02/22/11: Day Trading Review: Unwise Counter-trend Trading

Stocks I traded today: AMZN APA GLD GS IBM MMM MOS REE RL SLV SLW SPY

Quick Recap


Came out ahead today by catching a few bounces but missed the overall downtrend in almost all stocks.

Notes/Things to Work On

1. Work on being more neutral bias at open and improve trend recognition (10:15AM check)
2. Gap fill attempt at the open rule if unfilled leg into fades
3. Simplify setup & eliminate anything that creates noise & diverts attention (i.e. twitter)
4. Draw P/M price levels on "In Play" stocks & SPY chart
5. Get that RR over 3

Stats

Total Trades	12		% Winners	50.00%
Losers	6		ROI Losers	-$17.41
Winners	6		ROI Winners	$29.75
RR	1.71

 SPY

Instead of trying to catch the bounces should have been looking to get short after 10:15AM which like clockwork was where SPY topped out and having failed to fill the gap begun to trend lower. 

AMZN

Looks almost identical to SPY.

RL

Caught that nice bounce around 11:30AM when it found support at Friday's low and rode that up for almost a full pt. Since I was long biased not my style to switch from long to short.

02/16/11: Day Trading Review: Stocks that I misread SPWRA, ARUN

 Today I traded the following stocks: AGP, AGU, ARUN, APKT, LVS, SPWRA, UPL, WLT, X


Notes/Goals


1. Do NOT over trade "Opex" days especially at the open
2. Patience: wait for defined setups
3. Keep working to improve intraday trading setup from charts, level 2, trade execution, stops
4. Define 3 strikes rule


Stats

Total Trades	9		% Winners	55.56%
Losers	4		ROI Losers	-$34.30
Winners	5		ROI Winners	$27.94
RR	0.81

SPY

Looking back you can see the clearly defined up channel from the open hitting resistance at R1 (not shown on chart) and quickly dropping through previous' day high (134.4'ish) and bouncing above 134 & the daily pivot (not shown on chart)

SPWRA
I got chopped up in this solar name as my expectations of a possible uptrend were wrong. Steve Spencer @smbcapital or @sspence_smb highlighted that the real move in solars took place prior to earnings so that should have sent up a red flag trying to catch a BIG upmove. I probably should have waited and watched the open as the high was quickly faded and then found support around 18.5 but that broke and the stock ultimately ended around 18. Eliminating 8 stabs (7 for losses & 1 for a tiny gain) and I would have had a nice positive Friday. Lesson learned, new charting setup implemented, notes entered into journal, move on. 

ARUN
Another choppy trade for me as I anticipated a possible trend ride that never really materialized. The stock found a range 31.50-30.5 and just moved sideways all day. Probably would have had a decent day if I had recognized this. At the end of the day managed to finish positive on this trade. 

02/16/11: Day Trading Review: SPY, JDSU, SF, GS, ANF

I apologize for not having not entered a blog entry in some time but here we go:


Today I traded the following stocks: ACAS, ANF, CMSA, CMI, GS, JDSU, NFLX, SF, SPY


Goals


1. Stop trying to catch falling knives in momo names like NFLX & AAPL without checking the charts and looking for real support & resistance levels. Also before I take a position check for news.
2. Identify channels, TL's, yesterday's high & low, etc...
3. Identify A setups so I can go BIG.
4. Be more conscious of SPY or ES_F resistance & support levels. Could have prompted me to take more profits and wait for market to find a bottom before trying to go long.
5. Still need work on R/R needs to get above 3. Ex-NFLX slippage my R/R today would have been 2.82


Stats


*Most of the loss resulted from an ill attempt to knife catch NFLX and tried using a 20¢ stop but thanX for slippage I got hit out for 60¢ ouch. 

Total Trades	9		% Winners		55.56%
Losers	4		ROI Losers		-$18.25
Winners	5		ROI Winners		$30.00
R/R	1.64

SPY

What you'll notice here is that we gapped up made a run into 134 resistance and came down to yesterday's high and traded in an up channel for the remainder of the day. The market topped out at 11AM and as a result many stocks followed suit.

JDSU

HT @smbcapital for this morning idea. When I noticed that JDSU was holding above 35c. Think I got involved around 45c and caught the entire opening drive and read this one to a tee selling all the way to the top. Tried again later in the afternoon to catch a second move when it broke VWAP but unfortunately just churned and lost 10¢ 

SF

Caught multiple +50c scalps in this when it first broke the pennant then when it held 72.50 selling at 73 & then when it broke 73.3 caught it for another +50c

ANF

Only caught a +50c move in this name on one of the dips around noon. I should have set an alert for when it broke above the morning's high around 2PM.

CMCSA

I tried 1 trade in CMCSA but got stopped out -10c when it dropped suddenly (market drop) below the consolidation base. I could have gone long when it broke the down channel & VWAP and/or when it broke the morning's high. Oh well not a clean "In Play" move