

Likewise, I had similar experiences with a couple of my shorts this morning...I'd get into a short position, it starts running maybe 10-cents or so, but then the Futures would make a hard move up and the stock would follow.

By the end of the morning session, I hadn't gone anywhere in terms of profits.

The only semi-decent move was on Mastercard (MA)....

I was watching it as it pushed to intraday highs and when it broke the $110 level, I went long 200 shares.

It was only a semi-decent trade because I could have had a lot more....I got 100 shares out for a $1.05 winner and the other 100 shares out for a $1.27 winner and I only got out because MA pulled back by almost a dollar which scared me out of my position (and I couldn't see any news on MA).

Well after I got out, MA would continue going up another $3 before it stopped....

But aside from that MA trade, there was nothing really spectacular done today....all afternoon it just felt like I was standing still and even though I put on a lot of trades, I just wasn't going anywhere fast.

I think today I did something that I feared I would do when I first subscribed to Trade-Ideas and that was to try to trade all the alerts that came in.

Earlier in the week I was fairly cautious and waited for the right opportunity to trade the alerts....but today it just seemed like I was taking every alert that I got as a signal to trade, which is obviously not the way things should be done.

It was also another day in which I couldn't get any of my "bigger" 1000 share positions to really run...in fact, like the previous few days, they all turned out to be losers. Maybe there is something I'm not quite seeing when it comes to trading a little bigger.

Eventually I'd like to start going in with 2000 and 3000 shares on some of the alerts I get.

Today I also started getting more comfortable with some of those high-fliers. As mentioned I did trade MA today and I've also been dabbling with IBM, CMI and BXP the last few days and I'm starting to get more of a better feel for these $100+ stocks.

Lastly, I'd like to thank some of the folks leaving comments out there giving recommendations as to where I can possibly go from here. I'd like to continue to tweak the way I trade and once I'm satisfied and more consistent with what I'm doing, I'll definitely consider the other alternatives out there.

But for now, I've got to continue to learn how to trade first before I can strike it out on my own (there's no sense in blowing myself up and having nowhere to turn...).

But keep those suggestions coming - I'm sure the other readers out there could benefit from your recommendations....for me, I've got to build up my bank account and I've got to start building up that risk capital....

Have a good weekend folks! This week has really tired me out so I need the rest!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

The Runner

2007-04-26T16:26:00.000-04:00

Net: +$682.14
Trades: 67
Shares Traded: 34000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF): +$209.08
Wendy's International (WEN): +$141.19
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF): +$97.22
Exelon Corporation (EXC): +$88.46
Pulte Homes, Inc. (PHM): +$70.11
Sunoco, Inc. (SUN): +$66.29
Goodrich Corporation (GR): +$62.02
Corrections Corp. of America (CXW): +$49.89
Aetna Inc. (AET): +$36.11
The Mosaic Company (MOS): +$31.14
SYSCO Corporation (SYY): +$29.13
ArvinMeritor, Inc. (ARM): +$27.31
NCR Corporation (NCR): +$7.71
Weyerhaeuser Company (WY): -$4.44
Emerson Electric Co. (EMR): -$25.32
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): -$39.10
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO): -$40.16
Centex Corporation (CTX): -$56.83
Avnet, Inc. (AVT): -$68.19

Runner - a trade that moves 30, 40 or 50+ cents in the direction of the trade within a few seconds either immediately upon entering a trade or shortly afterwards.

For the last couple of trading days, I've had the pleasure of being in a couple of runners. Once I get into a position, sometimes it turns into a runner fairly quickly (usually the case when a major or round level breaks), or sometimes I've got to wait around for a bit until it turns into one (usually at the semi-major levels like at .25, .50 and .75 levels).

You know you've got a runner on your hands when suddenly the Level 2 gets really busy and the prices and prints start to hop, skip, and jump by several cents at a time. Then the ECN's start popping up all over the place and many times the Level 2 is momentarily crossed and any big sizes on the Level 2 that blocks your way just melts away.

When I've got a runner on my hands, I often quickly snap to attention and prepare - you never know if the move will reverse and I'm often assessing where I should unload a part of my position.

So far, I think I've had a runner on my hands more times this week than I've ever had during my entire trading career....I guess you just don't encounter those kinds of moves by trading the slow behemoths like GE, EMC and TWX. I've got to say that these new scans I'm using are really helping to identify movers like those.

Unfortunately today I didn't bag a runner.

I think it was mainly because the S&P Futures kept trying to make strong moves to the downside in the morning and every time I got into a position that could have been a runner, the Futures would help pull the stock back and I'd either have to take partial profits or I'd have to get out for a small loser.

During the middle of the day, I just didn't see any very good opportunities and I was often just in and out quickly.

Then at around 2PM, the markets started moving to the upside, however most of the positions I was in just didn't want to seem to move to the upside (or at least it didn't want to move up very much).

All in all, I think I traded a little too much today.

And I also traded a whole bunch of stocks today....I just found that whenever I was in a position, the Futures would make a sudden move against my position and I'd dump half my position...but then the stock would start reversing and I'd end up taking only a small profit on it.

And it was yet another day in which my "bigger" 1000-share positions were mostly for losers. It's a good thing I kept a very close stop on half my position....when the position went against me for about 3 or 5 cents, I'd usually dump half my position....and I'd have another stop further down to get me out completely.

Had I not done this, there would have been a couple of rather severe losers today.

There were no good trades nor any bad ones today.

Let's see if I can bag a couple of runners tomorrow (and let's hope they can be on 1000 shares!).

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Making It, Losing It, And Making It Back Again

2007-04-25T16:46:00.000-04:00

Net: +$530.37
Trades: 65
Shares Traded: 34000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AFLAC Incorporated (AFL): +$319.00
Eastman Kodak Company (EK): +$240.24
Parker Drilling Company (PKD): +$202.37
Koppers Holdings Inc. (KOP): +$144.60
Tidewater Inc. (TDW): +$64.89
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM): +$51.72
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF): +$6.99
Equitable Resources, Inc. (EQT): -$13.70
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (STP): -$40.29
Apache Corporation (APA): -$51.29
Alcan Inc. (AL): -$81.07
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY): -$95.26
Eastman Chemical Company (EMN): -$96.15
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (TDY): -$121.66

Right off the open I was keeping an eye on Aflac (AFL) and managed to catch a good swing on it (though it could have been much much more).

AFL would open, take out the $52.00 level (at which point I got long 500 shares), and when it did, it sat there briefly, but then suddenly I saw a lot of out-of-the-money prints several cents higher.

I decided to put out an order 40-cents out of the money for about half my position, hoping more out-of-the money prints would take me out....unfortunately, I didn't know that it'd get hit and AFL would run up very quickly.

I let AFL run up a little where it seemed to stall briefly again and then I put out another order at least 30-cents away from current prices....and again, all hell broke loose on AFL and it would run up even more, taking me out even before I could cancel my order.

The reason I put my orders out there is because I try to offset my trading costs by adding liquidity and I'll usually try to cancel orders if prices come up rapidly. Perhaps I should stop trying to do this as the credits for adding liquidity on such a small position is probably not worth it.

Anyways, I had a relatively good start early in the morning, but then at around mid-morning, I began losing it.

I put on a a few losers and I suddenly felt an "eagerness" to trade to try to quickly make back what I had lost.

This only compounded the problem as I jumped-the-gun on several trades and I ended up losing even more. I started over-trading and put on many bone-headed trades that shouldn't have occurred.

As lunch slowly rolled around, I found that I had completely lost everything I had made in the morning....and I wasn't too happy about it.

Luckily I caught a part of a huge move made by Eastman Kodak (EK) on a volume spike....and again, it was another trade that could have been had for more.

I would eventually make everything back again and finish the day at where I was at before I started losing everything at mid-morning.

I find that I'm usually too quick to unload a part of my position for a winner when I could have held it for a little longer before unloading my position....this is something I'll have to keep working on.

What I can tell you is that I'm rather quick to book a part of my profits because lately I find that there are a lot of moves without much follow through. In fact, lots of my losers during the mid-morning was because I held onto a position that initially showed me a winner, but I decided to hold it for more and would eventually turn into a loser.

So I'd have to say, yes - I am unloading some of my position way too soon, but I'd also have to say that by doing this, this may have saved me more times than not in the event of a failed move.

I'll continue to try to work on this to get a better and clearer way of exiting my positions.

I also found that today, every time I decided to up my position size to 1000 shares, I'd get hit with a loser and every time I used 500 shares, it'd end up being a good winner....can't really explain it!

This is partially the reason why I didn't put on too many 1000 shares positions (because most of them went against me!).

I would eventually like 1000 share positions to be the norm for me, but for now, I still feel the most comfortable with 500 shares.

Two good trades and no bad ones today.

Maybe tomorrow I'll up my share size to say something like 600 or 800 on most of my positions....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

9:40:39AM - Aflac (AFL) gapped up and started moving up rather aggressively when it came up to the $52.00 level. Once it broke, I went long 500 shares. I put out an order to exit 40-cent out-of-the-money and I was surprised prices suddenly jumped up there and took me out. I held for a little long and placed an order to get the rest of my position out at a price that I thought was rather far away...but AFL suddenly jumped up there and before I could cancel, I'd been filled. I got out as follows: 40-cent winner (300 shares), 75-cent winner (200 shares) ($270 profit before fees ; Long 500 shares @ $52.00 ; Out: 9:43:22AM)

11:51:47AM - Eastman Kodak (EK) started running to the upside and came up to the $25.50 level. When it broke, I went long 1000 shares and for a brief moment there, I thought it was going to fall back down, so I got half my position out. Well after I got half my position out, EK just started to run to the upside and I got the balance of my position out as it started falling back down. I got out as follows: 5-cent winner (500 shares), 55-cent winner (500 shares) ($300 profit before fees ; Long 1000 shares @ $25.50)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Stepping It Up....But Only By A Little

2007-04-24T16:31:00.000-04:00

Net: +$805.75
Trades: 33
Shares Traded: 17200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Ameren Corporation (AEE): +$390.87
PartnerRe Ltd. (PRE): +$349.25
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (STP): +$94.44
Honeywell International Inc. (HON): +$25.34
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): +$24.43
Alcan Inc. (AL): +$20.42
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM): +$13.61
Equifax Inc. (EFX): -$36.06
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): -$76.58

Today was the second full day of using my subscription to Trade-Ideas and like yesterday, it alerted me to several trading opportunities.

I tried to get a little more aggressive with my positions size-wise, but for whatever reason, I still felt a little reluctant to go all out and put on a position that really mattered.

But instead of using a lot of 200 or 300 share positions, I stepped it up....if only by a little today as most of my positions were 500 shares.

However, this morning I found it another day with very little in the way of opportunities...just nothing seemed to come up on my radar.

After about an hour and a half of trading, I had traded very little and I was just about break-even P&L-wise.

There were a couple of alerts via Trade-Ideas, but I found myself just watching them in the morning as I didn't feel comfortable putting a position on them simply because the S&P Futures kept tanking in the morning and the alerts I had on were for longs.

I also find it interesting that I'm actually trading less than I normally would. I had thought that I'd be trading a lot more simply because Trade-Ideas would constantly feed me alerts and I thought I'd be trading a lot of them.

Instead, I'm finding that I'm becoming pickier with my trades (which is a good thing!).

Why?

Well before Trade-Ideas, I'd usually have a watchlist of about 8 stocks and if they were doing nothing, I'd have to go through the arduous task of looking for stocks that were moving....this involved looking through the most actives list, the most up list, the most down list.

Doing all of that was rather time consuming and I found that if I found even a semi-mediocre setup, I'd trade it because of the lack of opportunities and because my thinking was that that was the best opportunity at the moment.

But now since I have Trade-Ideas feeding alerts to me, I find that the need to trade a setup is not as urgent since I know there will be many more alerts to come.

I also find that Trade-Ideas is keeping me away from those "I'm bored" type of trades. Since it's constantly giving me trade ideas, I can flip to the chart and look (and possibly wait) to see if there are opportunities available to trade it.

If not, then I know they'll be another alert that would soon follow.

I find that if the markets are sideways or quiet, I'm prone to putting on a trade just to kill some time or because I feel like I need to do something before time runs out. But Trade-Ideas keep me from doing this because I'm constantly watching the price action and the charts for their alerts.

Anyways, two good trades and no bad ones today.

One final note - lately I've been receiving a lot (I mean a lot) of spam (I get at least 50 emails telling me about some cheap penny stock along with a whole lot of other spam) and as a result, I'm kind of slow in responding to emails.

As a result of this, I've turned off email notification for whenever a comment is left on this blog. If I don't respond to your comment, it's not because I'm ignoring you....it's because I'm trying to reduce the amount of emails I'm getting.

That being said, if you really want me to respond, please drop me an email (see my complete profile on the sidebar)....I might be slow in responding to you, but at least I'll get around to it.

Oh and one last thing...I've modified the daily post (yet again) and now I'll only be posting my net profit and I'll no longer post my gross profit (after all, the net profit is the most important right?).

Let's see if I can continue to step it up (even if it's just a little bit) for the remainder of the week.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

10:54:56AM - I was alerted to a move being made by Ameren (AEE) and so I watched for it to break the $53.00 level and when it did break, I tried to go long 1000 shares, but got partially filled for 900 shares. Once AEE broke the $53 level, it just started to run to the upside...I tried to hold as long as I could, but I ended up chasing it back down. I got out as follows: 25-cent winner (200 shares), 40-cent winner (200 shares), 49-cent winner (200 shares), 55-cent winner (300 shares) ($393 profit before fees ; Long 900 shares @ $53.00 ; Out: 10:58:52AM)

11:14:24AM - I was alerted that PartnerRe (PRE) was making new 52-week highs so I flipped to it and waited for the break of the $73.00 level. When it broke, I went long 500 shares. Once the $73.00 level broke I had to wait for a bit before PRE made a move, but when it did, PRE just exploded to the upside and I got out as follows: 60-cent winner (200 shares), 75-cent winner (200 shares), 80-cent winner (100 shares) ($350 profit before fees ; Long 500 shares @ $73.00 ; Out: 11:21:40AM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Unusually Cautious

2007-04-23T16:06:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$725.00
Net: +$712.16
Trades: 42
Shares Traded: 20800

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Bausch & Lomb Inc. (BOL): +$505.03
Southern Copper Corporation (PCU): +$69.66
Monsanto Company (MON): +$57.95
Ryerson Inc. (RYI): +$54.80
GameStop Corp. (GME): +$51.94
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): +$26.52
AGCO Corporation (AG): +$22.04
Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (DKS): +$7.81
Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU): +$3.86
Arch Coal, Inc. (ACI): -$41.92
Allegheny Energy, Inc. (AYE): -$51.02
Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB): -$62.79

Over the weekend, I signed up for one month to use Trade-Ideas and I spent some time trying to get more familiar with it's capabilities. I figured I'd give it a try for one month to see if I could use their alerts.

But when I came in this morning, I felt as though I was more hesitant than usual when it came to putting on trades.

I watched the open and kept an eye on some of the stocks I had set my sights on the night before, but I never really found any good opportunities to trade them.

I then started to keep an eye out for those Trade-Idea alerts and I can definitely tell you I was not disappointed!

Trade-Ideas pointed me from one opportunity after another, but what I really had to do was get in at the right time and not jump right into a stock just because it came up as an alert.

I can tell you, Trade-Ideas really saves me from having to switch from stock to stock, seeing if anything is trending or is near intra-day or yearly highs.

Unfortunately, I was feeling really cautious today and most of my positions were only for 200 or 300 shares....not sure why I felt the need to reduce my share size....maybe it was because I felt like I was trying something new and I wanted to err on the side of caution.

Well after trading several stocks that came up on my alerts, I started feeling a little more comfortable. I was taking 20+ cent winners, however since I kept my position sizes small, it didn't really account for much P&L-wise.

Then I got an alert for Bausch & Lomb (BOL) and that it was approaching it's intra-day high. Well thank goodness I had Trade-Ideas! Without it, I wouldn't have even known BOL was making a move.

It was at that moment I decided I needed to up my share size a little....I couldn't just keep taking 20+ cent winners on so few shares and expect to do anything spectacular on the day.

Well BOL came up to the $56 level and when it broke, I went long 1000 shares. BOL just exploded from there....

Unfortunately I started unloading my position when it started re-tracing rather hard and I was worried that it would reverse, considering it had already made quite a move and that the overall markets were stuck in neutral.

Well well, after I got out, BOL would just keep going up by several dollars! I didn't see anything that would have warranted the move at the time, but now I see that there were some buyout rumors out there.

Unfortunately I didn't know that and again, given that I came in today usually cautious, I was still happy with the $500+ gain on the trade.

Hopefully I can get used to trading those alerts that Trade-Ideas give me and hopefully I can get more comfortable so that I can trade them with more of a position (rather than the smallish positions I was putting on today).

One good trade and no bad ones.

