A Solid Morning

I'm very happy with my trading performance today. Yesterday was my worst day of the month, and I started today in the red due to early losses in CAM and an ill conceived short in CQB.

CAM was an HCPG play that chopped around, and CQB was a short based on the weakness in FDP, which got "destructed" after it reported earnings.

So after getting "smokeled," I cut my size and made good decisions to get back to green and then make up my losses from yesterday and then some.

First, I caught a short in CF after he couldn't regain his high and made a little over a point.



Then, I bought some AKS on the strength in X and made a little over a point. Also, the whole time I was riding BEAV down. It was the first time in a while where I had a few trades all working out at the same time and it felt great.

Still, volume in the market is light today, so I'm not pressing my luck.

In the summer, when the volume is low, there's a different flow to the market. Trade the morning, take the middle of the day easy, and then see how things close.

Trade Mondays very lightly (volume is always very low on summer Mondays), get a little more aggressive Tues-Thurs, and then trade Friday morning and take off in the afternoon.

Save your energy for this fall and give your eyes a rest. Enjoy the summer weather while you can.

Bank Run!

First of all, kudos to "the Fly" for not only minting coin in this market, but for "getting it" as well.

I'd love to buy that guy a beer. However, I'd be fearful the whole while for my eyebrows... not to mention, my mustache. Actually, my entire beard would be terrified.

So wow... everything is going straight to hell, including my neighbor, who was out with powertools at 9pm last night. You go to hell, Mr. Neighbor.

Where's the nice place to move in the Canadian Maritime Provinces? Anyone? I'm serious.

Okay, I digress.

Today, for all the freakiness of the market, and for all the bank runs, and fear, I had a relaxed and uneventful day. Profitable. Boring. Stable. What I'm after.

I didn't trade well. My best stock of the day, BIDU, was difficult, and I left a number of points on the table. However, since it was the first time I've ever traded this monster, I was happy to get in and out with profits.

My first trade was a little premature, and I lost a quick point. However, minutes later, the stock based again, and I sold at $305.02 and then added to the short at $303.50. So I was short 200 shares which I thought was nicely aggressive on my part.



The stock dropped nicely through the HCPG target of $303, but then bounced hard at $302, all the way back up to $307. I covered my shares at an average price of $303, so I managed to make a little over a point on the 200 shares.

After the stock bounced, it crept lower again. I debated getting involved at $302, but decided against it, because I thought $300 could be supportive and the market was actually bouncing at 10:20 or so, when $302 traded. In retrospect... but anyway... I made some money there.

I also had a decent trade in the morning in CSIQ, but I was ultra cautious on the trade since the stock was up so much early...

Finally, I took choppy losses in ENER and V. Also, I took a stab at a long in FCL through $80, which ultimately worked, but not before stopping me out for a small loss.

So, altogether, it was a green day for me. However, I left a lot of money on the table.

I will report on the RO, in a separate post.

Steel Stocks Rise

Today was kind of lame... one dude in my office made bank, but a few others are currently getting clipped... hard.

Anyway, for me, it was a day full of small losses, with one redeeming winner to keep me green. The winner was a short on X. However, this trade doesn't fit into my recent HCPG type style. As I've improved my win-rate and P&L of late, I've also opened myself up to taking more risk again, which is essential on some level. So when I saw X running all morning and then print huge volume on a spike, I took a shot on a short.

It wasn't without any type of merit as far as "daily spots" goes... here, I was taking a bet that $169 would hold as resistance, at least for the short term, and it worked.

When it was turned back at $169, I short 100 shares at $168.23, but my buy stop up at the fig, and went downstairs to make myself a cup of green tea.

Lo and behold, the trade worked.



I also made a few trades in VRTX, from the HCPG list.



So I ended up slightly positive. Which I'll take, because I thought today was rather muddy. Plus, that means I get to continue with the string of good music that I, of course, drop with the sun.

Tomorrow I will not be trading. Good luck. If you happen to be at the Fleet Foxes concert tonight, I'll be wearing a t-shirt that says "No One Knows I'm A Lesbian."

Best Day In Months

NOV is my best, followed by shorts in RIG, V and a nice long in ACI. Biggest loser is for $25. This will have to stand as my daily post, as I have to leave now to go take my continuing education exam.



Later tonight I'll report back with my RO numbers.

And, as always, good music drops with the sun.

UPDATE: The RO had a ridiculous day, with top dog checking in at $42 grand. There was also a trader in the high 30s, a dude in the teens, and 6 other guys up over 3 grand each. Only 2 guys were negative, with the "dirt eater" in at -$3250. I was #16 of 23 traders today... insane.

First Trade Is The Best Trade

This has been the theme of my last few weeks. I come in, make a few hundred in the first few minutes and then, I churn a little away...

It happened again today, as my first trade of the day, in SLB, was also my best.

In the first minute of the trading day, SLB dropped from $101 to $100. Since it was a perfect "touch" at $100, I felt pretty good to enter after he bounced up to $100.25 and then dropped straight back down. So I got 400 shares off at $100. I covered at $99.65, $99.50, $99.43 and $99.29. I'm not throwing a graph up, since this all happened in the first 3 minutes of the day... the graph doesn't show much.

