Although I wasn't profitable today, I am still quite happy. I only traded the stocks I wanted to. The setups I liked. I was very picky. In fact, it was strange, because it seemed that there were a lot of stocks that were setting up how I liked. The q's though, weren't moving anywhere, and then boom, they took off. looking now, i can see SPY had the much nicer chart today.

APOL: only passed on this because of past history. i know this stock can go up or down like a rocket some days, so i was timid. she did work out nicely though.

EBIX: not exactly my smooth chart i am looking for but, when there is big bar down, and then a nice retracement that ends in a doji right on the moving average, i feel quite comfortable. it seemed orderly to me. i sat in the trade for a long time. the thing is, i can't pay attention to the level 2. it makes me nuts. i need to just stick to the graphs. watching the level 2 you want to enter and exit every second.

FE: nice orderly chart. 100% comfortable with taking on trade here. also, nice .10 stop so i could grab a few more shares.

FEIC: i was watching this one as well. i wanted to pull the trigger but the 15 closed below the moving average and that called it off for me.  would have been a great trade but i need to be disciplined and selective.

i have the confidence now to know i can find the correct stocks. it is going to be a matter of patience and timing. the best thing i ever did for myself was to trade from 11am-2pm only. yes there are setups that i miss, but i can't worry about that. today i had a good 1 1/2 of focus from about 11am to 12:30 i was on my game, scrolling through charts and soaking the market in. sitting here all day was too boring. limiting myself to 3 hours is very helpful.

ARE: The arrow are the trades i placed the day earlier. After sitting in the trade for a while, it seemed like it was making a triangle shape (i'll try to put up a chart with the marked triangle). I also noticed the volume on the up moves was increasing, not decreasing like i would like. so, i started getting iffy on it. i finally cut it loose because i couldn't take watching it any longer. it was another long night, the day before, so nap time was calling.

ARE: wedge/triangle/flag that was forming

ARE: the wacked out volume that was happening. rising volume on the upside and downside. too confusing. not a good trade.

 EL: I don't think there was anyone to catch this setup earlier in the day. it only popped onto my radar as it started to make new highs.

PXD: one I was considering but didn't pull the trigger. the market was seeming sluggish

Q: here comparing the difference to the previous days orderly morning, versus today's mess.

SYY: this one i was very close to pulling the trigger. most likely would have turned into a stop out.  my only hesitation was the top out around 11am and the pullback wasn't as smooth. i am trying to decide when i am being to strict and not strict enough. on trader x's blog, they were talking about failed trader x setups. there was a commenter who mentioned, none of the setups are "failed trader x setups" because each trade was missing an element, therefore they were just failed setups. so, i am trying to become more strict in putting on trades. not taking chances. i am trying to find an orderly chart pulling back to the 15min ema, have some narrow range bars, correct volume, and correct stop distance (preferably less than .30) and go for it. i think i could increase my probability right away by being stricter. let us see.

no trading today. i was playing with my scan settings all through the night and overslept this morning. found a couple nice charts. i was trying to see how they compare to the index. for TRMB it fought most of the day and then had a reality check with the rest of the market. i need to work on finding the stocks as they are making the nice chart as opposed to spotting them end of day. hopefully i get better at this real soon.


TRMB against QQQ

SAM

TRMB getting caught near the end of the day

again these setups happen between 11am and 2pm east coast. 3 hours a day. that is all i need the intense focus for and i will tell you, it's still too much. i find myself having wondering thoughts or getting off track after 20-30 mins. which is better, because it used to be 10 mins or so.

i spent a few hours this evening going over my scanning software and trying to figure out why it pulls up the best stocks near the end of the day. when i peruse my lists in the evening, i see some beautiful setups. i always am wondering why i missed them during the day. anyway, i have to tweak some settings in order to get the scanner (trade ideas) to bring up the stocks in a timely fashion. like below, on the TRMB chart, that originally pulled up around 3:15 on my making new lows ticker (a la dtf). i have it set to show me stocks that have had this alerted 75 times, which in my mind meant that it was down at least .75. but this is not the case, sometimes the stock is moving so fast that each alert could span the range of .08-.10. so, when the 75th alert shows up, it is not down .75 it could be down 1.25 or 1.50 already. the other trick is getting too many stocks. it is a fine line to tweak the settings so i am working on it by adding how much down from the open, current volume, and i would like to get it to work properly to show me stocks which are near the 20sma. that would be ideal. we will see.

NUS: i was nearly ready to short this stock. i called it play by play but this is not what i am trying to focus on. i am trying to only trade stocks that show the pretty form in the other charts.

i went to see william fitzsimmons tonight. he was good but i was more moved by his videos on youtube than the concert in person. i don't know why. i wasn't really feeling all the sorry and sadness he sings about tonight. although it is comical, because he makes fun of himself for only writing depressing songs. i got more enjoyment out of his interactment with the crowd between songs than the songs themselves.

he had a great opening band who also were his backing band as well. slow runner. here is a decent video from a couch. i think it is in mono which stinks, but whatever. that dude's stache may have to go though. it is slightly freaky.

No trades today. I didn't see anything in time.

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CTSH: I'm impressed by the move end of day here.

This one would have been a dud.

Q: The arrow highlights the area where the q's were pushing higher but the high/low ticker was blinking red. I couldn't figure out what was happening. Was the market really going up or was it a fake out. Of course now, I see the volume was nul.

The trick for me is finding these while they are developing and having the mindset to go with it. I saw some mediocre setups that I passed on, so that feels good. I need to remind myself, not trading is still trading. I am trying to stick just to the setups I like to see, which are located above. Basically a move either way, a retracement to the 20ema, and then continuation of the original trend. It is boring, but everyday there are stocks that do this.

one of the WFMI charts has the 8 ema and the other the 20. I was checking to see which one I was using today. Sometimes I use the 8ema on the 15min to mimic the 20 on the 5min. I was watching WFMI scroll through the h/l ticker a handful of times. When it went through again I decided to short since it broke down after that pausing doji. a good thing for me maybe to capture the chart the moment after entry. to me, it seem stuck between .40 and .70. i guess i really don't have the right to say that and it could just be my anxiety talking. i thought we could get another volume breakdown but the volume was very light. also, the q's look they wanted to head back to highs so i took the position off. 

i would say this is ideally what i am looking for. just no follow through. looking back now, i realized i never even check the volume on this chart. not that it would have mattered in this instance, but i need a work sheet like scott. check spread, check volume, etc...

S
o, trying to get back on the trading horse. Most of the large projects are complete around the house I bought so I am trying to find 3 hours a day to trade. From 11am est to 2pm. While reviewing my charts, I have come to the conclusion that the charts I like to see forming are made in this time period. Let's see what happens here before I possibly head back to school for a masters, boo!