I started feeling like I did on Friday after lunch, so I decided to leave for the day lest I repeat what happened on Friday.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

11:34:59AM - Bausch & Lomb (BOL) started to move up and took out it's intra-day high when it came up to the $56.00 level. When it broke, I went long 1000 shares. As soon as BOL broke $56.00, it exploded to the upside. I held onto it, but then it made a hard move back to the downside, which spooked me a little, so I started dumping my position. Below is the 1-minute chart so that you can better see what I'm talking about. BOL would just keep going up after I got out. I've really got to get better at holding them winners. I got out as follows: 47-cent winner (500 shares), 49-cent winner (300 shares), 62-cent winner (200 shares) ($506 profit before fees; Long 1000 shares @ $56.00 ; Out: 11:38:24AM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For Apr 21 - 22, 2007

2007-04-20T23:14:00.000-04:00

Caravaggio at The3500 had a great post that lists What A Proprietary Trading Firm Looks For

Here, Dr. Steenbarger takes a look at Pain And Gain In A Trader's Development

At TheStockBandit, Jeff White tells us about Recovering From Losing Trades

ShortDaBull at Madstocks had this interesting take on trading for a living when he asks So You Want To Trade For A Living Huh?

It's earnings season again and here TheStockBandit tells us What To Avoid During Earnings Season

Here is an excellent post by TraderGav that shows us how often we need to be right with our trades with various risk/reward ratios in Accuracy Vs Risk/Reward Ratio

Brett Steenbarger collected a fantastic list of Trading Mentors And Coaches: A Resource Linkfest

StockBee had this brief but important post entitled Concept Is Key, Not The Tools

TheStockBandit shares some key lessons from one of my favorite books "Pit Bull - Lessons From Wall Street's Champion Trader" (I read the book 4 times!!!!) in Honor Thy Stop

At where I work, I've heard many traders use this word and Brett Steenbarger tells us what The Most Dangerous Word In A Trader's Vocabulary is

Amidst the tragedy at Virginia Tech, hopefully something can be learned from it even from a trading perspective and here Babak tells us Two Most Powerful Principles Of Personal Development

Yaser Anwar had this great post about the Trading Tactics Of George Soros

Dr. Steenbarger at TraderFeed discusses The Most Common Problem Traders Face

Lauriston compiled this great list of trading rules in Finally, A Compilation Of Golden Trading Rules

Babak at Trader's Narrative tells us There Are Only Three Types Of Trades

Disgusting

2007-04-20T22:01:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$105.00
Net: +$86.39
Trades: 46
Shares Traded: 25600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Schlumberger Limited (SLB): +$315.11
H&R Block, Inc. (HRB): +$296.72
Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS): +$155.58
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): -$10.92
Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BRL): -$20.40
Oakley, Inc. (OO): -$24.82
Dominion Resources, Inc. (D): -$26.31
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): -$63.55
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (EL): -$75.14
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT): -$103.23
Honeywell International Inc. (HON): -$356.67

Absolutely disgusting.

That about sums up my trading this afternoon.

I let a good morning go to waste and I ended the day on a severe losing streak. It got to the point that I was just so disgusted with what went on in the afternoon that I just got up and left partway through the day.

I caught some good moves this morning and during lunch I made a bad decision to stick around to see how much more I could make.

Well that was the beginning of a losing streak that would see me lose close to $700 in the afternoon.

I just couldn't believe nothing was working. After 5 losing trades in a row, I went out to take a walk to clear my mind. When I came back, I put on another 5 losing trades in a row.

The final losing trade was a killer on some stupid move made by Honeywell (HON) and I don't really see the reason why it had to happen (see bad trades below).

After that bad losing trade on HON, I just felt so disgusted with what had just happened and I had high expectations that today would turn out to be a rather good day....but instead I was left with next to nothing.

I just couldn't take it any more and I just left.

I don't really want to think about it any more so I won't go on any further and dwell upon it. With literally nothing going on in the markets, I should have known better than to put on all those trades in the afternoon....most of them didn't need to happen, but they did happen because I thought I could make something out of it.

Two good trades and one bad one today.

As mentioned earlier, that bad trade was the last straw in today's trading...I just couldn't believe I put on so many losing trades in a row.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

9:47:50AM - Schlumberger Limited (SLB) had opened rather strong and when it broke the $76.50 level, I went long 500 shares. SLB just rocketed higher non-stop and I got out as follows: 56-cent winner (300 shares), 74-cent winner (200 shares) ($316 profit before fees ; Long 500 shares @ $76.50 ; Out: 9:50:11AM)

11:13:17AM - H&R Block (HRB) had been falling all morning along with the Futures and when the Futures started moving to the downside, I saw an opportunity to get short 2000 shares at $22.75. As soon as HRB broke the $22.75 level, it fell like a rock. I got out as follows: 4-cent winner (1000 shares), 15-cent winner (500 shares), 24-cent winner (500 shares ($235 profit before fees ; Short 2000 shares @ $22.75 ; Out: 11:20:24AM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

1:44:33PM - Honeywell (HON) was testing it's intraday high at $51.25 and when it looked like it was going to break, I went long 2000 shares @ $51.25. When it had difficulty getting through that level, I quickly dumped half my position for a 1-cent loser. Then HON decided to do some stupid-ass move and the Level 2 just got all crossed up...prints were going off 10 and 20 cents below where I was long. I didn't know what was going on and I had thought there was news on it so I crossed my order to get out....and it would fill my remaining shares 26-cents lower. After a few minutes, I watched this stock come back up and continue to the upside - after seeing that, it pissed me off and had me packing for the day. Altogether, I got out as follows: 1-cent loser (1000 shares), 26-cent loser (1000 share) ($270 loser before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $51.25 ; Out: 1:46:12PM)

Chipping Away

2007-04-19T17:58:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$156.00
Net: +$110.66
Trades: 81
Shares Traded: 63400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): +$245.63
Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS): +$132.96
Wyeth (WYE): +$108.58
Cablevision Systems Corporation (CVC): +$60.37
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT): +$37.11
CIT Group Inc. (CIT): +$32.26
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): +$15.74
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): +$3.07
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY): +$2.16
Altria Group, Inc. (MO): -$0.85
St. Jude Medical, Inc. (STJ): -$9.55
Oshkosh Truck Corporation (OSK): -$17.40
H.J. Heinz Company (HNZ): -$18.54
Baxter International Inc. (BAX): -$23.18
Herbalife Ltd. (HLF): -$25.92
SUPERVALU INC. (SVU): -$69.31
Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP): -$83.00
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH): -$279.47

Oh man.....this morning I found myself stumbling and fumbling all over the place. I just couldn't seem to book any winners and many of the level break I took part in just didn't follow through.

It was another day in which I'd find myself in a long position and the Futures would quickly go down, dragging the stock down with it. I'd then find myself in short positions and the Futures would pop up and the stock I was in would follow.

One of the first trades of the day was a fairly big loser on UnitedHealth (UNH).

On the break of the $52.00 level on UNH I went long 2000 shares and it moved up one or two cents, but then quickly came back down and I bailed out for a fairly big loser.

Well that big loser kinda set the tone for the rest of the morning. I got in a couple of other stocks on level breaks and they all did basically the same thing - it'd go in my favor by a few cents, then quickly reverse.

By lunch I wasn't a happy camper as I was sitting in the hole by a fair margin.

I took lunch and went out for a quick walk and it kinda felt good to get out there on such a nice day.

I came back and spent the better part of the day chipping away at my loss.

It seems like every time I have to dig my way out of the hole, I always end the day more exhausted than normal....having to grind it out like that is just very tiring.

One bad trade and no good ones.

Gonna keep this short so that I can enjoy what's left of a beautiful day out there.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

9:55:08AM - UnitedHealth (UNH) started moving up after gapping down and when it reached the $52.00 level, I decided to hit it with 2000 shares. It briefly moved up a few cents, but then rapidly came back down. That move scared me out of my position and I had to get out as follows (I used a 1-minute chart below so that you can better see what happened): 10-cent loser (600 shares), 11-cent loser (400 shares), 17-cent loser (900 shares), 19-cent loser (100 shares) ($276 loser before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $52.00)

Oh Geez.....

2007-04-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$849.00
Net: +$803.60
Trades: 86
Shares Traded: 63800

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
OMI Corporation (OMM): +$464.54
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): +$209.21
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): +$147.27
National Semiconductor Corporation (NSM): +$77.56
Washington Mutual, Inc. (WM): +$68.42
Centex Corporation (CTX): +$53.02
Celanese Corporation (CE): +$52.38
WellPoint, Inc. (WLP): +$49.86
AMR Corporation (AMR): +$33.88
The Bank of New York Company, Inc. (BK): +$27.65
Seagate Technology (STX): +$11.67
Banco Bradesco S.A. (BBD): -$21.33
Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP): -$22.75
Freddie Mac (FRE): -$26.11
Gerdau S.A. (GGB): -$30.00
Abbott Laboratories (ABT): -$46.63
Callaway Golf Company (ELY): -$54.29
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI): -$72.45
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT): -$118.91

Oh geez....look at all the stocks I traded today...that's double or triple what I'm used to trading on any single given day.

So what happened?

Well, the morning went by well enough...a few good trades but then after the first hour of trade, I literally had nothing to trade.

So I sat around, waiting around and I just couldn't find many opportunities out there.

As I sat there, thinking of ways to find opportunities, I remember that a while back I really wanted to see what kind of services Trade-Ideas had.

So I went in to check it out and all I could say was that I wasn't disappointed!

I found myself constantly taking a look to see what momentum plays were currently under way and which stocks were making intraday and yearly highs at the moment.

And I couldn't believe how many of those plays fit exactly what I was looking for in a trade!

I don't know why I didn't try it out earlier (well, then again, knowing the kind of person I am, I know that I'm really reluctant to try new things), but today I'm glad I did!

Just before lunch I was up about $500 when I decided to see what Trade-Ideas had to offer and within an hour of using Trade-Ideas, I was up almost $1000 by trading those stocks!

I can definitely say that perhaps very soon I may start subscribing to their services (yes, yes, I know lots of other bloggers out there have been preaching and praising Trade-Ideas for a long time now.....I always seem late to the party....).

Anyways, later on in the afternoon, I think I got a little too excited about this new tool I found and I started making aggressive plays with only mediocre setups.

As a result, I kept taking hits during the afternoon and it just seemed like I kept getting faked out on a lot of moves out there.

I would go on to lose quite a bit of what I had made and at some point I decided to call it a day before I lose a lot more.

And for some reason, there always seems to be a stock in which I just can't get a handle on. Yesterday it was KO, today it was CAT. I just couldn't time my trades right on it and I think I just didn't feel it properly. As a result, I just kept taking loser after loser on this stock....very frustrating indeed!

Two good trades today and no bad ones.

I would like to start trading a little more aggressively in terms of share size. Right now, I'm putting on positions in which I feel comfortable with, but I know I can up my position sizes a little bit more before it becomes risky, so I may toy with that tomorrow.

Lastly, I'd just like to mention (again) that Dinosaur Trader has his Virtual Office going on and I really think it's a great idea. He's collecting the daily P&L of several bloggers and you can go to his site to quickly take a look to see how the various bloggers faired during the trading day. Today, Glenn from the Dehtrader has joined the Virtual Office (the more the merrier!) and if you'd be interested in joining, contact Dinosaur Trader.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

9:38:55 - OMI Corporation (OMM) had gapped up in the morning and was slowly moving up. When OMM cleared the $29.10 level, I went long 2000 shares. This stock moved really really slowly, but at least it was moving up. When OMM reached the $29.15 level, I tried to go long another 1000 shares, but got partially filled for 200 shares (altogether I was long 2200 shares). Suddenly, OMM starts moving aggressively up and I took some of my position off the table until I had 300 shares left. OMM just continued to rip up, but I got greedy with that last 300 shares and instead of getting out for an 80+ cent winner, I had to chase prices back down. I got out as follows: 14-cent winner (1000 shares), 15-cent winner (600 shares), 33-cent winner (300 shares), 34-cent winner (100 shares), 38-cent winner (100 shares), 60-cent winner (100 shares) ($466 profit before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $29.10, Long 200 shares @ $29.15 ; Out: 10:06:13AM)

9:46:17AM - JP Morgan (JPM) had also gapped up and moved aggressively up. While I was in my OMM trade, I sas that JPM was about to break the $52.00 level. I had originally wanted to go long 3000 shares, but because I felt that managing two positions at the same time would be too much for me to handle, I only went long 1000 shares at $52.00. JPM just took off once it broke the $52.00 and I got out because I was more concerned with my OMM trade and so as a result, I got out as follows: 20-cent winner (500 shares), 22-cent winner (500 shares) ($210 profit before fees ; Long 1000 shares @ $52.00 ; Out: 9:47:31AM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

The Return Of An Old Friend

2007-04-17T16:30:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$681.00
Net: +$657.69
Trades: 59
Shares Traded: 58000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
EMC Corporation (EMC): +$417.64
Banco Bradesco S.A. (BBD): +$207.58
The First Marblehead Corporation (FMD): +$79.76
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): +$38.79
BCE Inc. (BCE): +$33.48
Callaway Golf Company (ELY): +$20.41
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): +$5.75
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): -$16.76
The Coca-Cola Company (KO): -$128.96

Today if felt good to trade my good old friend EMC Corp (EMC).....it's definitely been a while since I traded this stock.

Last year I used to trade EMC practically every day and it used to be my biggest monthly winner.

And today I got a chance to trade a little bit of EMC as it reported before the open today. I kept my positions rather light (maximum was 4000 shares) compared to the position sizes I used to trade on it (10,000 or 20,000 share positions).

But it was good to get back in a rhythm with EMC and was almost like riding a bicycle....once you've learned how to do it, you can easily pick it back up later on in the future....and EMC was like that for me today....fairly easy to read (if I had only gone in with 10,000 or 20,000 shares!).

Lately I've stopped trading EMC simply because my game plan had changed...I now look for stocks that move or that either have some upside or downside momentum on the daily charts.

With EMC however, you'd sometime be lucky if you had a 25-cent range on it (which is the reason I stopped trading it). Who knows....maybe I'll come back to it every now and again just to take some profits from it, but we'll see.

Coca-Cola (KO) also reported this morning, but I just couldn't trade the darn stock properly!

I'd get into a position on it, then it'd run in my favor, but then it'd keep falling back down hard and it kept swiping me out for a loser. But yet I don't know why I kept trying to trade it....it just kept kicking my butt today.

Aside from that, I found that a lot of the stocks I was watching were just jittering around and not really going anywhere fast. I just had to be mindful not to do anything stupid

Two good trades and no bad ones today.

The last little while my P&L has been swinging quite a bit....which is a good thing. Lately I've been posting either a small loss or a small gain, so at least this gives me an indication that I'm getting a little more aggressive in terms of position and share size.

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

9:38:36AM - EMC Corp (EMC) started to move aggressively up and so I went long 2000 shares at $15.25 and I added another 2000 shares at $15.30 after seeing EMC continue it's run to the upside. I got out as follows: 6-cent winner (2000 shares), 9-cent winner (2000 shares) ($300 profit before fees ; Long 2000 @ $15.25, Long 2000 @ $15.30 ; Out: 9:41:26AM)

10:17:07AM - Banco Bradesco (BBD) had come back up near it's intraday high and when it looked like it was going to break, I went long 1000 shares at $21.15. BBD started moving up and when the $21.20 level broke, I went long another 500 shares (so that I would have 1500 total shares long). I got out as follows: 11-cent winner (500 shares), 13-cent winner (500 shares), 16-cent winner (500 shares) ($200 profit before fees ; Long 1000 shares @ $21.15, Long 500 shares @ $21.20 ; Out: 10:26:44AM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Feeling Like I Missed Out During The "Money Hour"

2007-04-16T16:44:00.001-04:00

Gross: -$477.00
Net: -$501.98
Trades: 26
Shares Traded: 30800

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY): -$3.65
Wachovia Corporation (WB): -$4.94
Mattel, Inc. (MAT): -$22.62
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): -$52.02
Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS): -$63.83
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): -$64.97
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH): -$133.28
Citigroup Inc. (C): -$156.51

Well today was not pleasant...

Everything just seemed to go up within the first few minutes of the trading day and all I could do was just sit there and watch everything go by.

For whatever reason, I just didn't see good position to get into this morning and if I did, I'd be too late and miss a good break.

Before I knew it, a whole hour had passed by and I hadn't even put on a single trade!

I think it was that realization that had me making mistake after mistake. By thinking that I had probably missed out on most of the profits today by missing the "money hour", I forced myself into doing things that I probably shouldn't have.

In fact, I think I did a good job during the first hour of trading because I didn't get into any positions because I felt that the setups weren't good enough...however I just felt like the markets were up big and yet I had nothing to show for it.

But after that hour had passed, I somehow downgraded myself from looking for good setups to looking for mediocre setups because I somehow felt like I had missed the boat and that most of the opportunities were done for the day and that I'd have to settle with only average setups.

Well, thinking that way was a big mistake and even though the markets seemed to continue to move to the upside, I kept getting killed on my longs.

And even if I was in a position and the Futures moved up aggressively, the stocks I was in refused to go up any further and I'd have to take loser after loser. I guess that's the kind of punishment you get if you only go after the mediocre setups.

Another reason why this day turned out the way it did was that I was very eager to get the trading day started and I really wanted to get into that first trade and hopefully bag a winner. But by doing nothing for the first hour, I felt like I was late to the game and I started putting on trades just for the sake of trading.

I also held onto losers longer than I'd like to today...my thinking was that since the overall markets just seemed so strong that I'd just hold onto my losers and "hope" the stock I was in would eventually get with the program.