Anyway, after that, I made many messy little trades. But the good news is, I limited my losses on them all. My largest loser of the day was APA, for $65. I jumped the gun on this short soon after I covered my SLB and paid a small price. I paid a larger price when I missed the actual drop through $130 about 2 hours later... I need to work on continuing to pay attention to stocks after I feel I "missed" the trade, because often, I've just been early.

I also caught a nice short on ME through $32 that helped eat up almost all of my losers.

All in all, another green day. I still have static going on, but it's definitely lessening, and I feel it when I make the bad trades. I think this will continue to improve.

Anyway, it'll be a hard week for me to blog very actively. Tomorrow, I have to take my Series 7 "continuing education" requirement, and then I have some family matters to attend to the next couple of days after the close. Also, on Wednesday night, I'll be seeing the Fleet Foxes.

But man, I don't mind slowing down in all this heat and humidity... and who wants to be staring at a computer screen anyway? Can't you just feel the heat emanating from it, frying your face?

Good music drops with the sun.

UPDATE: Oh, and for those interested in the RO, it was a pretty good day... however, also a very stressful one. Most of the traders took heavy losses early and then came back in the afternoon for some relatively modest gains. I was #14 of 23 today.

Coasting Into The Holiday

Dude made $82 grand in my office today... on a half day... same guy who made $30 grand yesterday.

Sadly, I made a fraction of that. Still, I made money.

My first trade of the day was also my best and most profitable.



I also caught shorts in PCU through $100 and V through $78. However, it should be noted, that V was trading like a dick. I had one small loss in RIG. Sadly, I just missed a big trade in the fucker, but he stopped me out right before a good drop.

The reason I'm so optimistic about my trading recently is because, well, first of all, I haven't been losing money. Second, I still see loads of room for improvement. Third, I'm still trading small size. I just need to tighten up a bit more, add some shares now that I'm making good consistent decisions and things should be okay.

Of course, the market could change at any moment...

Anyway, I'm keeping this post short. My glass of Pernod calls.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Good music drops with the sun.

Coal Stocks Drop Hard

-coalfall

My goodness... the moves in the coal, steel and ag names were epic. I didn't trade those moves...

Instead, I caught a nice move in SWN early, and pretty much scratched after that.

For whatever reason, I can't save esiggy charts to blogger right now, so I'll just describe the situation.

I was watching SWN to crest $50. This has been on the HCPG watchlist for the last couple of weeks. The stock opened at $49.75 and then based around that level for a few minutes. At 9:34, the stock traded $50, I entered at $50.10 and the thing just went vertical. I exited a couple hundred shares at $50.43 and then a few hundred more just over $51.

It was 9:36 and I was up nicely.

I got a little greedy though, and decided to try to play the short side of oils when they started to roll. I was early to the trade though, and barely missed huge moves.

So I gave a little back from my early morning highs, no big deal, and chalked up another win.

Again, the RO had a gigantic day.

Two guys in the RO were up over $25 grand, and a number of other players traded into the mid-thousands.

However, I want to share a little tidbit from some of the chat today. I know a lot of people are thinking, "Geez, idiot... these guys in your office are making such huge money, why don't you just do what they do?" It's because I can't deal with the huge drawdowns that are necessary to trade like they do...

Here they are talking about their P&L swings today...

Trader A: my pnl went from -20 to +15 to -4 to +26 here. what was the biggest drawdown for u?

Trader B: was up 8 then went flat.

They're talking thousands of dollars...

If I think of this job as a career, it's all about the slow build back right now... while it's tempting to doubt myself after days like yesterday and today, I'm thinking 5 years out, when I'm not burnt out and stacking coin every day, just like the good ole days.

I'm not saying those guys will be burnt out... I'm just saying I can't take those swings anymore. So I'm gonna keep trying to make a few hundred a day, and slowly build it up to a few thousand a day...

If I can do that, in 5 years, I won't give a damn about missing the coal shorts today.

Good music will drop with the sun.

Staying On "The Path"

Sometimes it doesn't pay to anticipate anything when you're trading.

I mean, here we are July 4th week and the market chooses to freak out a bit. It's like last summer... I remember being caught entirely off guard by the late-July and early-August lunacy.

The market volatility is not on that level yet, but neither does it appear the market wants to go quietly into the summer night.

Looking at my RO today hurt a little. Guys made bank, pure and simple. Top dog was up over $15k... 8 traders were up over a grand and 3 of those were up over 3 grand each.

However, I have to remind myself that I changed up my trading style not because I wasn't making money with it (even last year, my shittiest year ever, I cleared 6 digits) but because it was driving me crazy. I need a system where I can be profitable more and have fewer drawdowns. I need to remind myself that most of my profits from last year came on a handful of big days... the rest of the year was painful churn.

When I was single, had no financial obligations and had a sliver of the responsibility I have today, drawdowns didn't effect me as much as they do now... now however, I really hate them. Drawdowns freak me out, and post Hybrid, I just haven't been able to avoid them using my old methods.

These days where the market freaks out are not the norm... so I'm catering my trading style to be able to make money on the "normal" days... not the odd volatile day.

Anyway, I had a good day again, and it was all one trade. Then, I head out to the beach for a midday surf session. BID was trading with good volume and showing relative weakness off the open, and within striking distance of $25, which has been a support level since mid May.



