Daytrade – Result – Win – INTU

My second trade of the day.  What I saw…

• 2 consecutive inside bars and NR7 combination
• A downward pressing 5ema
• No Entry Bar
• It’s obvious that I was trying to force a trade here
• My Entry was under the white line below the low of the 2 combo bars
• My Target was the Opening Low
• My Short was triggered by the 8th bar
• I thought I was Stopped Out when prices retraced back above my Stop, but it didn’t happen (see white circle on chart)
• The long upper shadow on the 9th bar was caused by bad data
• Another entry point could be the break of the 11th bar bottom
• My Target was reached during the 12:30 bar

Observations: ADM, BG, ERIC, TIF, and UBS.

I tried, and wanted, to make a trade today, but I just couldn’t spot any Entries!  Here are a few charts that I was looking at this morning.

• It was a NR7 + Inside Bar + (almost) Hammer, and I wanted to go Long had prices broke through the previous bar high
• My Target would be merely the next Fib Level
• It would still put me at 2R profit, had it worked out the way I wanted it to
• It didn’t, and you are looking at the reason why it didn’t
• Fortunately, I didn’t jumped the gun

• With BG, I was hoping that the lowering 5eMA would act as Resistance and push the prices back to the Day-Low
• The Entry Bar was the Inverted Hammer (see circled), and my Entry was set to the Previous Bar low
• I thought with the market in such a Bearish mode, it’s easy to drop back down.
• It didn’t, and my trade didn’t get triggered
• I’m certainly ‘okay’ with it looking at the chart now

• I was hoping for a Base and Break and it never happened
• Once again, I was proud of myself for sticking to my entry rules, and never dive-in ahead of time in anticipation of what *could* happen
• In this case, nothing!

• With TIF, I was almost certain that Yesterday’s Low would act as Resistance and push the prices back towards its Day Low
• Too much wishful thinking there!
• It looks like Yesterday’s Low was blown away just like that!

• As for UBS above, I saw the 3rd Bar Inverted Hammer, but I just couldn’t see an entry in the shorter time-frame
• As prices fell pass the Opening Low, I thought I’ve missed the entry (as mentioned in Twitter.)
• It turned out that this is another ‘Good Miss!’

Overall, I’m proud of myself for sticking to my rules, and not “early-entry” into these positions.  But “not trading” means “no money.”  I need my trades to be more frequent, and more accurate.

LVS – A Slight Win

• An unconvincing Base and Break trade
• Unconvincing because I really didn’t see any entry bar signaling an Entry
• Instead, I just took the Opening Range Low (15mins) as the Base/Pivot Point, and entered Short when prices dropped below that level
• Once I was committed to this trade, I adjusted the Stop continuously to a level that makes sense
• I was then Stopped Out at $6.12
• Prices did eventually hit my Target of 138%Fib

TCK - My First Lost in 2009

• I tried to chase this trade!
• I didn’t really see an entry signal, and I still chose to enter Short when the prices dropped below the Open/Day Low.
• My Target was the 138%Fib., and it never even reached 119%
• It hit my Protective Stop eventually, and the prices never reached a low again

DRYS – There Were Plenty Left On The Table!

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was expecting DRYS to pull back to the next Fib. Level, before continuing its rise. 

With such belief in mind, the first stock that I pulled up today was DRYS, especially when the market is in such Bearish mood today.

DRYS Gapped Down first thing in the morning and slowly reclaimed its lost ground, all the way beyond Yesterday’s Low.

From the Chart below, you can see that the 2nd Bar almost formed an Inverted Hammer.  As the 3rd Bar was forming, I zoomed-out the Chart to 3 Days Interval and noticed that the potential Support Line can be drawn from Monday’s Day-High.  And since the prices have yet to close ‘above’ the 5eMA, I decided to enter Short when prices broke the low of the 3rd bar, with my Protective Stop set at the top of the 3rd bar, hoping that the ‘u-turning’ 5eMA will act as my Resistance.

