getting better

i thought we were getting a turnaround, so i bought some x. then got stopped out. no big deal, its the name of the game. second trade area, i bought buy accident, i actually meant to short it, made money on an incorrect trade. then, i shorted it like i originally intended and lost money. the momo felt strong so i went long it. made a couple bucks. looking back, it seems i could have shorted it once again into the strength after i got out of my long. but that wasn't the trade i was looking for. i was looking for a break of that consolidation and started shorting at the high end of the consolidation to get a good price. what happened -> i shorted the consolidation break out.

















shorted as the momo was pushing down. possibly could have held longer, but i feel comfortable with this trade.

















was thinking there was going to be a bounce here. dead wrong. tight stop, no worries.

















looks like i had this one right. stop should have been at .27 but that was very far away from my entry of .01. still it should not have mattered. instead, i get out after the stock jerked around a little bit and then it continues to fall. i was also more jumpy because of the mistake i made in IOC, below.

















shorting this pattern may or may not be a mistake, what was the mistake was not seeing the spread. i hit the button, and i was out of the money .25 immediately. then it ran up, i got out, and then it dropped back down. almost the same trade happened with CELG later in the day, but the spread was less so there was less jerky motion.

















shorting the retracement. did not work the first time. went for it again, worked out, but you could feel it wasn't going to move much. i should have taken another try at the next retracement, but for a $125 stock, i would expect a little bit more movement.

















this one plain sucks. i had this chart up with trendline alerts set if the stock should pass my lines, and for some reason, the alert did not pop up. next time i saw FDX, it was popping on my screens because of huge volume. i jumped in for a little money, but i could have done real well getting in earlier.

















this one came across the screener as a volume spike. i hoped in the action for .16 just to see it ride down $2. you know, you wait days for something like this to happen,and when it does you take a quick profit. i will be better prepared next time.


















this was like the FDX trade but i saw it happening, put out my bid, and it never got hit. i decided not to raise the bid because then my stop would have been wider. that was a mistake.

this concentration on my stops takes me out of some good trades. but maybe it keeps me out of some bad ones. i have to keep watching this factor.

up down, up down

shorted as it was retracing back into the gap and making a u-turn. got a red bar, looked good, but it chopped around the rest of the day. i also tried going long after the short didn't work, but no good either. i happy with this trade because it went no where. can't be mad at that one.

















breaking highs, big volume. no follow through. actually crashed and burned, then went back up.



















breaking highs, nice volume. bought more than i intended so sold 2/3. the stock pulled back into my stop of the low of the candle. the previous candle low was too far away for me, but that would have been a good stop.

















sold short on those big down candles with big volume, but it was all chop. made money trading it a couple times, but not the kind of trade i would like to make money with. too much back and forth. how do i know it wouldn't go another 5 candles down?

















the trade was to catch that earlier breakout but i didn't see that one. again, how do i know it can't run another 3 or 4 candles. the problem is, i say that, i then i pass on the next trade because this one doesn't work, and what do you know, the next one does. it seems you just need to put a lot of trades out there, set your stops small, and see what works.

















crazy looking chart, no right way, wrong way, should have stayed away from this one. if i remember, POT may have been going down, and i was trying to get sympathy play.



















i thought this was going to be a great trade. close enough stop but stock went nowhere. i decided to get out. look at that ass grabber at the end of the day. the market gets everyone out, gets the shorts in, and then boom, turns like a beast.

















nice bull flag. big volume on the pole, little volume on the flag. nice trade. comfortable with stop. no worry over losing. wanted to pocket some cash so i exited. i don't think i could have stomached the second pullback. maybe i need to leave the last hundred until end of day or stop out.



















should have only bought 100 shares and set stop below .60. here i was letting my desire for more shares to overtake my stop positioning. i.e. i wanted 200 shares so i took a smaller stop vs. 100 shares with a .60 stop. the trade would have worked. i need to look at the candles and if my stop isn't within reason, then trade less shares or not trade it at all.



















breaking lows, stop above .14 but i wasn't feeling this one. just got out for a scratch trade.

breaking highs, looks like i could have waited for the pullback

i was all over this one today. no idea what was happening.

breaking out from that flag, late to the party

breaking highs, way late

perfect timing, no patience, got ancy waiting.

this bad boy was flying, looks like i should have stuck with it

shorting lows, no follow through

saw this one breaking highs all day, finally decided to jump on, again late

this one was moving on good volume. never came back to my stop but got ancy. need to let the trades work.

almost the right timing. nice volume, looked ready to go, just needed to hang through the pullback

tried to short the retracement from lows. didn't work out. this is what i need to do with the other stocks, only here it didn't work

breaking out of consolidation, little bit more volume

don't recall this one. may have been a call from my buddy

grinding it out. i think the most shares i have traded in one day. ended up scratch on the day between profits and commissions.