But instead of taking 3 or 5-cent losers when I could have, I ended up taking 15 or 20 cent losers.

So in short, it was just a combination of several things that had everything falling apart on me today.

I've really got to learn to keep a level head when it comes to trading....just because the markets are up or down big, it doesn't necessarily mean that opportunities are present and just because I had nothing to show for the morning, it doesn't mean I have to play "catch-up".

Ah well....not going to dwell on this day much further....I'm just looking forward to tomorrow.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

"The Huge" Weekend Reading For April 14 - 15, 2007

2007-04-13T23:33:00.000-04:00

In "Weekend Reading" I'll collect what I thought were the best posts and articles for the week from various bloggers.

The reason I do this is because I find it difficult to integrate links to other great blogs in my posts, so this is a way for me to give back.

I only focus on posts and links that relate to trader improvement or trading in general.

Since I missed last weekend's edition, I've merged last week's edition with this week's edition....the result it a huge dump of links. Hope you've got plenty of time on your hands this weekend....

Corey at AfraidToTrade shares with us what he looks for and how he does things in How I Trade

Andy Swan talks about something that I've done several times in the past (but yet I continue to do it from time to time) - it's Seeking REVENGE On A Stock

Here's the first of many articles in this weekend's weekend reading by Brett Steenbarger and here he reviews Trading Principles: Efficiency And Inefficiency

Another trading principal from Brett Steenbarger - this time he looks at a more technical aspect of trading - it's Trading Principles: Inside Structures And Breakouts

At the TazTrader blog, Craig does a great job of relating football and swing trading in Swing Traders Look For Fumbles And Interceptions

Lifepost over at High Probability Trading gives us a nice overview of how he trades in High Probability Trade Setups

Wow! A collection of gold by Brett Steenbarger! Here's an excellent collection by him in Trading Techniques: A Collection Of Articles

Here, Brett Steenbarger got a chance to spend a day with a professional trader who makes millions a year and here he shares with us some of the traits this trader has in Marc Greenspoon: A Visit With A World-Class Trader

Another free newsletter by Jeff White at the StockBandit and here he discusses some factors that affect a trader's level of success in Trading Plans & Self-Honesty

At TraderFeed, Brett Steenbarger had this collection of blogs and breaks them down into how or what they can offer you (thanks for the mention Brett ;) ) in How To Trade: Blog Linkfest Volume One

Here's a great article by The Kirk Report and really hit home in terms of what it said about stepping outside one's comfort zone (we all know I'm trying to deal with this at the moment:) ) in Trading To Win

More from the StockBandit - this time they discuss something I've really been meaning to work on - my exit strategy - it's Setting Stop Loss Levels And Profit Targets

Prospectus at MoveTheMarkets summarizes the two main rules from the book Phantom of the Pits and applies it a trade he had on in POP Rule #2 - Always Press Your Winners

Piranha shows us how he comes up with his list of stocks to watch in How To Create A Successful Stock Watch List

Stockbee shares with us how he trades unknown stocks with significant earnings in From Concept To Execution

Wanna trade for a living but don't know where to start? Well look no further! Here's a great big list of prop firms along with some very good advice from Babak over at Trader's Narrative in a List Of Proprietary Trading Firms

I've noticed that a lot of traders like to play poker and here Brett Steenbarger explains the similarities between trading and poker playing in What We Can Learn From Trading And Poker

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the number of opportunities that may be presenting themselves? Well you can narrow it down using Corey's 1, 2, 3 Method For Qualifying Trade Ideas

Here's an interesting idea by Dinosaur Trader - collecting the daily P&L's of several bloggers and posting it up daily! By doing this, you can see how other bloggers faired during the trading day all in one location! Check it out in Virtual Office

FX at Forex Intraday Trading shares with us how he's going to be Gaining Confidence With Hard Stops

Stockerblog listed the Top Ten Selling Stock Market Books

At where I work, there are a lot of self talkers (well, more like self yellers) and here Brett Steenbarger explores Changing Your Self By Talking To Yourself

Here is something I have a hard time doing - giving my trades more breathing room....here's a free newsletter by TheStockBandit called Wide Stops Can Mean Huge Rewards

Brett Steenbarger has yet another deep post called Countering Information Processing Biases In Trading

And here are Three Steps To Take If You're A New Trader Losing Money by Brett Steenbarger at his TraderFeed blog

Corey at the AfraidToTrade blog tells us why you should Know Why You Trade The Signals That You Do

Here's a great overview and explanation of the VIX by Bill at NoDooDahs! entitled Deconstructing The VIX

Lord Tedders at his Forex and Futures blog asks a question that I've had to answer a couple of times and here's his perspective on Why Trade?

Dr. Steenbarger's has another set of links to other blogs in How To Trade: Blog Linkfest Volume Two

Richard continues his "misconceptions" series at his blog MoveTheMarkets - this time it's Misconceptions: Bullish Block Trades

Lord Tedders asks What Are The Odds Of Becoming A Successful Trader?

StockBee has this post that can help identify good and bad trading periods in Thinking Behind Market Monitor

The Kirk Report lists the 50 trading rules from the book Trading Rules: Strategies For Success

Here, DummySpots shows us how one should be Trading Opening Gap Reversals On Failed Setups along with some examples

Ok - my hands are tired from typing all of that up...have a great weekend and we'll see you all back here on Monday!

Jittery

2007-04-13T17:58:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$470.50
Net: +$426.65
Trades: 56
Shares Traded: 68600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
McDonald's Corporation (MCD): +$360.89
Sanofi-Aventis (SNY): +$111.63
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): +$36.98
Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK): +$19.98
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): +$16.67
Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY): -$33.25
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD): -$86.26

After what happened yesterday, I really felt reluctant to put on that first trade.

I sat there and waited, and sat some more, and waited some more.

And if I did do something, I didn't stick around in any position for too long....I was just being very cautious all around.

Aside from that move between 10AM - 11AM, I just found that everything was too jittery to put on any meaningful trade.

There were a couple of stocks that made some significant moves amidst all of the jitteryness...in particular, McDonald's (MCD) at around 11:30AM after it broke it's intraday high.

Again, because I was being cautious and because of the jitteryness of the S&P Futures, I kept going in and out very quickly and all the little profits on it added up.

I also caught a bit of that nasty move MCD made a little after 1PM as it ran right up, then right back down....again, I was just glad I was in and out fast today.

Merck (MRK) was also a tricky beast to trade today....I made lots, lost lots, and made it all back again on this finicky stock.

One stock that disappointed was Krispy Kreme (KKD)...I was watching this stock after it had reported last night and it looked like an ascending triangle and I got long right at the top at $11.05 (I got a little to eager to get into this stock), but as you can see, it quickly fell back down.

Aside from that, nothing else to really say about today's trading....kept my position sizes between 1000 - 3000 shares. Next week, I'll try to step it up a bit more.

That's it for now....lookout for my weekend reading....it's gonna have lots of articles....have a great weekend all!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Getting Rocked & Getting Rolled

2007-04-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

Gross: -$505.00
Net: -$515.23
Trades: 16
Shares Traded: 17000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AirTran Holdings, Inc. (AAI): -$39.30
Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR): -$76.04
Rite Aid Corporation (RAD): -$159.78
SAIC, Inc. (SAI): -$240.10

Never under-estimate the power of the S&P Futures....

My day was quickly done and within 45 minutes, I had to close her down for the day....

It was just my luck that every position I had early this morning was in the opposite direction of a rather hard move made by the Futures.

I went long on SAI twice early in the morning...unfortunately I was long right when the Futures decided to tank hard....on both times!

When I had those SAI positions, I saw the Futures tank quite hard, but I didn't immediately do anything about it...I figure that this stock could resist the overall moves made by the markets.

Unfortunately I waited too long and was stopped out twice on this stock....the first time for about $130, the second time for about $110.

And wouldn't you know it....whenever I was short, the Futures made a forceful move up.....and again, I didn't immediately got out of my position, opting to wait a little bit to see if the stock could resist the move....but then I'd get stopped out. Whenever I was long, the Futures made a forceful move down...I'd hang around only to get out when it hit my stop for a loss.

Every position I had on today had a similar story....I'd either be long when the Futures make a forceful move to the downside or I'd be short and the Futures make a forceful move to the upside.

And in all of my trades, I waited a little too long to see if the stock could resist the move.

Oh sure, eventually the stocks I was in eventually went in the direction of the trade (or at least come back to break even) - but I didn't know that....nor would I know the extent of the Futures move.

All in all, just bad, bad, bad.

I guess I've been focusing so much on other aspects of my trading that I sometimes tend to forget some of my basic trading rules....one of which is to trade only when there is a clear direction in the Futures (so that I can trade in the same direction) and to avoid trading when it does a lot of wicked chopping.

Had I been more mindful of this, I would have been caught maybe once or twice with those Futures moves (which ultimately affected the stocks I was in).....but to be caught soo many trades in a row means that I failed to follow those rules.

I also have a feeling that this morning I really felt eager to put on an aggressive trade and because my mind was so intent on making that big trade and trying to use bigger share sizes, I failed to follow through on my rules (like get out of my position if the Futures make forceful moves in the opposite direction of your trade!)....

Oh well - I'll have to put this day in the books and move on.

I just have to remember to never under-estimate the power of the S&P Futures....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None - just many trades in which I held onto a loser longer than I'd like to hold them for

Couldn't Find Anything Good To Short

2007-04-11T18:17:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$414.20
Net: +$403.17
Trades: 57
Shares Traded: 56200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Chico's FAS, Inc. (CHS): +$267.32
The Progressive Corporation (PGR): +$81.07
The Gap Inc. (GPS): +$72.43
Gold Fields Limited (GFI): +$57.48
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. (AHM): +$45.08
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (CCU): +$20.54
Tele Norte Leste Participacoes SA (TNE): +$10.07
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): -$25.84
The Mosaic Company (MOS): -$124.99

Today I took my trading up a little notch by increasing my share size by a little bit so that my position sizes were between 1000 - 2000 shares.

The last little while I've been using 500 - 1000 shares just to get myself back in a groove and now I feel a little more comfortable increasing share size again.

Just had a simple game plan today....get in and get out fast. I wasn't expecting as much movements in the overall markets as we experienced this morning....I was thinking it was just going to be choppy or flat until the FOMC minutes.

Nonetheless, I was just happy to get in and out quickly even if my gains could have been a little more on some of my positions.

I may continue to up my share size little by little for the rest of this week and if things go well, I'll up using position sizes I was using before the dreaded month of March occurred.

There were a couple of trades in which I felt I could go in with a bigger share size, but I didn't want to do anything that would beat my confidence level down again, especially since my confidence level had been stuck in the basement for the better part of a month now.

I didn't really capitalize on much in the morning since the Futures kept going down and for some reason, all I could find were longs, so I had to pick my spots carefully.

Then from 11AM - 2PM it was a real snoozefest....I just tried to keep acutely aware not to do something foolish. I decided to stay after lunch just to see what the markets would do after the FOMC minutes.....

As you can see, the markets moved down a bit after the FOMC minute release. Unfortunately I wasn't able to capitalize on that down move....and again, for some reason, all I could see were longs.

I've also noticed that lately my trading fees have been getting smaller and smaller.

One of the more obvious reasons is that I was using smaller share sizes (and hence the fees for trading are smaller).

Another reason is that I've been receiving a lot of credits for adding liquidity using Arca and ISB. As some of you know, you'll receive a credit of $2 per 1000 shares for adding liquidity (for those who have flat fee trading or set trading fees, you won't be able to take advantage of these credits).

Take today as an example....the difference between my gross and net is only $11.03.

The reason is because my ECN fees for the day was -$11.88. Yup, you read that right....this means I received a credit for executing my trades using the ECNs that I do.

Keep in mind that the way I trade is that I'll usually punch into a position (remove liquidity), but when it comes time to exit a position, I'll add liquidity using Arca or ISB just so that I can collect the credits for doing so.

This helps offset my trading costs greatly and will have more of an impact if I were trading more shares or if I did lots of trades during the day.

Just thought I'd throw that in as I've been getting quite a few emails regarding my fees.

Anyways, there were no good trades nor any bad ones. I was in and out too quickly to really realize any big gains.

Tomorrow I'll turn it up a notch....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

A Profitable Fat Fingered Mistake

2007-04-10T17:09:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$651.00
Net: +$638.50
Trades: 32
Shares Traded: 46200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
The Mosaic Company (MOS): +$589.06
MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG): +$72.75
Dynegy Inc. (DYN): +$58.92
Mylan Laboratories Inc. (MYL): +$54.52
United Rentals, Inc. (URI): -$19.72
Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR): -$32.38
Tele Norte Leste Participacoes SA (TNE): -$42.23
Seagate Technology (STX): -$42.40

This morning I came in determined to step it up a notch and to get a little more aggressive with what I was doing.

So there I was, watching The Mosaic Company (MOS) gap down, but make an aggressive move back up. I was watching for the $28.00 level to break.

I was thinking that I'd hit it for 1000 shares first and if there were still shares available and things were still looking favorable, I'd hit it again with another 1000 shares.

So MOS moves up to the $28.00 level, I got my order ready and I hit it with 1000 shares!

My eyes quickly went over to the chart of MOS and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that I was getting partially filled on my 1000 shares...

As I watched MOS on the charts, I noticed that for some reason, I kept getting more of my order partially filled and I was thinking "Boy, it seems to be taking a long time to fill my order....I wonder why it's taking soo many partial fills just to fill 1000 shares..."

I look over to my blotter.....and I see that I was filled for......7800 shares of MOS!

WHAT THE HECK!!!!!

I rapidly try to cancel the balance of my order.....but it was too late! I was filled for all 10,000 shares of MOS at $28!

Instead of putting in an order to get long 1000 shares at $28.00, I had inadvertently put in an order for 10,000 shares.

As soon as I saw that, I seized up momentarily....not knowing what I should do.

I snapped out of it and started dumping my position 1000 shares at a time as quickly as I could....

I only managed to get rid of 1500 shares when the position started going negative on me.....CRAP! I knew that MOS was capable of moving quickly and if it reversed, I could take a serious beating on this trade!

But then MOS popped back up and I continued unloading my position....

MOS just seemed aggressive and it looked like it really wanted to go up, but I kept unloading as much as I could as fast as I could.

I finally got rid of 8000 shares and I was left with 2000 shares.

At that point, I was still feeling a little flushed and my hands were still shaking a bit. Hrmmmm....what should I do with this last 2000 shares?

I briefly thought about holding onto them for a little bit to see where MOS would go, but my panicky, adrenaline filled self told me to just get rid of them and try to catch my breath.

Looking back now, had I waited a little longer (instead of panicking), I could have had a lot more profits....a lot more....MOS would quickly move up over 40 cents, but I just needed to relieve myself of that sudden shock of seeing myself in a big position on a stock that can turn on a dime.

When all was said and done, I had pocketed almost $600 on that trade....and that was basically my day.

For the rest of the morning (after I had calmed down), I didn't really see much to trade out there and after seeing what the overall markets did in the morning, I figured the afternoon would be no different, so I called it a day after lunch.

Maybe this is the kind of thing I have to do more often....to get myself out of my comfort zone and to really step it up quite a bit. To me, I would have felt comfortable with a 2000 share position on MOS, but nothing more than 3000 shares on it....maybe I need to step a little bit outside what is comfortable to me.....say something like 4000 or 6000 shares on MOS.

I guess breaking away from doing something comfortable will just take some time and some practice to get used to it....I guess there's no time like the present to start doing this more often.....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

9:41:09AM - The Mosaic Company (MOS) had gapped down, but was making an aggressive move back up. I was watching the $28.00 level and instead of getting long 1000 shares at $28.00, I ended up getting 10,000 shares at $28.00. I panicked and got everything out as soon as possible and I got out as follows: 3-cent winner (1000 shares), 4-cent winner (3000 shares), 5-cent winner (2000 shares), 6-cent winner (200 shares), 7-cent winner (2000 shares), 9-cent winner (800 shares), 11-cent winner (500 shares), 12-cent winner (500 shares) ($589 profit before fees ; Long 10,000 shares @ $28.00 ; Out: Didn't record....my hands were too shaky to record!)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

A Monday Warmup

2007-04-09T19:15:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$341.00
Net: +$300.30
Trades: 75
Shares Traded: 66600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Dynegy Inc. (DYN): +$233.30
USEC Inc. (USU): +$71.04
Arch Coal, Inc. (ACI): +$43.33
The Dow Chemical Company (DOW): +$38.90
Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU): +$37.88
Big Lots, Inc. (BIG): +$28.70
Mirant Corporation (MIR): +$15.94
Washington Mutual, Inc. (WM): +$8.39
CSX Corporation (CSX): -$0.64
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): -$52.94
Herbalife Ltd. (HLF): -$123.63

After an exhausting long weekend (I helped re-paint my parents kitchen), I came in the office today a little weary.

For a brief moment this morning, I kinda forgot my trading rules and what exactly I was looking for and how I was going to do it.

So I scaled back my position sizes yet again today, just as sort of a warm-up. Usually after a long weekend, I feel as though I'm a little rusty, a little slow, and I tend to forget some of the things I was trying to work on the week before.

