Oct 29 - I actually did not trade on the 29th, not because I couldn't but two reasons
1) I was not comfortable in anything that I could get into, given the short period of time that I have to trade
2) Wanted to see if I could sit and actually restrain myself from making a trade.
It felt good, coz I was able to do it
Oct 30 - Did two trades SYMC at $13.35 for a quick 7 min scalp of $235 but left about 1k on the table but I seem to be able to accept that hmmm, oh well. Finally another quick scalp on AMP for $70 in 5 mins. I was content at least I was in the green. There was an excellent opportunity on HIG that I missed out on coz tda did not have borrows, missed about 1k on that. Tks nocents for letting me know about the borrows being available in ib, can't wait to get that account opened.
However I still have to make money going long. I am not comfortable at all taking long positions and I want to change that but don't know how. I get very nervous when I am even looking at taking a long position. Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to change that.
Tomorrow will be two weeks since I have gotten back into the trading. I want to do an assessment on how I have done as at the end of October. As I have stated in my profile, my objective is 1-2% per month and I am content, after all I only very limited time to trade.
Lets see what Halloween has in store for us traders.........
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Oct 27 & 28 - 3 good 1 bad
Oct 27 - Markets were all over the place but was trying to focus on the watch list and all the great picks from Muddy, Market kid, Investorslive and all others.
Had two beautiful short picks HUM at $33.51 and RIGL at $9.68. Hum was a position I held for 3 mins and got out for a quick scalp and RIGL was one hour before close and it was a GOTS call and that was a 1 minute position. I love these (when they are right). Of course had I held on woulda/coulda/shoulda made an easy 1k for the day, however I was content to be in the green at the end of the day.
Oct 28 - Another great day for shorts in the morning sessions, even though the DOW opened up 200+ points and ended up closing 900+. DRYS was the short play this time, held it for 8 mins and got out for a quick $175 bucks and again woulda/coulda/shoulda held on, coz I left about 500+ on the table. I was still content. Now comes the bad move, so into the last hour and markets up 600+ points and here I am looking for a short, and I am looking at FITB and it was at a hod of $10.15.
So I watch it for like 10-15 mins and I am thinking this thing is just not taking out the hod and I see a fake drop from $10 to $9.93. I jump in at $10.90 and what da ya know, it pops back up. So now I am down about $50 and thinking 'c'mon, c'mon drop a bit and give me chance to get out', but it does not. All I could think of was I was up in the morning and here I am trying to give it back.
Well I did give it back and another $20, so ended up being down for the day. And the lesson learnt is,
1) when you get into a position and if it does not go in your favour quickly, get out. Listen to that inside voice and don't depend on 'hope'.
2) when you are up for the day, take only positions that are more than likely.
3) try not to go against the market trend (unless its obvious)
4) take smaller positions if you are already up for the day.
I don't regret taking the positions in FITB but what I do regret is not listening to that inner voice.
Had two beautiful short picks HUM at $33.51 and RIGL at $9.68. Hum was a position I held for 3 mins and got out for a quick scalp and RIGL was one hour before close and it was a GOTS call and that was a 1 minute position. I love these (when they are right). Of course had I held on woulda/coulda/shoulda made an easy 1k for the day, however I was content to be in the green at the end of the day.
Oct 28 - Another great day for shorts in the morning sessions, even though the DOW opened up 200+ points and ended up closing 900+. DRYS was the short play this time, held it for 8 mins and got out for a quick $175 bucks and again woulda/coulda/shoulda held on, coz I left about 500+ on the table. I was still content. Now comes the bad move, so into the last hour and markets up 600+ points and here I am looking for a short, and I am looking at FITB and it was at a hod of $10.15.
So I watch it for like 10-15 mins and I am thinking this thing is just not taking out the hod and I see a fake drop from $10 to $9.93. I jump in at $10.90 and what da ya know, it pops back up. So now I am down about $50 and thinking 'c'mon, c'mon drop a bit and give me chance to get out', but it does not. All I could think of was I was up in the morning and here I am trying to give it back.
Well I did give it back and another $20, so ended up being down for the day. And the lesson learnt is,
1) when you get into a position and if it does not go in your favour quickly, get out. Listen to that inside voice and don't depend on 'hope'.
2) when you are up for the day, take only positions that are more than likely.
3) try not to go against the market trend (unless its obvious)
4) take smaller positions if you are already up for the day.
I don't regret taking the positions in FITB but what I do regret is not listening to that inner voice.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Oct 23 & 24 - 3 up 3 down
Oct 23 - So BRCM opened up and contd to go above 15 so I covererd at $15.15 loss of $300 (just a note my position on BRCM was taken on 22/Oct not 23/Oct, at least thats what my account says). So now I am upset, coz I waited 3 days to make my CIT work for me, made a profit walked away left quite a bit on the table and here I am down on a silly BRCM trade. (Reminder to self - take losses quick, coz had I held onto BRCM till Oct 24, I would have been down more coz it went up to $16 something)
There is a positive side to this, tks to GOTS and slots call on DDR I did a quick 1k short position and within 6 min in and out to bring me into the green on Oct 23. I was now smiling coz I not only recovered my $300 loss but made I think another $300. That was it for Oct 23
Oct 24 - Did another silly short trade on BSX, well it was not really silly coz I was in the green about $70, instead of taking that and being happy, I just hung on hoping it will break the support it had come to several times before (probably coz CIT went fruther down after I got out earlier that week). Well as you'd probably guessed, it went back up and I got out for a loss of $160. One other thing to remember, my profits and losses do not include my commissions.