Unfortunately, the Upper Shadow of the 4th Bar surpassed by Protective Stop by just that bit (see below), and forced me to exit my entire position, automatically of course.

With all those self-belief in me, I decided to re-enter the trade, this time when the prices broke the Low of the 4th bar (Remarks:  I’ve switched from 15mins to 10 mins chart by now.)  This time, I tried to be more cautious and set my Protective Stop just right above the 5th bar high (meaning less R for the run.)

By now, I was trying to plot out the potential Support Levels for my exit, if necessary.  The Opening Bar’s range was so wide that I did have some doubts that it might not hit its Day-Low, today. 

I pulled the Fib from Day-High to Day-Low, and the most obvious Pilot Point was at the 80%Fib. Level.  And obviously, and again, at Day-Low.  (See circles in the Chart below.)

Although I did adjust my Protective Stop, I didn’t follow it too closely by changing the Stop to previous bar’s High.  If so, the very few Up-bar (Blue) that you see below might have exited my position.   Which prompts me to think… I need to really learn how to master the skills of determining my Protective Stops.

Unfortunately, I had to leave for a meeting, and I was forced to exit the trade right before 1400hrs.  Otherwise, I would have caught on to a very nice run.  Prices didn’t stop until hitting the 161%Fib!

First Trade of 2009 - TBT

• I thought I was looking at a ‘Cup and Handle’ setup, but soon after I entered the trade, I doubted myself
• Not until I have entered the trade, I noticed that there were already 2 waves to long-solid up bar (see chart below)
• And I was already prepared for an exit after the 3rd wave
• Since the entry wasn’t ideal, I was particularly cautious
• The down bar that you see below actually went all the below my entry-line

• But as you can see below, prices did go above and beyond my target, of 138% Fib.

• The good news is, this little trade still earned me a bit over 2R
• I’m happy to start the New Year with 2R!

A Meeting with My Sponsor

My blog posting has been slow in the past few months partly due to my newborn son and my hectic work/travel schedule.  And it's a direct indication of how often I've been practicing my trades.  All this lack of activity has prompted a call from my sponsor.  Not only he wants to find out what is going on with my 'practice' and his money, he also wants to take this opportunity to meet my son for the first time. 

It turns out that since the winnings, my sponsor has been doing a lot of exciting things.  Focusing mostly on investments of various kinds, my sponsor has been keeping himself very busy. 

He's been reading my blog, of course, and he noticed that my postings have died down in the recent weeks.  He just wanted some face time with me to make sure that everything is okay.  I prepared some spreadsheets of both my (his) real money transactions (which I haven't touched it since switching over to Paper Trading), and my paper trade transactions.  He didn't look at my Paper Trade spreadsheet, but just briefly looked at the bottom line of the real-money account. 

By spending so much effort with paper trading, I think I have shown him that he can trust me with his money.  And that I only want the best out of his trust.  He assured me that he's not taking the money away because he doesn't need it at the moment.  He also confirmed that I can continue with his investment.  Even though it's more like a lack of investment.

Our conversation about his money and my trading was short.  He spent most of the time playing my baby. 

To my Readers and my Sponsor, I want you to know that I have not given up my goal yet.  Life has been unusual for me in the past few months, mostly because of my newborn.  I've been spending a lot of time with my son... that I can't even get to work on-time, let alone trading.  And when I'm at work, I'm dealing with a few major projects that require me attend many conference call and meetings. 

I will continue to attempt paper trading in the next few weeks/months.  Yes, my trading/posting will be light.  But this 'show' must go on!  I still have too much faith and interest in it. 

And to all my Readers, thank you for continually visiting my blog, even when there were no new posting.  And to those who still haven't dropped me from your RSS reader, thank you too! 

Rest assure, I'm still around.  I'm still reading all the other trading blogs.  And I won't give-up/leave without saying goodbye to you all.  So until you see/read my farewell post here, my mission is still on!

