Out of the Dark

I've been missing for some time now. I didn't go into seclusion, but it sure felt that way. My schedule for most of the last two weeks (coupled with tech difficulties) didn't allow me to post all my trades the way I would normally do. I posted the transaction history as it had everything one needs when placing trades; as well as it could be used for revision. All one would have to do if they were following my trades would be to plot the various entries and exits for the stocks i traded on the respective charts for those days.

No need to ramble on. My trading week didn't start the way i anticipated. I lost big on Monday (I think) and I lost a little yesterday. You will be able to find the transaction history for those trades further down in this post. On to today's activity. I took three trades (two on HA and the other on ORMP). I won on the second trade in HA and the first attempt in ORMP.

My first play in HA was on the long side. The stock was up yesterday; it closed strong. I like the close yesterday as I figured the momentum would carry over today and allow the stock to start the gap filling process. The first bar was red; something I expected after the strong close yesterday. I got in after the initial move down and after the stock started to gear up a little. the move started well but it didn't last as the  stock  failed to make higher highs. The stock hit my stop so I  was taken out of the trade.

My next trade was to the play the breakdown of 21.60. I got out at 21.52. That happened in such a way because I want prepared to take the trade on the downside and the stock started to grind and consolidate. As such i closed the trade with the small realized profit.

I traded ORMP to the downside. the stock was up over 8% the previous day. It was was prime short candidate. I got in using the two minute time frame and rode it for a nice gain.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day. I have been trading sloppily on the forex front. I was taking too many trades and entering the positions terribly. I'm in a trade now (oil-us) that is making bank so hopefully it continues to move. I  have a target at 55. so we will see how it goes.

As promised, here is the transaction history for tuesday, March 24, 2015:

Happy trading to everyone!!

Wacky Week

In a nutshell, my trading week (last week) was a roller coaster. I made profits and losses that essentially washed out, with me only loosing capital on commissions. Long story short; it wasn't the best, nor was it the worst trading. Because of tech glitches, I wasn't able to screenshot the charts of the trades. I did however take a screenshot of the transaction history. It doesn't show the commission charged but it shows the trades with the profit and loss.

Shown below is the screenshot:

I'm still holding one forex position. I also did some smaller trades last night when the market opened. Those transactions are shown below:

1:1-Up and Down

Friday the 13th wasn't good for me in the markets. I lost money; not a lot, but enough for me to throw myself into anything else over the weekend. I had a tech difficulty so I wast able to post my trades for Friday either. I will work on getting them up sometime this week. I took two trades today; both on Pandora. The first one was placed through my phone. I didn't watch for a proper entry and I got got burned. I went back in shortly after i got back to the office. I played for a break to the downside of the 15.70 level. I got out after it looked like the price couldn't hold the lower level; only to watch a few minutes later that it did indeed go lower, only if for a short time.

Below is my forex update. I sold off a few units of each position on Friday afternoon just to lock in some of that good fake profit.

 Shown here are the transactions from Friday:

Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

Not Good At All

Today was probably my trading day EVER. I definitely wasn't in tune with the market at all. Couple that with the fact that I over traded my butt off and you can obviously see why this day needs to be over quickly! No need for further explanation; here are the charts:

Here is the forex update:

Will see what happens tomorrow...well later today, as I am writing this (Thursday's) post Friday morning.

1-1:Liking The Process

Today didn't start the way I expected to. I got into a fender bender this morning and missed at least the first 90 minutes of trading. I thought about shutting it down before I even got started, but after looking at a few charts off of my watch list, I decided to go in. I took two trades (one in AKS and DAL) today, loosing on AKS and winning on DAL. Sometimes its best to sit it out when things happen that may inevitably impair your normal train of thought.

I was playing for the break of 3.90 in AKS. I missed the entry, but I got in because I felt the stock would've continued down.  It didn't, so I got out quickly.