See? I don't want to be rich... I want to be rich AND happy. I don't want to be stressed out all the time, waiting for the market to change and "be good." I want to take my money out of the market each morning, with a consistent, tried and true method, and get on with life.

Okay, that was really a pep talk to myself, to keep myself on "the path" as it were, and to remind myself that I have a plan and I'm in the middle of executing it...

If it would just rain for an entire day, I could post my June recap... but it looks like we'll be spending another evening at the beach, so NO RECAP FOR YOU!

As for the tone of the general market, despite the volume, I can only view today as a big short squeeze. Even I was squeezed, as I covered my LEH short. I short at over $40 in my LT account and covered today around $21... not bad. I think with my extra funds, I'll just buy more HCBK.

Indeed, slow and steady wins the race...

BTW, don't forget to check Tokyo's site for the VO... Meanwhile, I see he's now posting what he considers "good music" on days when he makes money and "bad music" on days he loses... Surely, mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, but I won't be asking Tokyo to be my roommate anytime soon. If he takes up surfing, I will change my address and buy a big gun.

Good music dropping with the sun.

Fuck Balloons

My surfing buddy is away. Today, I drove to the beach at 5:30, alone, and didn't go in. The wind was strong onshore and the swell was just a bit too wild and loose for my taste.

So I picked up wet helium balloons from the shore.

"Happy Birthday!" "Congratulations!" "You're 50!"

Instead, they should just say "Future Beach Litter!"

I found 5 balloons in about 10 minutes, tangled around seaweed or blown into the dunes. With a light drizzle, gray skies and blown-out surf, it made for a moody beginning to the day.


-Evil children and their environmental weapon of choice.

This place is full of tourists this time of year. Some guy pulled into the lot in an SUV with out-of-state plates (and incidentally, given where the wind was blowing from, his state was probably responsible for the balloon litter). Anyway, he ambled over to me while I was picking up a balloon and said, referring to the surf, not the beach, "When do you think it's gonna clean up?"

I said, "Probably never. The wind is going to be onshore, forever." I was kind of being a dick, but it was also true. There was no chance of clean surf today.

So it was with that darkness that I arrived home to take a look at the market.

Since it was the last day of the month, I wasn't looking to take too much risk. I'm solidly green, and happy to take at least a little check home. So I decided to just focus like a "frikken laser beam" on the HCPG plays.

MEE gapped up a bit, consolidated quickly, and broke out. It was a fast trade, and really all I needed.



I also caught a nice little move in MUR, scratched in JEC, and lost a bit in SU.

Nothing else.

Anyway, since this is the first day without the VO, I feel the need to also add a bit of market commentary here. However, since I barely traded today (and probably won't trade too much all week, since it's a holiday week and should be slow) I don't have much to offer.

So how about this for market commentary? All things must pass.

I also haven't figured out how many other statistics (besides my newly absent P&L) I'm going to share. In short, this blog will be evolving again over the next few weeks. It'll take some time for me to figure out what to do with my free time and thought. Suggestions? Fire away.

Finally, if you're looking for the VO (and admit it, crackhead, you enjoyed it) you can find it starting tomorrow at Tokyo Trader's fine site.

It's like this... you know how you have a favorite band and you really liked their first couple of albums but then they changed their sound? Well it's like that around here. I just got a new drummer (old one died, overdose) and I'll be experimenting with some new sounds.

Some good music forthcoming.

Trimming The Fat

I had a couple of decent trades today, in JRCC and ATW specifically. However, I want to focus on something that is definitely holding my P&L back... the shitty little losses I keep amassing.

In order to better focus on eliminating these shitty little trades, I'm going to start reporting my broken down P&L. I'll report my winners and losers as usual, and add up the total dollar amount of each.

Like, for example, I jumped the gun in AET, WCC and BG today. My three losses in those stocks added up to about $150. Nothing disasterous to be sure, but when I'm making $200 a good day, I have to figure out where all the headwinds are.

I've been over my inability to hold winners... that's been a recurring theme of this blog since, well... forever, and my most obvious failing. My other (within the current style I'm trading) is my trade selection. I'm just taking too many shitty trades still, without crystal clear entries and exits. I need to just stop that and focus on the 3 or 4 excellent trades that seem to present themselves each day.

Anyway, my best stock of the day was JRCC. It was my first trade in a 4-letter name with my new company and it was very satisfying. Mostly because it worked so quickly and easily. There was no retest of my entry or chop. It just cratered at my entry point. Of course, I covered it all too early.



My other decent trade came in ATW, another HCPG play. This was good just because once again, it worked right away. The reason I sold "early" instead of waiting for the $112 target was because the $OSX was so weak all day. I rather doubted the stock would reach the target, so I just took the easy money.



Anyway, I've been treading water the last few days with trading and my focus has been elsewhere. But I want to finish the month strong. There are 3 trading days left, and I'm setting the (sadly) ambitious goal of $300 a day average so I can hit the $2000 mark on the month.

With the Russell Rebalancing on Friday however, anything can happen. I'm still undecided about whether I should go at it lunatic style and take massive risk, or if I should play it close to my chest and take my small gains for the month... we'll see.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $225
Best, JRCC, $256
Worst, BG, -$51

4000 shares traded.
3 winners for $409.
6 losers for $188.