Aside from that, there's really not much to tell you about...I finally put on a good trade (a trade in which I make $200 or more)....it seemed like it was a long time ago since I've had one.

After a quick start to the morning, I found myself losing practically everything.

Around midday, I found myself getting annoyed and frustrated and even though there was a nice overall move to the downside at around 2PM, I still managed to lose money.

I made some of it back, but only after a couple of aggravating trades.

During the day, Dynergy (DYN) seemed to thicken up (i.e. sizes on the bid and ask got bigger) and as a result, I took a few 5000 and 6000 share positions on it, but without very much success.

But overall, I kept my position sizes small and I mostly just traded 1000 share positions today.

Anyways, gonna keep this short....as you can see, there was no weekend reading this past weekend (as mentioned earlier, I was at my parents house re-painting their kitchen and I had to take some time to do my taxes), which means that this weekend will be a 2-for-1 weekend reading (hope you all have lots of extra time this weekend for all that reading!).

Now that I'm all warmed up, let's see what tomorrow brings!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

9:32:21AM - Dynergy (DYN) opened strong and when each level seemed to melt away, I waited for the $10.30 level to melt away. When it did, I went long 2000 shares and DYN($251 profit before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $10.30 ; Out: Didn't record)
quickly popped up...I got out as follows: 9-cent winner (1000 shares), 16-cent winner (900 shares), 17-cent winner (100 shares)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Three Mistakes In Rapid Succession

2007-04-05T18:01:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$114.00
Net: +$90.05
Trades: 44
Shares Traded: 60200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Ford Motor Company (F): +$62.70
Titanium Metals Corporation (TIE): +$32.97
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): +$26.22
Altria Group, Inc. (MO): +$18.91
The Greenbrier Companies (GBX): +$13.53
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): +$5.63
NBTY, Inc. (NTY): -$20.39
Champion Enterprises, Inc. (CHB): -$23.86
CONSOL Energy Inc. (CNX): -$25.67

Today I didn't really see much to trade...I just had to hang in there and try not to do anything stupid. Unfortunately with the market lull, it was only a matter of time.

There were three mistakes on my part today and they were all put on back-to-back-to-back and it cost me quite a bit in terms of actual profit and in terms of lost opportunity.

So here I was....I had just finished my lunch and nothing appeared to be doing anything.

Then I caught wind of that offer for the Chrysler unit from DCX and by the time I switched over to take a look, most of the move was already in.

A few minutes later, GM followed suit by rallying a good amount too. But the GM move just seemed too wild and I didn't really want to get involved with it.

Then I switch over to Ford (F) and at the time, Ford hadn't done anything significant yet, so I sat there and watched for it to make it's move.

Then Ford (F) starts moving up and when it took out the $8.00 level and when it did, I quickly went long 10,000 shares. It popped up, but then came back down again and it kinda spooked me a little and I bailed for a 1-cent loser ($100 loser).

That was mistake #1 - bailing too early and getting spooked too easily.

I would eventually get back in again at the $8.00 with another 10,000 shares and made some of that loss back and then some (though it could have been a lot more).

Another trade that coincided with all of this was my trade on NBTY Inc. (NTY). I was watching it for some time and it appeared to be making an ascending triangle (see 5-min chart below).

On the first break of the $52.00 level at around 1:20PM, I went long 300 shares and held it even though it moved back and forth for quite a while. At the time, I was thinking that the $52.50 level would probably be the level I'd like to aim for.

Well on the 2nd break of the $52.00 level at around 1:30PM, I thought that that would be the break I was looking for and I added another 300 shares at $52.07.

Unfortunately it came back down again. Then my scalper mentality crept back in again and even though I knew that the trade still looked good (i.e. nothing significant indicated that it would reverse), I decided to just get everything out at around the $51.94 area.

Well, you can see what happened shortly after I got out....and it hit that $52.50 area that I was targeting too!

That NTY trade was another case of using the wrong entry for the wrong exit....that entry was meant to be a longer-term trade, but for some reason my scalper attitude interfered with the trade (in actuality, my heart was still pumping after the Ford trade and I think I still had the adrenaline in my system).

Thus, mistake #2 - wrong exit strategy given the setup.

After those two trades, I switched over to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). It was moving up and testing the intra-day high and even though a lot of shares were going off, JNJ just appeared as though it wasn't going to go up any further.

So, I decided to get short on it. Not too sure why...the chart at the time wouldn't indicate anything in particular....I guess it was just because it didn't seem to want to go up any further and thus I decided to go short.

Not a good idea....JNJ would move up, break it's intra-day high and I'd have to take a loser.

And hence, mistake #3 - trying to pick the top.

All three of these trades were sort of inter-laced with each other.

I was in the NTY trade when I executed that Ford (F) trade and I put on that JNJ trade immediately after I exited that NTY trade.

Aside from those mistakes, things pretty much were the same as they were yesterday....only that I found that there wasn't as many opportunities. And had I avoided some of those mistakes I made today, it might have even been a better day than yesterday (key word here is *might*).

Oh well - the grind will continue next week....

Have a great long weekend folks!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

The Battle Within

2007-04-04T18:19:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$433.07
Net: +$412.89
Trades: 75
Shares Traded: 33400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
USEC Inc. (USU): +$158.91
Altria Group, Inc. (MO): +$57.29
Monsanto Company (MON): +$54.01
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): +$51.91
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): +$37.65
The Mosaic Company (MOS): +$29.60
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (WFR): +$26.36
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (JTX): +$24.25
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$24.05
Big Lots, Inc. (BIG): +$20.22
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MBT): +$18.45
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF): -$5.78
KB Home (KBH): -$32.47
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (RIO): -$51.60

Yesterday I noted how almost every position initially went my way, only to turn into a loser.

So today I just got in and out fast. I'd dump half my position at the first sign stalling and I'd dump the other half whenever I just didn't feel comfortable with the position any more.

And it resulted in booking way more winners than losers today...and I was just as content to keep doing this all day long.

Yes, there were some positions that continued going without me, but the vast majority of the positions would have eventually turned into a negative one.

For the past couple of months now, I've been trying to incorporate more longer-term strategies and I really tried to hold onto positions longer.

But I have a feeling that my entries were probably less than ideal for that kind of trading and as I tried to mix things up and change multiple things with my trading plan, I eventually found myself using scalping entries/setups (things I see that I know have a good probability of moving for me in the very short term), but not ideal for longer-term trades (trades in which I hold for 30 or more minutes).

For the past little while now, I feel as though I were caught like deer in the headlights whenever I put on any position.

Once in a position, my scalper-self would scream "Take the profits while they are showing!"...

While this new trader-self-I-really-want-to-become tells me "Whoa there....let's practice patience and let's see how far we can ride this winner!".

While the voices in my mind battle it out, I freeze...not knowing really what to do....and more often than not, I end up taking a loser (more because of the setup).

And after every loser or lost opportunity, the battle in my mind rages on.

If I get out too early because of my scalper instincts, the trader in me yells at me saying "See? I told you so! Why can't you even demonstrate at least some inkling of patience!!!".

And if I get into a position that is initially profitable, only to see it become a loser, the scalper in me yells at me saying "What are you doing? You had profits and you refused to take them! What's the matter with you? Why are you soo greedy?!?!?".

Either way, this battle that rages on in my mind is a lose-lose battle.

If I wanted to change the way I trade, I have to change the whole strategy....

I cannot keep my scalper entries and try to mix them up with longer term exit strategies...these will most likely lead to profitable positions turning into losing trades.

And I cannot keep my longer term entry strategies and mix them up with scalper exit strategies...this will lead to lost opportunities and a mountain of frustration.

So today, I just went back to my roots....back to good old scalping.

Honestly?

Today was probably the least stressful day I've had in a long time. Everything seemed to be on auto-pilot and I wasn't fighting myself on every single position I put on. I just did what felt appropriate and all the winners added up.

I still kept my position sizes small (averaging about 500 share positions), but taking a 6-cent winner here, 10-cent winner there, 4-cent winner here, 20-cent winner there all really added up.

And I didn't really care about how many different stocks I was trading...as long as the stock was moving, I'd look for opportunities to profit off of them.

Like I said earlier, I'd dump half my position when I felt that the immediate momentum stalled, and held the rest....if the stock continued going, then great! If not, then I'd take my profits as the stock was reversing towards my entry.

I'll continue to keep my position sizes small for now until I string some more positive days to get my confidence back to where it was before this whole trading slump started....

Oh and by the way, I've added back the "Shares Traded" stat back on the daily posts...hopefully this will give you a better idea of how aggressive or how conservative I traded today (i.e. lots of shares traded = bigger positions sizes).

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

The Wrong Entry For The Wrong Exit

2007-04-03T19:20:00.000-04:00

Gross: -$435.00
Net: -$446.91
Trades: 27

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Chico's FAS Inc. (CHS): +$30.48
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): -$6.87
Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL): -$56.77
KB Home (KBH): -$82.01
America Movil S.A.B de C.V. (AMX): -$82.96
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): -$248.75

Wow! Look at that!

Every trade today ended with a loss, save for one! Unbelievable! I seem to be really good at doing that lately!

And even though I was long just before that big move up at around 10AM, I still managed to lose money! Talk about going with the flow!

Hehehe - just joshing with you all!

After reviewing the trading day, I noticed that almost all of my positions were showing me a profit initially...but then I held onto them and sometimes even watched them see-saw from profitable to losing trade to profitable again...only to get out for a loser.

This seems to be the theme lately, where I hold onto profitable positions longer than I normally would, only to see it turn into a loser.

The only form of consistency I've had lately was back during the 2nd last week of March in which I traded conservatively AND I noted that all I was doing was getting in and out fast....as soon as a position looked like it was turning back, I'd book my profits.

This past weekend, Brett Steenbarger had a great article I had linked to entitled "Why Trader's Sabotage Themselves" and upon re-visiting this article, I think it would accurately describe what's been going on with me lately.

I usually make trading decisions based on what I know and what has worked in the past and while those trading decisions are very good at capturing small moves in the markets, they may not be well suited for longer-term trading.

Take today as an example...I watched the various stocks, I saw something, I took action, saw a profit initially (usually 5, 6, or 7 cents), but opted to wait to capture more of a move only to see it turn into a loser.

I think Dr. Steenbarger's article really hit home as I re-read it again today.

I've been basing my entries for what I'd consider a good very short-term scalp, but I've been planning my exits as though it were going to be a long-term trade (Trader-X, Dummy, PinoyTrader type exits).

While my entries may be good in capturing 5 or 10-cents (actually, it really depends on the stock), they may not be good in trying to capture 50 or more cents.

And today was a clear example of that - in essence, I was using the wrong exit strategy given the entry strategy I was using....or you could say I was using the wrong entry strategy for the exit strategy.

As a result, these two pieces just didn't want to come together and work together properly.

It also doesn't help that I'm not very good at holding onto losers...in other words I don't like them and would prefer to quickly get out rather than temporarily holding onto them and giving a trade time to work itself out.

And today after every losing trade, I'd go into the next one, expanding my stop, only to see it get hit again and thus on the next trade, I'd widen my stops even more.

Anyways, FCX really had it's way with me today, mainly because I was a little upset that it really didn't do anything during that nice big move upwards we had around 10AM (I happen to be long just before the move)...I got out for a loser and since it seemed like it didn't want to go up, I went short....I got out of my short for a loser because it didn't seem to want to go down, and I went long again (only to lose again!).

Keep in mind I'm still developing some things with these new kinds of stocks I'm trading and I'll be adding some more rules and things to look for tonight so that hopefully I'll be putting on less trades, but higher quality.

Though I'm not too happy about today's results, I'm just glad I came away with something from the loss....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Changing It Up

2007-04-02T19:51:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$252.00
Net: +$234.01
Trades: 61

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
KB Home (KBH): +$134.21
Walter Industries Inc (WLT): +$101.35
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): +$65.79
GameStop Corp. (GME): +$13.43
Jabil Circuit Inc. (JBL): +$5.31
Tribune Company (TRB): +$1.48
First Data Corporation (FDC): -$0.72
ConocoPhillips (COP): -$1.33
Georgia Gulf Corporation (GGC): -$22.02
Nordstrom Inc. (JWN): -$30.71
Chico's FAS Inc. (CHS): -$32.76

Today I just really focused on changing things up and traded stocks that actually moved.

In the past, I sort of had a semi-idea of what I wanted to trade and a bunch of "backup" stocks I would fall back on if I couldn't find opportunities.

In the month of March, this was met with limited success (yes, yes, I know, I haven't done my monthly review...I'm still trying to find the time to complete my number crunching).

So what I did yesterday was to really focus and to really have a good idea of what I wanted to do today....which stocks I wanted to go long on when the opportunities showed themselves, which stocks I wanted to short when opportunities presented themselves and to keep an eye on those stocks that were moving because of news.

I was also rather careful in deciding which stocks I was going to trade today.

Notice anything different about the stocks I traded today?

Well, there are no "lame" stocks in the list! No GE, no MOT, no TWX, no EMC....just stocks that actually move!

But today I just felt like I needed to ease my way back into this thing, which is why I kept my position sizes really really small....I'm talking like 200, 300, and 500 shares (just depending on my comfort level).

Over the weekend I was hunting for stocks to trade. I used to just stick with whatever was in the news (gapping up/down) plus my usual "lame" pack of stocks.

So where was I to begin? Where am I going to find these stocks? I needed to find stocks that moved and I was trying to find stocks that had a relatively large Average True Range (ATR).

Well - what better place to find it than over there at Move The Markets. If you didn't know, Richard runs a weekly scan called "Top Stocks To Daytrade" which looks for stocks that have certain characteristics and looks for stocks that have good intraday ranges.

I got my list from Move The Markets and I looked at the charts of each, then decided which stocks I would consider only going long and which ones would should stick to shorting. Anyways, you should go and check it out!

Since I kept my position sizes small, I was more willing to wait to see where my position would take me....and I didn't mind holding onto a temporary loser just as long as the charts were showing that my position was the right one.

I'll need to string a couple more positive days to really start getting my groove back, so we'll see what the rest of the week brings.

Finally folks, I'd like to apologize for not providing timely posts and missing some here and there. Lately I've been feeling that my mind wasn't really in the spirit of things and I just felt like I needed to escape all the feelings and emotions that this game sometimes brings with it. I hope you all stick with me here as I try to get my bearings straight again and hopefully it'll be business as usual soon!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For Mar 31 - Apr 1, 2007

2007-03-31T15:13:00.000-04:00

In "Weekend Reading" I'll collect what I thought were the best posts and articles for the week from various bloggers.

The reason I do this is because I find it difficult to integrate links to other great blogs in my posts, so this is a way for me to give back.

I only focus on posts and links that relate to trader improvement or trading in general.

This week I found that there were lots of great articles out there! Keep it coming guys! You folks are doing a great job and providing a great services for all of us out there!

Here's this week's edition:

Over at TraderFeed, Dr. Steenbarger tells us Three Steps Toward Successful Stock Picking

Corey at AfraidToTrade had this great article that I should have been doing the last little while...it's Ride Out Emotions For Greater Success

Here's a video by Richard at MoveTheMarkets that is similar to what I look for in a trade...it's called How I Stalk A Breakout

The Quant Investor had a great book review in Book Review: "How I Trade For A Living"

Here's a great list of Trader Mistakes: Avoid At All Costs! compiled by Piranha

The Stock Bandit had another free newsletter - this time it's Goodness & Greatness

Some points to ponder in Patience, Trading And Profitability by The Market Speculator

Jeff White at The Stock Bandit had some great tips in Trading Responsibly

TraderGav had this great collection of charts in which he re-visited some of the good trades he's had in My Dummy Trade Fest I

Here's an excellent piece by Brett Steenbarger called Trading And Information Processing: Why Traders "Sabotage" Themselves

Some more great quotes from TraderGav - it's a Quote From Monroe Trout

Richard at MoveTheMarkets had several fantastic posts this week...and here's another - it's Misconceptions: Magic Moving Averages

Michelle B., a contributor over at TraderMike shows us an example of how to take a Profit Punch Of Small Price Moves

More great stuff from Brett Steenbarger - it's Why Traders Plan Trades But Don't Trade Their Plans

Richard points out more misconceptions in Misconceptions: I Can Ride Big Market Moves

Here's another one from Richard - Misconceptions: I Can Quickly Tell What Works

The Market Speculator shows us How A Stock Can Make It To My Watchlist: Sector Analysis

Over at the Profiling Leadership blog they list several blogs that are worth reading in Blogs I Like (1st Edition) (thanks for the mention guys :))

More great stuff from Michelle B. at TraderMike - it's Time Is On The Trader's Side

StockBee describes something that I'd like to delve deeper into and lists several great links in Do Successful Traders Have Different Mental Models?

At Trader's Narrative they explore an indicator that a "Market Wizard" uses in Trade Like Mark D. Cook: The Cook Cumulative Tick Indicator

Alright folks - that's it for me for now. Tomorrow I'll try to do some number crunching and punch out my review for March (it ain't gonna be pretty....) so in the meantime, rest up, relax, and prepare for April!

A Tired Mind & Body

2007-03-30T21:15:00.000-04:00

Hey there folks...

Sorry for the irregularity in my posts....

Last night after the trading day we went to a concert (yet again) and didn't get back until very late and today I did trade, but felt very tired the whole day.