So I was pretty upset, again BSX was not a GOTS call, don't know why on earth I play these. But a positive end here again and again it was DDR to the rescue, shorted 500 shares at $10.75 and got out quick at $10.25, within 9 mins, to bring me back to the green. So I decided that was it for the day, I was up about $60 for the day and I wanted to end it that way.
I don't have too much time to trade so I figured if I can end in positive, even though its small, I'll assess it at the end of the month. The way I see it is, if bank pays lets say 5% p.a. ($0.42%/ month)on a fixed deposit, if I can 1-2% per month on my part time trading, I would be content.
That's my update so far, lets see how the next week goes.
Cheers
There is a positive side to this, tks to GOTS and slots call on DDR I did a quick 1k short position and within 6 min in and out to bring me into the green on Oct 23. I was now smiling coz I not only recovered my $300 loss but made I think another $300. That was it for Oct 23
Oct 24 - Did another silly short trade on BSX, well it was not really silly coz I was in the green about $70, instead of taking that and being happy, I just hung on hoping it will break the support it had come to several times before (probably coz CIT went fruther down after I got out earlier that week). Well as you'd probably guessed, it went back up and I got out for a loss of $160. One other thing to remember, my profits and losses do not include my commissions.
So I was pretty upset, again BSX was not a GOTS call, don't know why on earth I play these. But a positive end here again and again it was DDR to the rescue, shorted 500 shares at $10.75 and got out quick at $10.25, within 9 mins, to bring me back to the green. So I decided that was it for the day, I was up about $60 for the day and I wanted to end it that way.
I don't have too much time to trade so I figured if I can end in positive, even though its small, I'll assess it at the end of the month. The way I see it is, if bank pays lets say 5% p.a. ($0.42%/ month)on a fixed deposit, if I can 1-2% per month on my part time trading, I would be content.
That's my update so far, lets see how the next week goes.
Cheers
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Oct 23 - Why oh Why did I take a BRCM position ?
So covered my first swing trade position of CIT at 4 today, that was my target, shorted it at 4.60 on Oct 17, left about $170 on the table but can never pick a bottom. The reason I got out was coz I saw a support at that level.
That was the plus point for the day, now comes the stuff you probably are more interested in reading. Since the market open I had been wanting to short BRCM when it continued to rise, don't ask me why, I always seem to want to pick the wrong side of the obvious trend. However resisted my tempatation and took my son to the pumkin patch. Came back about half and before close and sucummbed to my irrational urge and shorted 500 BRCM at 14.53 and to make matters worse that was about $0.08 off the low of the day.
You can guess what happened next, it started to rise $14.63, $14.71, back down to $14.58 and then market closed with me still in the positions, it traded after hours at $14.89. I wanted to kick myself. I was now looking to exit with a loss but decided against it.
When I went to do some research on the stock, the company had been upgraded, earnings were better then expected and the forecast was also better than expected and I go and short it just above the low of the day. Right now I am sweating, trying not to get emotional but at the same time asking myself "why".
I was looking for quick buck and basically gave into my urge to do a trade. Should never have taken that position. I am anxious about tomorrow's open. Had a look at the charts and this stock has a $1.50-$2.00, so I am not sure what to expect tomorrow morning. I probably will get out if it starts to climb and take the loss.
Shall keep you posted what happened....
That was the plus point for the day, now comes the stuff you probably are more interested in reading. Since the market open I had been wanting to short BRCM when it continued to rise, don't ask me why, I always seem to want to pick the wrong side of the obvious trend. However resisted my tempatation and took my son to the pumkin patch. Came back about half and before close and sucummbed to my irrational urge and shorted 500 BRCM at 14.53 and to make matters worse that was about $0.08 off the low of the day.
You can guess what happened next, it started to rise $14.63, $14.71, back down to $14.58 and then market closed with me still in the positions, it traded after hours at $14.89. I wanted to kick myself. I was now looking to exit with a loss but decided against it.
When I went to do some research on the stock, the company had been upgraded, earnings were better then expected and the forecast was also better than expected and I go and short it just above the low of the day. Right now I am sweating, trying not to get emotional but at the same time asking myself "why".
I was looking for quick buck and basically gave into my urge to do a trade. Should never have taken that position. I am anxious about tomorrow's open. Had a look at the charts and this stock has a $1.50-$2.00, so I am not sure what to expect tomorrow morning. I probably will get out if it starts to climb and take the loss.
Shall keep you posted what happened....
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Oct 17
Day 1 - Acct funded and did my first trade, shorted KOG at .93 before I went off to work, placed a condtional order to stop loss at 1.01 or cover at .76, obviously by the time I got to the office my stop loss activated. Loss of $78, later in the day, shorted CIT at 4.6, holding overnight, against the recommendation of Muddy and GS from GOTS, the reason they gave me was the LIBOR rates were coming down, which means money was getting cheap.
The reason I shorted is coz its up sharply, and I dont believe the commercial real estate, cosumer finances, small businesses and the like is impacted yet as heavily as the residential side. When you see the unemplyment number rise, people fall behind on their credit card payments and that is probably when there will be tougher times.
My tolerence is upto about the whole number 5, lets see if some money can be made.
Cheers
The reason I shorted is coz its up sharply, and I dont believe the commercial real estate, cosumer finances, small businesses and the like is impacted yet as heavily as the residential side. When you see the unemplyment number rise, people fall behind on their credit card payments and that is probably when there will be tougher times.
My tolerence is upto about the whole number 5, lets see if some money can be made.
Cheers
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