The Streak Comes To An End

I've spent more money pruning trees and raking leaves in the last 3 days than I have trading.

I've been looking for trades early, taking them if they're there and then heading outside at 11am or so. I do yardwork, as I attempt to limit the tick population around my house, and then come back around 2:30 to see if anything has set up for the afternoon.

So it's been slow. At the same time, it hasn't been a bad kind of slow, because I haven't wasted time staring at the monitors. I've been productive. It almost feels like a mini-vacation or something.

Anyway, the yard is pretty damn clean now, so I'm going to focus again on studying for and taking the Series 55. We're at a slow time here in the market. Volume seems to be on the wane and we're a few weeks away from earnings season. People want to be outside, the beach weather has returned... thoughts are drifting away from Wall Street.

Seems like a good time to trade less and study more...

This morning I forced trades and paid the price. My worst was in WG, which I bought at $46.10 hoping for a run to $47. The problem with this trade wasn't really my entry (although I was later than I had to be), it was my exit and position size.

I wanted to buy at $46, but looked away for a moment. The next thing I know, it was trading $46.10. I bought 500 there, kind of in a panic. What I should have done, since the stock was already past my buy point, was reduce my size. 500 is about my max right now... I should have gone with 300 after I missed my ideal fill spot.



So I bought and the stock immediately reversed. I was slow to sell. I waited until it traded below $45.85 and received the bulk of my shares around $46.75. So I lost 35 cents on 500 shares. It was totally avoidable, and it's the reason why I finished in the red today.

Too bad since it broke my recent winning streak. I had 9 green days in a row there... can't remember the last time that happened. Despite today's loss, I feel that I'm on the right path. In addition to my recent string of green days, I haven't lost more than $100 in a trading day in almost a month (last time was May 19th). That means that even if I'm only pulling $100 or $200 a day from the market, it's adding up.

It's only a matter of time before I have a nice $500+ day again... and since I'm keeping the losses small, it will really count.

Looking forward to it. However, I'm keeping my patience. The market feels kind of crappy right now for trading and I'm not going to force anything.

I want to make one more point about my day. I screwed up the WG and let it effect a couple of other trades I made. I had an excellent entry on CF at one point, got scared, and took 5 cents only to watch it run 2 dollars more from my entry... so I wrote the following down. I'm including it among my "stock trading rules" tag, even if it's more psychological than anything else...

"View each trade as a separate event. Do not let one bad move (or good move) influence your next decision."

Anyway, the worst part about my loss is that it means I must post bad music tonight...

Here's the stats:
P&L, -$89
Best, MON, $65
Worst, WG, -$73

4000 shares traded.
5 stocks traded, 2 winners, 3 losers.

Disaster Averted

My trading day was fairly uneventful until around 10:00am, when I bought BG. Looking back, I really haven't the slightest idea what I was thinking, which is remarkable, because I had no other positions at the time.

For 20 minutes, I bought the stock and then sold a half point lower. I did this 4 times with 100 shares and was down close to $300 in the stock. For the day, I was down over $400. I wish I could say that I made good, well thought out trades to bring me back, but instead, I bought BG again, this time at $115. I put my stop a half point away and went outside to start clearing some brush.

(I'm too lazy to explain the graph below... think of it as an art piece titled Frustration #119.)



A half hour later I came back and was up exactly $1 in the stock. I sold at $117.62 and counted my blessings.

I was still down on the day, but another short I put on, in SU had begun to work and pulled me back into the green.



After that, I was basically flat. I was relieved to have battled back from down over $400 (not an easy feat with my current position sizes) but also felt somewhat humbled all over again. I've felt real progress lately and I really can't explain what I was thinking with the BG. What I think happened is that I was influenced by the chat my office was having. It seemed like an active morning and I wasn't seeing much so I think I "forced" the trade...

Ultimately, BG retraced seven points. I've said it before that trades like this are in my future, but right now, I need to stay away from them... especially on a day where I was down a little. If I'm up $500 on the day and feel like risking $200 on a high volatility trade, I can do that. However, until I really have everything on track, I should really stay away from these plays. I mean, in the 20 minutes I was involved with the trade I went through all the worst kind of emotions you can have while trading... fear, self loathing, disappointment, paranoia... it's just not worth it.

It was a good lesson. I'll be staying away from these trades until I'm consistently making good money again.

So I went outside and spent the day ripping apart old woodpiles and removing leaves from the wooded lots adjacent to what passes as our "lawn." This in an effort to remove tick and mice habitat to lessen the chances of our daughter getting another tick bite.

I came inside for a drink of water and switched on the monitors to see if I was missing anything. I noticed SOL, from the HCPG watchlist, setting up just at $19. I had located 500 shares of the stock pre-open in case I needed to sell it. As it turned out, I decided to sell 400 of them just as the stock broke through the fig.



As you can see, the stock dropped 2.5 points from the entry. I made about 25 cents on the play... frustrating indeed. However, it points out how necessary it is the be able to let go of past mistakes. I was still turning over the BG trade in my head and happy just to be positive. I wasn't thinking about all the potential I was overlooking in SOL. My head was thinking about what had happened, not about what was happening at the moment.