020808 - MFE - 15mins - Loss*Paper

Symbol: MFE
Type: Long
Result: Lost -1R

• The market hasn't closed yet, but I want to make this post now since I have tons of meetings this afternoon
• MFE gapped up this morning with a long Upper Shadow
• It tested the Opening Range High later in the morning but retraced
• I thought it found Support from the rising 5eMA, with an Inside+NR7 combo
• I entered Long during the 11:30 candle when prices broke the Opening Range High
• It retraced beyond my Protective Stop about an hour later
• An 1R lost
  
  

020708 - AKAM - 10mins - Gain*Paper

Symbol: AKAM

Type: Long

Result: Gained +1.52R

• Ooooouuuccchh!
• This hurts! Why? Read on...
• AKAM gapped up today but the first bar painted a long upper tail
• I gave up on AKAM in the beginning, but I couldn't spot any other decent setups, and when I reviewed AKAM again, the 7th bar, Inside, caught my attention
• I thought about entering Long, but chose not to because the 5eMA was just too far away
• The next 2 bars went all the way up to the 119% Fib., and I thought I just missed this one
• But prices came back down and since I still couldn't find anything decent to pay attention to, I turned my focus on AKAM
• When the 11:50 bar painted an Inside-NR7 combo, I decided to set a Stop Entry 2 ticks above the opening high
• I wasn't too confident in this trade because of the previous Resistance at the 119% Fib.
• But my entry was filled soon after, and the prices basically moved sideway in narrow range
• By 1300hrs, the prices started to rise!
• I wanted to exit half of my position when the prices reached the 119% Fib., but I accidentally exited my entire position! (This is where the 'ouch' came from!)
• As you can see, the prices continued to rise to reach my secondary target!
• It hurts! But hey, I didn't lose money, so I'm still happy!
  
  

020508 - UAUA - 15mins - Loss*Paper

Symbol: UAUA
Type: Short
Result: Lost -0.5R

• Ouch, ouch, ouch! What was I thinking? Why did I chickened-out before my Protective Stop?
• UAUA gapped down, my guess is, probably because of that stupid extra luggage fee
• Prices retraced and filled the gap... painted an almost Shooting-star at 10:30
• I entered Short when the prices break the low of the Shooting Star, during the 11am bar, with my target set to the Opening Range Low
• The 11:15 bar looked promising in the beginning, but formed a strong hammer, and closed above the 5ema
• I didn't know what/how to analyze the hammer... and the next thing I saw was a doji, which supposed to mean uncertainty
• Well, the only uncertainty was in my own mind!
• I thought I better cut my loss and exited my entire position during the 11:45 bar
• Well, my target was reached towards the end of the trading day
• Although I might have exited my entire position during that strong pull-backi during the 13:45 bar
• But still, at that point, I would still ended up with a gain, rather than a -0.5R loss
• I hope my readers had some better trades! Feel free to share!
  

020108 - ALTR - 10mins - Gain*Paper

Symbol: ALTR
Type: Long
Result: Gained +1.85R

• Picked up ALTR from Briefing/Jamie's Gapped-up list
• Prices formed a Cup-and-Handle formation, with the 10:50 bar closed strongly above Opening Range High
• The next bar (11:00) painted an Inside+NR7+Hammer(almost) combo
• The only thing that I didn't like about that combo is that it is a red bar, instead of a blue bar
• I decided to enter Long when prices break the high of the combo bar, with the bottom of the combo bar acted as my Protective Stop
• Upon entry, prices immediately shot up, but pulled back
• I didn't adjust my Stop and as long as the prices do not close under the Opening Range High, I was going to hang-in there!
• My patience paid off! At 1pm, there was surge in volume after another Inside+NR7 combo bar
• The prices went pass the 119% Fib. Level easily
• It painted a Shooting Star at 2:40pm, right at the Pivot Point / Resistance Level (see second chart.)
• I exited half of my position once the Shooting Star was completedly formed
• I moved my Stop to just underneath the flattening 5eMA
• My Stop was triggered 2 bars later
• My first winning trade of the year! I'm happy! Something positive going into the weekend!