Not that much happened the last two days...up $41 yesterday, down $190 today. These past two days could have probably been better spent with my mind off the markets.

I don't really feel much like getting into my trading day today as I feel extremely tired from an exhausting month. I also feel as though I'm not in a very good state of mind right now and thus probably won't have anything very intelligent to say.

I haven't tallied everything up yet, but I have a feeling I'm probably down on the month by a couple hundred bucks.

March has certainly taken a toll on me and I know that my attitude has been rotten for most of the month. I have a few things to post on the weekend, but I would rather spend it resting up and preparing for a brand new month ahead.

BUT, the coming of a new month usually means a coming of a new attitude, a new outlook, and a fresh new start. So with that, I bid March adieu and I very much welcome the coming of April.

I really hope you folks out there had a more successful March than I had and I want to wish all of you some great trading in April!

Curveball

2007-03-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

Gross: -$331.00
Net: -$351.98
Trades: 29

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Valero Energy Corp (VLO): +$23.86
Beazer Homes Inc. (BZH): -$26.84
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT): -$47.81
Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL): -$77.91
Citigroup Inc. (C): -$96.36
Motorola Inc. (MOT): -$126.93

So? What else is new?

It seems like almost every day this month I start the day off with a string of losers.

So what else is new?

And every day seems like such a struggle...even just to come away with some profits for the day.

Today was just another one of those days where nothing seemed to work.

So what else is new?

Every post this month just seems like a broken record...I can't make money in the morning, I can't make money in the afternoon....

So what else is new?

And because I've been trading soo damned poorly lately, the maximum I'm allowed to lose on any given day is $350....once I lose $350, the system shuts me down.

How things have changed for the worse so quickly....

Every day I used to wake up and actually get excited about getting the day started and I often wished there were no weekends because I couldn't wait to get back on the trading floor. Not so any more...

There are some days that I come in and I'm not motivated to trade and and there are days that I just feel as though I don't want to trade at all.....that's how bad it's become....it's almost become like a job now....but much worse because you aren't paid like a regular job.

March just threw me a curveball and I haven't been able to adjust accordingly. And it totally came out of left field as I would never have imagined having as horrid a month as I have had.

Well played Mr. Market....well played....I give up.....you win in March. Many others have adapted quickly and here I am stuck in a rut and unable to get myself out of it.

Obviously what I'm doing is not working any more....at least not right now.

The sad thing about all this is that on all the losing days I've had this month (which has been quite a lot), I don't really think I've learned from them.

There seems to be too much "wishing" my trading would turn around and not enough "doing" something about it. Sure I've acknowledged that what I was doing was not working, but seriously? I don't think I did anything about it....oh sure, I tried to avoid certain riskier plays, I've taken days off, and I've tried to wrestle with my emotions, but in the end, it was probably the lack of action that has resulted in a dismal month.

I'm really going to pare down on the number of trades I do...in fact, I'd be happy to do only one trade during the day as long as it ends with me in the green....that's really how desperate I am to make some profits.

I've got to step back yet again, cut back on my shares size again, re-think the way I'm doing things and really just try to be aware of the possible reasons why some of the things I'm used to doing is not working.

Last week I think I did a good job in keeping things conservative....in taking profits when they presented themselves and not worrying too much about hitting homeruns. I think I've got to go back to doing that for the next little while until things settle down a bit...

Right now I'm guessing that I'm probably at break-even for the month...I've got to be careful the next two trading days or this month will go down as being the worst one I've had....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

That One Night

2007-03-27T23:19:00.001-04:00

Gross: +$244.66
Net: +$156.80
Trades: 67

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AT&T Inc. (T): +$270.47
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU): +$95.15
EMC Corp (EMC): +$75.91
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$45.99
Micron Technology Inc. (MU): -$9.20
Mylan Laboratories Inc. (MYL): -$20.85
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT): -$31.48
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): -$33.35
Boston Scientific Corp (BSX): -$48.77
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): -$86.11
Lennar Corporation (LEN): -$100.95

This evening after the trading day I treated my wife to a night out with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (hence this late post).

Tonight the Orchestra performed scores from several Hollywood epics.

They performed scores from such classics as "Gone With The Wind", "Ben-Hur", and "2001: A Space Odyssey" among others.

They also performed scores from several more current films including "Titanic" and "Schindler's List".

And what better way to end the evening than with several scores from the "Star Wars" movies (both old and current) and from the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy.

It was a very enjoyable evening and I would highly recommend it.

Honestly?

After today's trading day, I was still quite frustrated with where everything was going....today in particular was extremely frustrating as I just couldn't get any traction in terms of profits and nothing seemed to be going my way. Needless to say, I wasn't very pleased with today and with the month in general.

BUT, tonight was the first time in a very long time that all my worries, all my problems, and all my trading difficulties disappeared and for those two hours during the performance, I had never felt more at ease.

I was there, enjoying the music and living the moment. I was truly enjoying life and I was so relaxed that it seemed as though nothing else in this world mattered.

Folks, I'd like to tell you that that is one of the best feelings in the world.

And I haven't felt that way in a long time......and I really miss it.

In a way, those two hours were very Zen-like.

I will admit that over the weekend I was reading some books about Zen (just to discover ways to put my mind at ease and to discover ways to relieve some stress), and it may have helped me enjoy the evening a little bit more than usual.

You know, I'd really like to live my life like that. To be worry free. To live the moment. To enjoy life.

Obviously if I were pulling in mad money from the markets, I could probably achieve this a little easier (I wouldn't have to worry about paying bills and the mortgage).

But I think if I were to think and feel more like I did tonight more often, I think the quality of life will improve, so from here on in, I'll strive for a shift in my mindset and hopefully with this shift, there will be positives that result from it.

Anyways, like I said, today was just frustrating overall, but honestly after this evenings performance, it's all forgotten in the past and I didn't really remember what I was all frustrated about.

No good trades nor any bad trades.

I think we'll be attending more "Evening At The Pops" series put on by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra....if you're not into classic music (and we aren't), then attending a "Pops" performance is your best bet.

AND, if your living in the Toronto area and if you're under 29 years of age, you can attend these wonderful concerts for only $12 (checkout the TSOSoundCheck site for more details)....I think it's a great idea to get the younger folks to the concerts.

I was somewhat disappointed by the turnout at tonight's performance....there were still plenty of seats available and I would very much encourage folks to go out and support your local performing arts.

Anyways, I'm hoping that tonight will be remembered as that one night that changed my perspective and the way I look at things....as that one night that opened my eyes to really see what I'm doing and how I'm doing it....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Bad Attitude

2007-03-26T18:21:00.000-04:00

Gross: -$237.00
Net: -$324.10
Trades: 55

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Boston Scientific Corp (BSX): +$93.42
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): +$65.77
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): +$55.79
Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP): -$1.39
EMC Corp (EMC): -$17.01
Motorola Inc. (MOT): -$17.43
Abbott Laboratories (ABT): -$75.98
Walgreen Company (WAG): - $104.57
ConocoPhillips (COP): -$141.27
Time Warner Inc. (TWX): -$181.43

This morning my alarm went off, but I found myself falling back asleep again...as a result, I woke up a little later than usual and a little grumpy.

I rushed through my morning routine and saw that outside was raining and I saw a couple of flashes of lightning.

As I made my way in to the office, the streetcar I was in stopped and didn't move....the streetcar in front of it had some kind of trouble and I just sat there in the streetcar for an awfully long time.

After about 15 minutes, I figured that I could probably get into the office faster if I walked...in the rain.

I don't know why, but that walk just felt extremely draining and I came into the office with a bad attitude and a little grumpy and very tired.

Once the trading day started, I quickly put on a losing trade on Walgreens (WAG) that was put on way too early (almost once it opened).

I was thinking "Ahhhh what the hell...what a bad start"

But then the next couple of trades were also for losers....nothing big, but it was enough for me to think "Ahh...the hell with this....this really sucks...".

After starting the day with a couple of losers, my attitude just seemed to get worse and at some point I was thinking "Geez...what the hell man! This really sucks....I just want to get out of here".

I stuck around and attempted to make some quick money by trading some more, but my lack of patience didn't help and at some point during the day I just gave up thinking "What a stupid day....I can't take any more of this retardedness....I'm getting outta here" and so I left - even without taking lunch.

I got home feeling exhausted so I lay down for a bit and I actually fell asleep.

I woke up much more refreshed and I really looked back and thought to myself that if there was only one thing that really sucked today, it was my attitude and if there was only one thing that was retarded, it was the way I approached today's trading.

So I came in today with a bad attitude, traded with a bad attitude, and walked away with a bad attitude....

Oh well, not going to shed any tears about today - some days you've got it, and others you don't....and today I just wasn't in it, my mind wasn't in it, and my attitude just wasn't in it...

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For Mar 24 - 25, 2007

2007-03-24T21:49:00.000-04:00

If there were a trader I'd like to become more like, it would be PinoyTrader - here he shows us how he achieves his great consistency and how he's able to pull all that money out of the markets in How I Prepare For The Trading Day

Kirk at The Kirk Report outlines the four principles of luck and does a great job of explaining how we can use it in Getting Lucky In The Market

Here is something that I've been playing around with recently thanks to another great article by Dr. Steenbarger at his TraderFeed blog called Trading Short-Term Range Breakouts With The NYSE TICK

Prospectus, one of the great contributors over at Move The Markets, had this interesting article about stops, which led to an interesting discussion about it in What Is A Stop Loss For Anyways?

It seems like many traders these days are using Opening Range Breakouts in their trading and Brett Steenbarger gives you a few more pointers in doing this a little more successfully in Trading Opening Range Breakouts

When things don't seem to be going your way (like it was with me earlier this month), sometimes you need to step back to really get some perspective and here MaoXian reviews with us 10 Rules For Happiness in Wealth And Greatness Are Mere Trinkets Of Frivolous Utility

I highly respect the ideas and opinions of Yaser Answar and here he shares with us how he prepares for the trading day in How I Trade Futures, Equities, And Forex

TraderGav looked deeper into his trading to try to figure out what was causing his mediocre performance so far this month and I too have had the same problems with the things he discovered in his post entitled Stop! Wait, Wait...Somethin' Is Going Wrong Here

Caravaggio over there at The 3500 provides some food for thought and ends it with some inspirational quotes in Self-Improvement And Productivity

With the recent posts about stop losses by both Prospectus at Move The Markets (see link above) and Brian at Trade 4 Cash (Stop Losses - Should You Use Them), Corey at the Afraid To Trade blog did a great job of comparing the two differing views in Stop Losses - Two Recent Perspectives

I recently discovered Dinosaur Trader's blog and if you ever wanted to know what it's like to work on a floor full of traders at a prop firm, then you should read his post entitled How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Hybrid Market

Corey had another great article about regret and how it may interfere with our ability to trade and lists some great resources at the end of the article in Regret Aversion

At Trader's Narrative, Babak has this interesting article entitled Timing The Stock Market Using The Dow Jones Average

Richard Beddard at Interactive Investor Blog had this great compilation of market related blogs in Best Of The Blogs (thanks to all who submitted this blog to be included in the list!)

I can definitely relate to this post by Kevin at his blog about The Emotional Roller Coaster Of Trading

Finally, TraderGav had some more great quotes from the greats of trading and here he posted a Quote From Gil Blake

Slowly Putting The Pieces Back Together

2007-03-23T22:09:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$464.00
Net: +$418.48
Trades: 54

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): +$235.91
DiamlerChrysler (DCX): +$215.82
Chico's FAS Inc. (CHS): +$157.02
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$111.76
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): +$17.76
Motorola Inc. (MOT): -$42.29
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): -$50.94
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT): -$72.86
Jabil Circuit Inc. (JBL): -$153.69

Just trying to step it up a little bit more and trying to get back into the swing of things....

I didn't start the morning off on the right foot though....

For whatever reason, I just couldn't trade Jabil Circuit (JBL) for beans...I put on a string of losers on this particular stock until I just had enough of it and didn't look at it beyond the first hour of trade.

I'm still making some mental mistakes and the biggest one today was trying to trade Kraft (KFT). I don't know why, but I thought this one would move. This was probably because of the rough start to the day and again I found myself really straining for trade candidates and I ended up taking KFT...yup, another one of those "What were you thinking?!!?" trades.

I redeemed myself and just traded until after lunch and I finally have some trades I can share with you today.

Next week I'll probably go back to trading with full force. The last little while I've been trying to ease my way back into the game and now I'm starting to feel more and more comfortable with what I'm doing.

But seriously, the last few weeks felt like a train wreck. I hit a losing streak early in the month and when I tried to continue trading with full force, I was taking in hits with full force and nothing seemed to be working.

Maybe it was from all that pent-up frustration that was interfering with my decision making, maybe it was the spike in volatility, maybe it was a combination, but believe me, I've never felt lower in my trading career.

I had lost confidence in what I was doing and so after a brief break from trading, I've been doing things as cautiously as possible (whenever my emotions don't get in the way :))...perhaps I've been slow in getting back into the swing of things, but at least I sort of feel like things are getting better again.

And this trading funk probably couldn't have happened at a worse time.

For the first time in a very long time I thought things were slowly coming together - consistency was getting there, profits were getting there, and everything seemed to converging to where I wanted to be.

It felt like I was a sculptor and I had almost completed my masterpiece....but then something came along and smashed it to pieces and all that was left were the pieces of my sculpture.

At first, I looked around kind of confused amidst the shattered remains of my masterpiece and I felt like I just didn't know where to begin and I started jamming pieces together, hoping they'd fit and that the pieces would somehow re-assemble themselves.

But it took some time and now it feels as though I'm slowly putting the pieces back together again so that I can continue to work on my masterpiece and to finally finish what I had started.

Obviously this isn't the first time that my "sculpture" has been smashed to pieces.

In fact, it's been smashed many times during my trading career and when it happens, I often take it fairly hard. Whether it be a change in market conditions, or something mental, or maybe even a change in the way things work (i.e. Hybrid market), there have been numerous things that have smashed my "sculpture".

The first few times it happened, it took me a rather long time to try to put the pieces back together again and to continue working on completing my work.

What I can say is that every time my "sculpture" was smashed to pieces, putting it back together again seemed a little easier and a little more quicker to do each time that it happened.

I'm very sure that in the future, it will be smashed again, but I think that is what trading is all about...having the ability to adapt and to try to get your "sculpture" back to the way it was before it was smashed quickly so that you can continue working on it.

I have a feeling that I'm a little slower than most others....it's just my nature, my characteristics as a person.

I'm hoping I can fix up my "sculpture" more quickly so that I can continue adding more features to it before it gets smashed again. And each time it gets smashed, I will work harder to get it back to the way it was before it was hit.

*Sigh* I guess this will come with time and experience...for some, it comes easier to them (perhaps because of the characteristics of that person), but for others like me, it takes a little longer, but I know I'll get there.....just need more time and experience.

Anyways, blah blah blah....too much rambling (sorry about that folks....once I start, I find that I keep going and going).

There were two good trades today...both taken near the lunch hour and no bad trades today.

Because of the choppiness of the markets, I was still content to just take profits rather quickly and didn't really hold onto my positions for any great length of time. Even though some of my trades could have been had for more, I'm still pleased with the result, considering the kind of market it was today. Next week I'll start working more on holding my positions.

I called it a day at around 1:30PM as I had missed lunch and I found I could no longer concentrate on the task at hand.

Have an excellent weekend folks and if the weather is good in your little corner of the world, go out and enjoy it because I know I will!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

11:36:12AM - DiamlerChrysler (DCX) was really moving up and I happened to flip by a chart of it and watched it for a few minutes. It came up to the $82.00 level and when I thought it broke, I tried to go long 500 shares, but got partially filled for 400 shares. At first, I thought it was a big mistake because it quickly went against me, but then it just exploded to the upside. I held onto it and dumped half my position at the first hint of weakness. DCX tried to push up further, but it looked extremely tired, so I got the rest of my position out. I got out as follows: 52-cent winner (100 shares), 53-cent winner (100 shares), 56-cent winner (200 shares) ($217 profit before fees ; Long 100 shares @ $81.99, Long 300 shares @ $82.00 ; Out: 11:40:04AM)

11:49:36AM - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) started moving up where it came up to some resistance at $13.50. When it broke, I went long 4000 shares and I got out when things seemed to stall (though it could have been held for a lot more). I got everything out for a 6-cent winner ($240 profit before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $13.50 ; Out: 11:54:05AM)

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Wiggly Jiggly

2007-03-22T21:35:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$262.00
Net: +$204.59
Trades: 63

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AT&T Inc. (T): +$142.28
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): +$129.64
General Electric Company (GE): +$114.85
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT): +$55.76
Corning Incorporated (GLW): +$37.55
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): +$21.45
Saks Incorporated (SKS): -$21.31
PepsiCo Inc. (PEP): -$21.98
The Home Depot Inc. (HD): -$21.92
Nokia Corporation (NOK): -$26.93
ConocoPhillips (COP): -$39.23
The Kroger Co (KR): -$80.42
Micron Technology Inc. (MU): -$84.14

Oh wow.....today we were treated to a day full of wiggle...and full of jiggle!

Not a very fun day to try to trade as I found out after my first few trades of the day.

"Be brave and let's work on holding on to winners!" was the motto for today and this morning I came in determined to do just that.