Apparently, I still have a long way to go before I can call my trading "zen-like."

Anyway, here's the stats:

P&L, $120
Best, SU, $164
Worst, RIG, -$54

5600 shares traded.
8 stocks traded, 4 winners, 4 losers.

Nightmares, Air Supply And Cat Pee, Oh My!

I made a point on my first trade of the day, and on my second trade of the day, I lost a point.

That was enough to give me pause.

I had just come back from surfing, and hadn't done much research or eaten breakfast. So I stared at the screens for a moment and just took a big breath. Let me give you a little background.

My alarm went off at 4:30, so I could pick up my friend and be in the water by 5:30. I was having this wild dream. I live not far from some water, and across from that water is an island. There are no bridges to this island, but in my dream, there were bridges, long rope bridges like the kind you see over gorges, and I was walking across one when a huge set of waves started rolling towards me. There was no way off the bridge since I was right in the middle, so I just wrapped myself up in some of the rope and hung on. The wave was about to hit me when I woke up. Anyway, I got my shit together and drove to pick up my friend.

A little while later, we were surfing. The sun had just risen and I was enjoying nice big breaths of the clean ocean air. Everything was perfect. But then, since the surf was on the small side, I said to my friend something like, "wow, we're out here making waves out of nothing at all." Not a second later, the Air Supply song "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" entered my head and wouldn't leave. I mean, it had a real grip. I was trying to think of any other song, because it was ruining my beautiful morning.

That's when Pat Fucking Benatar and "Love Is A Battlefield" popped in.

At this point, I was rather beside myself. I mean, if you read this blog you know how I am about music. But then, in order to rid myself of Air Supply and Pat Benatar, I started thinking, "what could be the exact opposite of that shit?" And that's when I got the "America, Fuck Yeah!" song in my head from the South Park movie. That was in there for awhile, but eventually it disappeared and I was able to surf in peace. In fact, I had a great session.

I drove home in a big rush and was greeted at the back door by my daughter. "Daddy," she said, "Docky peed not in his box." In other words, our fucking cat, the same fucking cat that terrorized us last summer by making our house smell like a goddamn urinal, is at it again.

I stepped in, got a good whiff of that sour smell, and asked Judy, "Where's the cat?"

She said, "He knows he did something wrong. He's under the bed."

She told me that because she figured that because "he knew" he did something wrong that that was somehow punishment in itself.

Not so.

I ran upstairs (with my daughter following fast on my footsteps) and lifted the bed skirt. The cat let out a low growl and shimmied back a couple of inches, just out of my reach.

What happened next is really surprising, even to me, but it speaks to what your body can accomplish when enough adrenaline is flowing through it.

With one arm, I lifted the bed (it's low to the ground and not easy to fit under) and with the other, I made a grab for the cat's head. I got the scruff behind his neck and dragged him out. What he did to my arm is somewhat like this... it was painful. I threatened him in some crazy way (I told him I'd "ruin his face") and threw him in the bathroom.

I looked at the clock. It was 9:23.

Now, you must be wondering, why the fuck is he telling me this shit? It's simply because I wanted to lend some insight into what had already happened in my crazy head BEFORE 9:35 when I made, and then lost, a point in the same stock, on two successive trades.

In short, I was scared. Anything could have happened next.

Instead, all the excitement was behind me, and things settled down.

I made a nice trade in CMI, and scratched in everything else.



I'll take it.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $251
Best, CMI, $301
Worst, XCO, -$51

4400 shares traded.
6 stocks traded, 3 winners, 3 losers.

NOTE: That Air Supply video is perhaps the best music video ever... my question to you is, were they being ironic?

Bullish Reversal

If I was a Japanese Candle Stick, and really, there's no way for you to know if I am or not, today I would have looked like a pretty solid hammer formation.

My first trade of the day was also my worst, short DSX through $32. As you can see, it didn't break, and then traded with absolutely no volume up to $32.50. I could have covered immediately for a 15 cent loss or so, but instead, I let the stock trade up to my stop, which was around $32.25 and due to the thin trade, I got out 12 cents higher, at $32.37. So I ate nearly $200 in the first few minutes.



Later, I made all my money back in him when I caught the actual break of $32.



My best stock of the day was WFR, which I was watching for a break of $62. I don't think this was an easy trade or anything, so I'm happy I took my money and left him alone.



Shortly after my DSX mess, I had another mess in SID. And really, I made the same mistake as I did in DSX. I sold expecting the stock to break the fig, but then didn't cover fast enough when it bounced. But, like DSX, I kept watching the stock and made back my losses later, and then some.



So I'm happy with the way the day turned out for me. I even mowed my lawn in the middle of the day while SID died for me. In fact, I find I'm a better trader when I put trades on and then walk away. If I stayed, I'm pretty sure I would have covered the SID early... to "lock in profit."

Perhaps letting my winners run is as easy as doing more yardwork. Who knows?

Anyway, I'm happy with the way I kept my cool after I got clipped early. Despite the nice performance put in by my real office, I don't think I missed too much today from the HCPG system. Like I said yesterday, I feel I'm improving. I'm not going to look too far ahead just yet... just try to get green tomorrow as well.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $210
Best, WFR, $147
Worst, FCX, -$34

8200 shares traded.
7 stocks traded, 3 winners, 4 losers.

