Monday, July 13, 2009

-$13.45 on the day

1. short CPHD at 8.87 at open, covered 8.87
2. short OSIP 30.34, covered 30.50
3. long RINO 9.85, sold 10.05

1. Fantastic entry point (look at the one minute chart at open) and then the worst exit in the world. CPHD fell directly from my cover point eventually down to 8.50. I selected it by looking for a preleader that was opening into resistance, this resistance was at a whole number (even better), and then I didn't stick with the game plan. Rather than be overprotective of my newly 25k+ account, I should have stuck to the plan and not covered till it hit a stop, which it never came close to doing.

2. Not a bad trade, just wasn't right. I saw it slip to 30.14 for a second time and then bounce back up, so got some short for another fall, but it didn't come. The one thing I should have done (which I realized while I was sitting in class at around 10:30...I had stops on), was REVERSE the trade if it hit my stop. Thinkorswim has enough order entry combos to do that easily, and it didn't even enter my mind since I'm used to not being able to trade more than once. I have the luxury now, I have to use it.

3. Much later in the day, I got this TimAlert (yes, I admit it) on my phone. Usually I ignore them cause I'll get an alert like "Shorted stock XYZ at 3.90" and the thing's already at 3.50 the moment I get the text (yes, he does move some stocks sometimes). Sometimes the texts come minutes after the e-mail...it's not consistent however the system works.

In any case, today he sent out a buy alert for RINO at 9.80, I had my phone right next to me, and flipped it open as soon as I got the text. RINO was only at 9.85, so using TOS's beautiful active trader I hopped right on in with a single shift-click, only got a partial fill cause the TIMvolume started coming in and the stock popped on my order, and got out two minutes later with a .20 gain.

As for my first day without limitations on daytrading here're a few thoughts.

1. I hesi-traded, as Charlie calls it, still accustomed to the mental limitations of the PDT rule. I have to remember that doesn't exist anymore!
2. Only the OSIP setup was a bad one. CPHD was a perfect preleader opening into resistance setup, I should have banked on that, and it's my fault. Stick to game plans.
3. Some hesi-trading today was mildly acceptable, I think, since at the low point of the day I was $92 bucks away from the 25k limit, and didn't want to fall below there.
4. Trades I was eyeing but didn't do: PRU and STEC long toward end of day. DNDN long a bit before 11:30am, YRCW long around 1.37, BLDP saw on hod list 1.77, but was waaaay to quick for me to get in. MGM long at 5.80 the second time (hardly moved, but wouldn't have been a loss). FEED long at 5.06, RIGL around 14 (eventually went down, would've been a loss), shorting AET when it hit resistance directly ICE long at 88 second time, would've gotten a buck, CAR, and assorted other scalps that I can now permit myself from time to time :-)

So the good news is that I do see setups. I am also allowing myself to look at higher priced stocks since there's more capital in my account to play them. There were many times where I saw good scalps on stocks, but they would've been with a lot of capital. While I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing (although it departs significantly from Muddy's philosophy) the one thing I need to be careful of is playing too close to a fire...that's all for today, folks!