DAL had made a few lower highs. coupled with that was the fact that the stock ran up significantly this morning. I played for the break of 44.20; thinking that if it caught momentum, it could get to 42.50. I got in at 44.20 and held it to 44. I didn't get as much as I wanted to but it was a good trade overall.

Here is my forex update: Things are going quite well for me on the forex front. I'm looking to increase my holdings in that account.

Hopefully I can keep this going!!!

Still Going

SO here's the deal... I took one trade today. I shorted GPRE on the break of 28.60. the stock gapped up yesterday so I expected the stock to washout out in  the morning. It did just that and I as able to get into a trade. I covered  as the stock started to grind a little higher.

All in all, it was a good trade. I was prepared to sit on my hands as I didn't like the price action on the stock prior to trading the stock. Luckily I spotted the trading setup and was able to get in at a good entry point.

Here is my forex update for the day:

Once again, it was a good day. Hope I can keep it up tomorrow!!

Pull The Reigns

Late post for yesterday: i had a few tech glitches with my computer yesterday so i wasnt able to post this yesterday. Here it is:

Short post today guys; I took one trade... I traded CZR; I took a short position after it gapped down. I went short at 9.26 anticipating the breakdown. It broke, but it didn't go too far. I got out as the stock looked like it was grinding higher.

After making a profit, I basically shut it down as none of my other stocks made a move. When I did look at the stock again, it was grinding higher around 9.40. I didn't go back in  as I'd felt that the best entry point had passed already. Here is the chart of CZR today: 

I didnt get  a chance to update my forex position yesterday so here is it as of 9:50 this morning:

Will see what happens later today!

Blast From The Past Part 2

Not only did I over trade today, I took trades that I wasn't prepared to take; that is trades in stocks that didn't appear on my watch list. While tradings stocks that don't make it on your watch list isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, your entry has to be more or less spot on or else you will take on too much risk. I took a trade in STI because it spiked early on Friday. I was alerted to it because a friend of mine made mention of it a few times. at that time, the chart looked like this:

I wasn't too interested in taking a trade on the stock. It looked interesting to me but at that time, I wanted to stick to what was on my watch list. I missed the breakdown that occurred a short while later. When I did pull the chart up again, it had already broken down. I went back in on what I thought was a small pullback in trend. The pullback continued up ward and I stopped myself out. I went in a few times more for small losses.

I lost on this position for many reasons primarily because I picked the wrong entry point and because I didn't stop once I saw that bias on the direction was wrong.

The other stock I over traded was MR. The stock washed out at the open and then it started to consolidate. I expected it to gear and perk and then grind higher. The stock dropped a little, I got scared and pulled out of my position (took a loss). I figured it would resume the downtrend since it didn't make a new high and I got burned as it turned and went a little higher. I then went long playing for a break back to the high of day. the stock moved higher but then hit some resistance and fell back. I got out with a profit; enough to wipe the loss from my second entry into the stock. I took one more entry on the short side,but it didn't work so I exited the trade early.

In order to be a good trade, one has to discern a good trade from a bad one. Also, one must be able to acknowledge a good trade but refrain from entering because the conditions do not allow for it to be profitable.

Forex Zone:

Here is the update of my current forex position. I am considering adding other positions so as to further test my strategy. I will also pick up a few commodities trades in a few weeks also.

Good Luck on Monday!

Blast From The Past

I'll just hit you with the headline: I overtraded today, plain and simple. I took trades that made a little money, but i eventually gave it back by not closing the positions. I lost on commissions charged. I had 15 round trades today! That is WAAAAY above my average and much more than what is necessary. I took two trades today that turned out to be really good trades. I exited both early, simply because I was afraid that the stock would move against my intended direction. After exiting, the stocks continued in the direction I expected. Here they are:

So there you have it. I traded terribly and that is by far a generous comment. on a better note, here is the update of my forex positions:

I'm running a little late...We'll see how this goes tomorrow!