Gaining Traction

Since my "hell week" from early last month, where I lost 5 days in a row, I've been on a decent run. I've been green about 2 of every 3 days and have booked $2000 in gains. Surely, a $24,000 year is nothing to be too proud of, but all of those gains were made entirely from the new style of trading I've been working on... no "old DT" plays.

Once you get the hang of a style of trading, and gain confidence in it, making more money with it is as simple (okay... or as difficult) as increasing your position sizes. Since I've been trading largely with 200 and 300 share positions, it shouldn't be too difficult to almost get to a living wage level of earnings again.

I've been trading extremely lightly... trying hard to identify exactly the right time to enter positions in order to maximize my gains and control my losses. I've been very careful with my position sizing. I haven't had any psychologically damaging loss days... in short, I feel as if I've made some real progress. I mean, I know why I'm making money, and when I lose money, I know what I'm doing wrong. I also know that I've left a lot on the table, even with my small size... I could have done much better this past month even with my small lots.

Perhaps my hell week was the bottom. Anyway, I've been bouncing along this bottom for so long, that I'm cautiously optimistic at best... but I feel better, at least.

My best trade of the day came in CMI. HCPG alerted to a possible short through $66. It was a little wild early, but calmed down right by the opening low to plunge through $66.50. I caught a quick half point on 400 of the 500 shares. The other 100 shares I stopped at my entry, hoping for a larger move.



Unfortunately, the "larger move" I was hoping for came in the middle of the day, when I'm loath to trade. I also wasn't quite sure how to handle the stock since it had already violated "the number" in the morning and sharply rallied back through it... so I missed it.



Too bad.

I also had some decent trades in XTO and CSH. Again, the best thing is that I kept my losses in check. My worst loss of the day was on a 100 share position in FCX, for $58.

Off to the beach for some sunset dining with friends. It's way too hot to hang around in the house...

Anyway, here's the stats:

P&L, $270
Best, CMI, $205
Worst, FCX, -$58

4800 shares traded
9 stocks traded, 4 winners, 5 losers.

Trading MDR On An Otherwise Quiet Day

My day was really dominated by one stock. I traded several stocks on the day, but all with 100 shares, since I didn't have any confidence in their setups... I was just taking small gambles.

I liked MDR though, and so I watched it very closely, mostly because I didn't feel there was much else happening. Volume today, was pathetic (until the close, that is) and as it was the last trading day of the month, I planned on taking it easy no matter what.

MDR was on the HCPG watchlist last night for a move up to $62. However, they added a caveat that they thought the stock needed "more time." Apparently, the stock didn't want to wait. It spiked nearly 2 points in the first 15 minutes of trade before taking a breath, at around $61. At this juncture, the stock needed to base before it could move much higher, and so it was time to chill and watch.

About a half hour later, the stock worked its way back up to $61 and I bought a few hundred shares with an average price of $61.05. He moved up and so I bought 100 more at $61.20. Now, I threw some sell limits out there up in the $61.80-$61.90 area, but they weren't hit.

Instead, the fucker reversed.

I wish I had sold out of all my shares, but I wasn't quick enough. This is a problem I have with the target system... if I'm expecting the stock to trade higher, and it fails, I'm not quite sure how aggressively I should be moving my stops up. I probably shouldn't have held my position as the stock dipped below $61, but I did.

In fact, I bought a little more at $60.89 and $60.90. So I had 600 shares, which lately, is a large position for me.



But man... that's when "the stand-off" began. For the next 20 minutes or so, the dude traded in a dime range. My "out" was $60.80, and so having "the toad" (Wincity's technical term) trade pennies above this level for such an extended period of time wore out my nerves. I flaked and sold 300 shares at an average price of $60.86. The remaining 300 I left stopped at $60.80.

I noticed on the 15 minute graph that MDR was making some NRIBs, or something... I went over to Jamie's site to see what I could find... some answer or something. From what I could figure out, he liked the setup (meanwhile, Jamie, if you're reading, am I right to think those are NRIBs on the 15 minute graph from 11:00-11:30 today?). So when the stock cleared the top of the first 15 minute bar in the "set" I bought 200 more, at $61.17. So I had 500 again and the stock began to move in my favor. I actually felt confident that I was going to be right with this one.

Still, I flaked and sold 100 at $61.34 and another near the morning highs, at $61.42.

But with my last 300, I held, and I was fairly satisfied with the results. I limited 200 of the 300 out at $61.90 expecting resistance at the old high of $62. So far, so good. The last 100 shares, I really wanted to hold, so I set my stop low, at $61.25, giving the stock plenty of room. As it traded up, I moved the stop below the previous 15 minute bar.

After the stock cleared $62 with some "brio," I decided to move my stop just below the most recent price level. The low of the move, at 12:55, was $61.86, so I put my stop at $61.85.

Well guess what? The motherfucker came down and stopped me out, filling me at $61.78, the low of the fucking move. After that, it sailed back up over $62, reaching a high of $62.72 before reversing lower to close at around $62. So I was pissed. A good trade, but I still managed to get myself stopped out at the low of a move for some shares.