On the first trade of the day I saw an opportunity and I went in....and the position went in the direction of the trade, so I was determined to hold onto this one a bit longer than usual. I was looking at a nice little profit on that trade and normally I would have booked some of it...or perhaps all of it....but I was determined to hold onto my winners and to let them run.

Well, with the Futures whip-sawing every which way, the stock followed and I eventually saw that position turn into a loser.

On the next several trades, the same thing happened....I got into a nice position, it showed a nice little profit and I was determined to let my winners ride, but would have to eventually punch out for a loser because the Futures just chopped everywhere and I found that the stocks I was in followed suit.

After the first few trades I was in the hole and I was frustrated.....

I had to step back and ask myself "Whoa there....what's going on? Why is this day turning out the way it is?".

Once I asked myself this question, the answer was pretty obvious....because it's choppy (well duh).

Maybe because I was too determined with what I wanted to do today that I didn't see it right away....maybe I was too focused on trying to hit a couple of home runs so that I had something to write home about (in this case, some "Good Trades" to write about)...whatever it was, it acted like blinders and I didn't see what kind of day we were experiencing before I had lost a couple bills.

So, I changed my game-plan to "get in and get out fast".

And it worked.

All day I just took a few cents here and a few cents there and I was just as content to do this the whole day, even if some of my winners could have been had for more.

I will admit that trading Kroger (KR) and Micron Tech (MU) were just flat out mistakes. I don't really know why I traded them, but I guess when the opportunities are scarce, one tends to "magically" see things that aren't really there....in this case, I thought I saw opportunities in KR and MU, but upon reflection, I have only to ask myself "What was I thinking?".

Anyways, I've got to identify these kinds of days sooner and earlier in the day. I could have come away with a lot more profit today if I had booked the profits I saw on those first few trades (instead of holding onto them until they became losers).

Overall, the day was just really tough to find any kind of opportunities and I found myself really stretching what I thought would be a good setup and I also found myself looking at way too many stocks searching for opportunities.

Because I was in and out fast, it will be yet another day of no good trades nor any bad ones to report today.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll see some better action!

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Not Going To Second-Guess Myself

2007-03-21T17:01:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$254.00
Net: +$222.04
Trades: 38

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AT&T Inc. (T): +$205.82
Freemont General Corporation (FMT): +$101.74
The Kroger Co. (KR): +$44.93
SuperValue Inc. (SVU): +$6.08
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): -$0.85
Fotress Investment Group (FIG): -$4.58
Federated Department Stores (FD): -$26.25
ConocoPhillips (COP): -$32.55
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): -$72.50

Wow! What a fantastic move there was today after the FOMC announcement!

I really do hope all you folks out there were able to take advantage of the move and pocket some big $.

As for me, I called it a day after lunch at around 1PM. And I'm not upset about it. I stuck to what I wanted to do today and I'm glad I had the willpower to follow through on what I wanted to do.

I knew the the FOMC announcement would move the markets, but I had already told myself that today was going to be a half day....just until I can get things going again.

And I'm not going to mull over the fact that I missed a great move out there and I refuse to think about how much potential money I could have made had I stuck around.

If I were to constantly mull over missed moves or mull over how much potential profit I could have taken had I been there, I'd probably second-guess myself at every turn and on every decision I make and I'd probably find myself asking the following questions time and time again:

The markets are sideways, but if I don't trade, I'll miss out on profits won't I?

Should I stick around and trade even though I told myself I'd only trade the mornings?

What if I miss a move?

I can't concentrate anymore, but if I leave, will I miss something?

From yesterday's post, you already know my mind is polluted with thoughts like these and if I constantly mull over missed opportunities, it would serve to only pollute my mind even more.

I'll just accept the fact that it was a good move, accept the fact that I wasn't there to trade it, and move on.

Anyways, today was just another day I wanted to trade conservatively and I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my own shoes again, so tomorrow I'll step it up a notch.

While the last few trading days I've limited myself to trading only 1000 shares, tomorrow I'll up it to a maximum of 2000. Hopefully with this step up, I can finally get to listing out more good trades (but hopefully no bad ones).

As you can see, there weren't any good trades nor any bad ones.

For whatever reason, this morning I seemed to be slow to the punch and missed out on many level breaks because I was too slow and by the time my order was acknowledged, prices were already long gone.

Let's see if I can get back into a trading groove tomorrow shall we?

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

A Mind Filled With Crap

2007-03-20T19:04:00.001-04:00

Gross: -$51.74
Net: -$134.12
Trades: 76

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
The Kroger Co. (KR): +$105.55
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$84.33
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT): +$41.61
Wyeth (WYE): +$17.09
Citigroup Inc. (C): -$74.66
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT): -$95.64
The Home Depot Inc. (HD): -$212.39

This morning I came in with the same mentality I had yesterday....to trade with caution and to trade with smaller share size for one more day and to try to end another day on the positive side.

I was hoping that if I could successfully do that today, then tomorrow I'd step it up a little and I'd keep stepping it up until I could get back to the way things were before this trading funk started.

The morning was going as planned and I had booked a couple of bills before lunch.

But then the afternoon was just littered with one bad trade after another and I basically lost all of my morning gains and then some. Most of the trades occurred in the afternoon and I jumped from one losing position to another.

I found it strange that coming into the afternoon, I KNEW the afternoon would be rather dull ahead of the FOMC meeting tomorrow....I KNEW I would have to be careful to preserve my gains....and I KNEW that the markets were sideways and I KNEW the stocks I was watching were chopping around, yet I STILL went ahead and traded anyways.

Why?

I believe it's because of all the crap that's going on in my mind when the markets are sideways. All the crap thoughts, all the crap ideas, and all the crap questions that keep popping up.

Most mornings I don't have this problem mainly because I'm wide awake and alert and usually there's action in the morning so my focus is usually at it's peak.

But when things start moving sideways and I have to sit and wait for the opportunities, that's when my mind begins to wander.

If one were to record what was going on in my head during this afternoon's lull, it'd go something like this:

How great would it be if I were this or that trader making all that money....I really have to get my act together and try to string together a few good days....I've been at this a long time now and my struggles seem to continue....I wonder how so-and-so trader would handle my situation....I wonder how good it would be to be trading on my own....

The problem with my mind wandering around like that in the afternoon is that eventually something like the following goes on in my head:

There are only a few days left in March....wouldn't it be great if I could come away with $500 today?....should I increase my share size to make some quick money?.....I want to come away with a positive day today and I want to see how far into positive territory I can get today....hmmmmmm that stock is at it's upper end of it's trading range....I could make a quick profit if it were to break.....hrmmm....there are only two hours left in the trading day....

The longer these crap thoughts stew in my mind, the more likely a crap trade will result.

So then I took a quick hit via GT....darn it!

Time was running out so then I found myself forcing trades on HD and C, then I took another hit via KR. HD really did a number on me and even though the stock itself did literally nothing in the afternoon, I kept trading this lousy stock....and kept losing.

As the afternoon went along, it just seemed to get worse and worse. I completely lost what I was doing and what I was watching for in a trade and it felt more like aimless and random positions I was taking.

In the past, I've tried occupying my time with things like MP3 players, crosswords, etc...but I still find it hard to focus in the afternoons. Maybe it depends on my mood and maybe it depends how well I've been doing, but I do admit that this is a problem.

Warmer weather is around the corner so maybe afternoon walks can help clear my head.

In the meantime, I think I should call it a day after lunch (what is this...like the 5th time I've tried to do this?) just for the next little while.

Also, ever since we changed the clocks forward for daylight savings, I been feeling extremely sluggish and I've been having difficulty getting myself out of bed even if I try to get to bed earlier...maybe this might have to do with my trading funk....I don't know....

Hopefully by taking the afternoons off to chill out, I can feel more well-rested....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Easing My Way Back In The Game

2007-03-19T18:29:00.001-04:00

Gross: +$315.00
Net: +$284.04
Trades: 43

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$211.06
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX): +$97.78
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): +$17.28
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT): +$5.23
AT&T Inc. (T): -$13.07
The Home Depot Inc. (HD): -$34.24

Today I took it real easy and didn't try to force things.

I gave myself a limit of 1000 shares to trade at a time and I forced myself to just focus on a couple of stocks.

Lately I've noticed that I seem to be all over the place and I seem to be jumping from one stock to another and not really feeling what individual stocks were doing. Initially I only watched COP, FCX, HPQ, WMT, and HD...but I switched HPQ out for T as HPQ didn't seem to do much all day long.

Today was also I day that I focused on taking my profits as soon as prices start moving against me...as a result, I didn't really hold any position for any length of time.

I also tried to utilize other charts to aid in my trading today....in particular, I had up charts of light crude oil to help me in trading COP and I had the NYSE TICK chart up....I'll have to do a little more reading on how to use the TICK more effectively.

Anyways, I just want to string together a few positive days just to get the ball rolling a bit....

As you can see, I've adjusted the daily post yet again to a more simplified post. I was finding that I was spending wasted energy in reporting things that I probably don't make much use of, so I'll stick with this type of post for the next little while to see how it goes.

I've also been looking at different prop firms that are available to see what kind of other options are out there. Thanks to some folks that left comments over the weekend in helping find other firms that are out there.

In particular, Lifepost from the High Probability Trading blog posted up the following link that I find is a great resource - especially if you're interested in what's out there in terms of prop firms....the link is:

http://www.utropix.com/jmowery/PropFirms.html

I have already started to explore other options right now, so I'll try to keep you folks updated as to what I plan on doing.

I have always said that once I get some form of consistency or once I get to a point where I'm making some good money that I'd switch to a different firm, but it's definitely taken me a lot longer to get to where I want to be.

I may even wish to explore the possibility of remote trading for a prop firm....again, I'll have to try to collect more info on the various alternatives there are out there. If you know of a good prop firm or links to other prop firm websites, please feel free to leave a comment and hopefully others will find it useful as well.

Anyways, gonna keep this one rather short as I have other things to attend to tonight....

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For Mar 17 - 18, 2007

2007-03-18T10:12:00.000-04:00

In "Weekend Reading" I'll collect what I thought were the best posts and articles for the week from various bloggers.

I only focus on posts and links that relate to trader improvement or trading in general.

Don't worry folks - I'm still alive. I've just spent a couple of days away from the markets and trying to put myself at ease.

I've also been recieving a lot of emails asking about other prop trading firms, so I spent some time researching other prop firms that are out there and it got me interested in possibly looking for other alternatives for myself.

Anyways, here are this week's links:

Last weekend Bulltrapper over at TradeGuild posted up a collection of several great videos and covers some technicals and trading systems in Weekend Viewing...

If you haven't visited Afraid To Trade, then you should - there are lots of great posts appearing at the site including this one entitled Taking On More Risk For Reward

Over at Trade-Ideas Software they ask several good questions and review 2 Elements Of Good Backtesting Results

Want to know some of the things Jamie over at the Wall St. Warrior looks for when looking for a great setup? Then check out Trading Opening Gaps - Dummy Setup - Wide Opening Range (WOR), Base and Break Pattern

Corey at Afrad To Trade continues to post up great articles and in Momentum Precedes Price Chart Examples and Momentum Precedes Price #2: Momentum Divergences, he tells you what to look for with some great examples

If you trade options, then check out the finale in Optionentic's series about collars in Real World Trading: Protecting Gains With A Collar, Part IV

Brian at Trad4Cash continues with his weekly series and this week he looks at Character Traits Of A Successful Trader

We've all done it once in a while and when it happens, it can sometimes lead to disastrous results....I'm talking about keytroke errors! Check out the top 10 keystroke errors in The Fat Finger Points To Trouble For Traders via Financial News Online

Trader-X also clears up some of the misconceptions about his trading style and is a must read if you follow his style - here is Anatomy Of A Trade

Pradeep at Stockbee takes a look at The Key To Finding An Edge

TraderGav posted up some great points he got from Joe Ross's newletter and here he lists them in Things To Consider When Designing A Setup

Here's a great article done by Brett Steenbarger and is something I should take to heart in Learning How To React To Changing Markets

Here's a short article by TradingMarkets about Why The 200-Day Moving Average Matters

Corey does it again at his Afraid To Trade blog...this time it's Five Ways To Increase Possibilities For Profit

Lastly, Phileo rounded up some great trading quotes in Words To Trade By

Unbelievably Bad....

2007-03-13T23:49:00.000-04:00

Gross: -$525.00
Net: -$542.46
Loss From Top: $542.46
Trades: 17
Shares Traded: 13600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
American Oriental Bioengineering Inc. (AOB): -$19.52
International Game Technology (IGT): -$26.50
Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS): -$37.23
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): -$73.73
The Kroger Co. (KR): -$385.48

My trading these few weeks have been unbelievably bad.

I can't seem to get the ball rolling and my results seem almost random at best.

So far in my short trading career, I have never encountered such a trading funk. Lately, it seems almost routine that I start the day off with a couple of losers and depending on how I handle it, I either make it worse or I'm barely able to climb out of a hole.

I must admit that all of this is a new (but rather unpleasant) experience to have to go through.

My trading woes seemed to have started on the day the Dow dropped 500 points briefly and ever since then, I haven't been able to get my act together.

I have a feeling that I might be changing one too many things all at once and as a result, I'm not sure what I may be doing right and what I may be doing wrong. I've been trying to change the stocks I trade, I've been messing around with new entries, and I've been messing around with the length of time I hold onto my trades.

By changing so many things at once, it makes it very difficult to pinpoint exactly what changes are causing the problem.

It reminds me very much about programming. When writing out code, you want to stage the changes so that if something doesn't work out, you know exactly what part of the program you have to fix.

But what I've done was write out the whole program first, only to find out that at the end it doesn't work.

Where do I begin? Where's the bug? Which part of the code is not working? Well I can tell you that finding that bug will take a lot longer to find than had I staged, tested, and implemented the changes to my trading.

Today was just another reminder that what I'm doing doesn't appear to be working (at least in this trading environment anyways).

Like many of the days I've had lately, I started the day with a couple of losers....nothing too big and my losses were manageable.

Those first few trades I found myself trying to anticipate a break either to the upside (break of an intra-day high) or downside (break of an intra-day low), but all I ended up doing was getting long at the upper end of a trading range or getting short at the lower end of a trading range.

I had been waiting for quite a while for Kroger (KR) to setup and when it finally did, I put on a position that I felt completely comfortable with. This time, I waited for it to completely break (i.e. make a clean break of a couple of cents and continued to look strong).

I went long 1000 shares at $26.50 and I really did feel comfortable leaving it to work itself out while I watched other stocks for opportunities.

What I didn't expect was a rather wicked chop at around 10:30AM after Kroger (KR) made some statements during it's conference call on it's earnings.

When I heard over the loudspeaker than KR was making some sort of announcement, I quickly flipped back to KR and saw that I was looking at a $200+ loser on my hands.

At first I felt panic and all I wanted to do was to exit my position as soon as possible as it blew past my stop-loss. But I decided to wait as I saw KR try to fight back. KR climbed all the way back to my break-even point, but the rapidly fell again, blowing past my stop-loss yet again. Then KR fought all the way back up to my break-even point yet again, but fell back down, blowing past my stop-loss for the third time.

I really felt uncomfortable at that point and I decided to dump everything for a $193 loser (see bad trades below).

After a few minutes, I saw that KR had continued it upward move and I simply felt like I was a fool for getting out.

I kept watching KR (as this appeared to be the only stock that was moving at the time) and maybe some of my emotions from the previous losing trade on KR was still with me when I decided to get long again on KR....

Unfortunately I got long near the high of the day (I was somehow thinking that KR owed me money or something) and I would eventually have to take another bad loser on it (see bad trades below).

My day was done and by 11AM, I was out of the office.

From the looks of things, it looked like I missed some action in the afternoon, but with the way things have been going for me lately, I would probably have still lost money.

There were no missed trades (my day was too short to find any missed trades), no failed setups (the KR trades are filed under "Bad Trades"), no good trades and two bad trades.

Frankly, I'm too disgusted to post up charts on KR...I really felt that that first trade on KR was well executed and I was willing to be patient with that one...I guess the trading Gods had other plans for me....

I think I seriously need a break from trading and to get my mind off trading for a while.

Tomorrow I'll take the day off and I'll continue to take days off until I feel comfortable about stepping back on the trading floor. Whether I come back to trade on Thursday or next week, only time will tell...all I know is that I need to get as far away from trading for now....