i get the most ridiculous wicks with SPY. you can't even look at that chart it is so confusing.
















breaking out on large volume. i happened to see the trade as the stock was coming in on that second bar otherwise, i probably would have bought the top and got stopped out.















as you can see from the orders, i originally wanted to short it, then switched gears and went long after my friend said it could be a double bottom. it was bouncing off of yesterdays bottom so i was in agreement with him. got stopped out. hard to tell either way if i would have made money.



























breaking out on large volume. good trade. i should have shorted that doji candle but i did not. i need to be able to flip positions.
















breakout failure. no real volume. should i wait for the volume?the first couple up moves had the volume but i missed them. part of my problem, do i initiate positions to anticipate a move, or wait for the move to start happening?
















one big green bar. thought we could get a couple more. looks like it should have been shorted at that point. again, maybe is should have flipped the position.

















breakout large volume, saw the stock earlier, but didn't pull trigger until later. need to just pull trigger. i think i traded it a dollar higher than when i saw it.















first trade -> breaking lows, but formed a hammer. stopped out, should have flipped. then it had a beautiful 50% retracement, could have reshorted it right there.

second trade -> breaking lows, large volume. wiggled around there for a bit, then retraced. could have shorted again but got scared.














about to break highs, no volume. bought the top.

breaking highs, large volume spike













breaking highs, not much volume















breaking highs along with ms and fas













shorting retracement from lows














shorting lows.













it looks like i had a rough day, but i was fine with it until now. during the day, i was happy i stuck to the plan. took larger share size today, and walked away when i was down $100. now, looking back, it is annoying how many bad trades i made. i get upset when i don't make at least one positive trade. i could have flipped a coin today and probably have done better.

i am not trying to place blame, but this morning i was having trouble with my monitors and computer. then after spending an hour getting everything working properly, i went to short 300 shares of CHRW and my executor connection was lost. it seemed lightspeed was having trouble with their connections today. that trade of course would have worked out, but there were probably another 100 trades i could have made today beside the ones that i did.

part of my problem is i get bored just searching for trades. then, while the market is moving, you make your trade because you don't want to look back and see that you should have taken the trade. i did not know what would happen with each trade and that is how you have to think. i was not upset with one losing trade after the next. it didn't bother me. no emotion. but they say you need to know your setups probabilities, but as a newbie, how do i know the probabilities or have confidence.

the setups didn't meet all my criteria but are they supposed to? i try to find volume picking up with my trade, but that only happened with one trade. should i have avoided the rest? i don't know. you look a SHLD and it grinded higher all day. i just watched and watched and watched. have to take some time to review the charts.

i think i may end up having this blog one day behind. it is difficult working on my laptop at home getting all the charts together. it would be easier to do it all at the end of the following days trading. but, then i will forget the reasons for the trade.

too much flip flopping in my head. i am sure you are all glad you are not in my cabesa.

new year, new start

okay, so i am starting over in some ways. i signed up for stocktickr and instead of putting in all of my old trades, i am starting fresh right now. i am down about 3k in my account since starting my trading last march plus a few hundred for scanner and newsletters (no more newsletters).

i have also spent 1k for rent (office plus internet). some folks say they can trade from home, and i think i can as well, but starting out, i believe it is a benefit to have a mentor teach me the ropes. we split the rent, which is great for me, and helps him out as well.

this was the first day back. i got rid of most of my scans and am trying to focus on the high/low ticker. right now it scans nyse and nasdaq but i need to set it up for qqqq/nyse or sandp. we will see. it is also scanning for very fast moving stocks. coming back to trading after a break, all i see is a lot of noise and it is extremely hard to decipher moves as it happens.

i am trying to figure out how scott at fandg gets it done. we will see. i am giving this process a year and after that, i got to get the paycheck.

for now, my problems are as usual, lack of confidence and a fear of freedom. i believe i am afraid of being successful at trading. we are all taught, work hard, earn paycheck, thats life. trading is a whole other beast. it is very easy at the end of the day (or hour) for that matter and say all i had to do was hold, but it is the hardest thing.

enough blabber. here are the charts.





































later in the day. no executions shown on chart



























just checked out stocktickr and i remember i need to start using R to figure out my share size. the problem with me is that i only want to risk $25 per trade and i have to buy multiples 100 so:

.10 stop = 250 shares

.15 stop = 166 shares

.25 stop = 100 shares.

how do i overcome my the problem of not being able to trade odd lots?

increase my risk? i would prefer not to. if i risk $25 a trade, i can take four bad trades. if i risk $50 per trade, i will only allow myself 2 losing trades on the day. maybe i need to increase risk per trade to $35 per trade. then i can take on some share size and still feel comfortable at 3 losing trades on the day and done.