No Title......Chugging Along

I missed the open today; and because of that, I missed a trade that turned out to be have the cleanest entry and exit as well as the greatest return (risk/reward ratio) from my watch list:

I didn't take the trade on the short side when I got in. The stock had dropped $1.53 from the entry I would've taken. I didn't think there was anything left in the move so I left it alone... I went back and forth on that one. The stock did set up one more time, but I refused to take it; heck the stock was consolidating when I got in the office, but I didn't want to be wrong. Since there wasn't a clear reason to enter, I left it and took another trade off of my watch list.

I took a trade in Mankind Corp. I anticipated that the stock would go green at the open then reverse. the stock. The stock closed up (with huge range ) yesterday but not by much. there was clearly uncertainty between buyers and sellers in the stock. Throw in the fact that the stock gapped down yesterday, I felt that the stock would definitely continue the downtrend.
Mankind (MNKD) gapped down today; I was able to take a position in the stock at 6.03 and 6.04. the stock didnt move the way I expected to. It went to 5.98 a few times but thats it. I covered at 6.04. It did move back down but it never moved the way I expected to... I anticipated a move to 5.75-5.60. The slow chop is not the trade you want to be in; moving up and down a range (a three cent range) is not the type of trading I wanted to do on this stock. Here is the trade:

Will get in earlier to be properly prepared to take advantage of early moves in the market. in other news, below is the 4 pm (ish) update of my forex trading...

By the way, the profit looks nice. I didn't use much cash on those positions. That is one of the advantages of forex trading. You can open a  position with only a fraction of the principal. If the trade works in your favor, then your gains (depending on the side of the trade taken) can be infinite. If you are wrong though, it may cost you everything you have and more! 

Anyway, I have to head out. Good luck tomorrow and green trading!!

What's up guys? I didn't do much trading today. I traded CGNX short, only to loose on commission. I took to long trying too get the position size I wanted in OMER. I was too stubborn and missed the entry after the parabolic move a few minutes after the market open. I'm not too keen on scaling into a position-I like to go in for my full size and scale out where necessary. Here is the chart of hte trade I took:

On another note, here is an update of my forex trades:

Good luck and happy trading tomorrow!

It's Been A Long Time Coming!!!!

Wow..........It has been a long time since I have written a blog!!!! A lot of things have occurred since my last post........I went live and lost almost all of my money and then stopped trading for a bit,  I bought a new (old) car, and had my laptop stolen from my car. In between those events, I demo traded and continued to educate myself to develop my trading strategy. I considered forex trading because of the relatively low cost to start trading. Some brokers would let you open a forex brokerage account with a minimum of $5. After loosing a couple a few thousand dollars, starting with a few hundred  as a trial run in forex didn't seem like a a bad idea. Moreover, the amount of leverage being offered (some of which is really ridiculous; sometimes 500-1000:1). If you are not careful, you can loose much more than the cash you have in your account playing with that kind of leverage.

I have added another avenue to my trading approach: forex trading. I have been trading currency pairs since January or so and I am liking the results. I was able to take advantage of the decision made regarding Swiss Franc. I have made a few dollars (fake) holding pairs involving the franc. The panic created one of the best profit making opportunities. Shown below are currency pairs I am still holding in my demo account...

The weekend isn't the best time to hold forex positions as economic news usually comes out at the beginning of the week. Since the forex market is open virtually 24 hours, 5 days a week, any economic news released by a country can have a tremendous effect (positive or negative) on the currency as it relates to other floating currencies. I do take that into consideration but my conviction in the move is the only  reason I'm holding through the weekend. Shown below is the pnl status of my forex trades:

Here is the trade I did today. I shorted BKS and covered at the first sign of green.

I got scared and missed the continuation to the downside. There were other opportunities presented today in this stock and I missed them because I was either busy at times or too afraid to give back the profit made earlier. Shown below is where the stock was at closed today (when I took the last pic). as you can, see there were other profitable entries.

Anyway, I will be back at it next week. Until then enjoy the weekend!! TGIF!!