Missed Trades
(trades that I was watching, but missed because either I was too slow and couldn't get shares or my attention was focused elsewhere)

None

Failed Setups
(trades I took that I thought had a good setup, but failed and either I got out at break-even or a loser)

None - both KR trades are under "Bad Trades"

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

10:20:41AM - Kroger (KR) had just broken it's intra-day high and I waited for a bit of a confirmation of the break before I went long 1000 shares (100 shares @ $26.49, 900 shares @ $26.50). For whatever reason, I felt completely comfortable with this position, but then a wicked chop took me out as follows: 10-cent loser (100 shares), 11-cent loser (100 shares), 12-cent loser (200 shares), 13-cent loser (600 shares) ($193 loser before fees ; Long 100 shares @ $26.49, Long 900 shares @ $26.50 ; Out: 10:29:04AM)

10:47:48AM - Kroger (KR) continued it's way up and I was still somewhat steaming mad from getting out on it earlier so I tried going long at $26.85, but only got 100 shares and when it broke the $27.00 level, I went long another 900 shares....well the $27.00 level was practically the high of the day and I'd end up getting out as follows: 15-cent loser (400 shares), 18-cent loser (200 shares), 21-cent loser (100 shares), 22-cent loser (300 shares) ($183 loser before fees ; Long 100 shares @ $26.85, Long 900 shares @ $27.00 ; Out: Did not record)

Seeing Green & A Re-vamped Daily Post

2007-03-12T18:04:00.000-04:00

Gross: +$322.00
Net: +$236.25
Loss From Top: $44.31
Trades: 55
Shares Traded: 110600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Dollar General Corp. (DG): +$135.74
Federated Department Stores (FD): +$102.22
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): +$98.18
Micron Technology (MU): +$88.71
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): +$84.72
Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG): +$71.46
Sierra Health Services Inc. (SIE): +$24.38
ConocoPhillips (COP): +$23.95
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB): -$1.57
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY): -$12.61
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT): -$31.23
Nortel Networks Corporation (NT): -$59.20
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): -$66.23
General Electric Company (GE): -$105.55
Titanium Metals Corporation (TIE): -$116.71

Green....

I miss seeing that color in my blotter. Though today was hardly impressive on my part, I'm just very glad (and somewhat relieved) that I ended the day in the green.

I really tried to take it easy today and I tried not to get myself all riled up.

This morning was the first morning in a while in which I didn't start the day off with consecutive losers. I really tried to sit and be patient for the trades to show themselves.

Over the weekend, I compiled a new list of stocks to focus my attention on. I was mainly looking for stocks that would move and had less volume than the typical stocks I was used to trading.

But today I didn't put on any positions with much conviction and I wasn't really able to take any good swings. There were two bone-head trades I put on that I shouldn't have.

The first one was on General Electric (GE)...I just go in at the wrong time after the Futures had ripped up. The second one was on Titanium Metals (TIE)...I don't know why I put that trade on as the chart all morning just looked ugly.

Starting today, I'm going to re-vamp my daily posts a little to include more charts and setups.

In addition to outlining my good and bad trades, I'll add two new categories called "Missed Trades" and "Failed Setups".

In the "Missed Trades" section, I'll outline a few trades that I was watching, but missed getting into. The reason I would miss getting into the trade is that either I was too slow and was unable to get shares at the desired price or my focus was elsewhere at the time.

Keep in mind that I'm the kind of trader that doesn't like chasing a stock. Usually if I've identified a level and I miss the break, I usually will not chase a stock to get into a position. I don't know why....it's just the kind of trader I am.

In the "Failed Setups" section, I'll outline a few trades that I actually took because of a good setup, but ultimately failed and I either had to get out for break-even or a loss.

By adding these two new sections to the post, I hope to further force myself to analyze what I may be doing wrong and what I may be doing right with my trades based on what the charts show.

I'll try my best to remember to write down these kinds of trades in my trading journal so that I can post them up in the evenings.

Please note that the setups presented are not the only kinds of trades I take. Sometimes I just see an opportunity for a quick scalp and I'll take it. Instead, what will be presented are the setups to trades that I had intended to hold for longer period of time.

Also, from here on in, I'll post 5-minute charts instead of my usual 1-minute charts....they're just much cleaner to work with and label.

*Sigh* This is going to mean much more work on my part, but I hope my trading will benefit from this extra analysis and hopefully it also gives you folks more of an idea of what I look for in a trade.

With that, there were 4 missed trades (mainly because I was focusing my attention on a CEG trade) and I also placed that CEG trade in the "missed trade" section because I got out too early on a trade I was intending to hold till the end of the day.

There was one failed setup and no good trades nor any bad trades.

Let's see how long I can continue with these kinds of posts (in other words, let's see how long before I start getting lazy with these kinds of posts)...

Missed Trades
(trades that I was watching, but missed because either I was too slow and couldn't get shares or my attention was focused elsewhere)

Constellation Energy Group (CEG) - I went long on a break of it's intra-day high and only managed to get 300 shares...my intent with this trade was to hold onto it for the entire day or exit when I saw two red candles on a 5-minute chart. I held onto this position when I saw the first pair of red candles, but on the second set, I exited. I've got to work on my exit strategy for this kind of trade...since my attention was focused so much on this trade, I missed several other good breaks (see below)

Alcan Inc. (AL) - I was waiting for the $53.50 level to break (intra-day high), but I missed it as I was tending to the CEG trade

Federated Department Stores (FD) - missed break of long-time resistance at $45.00....tried to go long 4000 shares on break, but didn't get any shares...the break of this level was extremely quick

Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV) - missed break of intra-day low...I tried to get short a few times, but I just couldn't get any shares

Trina Solar Limited (TSL) - I was kind of wary about trading this one since it was very thin and the spread was horrendous, but I was keeping an eye on the $44.25 level (intra-day high), but I missed it as I was tending to the CEG trade (was only going to trade 100 or 200 shares on this one)

Failed Setups
(trades I took that I thought had a good setup, but failed and either I got out at break-even or for a loser)

AK Steel (AKS) - broke intra-day high, but quickly reversed...got out for a loss

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

None

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

None

Weekend Reading For Mar 10 - 11, 2007

2007-03-10T08:22:00.000-05:00

In "Weekend Reading" I'll collect what I thought were the best posts and articles for the week from various bloggers.

I only focus on posts and links that relate to trader improvement or trading in general.

There's nothing like getting over a bad week than to read up on articles about trading. Not only does it lift your spirits, but you might even learn a thing or two!

Here's this weekend's edition:

Kevin at Kevin's Market Blog wrote up an excellent article about something I constantly have problems with - it's a Fear Of Missing Out

Here, Dogwood continues looking at the Improved R2 Strategy (see last week's links) and show you some stats by using other RSI values in Extreme RSI

Will at Dummyspots.com had this deep post about how the greatest teacher of all is the markets and he covers things like ego and discipline in the excellent article entitled Trading And The Personal Journey

TraderGav tells tells us the three general screens when looking for a setup, a concept he's been using as well, in Structure Your Entry, A Suggestion

Here are some excellent points by George Fontanills to consider that were posted over at the Kirk Report in A Winning Trader's Edge

BP at 59 Cedar Street shows us his multi-step approach to trading in The 12 Steps Of A Day Trade

Looking for a discount online broker? Steven over there at the Value Blog Review does a fantastic job of rounding up the various brokers, listing their pros and cons along with prices in Online Discount Stock Broker Review

If you don't follow Brett Steenbarger's TraderFeed, you're missing out...but in case you missed his "Best Practices" series, here they all are in Best Practices In Trading - Volume One

Craig at his Taz Trader Blog does a great review of Trader Vic's three rules used to identify a change of trend in How To Identify A Change In Trend - Easy As 1-2-3

Jeff White at the StockBandit keeps those free newsletters coming - this one is about Oversold Conditions

Fear, guilt, pride, overconfidence - all of these can affect your trading and Piranha does a great job of writing about it in A Study In Human Psychology

Emotions, lack of focus and trading don't go hand in hand and over at Profiling Leadership they explain that in Process Is The Key

TraderGav posted some great Quotes By Felix Dennis taken from the article "If You Want To Be Rich, Stop Being So Frightened" which really put a lot of things in perspective, especially for what I've been going through

During this rough trading patch I've had lately, it was very refreshing and uplifting to read Brett's article at his TraderFeed blog called Resilience And The Courage Of Your Convictions

Here are some great points to ponder done by Lifepost over there at High Probability Trading entitled Stop Loss, WHERE IS IT? that really helped me along with my trading struggles

A few bloggers were pointing out a new blog and I can see why....there are some great posts coming out from Corey at his AfraidToTrade blog - here he makes some excellent points in Quick Comment On Less Successful Traders

Over at the StockBandit, Jeff White tells us The Difference Between Predicting & Anticipating

Woodshedder, a contributor over there at Fly On WallStreet shows us Finding The Bottom: Low Risk Entries Using The MACD And ATR and gives a few examples

Ok folks - I need to recharge this weekend after these past two weeks of trading and hopefully I can do some meaningful "self-discovery" with what I'm doing.

Take care folks, enjoy your weekend, and good trading to all!

Closing Out Another Bad Week

2007-03-09T22:05:00.000-05:00

Gross: -$96.00
Net: -$150.73
Loss From Top: $371.50
Trades: 43
Shares Traded: 83200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Champion Enterprises Inc. (CHB): +$269.34
Motorola Inc (MOT): +$88.62
United States Steel Corporation (X): +$55.49
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT): +$36.17
National Semiconductor Corporation (NSM): +$23.97
The Men's Wearhouse Inc. (MW): -$17.45
Con-Way Inc. (CNW): -$35.47
Big Lots Inc. (BIG): -$51.06
NYSE Group Inc. (NYX): -$56.75
General Electric Company (GE): -$70.86
Pier 1 Imports Inc. (PIR): -$102.37
Quiksilver Inc. (ZQK): -$139.48
EMC Corporation (EMC): -$150.67

Sorry for the late post.....I'm gonna make this one a short one.

This morning it seemed like I started off on the wrong path yet again (for the 3rd straight day in a row) as I started the day off with a few losers.

Even though I tried trading a few different types of stocks in the morning, I still was not able to book a winner....even on 100 shares.

I was finding that my positions would initially go my way, but would then reverse and I would have to take a loser.

I then tried to go back trading some of the more familiar stocks I usually trade, without much luck.

The last few days I'm finding that a lot of the breakouts quickly fail....it seemed like the only day I had some kind of success trading was on Tuesday - and that was the day in which I took my profits quickly and got out of losing trades even quicker.

Maybe this is the way I'm going to have to trade in the next little while....just take winners quickly and get out of those positions that go nowhere.

I tried trading some of those high-fliers today....I just could not get shorts in the morning and I kept trying to chase it down to try to get short, but I was never able to do so.

Most of the time I was just too slow in taking a position. I missed out on an MA trade, but I would later see that it would quickly reverse. Similar thing happened on ICE and I'm just glad I never got the shares for these two stocks.

One that I did miss and was a good opportunity was on NMX. I tried to go long $121.00 after it kept trying to test that level in the afternoon and when it finally broke around 2:30PM, I missed it....NMX would just take off from there.

Today was also just the result of some poor stock selection - I tried to trade PIR, ZQK, EMC and GE - all of them poorly timed and poorly executed.

Not too upset about the day today - just trying a few new things. After watching MA, ICE, NYX and NMX all day today, I still can't really figure it out (maybe there weren't good setups today), but honestly those stocks looked more random than the stocks I usually trade....

I mean just take a look at a chart 5-minute or 10-minute for GE and EMC...to me, those look more predictable than what I saw on those high-fliers (again, it might have just been the just for today...I'll keep watching)....not that I was able to make money on those stocks as my focus just seemed to be everywhere today.

I have a feeling I probably need to trade something in-between....something that moves...but not move too much.

Anyways, not going to dwell upon the last two weeks too much...have a good weekend all.

Good Trades
11:17:24AM - Champion Enterprises (CHB) was moving up and I went long 2000 shares after pushing up to new intra-day highs. I held it and got out when it appeared as though the Futures and the overall markets seemed tired. I got out as follows: 13-cent winner (1600 shares), 16-cent winner (400 shares) ($272 profit before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $8.25 ; Out: 11:50:46AM)

Bad Trades
None.

It's Not The End Of The World.....Yet

2007-03-08T17:38:00.001-05:00

Gross: -$437.00
Net: -$475.40
Loss From Top: $475.40
Trades: 34
Shares Traded: 60800

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): +$105.02
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): +$5.51
Ford Motor Company (F): -$66.61
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT): -$84.17
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU): -$97.04
Fremont General Corporation (FMT): -$101.50
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT): -$103.79
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (RIO): -$133.40

These past two weeks of trading has left me battered and bruised.

Now, more than ever, do I feel like my trading has sunken to a new level of inconsistency.

In a near repeat performance of yesterday, I came in this morning unable to time any of my trades right. I started the day off with a couple of losers and perhaps I came in a little more aggressive than usual....as if I wanted to right a wrong from yesterday.

Needless to say, it didn't help.

I just couldn't seem to book a winner and again, I was feeling as though there wasn't much follow-through on some of the moves out there.

I kept reducing my share size and I kept losing and I kept reducing my share size even more. I was never able to get back into a trading groove like yesterday and it just seemed like I was booking loser after loser.

It got to a point where I was trading only 200 shares and yet I still had trouble booking winners.

And it seemed like on the trades that I gave plenty of room to work, ended up reversing and I'd have to exit for a loser. And on those trades that I gave little room to work, it stopped me out for a small loser, but continued going in the original direction of the trade.

My day was done even before lunch and I left around 11:30AM.

As I made my way home via public transit, I hung my head low. I felt lower than dirt and I can't even express into words what was going on in my head.

As I sat there on the bus looking out on the busy streets with all these thoughts and frustrations milling around in my head, I saw a guy trying to keep warm on an air vent all bundled up in dirty blankets.

All those thoughts suddenly stopped and another thought raced into my mind and it said "it's not the end of the world". I don't know why that little phrase just suddenly popped into my head like that, but I immediately felt a lot better.

Once I got home, I went to work right away.

I started going through all of MaoXian's Dummy trades....
I went to see how PinoyTrader does things...
I checked out Trader-X's trading style....
I looked through Estocastica's trades...
I viewed the charts of ZBS's trades...

Then I checked the comments left on this blog and Wincity left this comment on yesterday's post:

"I still think it's the way you trade. Scalping is hard. As long as you scalp, you'll always have bad days.

Recently you traded MA and was a bit scared. On that day I congratulated you for trying something new. IMO it's better if you move in that direction.

Trading 5000 shares of a dead stock for a penny or two isn't much safer than trading 200 shares of MA for $1. IMO, trading MA type of stocks is actually safer and more predictable."

And I think he's right to a certain extent....don't get me wrong - I'm not going to completely change the way I trade, but Wincity just reminded me of where I wanted to go with this and I guess lately I've found myself steering down the wrong path....the "old" path if you will.

My trading should involve less of those slower moving stocks when it's dead and more of the stocks that are indeed moving. Oh sure, I can keep an eye on those thicker, slower stocks, but I'll trade them only when they are moving (after all, they've provided me with the most profits).

When I left the office today, I had no intentions of going in tomorrow to trade. But after giving myself some time to think it over and after reviewing all the charts and all things things I have been doing wrong lately I feel as though I want to get back on the trading floor to try out a few new things.

I'll watch to see if there are any good setups made by some of those high-fliers like MA, ICE, and NYX tomorrow, but I'll only go in with 100 shares...just to test the waters.

More importantly, I'll start the day by trading small....the last two days felt like I needed to warm up first before going full steam ahead in my trading.

It's not the end of the world....yet.....

Good Trades
None.

Bad Trades
Probably most of my trades today

Accelerating The Downward Spiral

2007-03-07T19:44:00.000-05:00

Gross: -$396.89
Net: -$490.22
Loss From Top: $531.82
Trades: 64
Shares Traded: 172600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Motorola Inc. (MOT): +$121.54
Helca Mining Company (HL): +$97.87
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ): +$88.10
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): +$41.08
Pfizer Inc (PFE): +$5.78
Micron Technology (MU): -$11.65
EMC Corporation (EMC): -$11.69
New Century Financial Corporation (NEW): -$102.23
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT): -$105.75
Corning Incorporated (GLW): -$171.98
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM): -$193.51
Payless Shoesource Inc. (PSS): -$248.38

A typical month for me will consist of a few days in which I end the day in the red. I would have to say that most of those negative days always seem to occur in exactly the same way with the same sequence of events and under the same circumstances.

And today, that same sequence of events and the exact same circumstances led me to a rather bad day for me.

So when I got home today, I looked back at all those bad losing days I've had, trying to find the connection...trying to find out what they all had in common.

So why does this keep happening? Why can't I seem to learn my lesson? What can I do to avoid this kind of day?

First, let me review with you my day today...in fact, this review could probably be used for all those other bad days I've had in the past since most of them always seem to follow the same sequence of events.

When I got in this morning, I found it rather difficult to trade. The whole day seemed rather choppy and in the morning, I just didn't seem to time any of my trades right.

I put on a couple of losers to start off the day and realizing what kind of markets we were having today, I took a little break and tried to re-gain my focus. At that point, I was down quite a bit (about $400).

I scaled back on my position size and I sat, trying to be patient and wait for the good trades to show themselves.

I slowly got back in a groove and managed to string together a couple of winners. I was slowly chipping away at my loss and wouldn't you know it, I eventually found myself in positive territory.

But then I put on a small loser....no big deal - it wasn't too big and I could still bounce back from it.

Then another loser. Ok - still no problem, I was thinking that I could probably make it all back.

Then I get hit for big loser (see bad trades below).....

That's when my frustrations begin to mount....I had worked so hard to get back to being positive on the day and just like that I'm in the hole again...I was also starting to get upset because nothing seemed to have any follow through on it's moves and the markets just seemed to be meandering around and stocks just kept rolling back and forth....

I then start looking all over the place for the next trade....then...

Another loser.....OK - at that point I was thinking that this was beginning to suck and this was getting extremely frustrating....I found myself getting mad at the markets for not doing anything....