Feel free to share your trades!

Cheers and Good Trades!

013008 - JBHT - 10mins - Loss*Paper

Symbol: JBHT
Type: Short
Result: Lost -1R

• First, congratulations to myself for making the first trade of 2008!
• Sadly, my first trade of the year turns out to be losing trade!
• I picked up JBHT from the Briefing gapper list found on Wall St. Warrior's Blog (daily).
• I wasn't really paying attention to JBHT in the beginning because of the first 2 weak bars, with the first bar left behind an upper shadow
• At approximately 10:45, JBHT painted 2 consecutive Inside+Hammer+NR7-bar-combo.
• That's when I thought it might worth a try!
• My Target was the Opening High, and my Stop was set to the low of the first of the two combo bars
• I entered long when prices cleared 2 ticks above the 2nd combo bar
• 2 bars later, I was stopped out.
• This is the only trade that I made today. Sadly, my first trading day of the year was cut short. Too short, in my opinion! I was hoping that it would at least go sideway for a while, to give me some false hope (and to get me excited.) A 1R lost for a few minutes of excitment (before it turns south) is too costly!
• What do you think of this trade? How would you have handled this trade differently? Feel free to leave me a comment to discuss.
  

102607 - CFC - 15mins - Gain*Paper

Symbol: CFC
Type: Long
Result: Gained +4.67R

• Countrywide Financial gapped up on positive outlook today
• Prices retraced to the $15.25 level for most of the morning, forming quite a few Narrow-Range bars, which caught my increased attention
• The 12:45pm bar was an Inside-bar, with NR7. It almost made it to a Hammer, except for that tiny Upper Shadow
• I decided to take a low-risk entry to go Long when prices broke the high of the NR7 bar
• I set my Buy-Stop order 2 pennies above the high of the NR7 bar, with my stop set to the bottom of the NR7 bar
• My order was triggered almost immediately

• The Blue line that you see above was my Primary Target.
• I observed the Daily-Historic chart and noticed that there was a low back in September that might serves as a potential resistance level (see below.)
  

• It didn't take too much time before the prices reached the 'blue-line.'
• As soon as I have sold half my position at blue-line, I moved my Stop to the bottom of the 13:30 bar (10mins, see below, the black one!)
• The 13:40 bar, unfortunately, just touched my Protective Stop and sold the remaining half of my position
• I thought about a re-entry on the same bar that I was Stopped-out, because it was a nice little Hammer bar.
  
• I chose not to re-enter Long because the same blue-line that I drew was like flashing at me, telling me that "hey, you drew this! Remember?"
• Plus, the winning that I already have, although on paper, is already making me very happy! (See how I am easily satisfied? Don't know if that's a good thing for a Trader though.)
  

• The prices did continue to rise!
• It even went past the opening high, and went all the way to the 113% Fib Level (Yesterday Low / Today's Opening-High)
• I captured the chart below, before the market closes, so that I can journal this trade before my meeting
• Even though the words of wisdom of Jamie did play-back in my head as I was entering the Stop level for my remaining half position, I chose to play it safe! What I'm referring to, is a rule that I learned from Jamie... "Prices usually ends its rally after 3 Wide-Range-Bars" (also see chart below.)
  
• I chose to play it safe, and secure my winnings
• But in this case, I left a lot on the table!
• Was my 2nd Stop set at a wrong level?
  
• My entry was based on a 15min chart, had I used the same 15mins (instead of 10mins), I might have been okay! So did I use the wrong chart to set my Stop?
  

102507 - EMC - 10mins - Gain*Paper

All the notes are written on the chart. I have to run to a meeting, and a busy evening. I didn't lose money; I'm happy!