I finished the month with a green day, and so, I'll take it. But man, I'm itching to start sizing into these positions more. I felt confident with this trade after it cleared $61.17 the second time around... perhaps I'll start getting that feeling more.

Also, the fact that my worst trades of the day were made with small size I also take as a good sign.

Tomorrow I'll post a "monthly review" since I set some monthly goals for myself in May, I want to assess how I did. Also, bloggerdotcom has been teasing me with some new post that he may or may not have written... that will drop, eventually.

Have a good weekend, stock market bitches.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $122
Best, MDR, $243
Worst, RIG, -$89

4200 shares traded.
9 stocks traded, 4 winners, 5 losers.

More Hope For The DT Fire

I made no money today, but nonetheless, it was a good day. I thought I showed a little growth in a couple of areas.

First of all, I made decent trades in HUM, ARD and had a good entry in BDC. While the trade ultimately worked, I wasn't involved for the run. He didn't make it easy.

Second, I really felt at the beginning of the day that I knew what I was going to look for, and what stocks I would be trading. So I had a bit of a plan.

Finally, I felt myself get angry with the MON trade and I just walked away instead of revenge trading.

So yeah, I'm still broke, and down on the month, but I'm searching for silver linings here. However, if I'm still at this point 8 years from now, wake me up from my trance and tell me to get a "real job." I mean, most people here on the Internets are like, "go get em buddy" and "you can do it" but everyone needs to face reality at some point.

So anyway, my best stock of the day was HUM. I bought 400 shares at $51.08 when it "broke out" at around 9:40. I was watching $51 on the daily... I don't think this was an HCPG pick, but I could be wrong. For now, I'll take credit. This was a pick from the highly secretive and sought after, "DT Watchlist."



It ran up on decent but by no means excellent volume. So I took a quick dime on 100 shares and 30 cents on another 100. So I had 200 left and ensured myself a winner. I moved my stop to $51 and watched. The stock ripped up to $51.85 but then had a nasty reversal. So I sold another 100 at $51.64.

You all know how I'm trying to work on holding my winners... since the stock had only gone up since my purchase, I decided to just put my last 100 shares at the buy point, $51 and try to wait it out. Well, the mofo came down to the fig and took me out. I thought it was a good idea even if I was stopped out. Again, it's uncanny to me how I often get stopped at the lows of moves, but that's just the way it's been going for months now... eventually, I'll get lucky.

This next trade was a bit of a heartbreaker for me... BDC $40. This has been on the watchlist for awhile. While HCPG hasn't discussed it recently, they put it on in early April I think, so I was still watching it.

It opened and was trading pretty poorly. It's really thin. So immediately, I knew I would be going with small size. After about a half hour of trade, it had chopped itself up to the $40 area and then chilled out for a few minutes. I bought on the break and was filled at $40.11. I wasn't thrilled with the fill, especially because the stock had an initial move up to $40.29 but then re-based, coming awfully close to my entry. The stock was so thin that I felt pretty sure that should it break $40, I would get an out below $39.90. I was nervous, even with my paltry 200 share position.

That nervousness caused me to fuck up a bit... because at 10:30 when the oil number came out, the market tanked and I sold 100 shares since I thought the general market weakness would bleed over into BDC. It didn't. The stock crept up to over $40.50 before reversing lower. By this time, I had moved my stop up to $40.25 and it was hit.



Meanwhile, the stock ultimately tested the $40 level and then ripped up to $41 on better volume. So I missed the bigger move.

My worst stock of the day was MON. With this guy, I was looking for a run to $126. He got there, but then reversed. I'm glad I walked away, because he never crested $126 like I felt he "surely would."



Anyway, so I only made $67, but I feel like I'm making progress. However, I need to sit down and come up with some realistic timelines for when I'll be forced to put this all to rest. Unless I get another bonanza August, or start making consistent (even if it's small) money, I'll be finding a new job by 2009.

I have a fancy "cocktail party" to attend this evening. As you can imagine, I'm not "good" at such events. Surely, I will say something awkward to offend some well-to-do female or get into some politically inspired debate with a powerbroker or something... in fact, as you read this, I am at the party... I'm just autoposting this shit.

Think a good thought for DT...

Here's the stats:
P&L, $67
Best, HUM, $118
Worst, MON, -$157
3600 shares traded
6 stocks traded, 3 winners, 3 losers.

Same Ole Story...

Great entries, poor execution of my exits.

There really wasn't much to look at today, and I planned on taking it easy. However, SLB opened up with good volume, and since he was hovering above $100, I decided to watch him closely should he start to show weakness.



Look at that... I made $50 in the stock... meanwhile, the thing never looked back from my second short entry at $101.47. Depressing.

I took another trade in GES and received an awful fill on my entry. For the last two days, I've really felt a lag in my esignal quotes, and today I think it cost me about 20 cents on this trade. I went to sell when my esiggy quotes showed 38 and was filled .22 cents lower... given that I was looking for a run down to $37.50 before the stock hit some support, this kind of took the steam out of the trade. I covered 100 immediately at a small loss, and then the other 300 when the stock bounced off of the $37.50 level. So I made nothing, but I seemed to have the right idea.