I then went on to put on riskier positions...which also ended up as losers....I found myself over-trading - jumping in and out and each loser just made me even more frustrated.

Time was ticking and I felt the need to make money.....fast! Every time I had a loser, I'd go into the next trade with a bigger position.

As 2000 share positions turned into losers...I got frustrated...I went into the next trade with 4000 shares....dammit...another loser....fine, I'd smack the next trade with 6000 shares.....what! Another loser! Now I went to try to make a quick buck by trading those slow moving stocks for 10,000 shares....dammit! A break even trade!

My frustrations basically led me to impatience, to over-trading, and to bigger share size. All of these things just didn't help me out at all and it just accelerated my downward spiral.

Finally, at around 3PM, I was just fed up with what I was doing and I was fed up with stocks just meandering around. My mind wasn't in the game and I really didn't feel like being there.

So I packed up and called it a day before I could do any further damage.

And so, there it is. This exact same day has been repeated many times before and yet somehow I seem to repeat it a few times during a typical month. It's these mental lapses that have really been holding me back from achieving great consistency.

And it always seems to be that same combination of choppy markets with a bad start in the morning, coupled with a bit of a comeback, only to lose everything again in frustration, as I curse the markets for chopping every which way.

It's not that I can't make money in a choppy market - in fact, my trading sometimes thrives in choppy markets and some of my best days have occurred when the markets are choppy.

But I think the real difference is my state of mind. When I lose money in the morning, my thinking somehow changes. The reasons for getting into a trade is somehow different and that drive to make money is more urgent. As the day wears on, I lose more and the urge to do something to make money becomes even greater.

Had I made money in the morning, perhaps things may have turned out differently. I would feel more patient to wait for trades and I would not be in a hurry to put on another trade.

I just have to remember to mind the markets and to not let frustrations get the better of me. I also sometimes need to suppress the need to make money...this kind of thinking usually forces me to over-trade by taking bad setups and by using the Level 2 to trade.

In that past when I've had this kind of a day, I usually review it and make it seem as though it were an isolated incident. I would correctly identify that my frustrations eventually led me down a path of destruction, but as the days go on, I forget the lessons I had learned and I find myself repeating it all over again.

Today is the first day I have tried to connect all of these losing days together and if I can keep a level head throughout the day, I'm sure that 2/3 of my losing days will either become winning days or I won't have lost as much.

So the next time I find myself in this exact same situation, I have to remember what has happened in the past in the hopes that I do not repeat it and so that I don't drown in my own sea of frustration.

Good Trades
None.

Bad Trades
12:56:57PM - Payless Shoesource (PSS) was moving up and making new intra-day highs and I went long 2000 shares when I thought the $34.50 level was going to break. It quickly went against me and I had to get out as follows: 10-cent loser (300 shares), 11-cent loser (200 shares), 13-cent loser (1500 shares) ($244 loser before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $34.50 ; Out: 12:57:52PM)

More ECN Talk

2007-03-06T17:35:00.000-05:00

Gross: +$810.00
Net: +$729.55
Loss From Top: 0
Trades: 54
Shares Traded: 135400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM): +$334.87
NovaStar Financial Inc. (NFI): +$152.36
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB): +$126.97
Citigroup Inc. (C): +$114.81
EMC Corporation (EMC): +$74.90
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): +$50.56
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): -$9.02
New Century Financial Corporation (NEW): -$10.86
CBS Corporation (CBS): -$50.22
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT): -$54.81

Sorry to bore you folks with yet another post about ECNs, but there were a few excellent questions posted in the comments section of yesterday's post that I'd like to address in this post. If this stuff doesn't interest you, you can scroll about 2/3 of the way down where I do my recap of my day.

I was quite surprised at the level of interest in the various ECNs in yesterday's post that I thought I'd answer a few of those questions along with a few more things I learned today.

Firstly, someone asked yesterday:

"One question, if you use MILN passthrough and your order gets routed to the NYSE, will NYSE not route it out if there aren't enough shares available?"

Today I found out that yes, if you use Millennium Pass-Through and your order is routed to the NYSE, the NYSE may route your orders to other market centers.

In fact, I found out that if this were to occur, Millennium will charge you 0.0027 cents per share! What's probably happening here is that the NYSE will charge Millennium the new 0.0025 cents per share routing charge and Millennium will pass that charge along to you and on top of that, they'll charge you an extra 0.0002 cents per share.

After I found this out, I stopped using Millennium Pass-Through, simply because it's even WORSE than the 0.0025 cents per share that the NYSE will charge. And besides, Millennium is dreadfully slow in both routing to the NYSE and in cancelling orders.

And in other developments....

The programmers at the prop firm adjusted the INET RASH DOTD I was telling you folks about yesterday so that you can now remove liquidity with it. I also found out what the fees for using this ECN would be and it's actually quite good!

Again, INET RASH DOTD will bypass all of the various books (Arca, INET, Nasdaq) and will send your order directly to the NYSE. What's good about it is that if the NYSE doesn't route your order, then it's actually quite cheap! In fact, it's about 1/3 the cost of using ISI (so it should be about 0.001 cents per share...if anyone knows, please correct me on this).

The only problem would be if the NYSE does route your order to other market centers, then you'll have to eat that 0.0025 cents per share charge.

However, I heard that the percentage of orders that are routed by the NYSE is relatively low, so using INET RASH DOTD may be a great ECN to use in the meantime....I'll have to double check some stats to see if this is in fact true.

Another problem is that there is no real-time way of knowing how many shares were routed by the NYSE and as a result, the P&L's may not be correct. The prop firm I work for stated that adjustments to our P&L will occur a few days later after they receive the tally of the number of shares that were routed by the NYSE and will reflect the number of our shares that the NYSE routed.

Thus, I will not know if my P&L has taken into account that 0.0025 cents per share fee on my orders or not. Again to review, I'm charged 0.0025 cents per share if I send an order to the NYSE and they route it away to other market centers (Arca, INET, Nasdaq, etc).

Another commenter also asked:

"Please let us know more about this new ECN that charges the low fees once you get a chance to use it..

thanks in advance,
Dave Parizek"

What I can tell you is that this new ECN is called INET RASH ISNY.

And what it will do is it will act like a fill-or-kill order, meaning that once you send in your order, if there are shares available, it will fill you, however if there are not enough shares available, it will partially fill you and cancel the balance. Finally, if you send this order and no shares are available, it will automatically cancel.

INET RASH ISNY can only be used to remove liquidity and it WILL NOT BE ROUTED BY THE NYSE! That's excellent news - at least we will not have to worry about that 0.0025 charge.

What's more.....it's going to be dirt cheap to use it! It'll only cost you 27 cents per 1000 shares to use (or 0.00027 cents per share). Ohhhhhhh man! I'm gonna love using it!

And you know that since it's an INET RASH order, that it's gonna be fast!

I'm loving it already! It's fast, it's cheap, and it's exactly the kind of thing I do anyways (i.e. if I get partially filled, I quickly try to cancel the balance of my order).

Apparently our prop firm is all setup and ready to use it.....but we are waiting for NASDAQ (the owners of INET) to complete implementation on their end.

I was told that the earliest we could get INET RASH ISNY is possibly this Thursday. I can't wait!

But for now, I'm going to continue to use INET RASH DOTD to punch into a position (and hope my orders don't get routed by the NYSE) and I'll continue using Arca or INET to exit my positions by adding liquidity. Of course, I may use INET RASH DOTD to exit my position if prices start running away from me.

Just remember that if you have any questions or concerns about the new NYSE Hybrid Market, you should definitely check out the HybridTalk blog. Just do a search and you should be able to find what you're looking for. Otherwise you can ask a question and Ray over there at HybridTalk does an excellent job of answering questions and explaining them in layman's terms.

Okay - enough of the ECN talk....

This morning I had to get re-adjusted again with using the various ECNs and the fees associated with them.

It might have been the fact that I was so concerned with how these new fees would affect me that I remained fairly patient when it came to waiting for a good trade (since I didn't want to waste fees putting on a lousy trade).

Early in the morning I continued to use Millennium Pass-Through for my orders, but by about mid-morning I stopped using it after learning of the fees.

I missed a golden opportunity early in the morning because of the "slowness" of Millennium.

I was watching Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) on the open and I was waiting for the $10.50 level to break. When it looked imminent it was going to break, I used Millennium Pass-Through to go long 20,000 shares @ $10.50....

Unfortunately, by the time Millennium routed my order to the NYSE, pretty much all the shares were gone and I only got partially filled for 3400 shares. All I could do was watch the size on the offer at $10.50 shrink....700....500...250....100...and finally when the size was around 40, I started getting filled. I could have smacked that level at least 3 times with other ECNs!

Well TSM quickly ran up 15-cents from there....oh well, at least I caught some of that move with some shares.

But for the rest of the day, I was quick to book my winners because of the shaking and baking that seemed to be occurring today. More importantly, I dumped my losers even quicker.

If I got into a position and it stalled for a bit, I'd quickly get out. Or if I got into a position and it went in my favor, but started coming back, I'd punch out for break even.

The result of this were a lot of 4, 6, or 10 cent winners versus a lot of break even or 1-cent losers.

One good trade versus no bad ones.

Anyways, I hope the last two posts gives you more insight into what a micro scalper like myself has to consider every day that I trade....where every penny counts and every fraction of a cent per share makes a big difference in everything I do. Welcome to my world!

Good Trades
9:38:35AM - Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) had opened and began testing resistance at $10.50. I waited for it to break and when it did, I tried to send a Millennium Pass-Through order for 20,000 shares to get long. Well, it seemed to take forever before I started getting filled...by that time, hardly any shares were left and I got partially filled for 3400 shares. TSM quickly went up, but started falling back down again, at which point I took everything for a 9-cent winner ($306 profit before fees ; Long 3400 shares @ $10.50 ; Out: 9:42:07AM)

Bad Trades
None.

New Fees, New Headaches

2007-03-05T19:58:00.000-05:00

Gross: +$281.00
Net: +$228.21
Loss From Top: $280.35
Trades: 40
Shares Traded: 96400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): +$173.79
EMC Corporation (EMC): +$93.48
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT): +$69.49
Pfizer Inc. (PFE): +$10.04
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (CTB): -$49.34
TXU Corporation (TXU): -$69.26

Today I spent the whole day testing out new ECNs that I've never used before and I basically just wanted to get a feel for how I'd get filled and how the fees were going to be like.

Caution: the rest of this post may be too technical for most and will probably not apply to your trading (as most of you probably have flat fee trading)....don't say I didn't warn you!

As you may or may not have known, today the Regulation NMS went into effect at the NYSE and thus some new fees kicked in today.

These new fees are a killer for my trading though....

Usually when I trade, I like to punch into a position (i.e. I like to remove liquidity when I enter a position) and what I'll try to do is add liquidity when I exit my position so that I can collect the credits that come along with it.

What I'll usually do is punch into a position using ISI (order goes directly to the specialist/NYSE) and I do this because ISI is relatively cheap when it comes to removing liquidity. Once I'm in a position, I'll throw out orders and wait on the bid or ask using either Arca or Island.

By waiting on the bid or ask using Arca or Island, I collect a credit of 0.002 cents per share (or $2 per 1000 shares) and will usually help offset the other costs associated with the trade.

However, with Reg NMS, what the NYSE is trying to do is make trading seamless across the various ECNs by routing orders to ECNs that have shares available.

But, the fees associated with this are a killer! The NYSE will be charging 0.0025 cents per share that is routed to another ECN. That means that it'll cost me $5 round trip on 1000 shares (if all the shares are routed) and $50 round trip on 10,000 shares (if all the shares are routed). And that doesn't even include the other fees associated with the trade (execution, clearing, SEC, etc)!

Before Reg NMS, the fee for using ISI was 0.000225 cents per share! The fees increased by more than a factor of 10!

So if I continued trading like I was before (by punching into a position using ISI), my fees could add up very quickly.

So today I just practiced using other ECNs to punch into positions and really tried to get a feel of how fast (or how slow) I get filled using these ECNs.

This morning we were told to use INET RASH DOTD to avoid having to eat that new routing fee. Usually an INET RASH order will check the various books (INET, Arca, NASDAQ) first to see if it can fill your order.....depending on which INET RASH order type you choose, some only checks the INET books, some check across all books and usually the balance remaining is sent to the NYSE.

Well, INET RASH DOTD bypasses all the books (INET, Arca, NASDAQ) and is routed directly to the NYSE. This is good because the fees associated with removing liquidity on these books are expensive...0.003 per share!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get INET RASH DOTD to punch into a position (it kept getting rejected by the trading app) and I later found out that the programmers did that on purpose just so that we wouldn't have the possibility of having our order routed by the NYSE (and thus have to pay that new fee).

So I spent most of the morning trying to figure out another ways to get into a position at the lowest possible cost.

I could still use ISI, however if there are shares available on other ECNs, it can get pretty expensive pretty fast.

I was told that using Millennium Pass-Through is probably the next cheapest alternative. Millennium Pass-Through will first check to see if there are shares on the Millennium book and will route the balance of your order to the NYSE.

The fees for using Millennium Pass-Through can get expensive IF there are shares on the Millennium book, but is relatively cheap if there are no shares on the Millennium book (and your order will get routed to the NYSE).

If there are shares on the Millennium book, then you will be charged 0.0015 cents per share, HOWEVER if your order is routed to the NYSE, then you will be charged only 0.00045 cents per share. Even if there are shares on the Millennium book, it's still cheaper than that new routing fee and it's cheaper than removing liquidity using INET or Arca.

So I stuck with using Millennium Pass-Through to get into a position and hoped that no shares were on the Millennium book.

I continued to exit my positions using Arca/Island as those fees have not changed.

The only problem I had was when I wanted to secure my profits and prices were starting to go against me, I found that I sometimes had to use Millennium Pass-Through to exit my position as well.

So what did I think of Millennium Pass-Through?

Even though it's now cheaper to use, I find that it's terribly slow!

When I tried to punch into a position using Millennium Pass-Through, I found it took forever to get filled and it seemed to take forever for it to route to the NYSE! I also found that cancelling Millennium Pass-Through orders seem to take forever!

Ah well...I'll just have to put up with this for a little bit longer because I was told that by Thursday they'll have another ECN for us to use that will be way cheaper (I was told it would only cost 0.27 cents on 1000 shares!).

Today I just mainly used smaller share size just so that I could get a good feel for how Millennium Pass-Through is used and I didn't really take any good trades nor were there any bad ones.

Then at around 3PM, they were having execution problems again...they said that it was the NYSE that was having a problem. At that point I figured I'd just call it a day.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get back into the full swing of things.

*Sigh* I guess we just have to adapt or die....it's just too bad I had to waste a day just trying to figure out what to use to trade.

Sorry if I bored the heck out of you folks out there....this post was just something I wanted to have on record...

Good Trades
None

Bad Trades
None.

Monthly Review Roundup For February 2007

2007-03-03T21:14:00.000-05:00

On a monthly basis, several bloggers review their trading and I thought it would be a good idea to try to collect them all and put them together in one post-of-links.

Many give great insights into the past month of trading and it's great to see what various bloggers have learned and the difficulties some of us had.

By doing this, I hope that readers out there can learn or perhaps even relate to what we, as trading bloggers, went through during the past month.

I have a feeling that February was moving along just fine for most trading bloggers out there. But then came the big fall in the markets and with volatility way up, some of us took a hit, thus affecting some of our numbers (mine included).

During the last few days of February, volatility has been way up, so I hope all of you out there can adjust your trading accordingly! Here's this month's review roundup:

TraderGav seems to be getting back on track and considering he took one week of in February, he did well in almost achieving his monthly target

Dave at StockTickr also did a great job and even though the number of trades he did was low, he was close in achieving 10R on the month

I just wish my "profit distribution days" chart looks like ZBS's as he had his best month ever in February and made $14500+ for the month! Way to go ZBS!

Tyro continues working on his new trading strategy and despite his profits coming off their highs during the month, he still finished up 4.5R

HighChartPatterns highlight their February as they continued to adjust their stop-losses on their trades

Lord Tedders at the Forex and eMini Futures blog also was very close in achieving his goal in February and managed to capture 15.4 points, just shy of his goal of 20 points

Brian at Trade 4 Cash was cruising along just fine in February...until the last few days, however he learned a couple of lessons and is making adjustments accordingly, which I think every good trader should do

Luka also had it tough in February (just like quite a few of us), but he is still up for the year

Richard at MoveTheMarkets does a great February review in which he didn't trade much, which might be a good thing and sure beats losing money

Bill at NoDooDahs had a good win-to-loss ratio on his closed positions in February and he still maintains some really good open positions

I love how UglyChart calls his automated trading system (ATS) that "Damn Thing" and in February, Ugly ran into many problems with The Damn Thing and continues to configure it for March

Caravaggio at The 3500 shows us his results on a week-by-week basis and is still up on the year as he continues to adjust his trading plan accordingly

Phileo really takes a real hard look at his trading in a month that was profitable, but costly mistakes hampered his progress

Lastly, there's me, who was all good and dandy coming up to the last few trading days in February...but then my trading simply fell apart and I ended the month with only marginal improvements in terms of profits

If there is a monthly review that is not listed or if you have a monthly review that is not listed, let me know via comments and I'll include it ASAP.