Choppy Action Outside Of Midday

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect when I checked my P&L at 4 today.

I felt like I was getting smoked all day, but I think that's because I kept playing around with CMI and losing. The good news is that when I lost in him, I only lost with a few hundred shares at most. So it never got out of hand.

Volume on the NYSE really picked up today versus yesterday's levels, so it was a clear day of distribution for the Dow and S&P. But still, with the gains of the last couple of months, who really cares, right? If we see a couple of more days like today though, it will be time to start paying attention.

Anyway, I had a rather slow day. My best stock of the day was CF which, like TNH and POT makes fertilizers. The entire agricultural sector was the only place I found green stocks today. Every one that I have on my screen, DE, AG, CNH, LNN, POT, TNH, AGU, MON, CF and MOS were up for the day. The only other place where similar strength occurred was in the solar stocks.



Despite it's strength, CF was a choppy trade today. I really just got lucky by having a fairly large position in the stock when it spiked up just after 10:00. The good thing was that I recognized my luckiness and took profits near the top. Other than that trade, I lost in most of my other trades in the stock today.

The morning was crappy and the move in the market came midday. I miss a lot of midday moves because I trade very lightly, if at all, between 11:30 and 2. Ideally, I'm looking at charts and trying to find good ideas for the afternoon. Today, I mowed my lawn and got a haircut.

Anyway, I have to cut this short today because I have to be out of the house by 4:30.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $51
Best, CF $289
Worst, CMI, -$260

shares traded, 29,800
stocks traded, 12, 6 positive, 6 negative
total trades, 198