Other than those two, I had a lot of small losses. The volume was really light today and with the holiday looming, it's not surprising that there wasn't a lot of follow through. The other stocks I traded, IPI, WFC and DHR didn't have great movement, and I didn't miss out from my entries. I took small losses in each which isn't a problem.

The thing I can't take is the missed opportunity in the SLB. I absolutely must learn how to hold these winning trades when they come or I'll never break out of this +200, -$200 grind I currently find myself in.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the three day weekend. I don't plan on posting much, if at all. However, the mysterious Internet force known as Bloggerdotcom contacted me with tales of a new post... I will let you know when it will drop. Presumably next weekend, but I guess it could happen this weekend as well... you never know with bloggerdotcom.

I plan on going to a lot of barbecues this weekend. I told Judy, "Listen, take any invitations and accept them all."

So we've already got one tonight and tomorrow to attend. If I can't make money, at least I can mooch off friends for free meals. I also plan on watching my normally quiet town get taken over by "cityots" (mix of city and idiot). I will sit in town, sip a coffee from a bench, and quietly take notes on their actions, like an anthropologist watching monkeys or something. They always do something entertaining. Hopefully, we get a blog post out of it.

Be safe.

Here's the stats:
P&L, -$60
Best, SLB, $48
Worst, DHR, -$60
7200 shares traded.
8 stocks traded, 3 winners, 5 losers.

Stock Trades Add Up To Small Gain

I had another green day today. When you're down on a month, green is good, no matter what.

My best trade of the day came early, in V, an HCPG watchlist stock. They were looking for the stock to trade down to $78. I saw it was relatively weak off the open and so I was watching it closely. Volume wasn't great yet, but the weakness was enough for me to be transfixed. It traded down near $79 quickly and then bounced, but rolled almost immediately.



I covered quickly after the first move down. I missed the real move when it bounced back up to $79 before cratering down to $77. $79 on the bounce was a perfect reentry... just afraid to enter. I made another good entry on the stock around 11:30, through $78. Again, my exits were fucked up. I covered way too early and missed a nice 2 point move down close to $76. Not sure what it's gonna take for me to start holding for these larger moves.

Probably desperation, brought on by extreme poverty.

Anyway, I then managed to fuck myself up trading BTU short. I got stubborn, added to a losing position, and blew out near the top of the move (classic) for a $200 loss. I also had smaller losses in DVN and SLB. So despite my initial good trade, I was down and had some fighting back to get through.

I saw a couple of trades that didn't have "daily spots" but were trading with good volume. STP had a nice flat base and I felt safe entering at $47. I was hoping for a quick pop down. Had it popped up to $47.10, I would have taken the loss. This was a perfect entry. Volume came in and the stock quickly plummeted. Again, I fucked up the exits. See below...



I saw another opportunity in BTU, the same stock that I screwed up earlier. So I cut my size to 100 shares and gave it a shot.



This was a good trade despite the small size. BTU had visited the $76.25 level three times on the day and had met resistance there continually the prior two days. So when he bounced weakly off that level while running into both the intraday downtrend line and $77 resistance, I thought it was a good entry spot.

My worst stock on the day was SLB. Again, just a case of me not covering when I'm wrong. I'm really beginning to see that if I just cover when shit doesn't work immediately that I'll do myself much less damage than if I hold and wait for it to return to my level. Just cover. If necessary or applicable, reenter later. Just cover and take a small loss.

On the other side, respect the stops... if the position doesn't move against my original entry, I should try to at least hold 100 shares for a larger move.

Here's the stats:

P&L, $165
Best, V, $161
Worst, SLB, -$85

9400 shares traded.
9 stocks traded, 6 winners, 3 losers.

More Active, But Same Small Result...

I was very active today compared to my recent activity. I think mostly because there's just not much going on in HCPG-land in NYSE stocks right now, so I had to go "old DT" on the market.

I focused almost entirely on the energy stocks, and I'm going to continue with that for tomorrow. I'll just keep watching for intraday setups and try to stick with those trades.

My best stock of the day was PDO again... however, it wasn't really very interesting. I'm happy it closed near its highs. I'm hoping for one more gap up tomorrow and then for a fail. We'll see.

RIG, PBR, APA and NOV were my next 4 winners. None too big, but I was happy with each trade because I sold when they were breaking down out of bases. I think if I can take that part of the HCPG discipline, that is, waiting for a sound base before making buys or sells, and apply it to sectors with momentum that I could get more action.

The problem, is that too often these trades seem obvious to everyone who is watching and you're bound to have to endure shakeouts. And often, even if you're ultimately right, the trade fails. That happened to me a couple of times today in NUE. For example, my final cover of the day in this, my worst stock, came at 12:42, just before the fuck broke down... it's unbelievable that I keep getting shaken out at the worst levels like this just before the trade moves in my favor...



The one thing I noticed today is that when I trade more actively, more fluidly with the market, that I'm definitely prone to making emotional or revenge trades. I haven't done that in a while since I've been so controlled with my methods. So I need to watch that.

Looking forward to tomorrow. I'll just keep it at that.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $105
Best, PDO, $113
Worst, NUE, -$187

27,600 shares traded.
15 stocks traded, 8 winners, 7 losers.