102307 - NFLX - 15mins - Loss*Paper

Symbol: NFLX
Type: Long
Result: Lost -0.53R

• This one really hurts!
• 2 consecutive Inside-bars, and NR7 formed at around 11:30am, that caught my attention
• Later on, another NR7 formed at the 12:15 bar, with increased volume
• I entered Long after the prices broke the high of the 12:15 bar
• I was nearly Stopped-out during the 13:30hrs bar, when I moved my Stop closer
• I was not as lucky later. The low of the 14:00hrs bar triggered my, then-new, Protective Stop. the trade was exited at a lost!
  
• It hurts even more to see that the prices eventually hit my initial target of Daily High!
• Was my Stop too tight? What do you think?
  

102307 - AAPL - 10mins - Loss*Paper

Symbol: AAPL
Type: Long
Result: Lost -0.83R

• I was hoping for some Base and Break here but it didn't happen
• AAPL painted consecutive inside bars, followed by 2 NR7s in a row
• I entered Long when the prices broke the mini-resistance (see blue line)
• The prices didn't really go anywhere
• I got Stopped-out at around 13:30hrs
  

101907 - SNDK - 5mins - Gain*Paper

Symbol: SNDK
Type: Short
Result: Gained +2.77R

• I wanted to enter Long when prices first broke under the Opening Low
• But I though the 5eMA was too far away, and therefore, I waited
• The prices started to retrace, and posted several NR7s
• The 11:25 bar even formed a NR7 + Inside Bar
• I entered Short when prices fell below the 11:25
• My target was the 119%
• I did exited half my position only when the prices reached 119% the first time
• But I told myself that I want to secure the winnings, and therefore, I decided to exit my entire position a few minutes later
• The thing is... I wonder on a down day like today, how significant is my training/winning?
• It's almost like... pick anything and it will drop!
• Now I know why one is supposed to take notes on the overall market mood in the trading journal as well
  

101907 - GOOG - 5 mins - Loss*Paper

Symbol: GOOG
Type: Long
Result: -0.13R

• First, it was those Narrow-range bars painted between 11 and 1130am that caught my attention
• My Long entry was set to just above the 11:05 high (see line)
• But the prices fell back to 61% Fib (yesterday's low and today's high) before rebounding
• My entry point was met, and my initial target was the Day-High point
• It never quite got there
• I exited my position when prices fell back to my entry-point, for a very small lost
  

101807 - NE - 15mins - Loss*Paper

First of all, I'm not going to post any chart for this NE trade that I made today. I was stopped out within 3 minutes of entry, and I knew I was forcing a trade!

Which brings me to the challenge that I'm facing... it is extremely challenging to try to Daytrade, while working a full-time job! My 3 readers should realized that my postings have been light lately, and mostly it's because my day job has been demanding! I'm not complaining because this job is what brings in the income. And you all know that my daytrading is nowhere near breakeven, not to mention profitable.

I still don't think I'm going to give up daytrading just yet! Because I still feel that I have a strong interest in this field. However, when I read that Ugly has decided to take up a full-time job, and stop daytrading, I ask myself... how come I'm heading down 'the other' direction? I have a full-time job already, and I'm trying to daytrade, while folks like Ugly is leaving the daytrading scene and go back to working full-time.

Well... I'm sure Ugly has his/her reasons. But for me, I know for sure that I am not giving up yet! There are still more for me to learn!

100907 - YUM - Long - Loss*Paper

Symbol: YUM
Type: Long
Result: Lost -1.05R

• The chart above showed what it looks like at time on entry for YUM
• I thought what I saw was a mini-base, with decreasing volume
• I entered Long when prices broke the mini-base line
• (see chart below) Prices did shot up a bit, but not for long
• It failed to reach the day-high... otherwise, I would have exited half my position
• My Protective Stop was later triggered
• This is my only trade of the day