That is a very interesting post. Would you share with me how you recognize fear on Level 2?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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December Trading Journals
- Thread starter Hitman
- Start date
Great job today in a tight market.
Did any of your traders get caught in the sudden spike down in last hr?
Pej.
Did any of your traders get caught in the sudden spike down in last hr?
Pej.
Originally posted by Pejman Hamidi
That is a very interesting post. Would you share with me how you recognize fear on Level 2?
Thanks.
Yup sure. On a trending Nasdaq stock, look for strong ECN and institutional bidding, coupled with the vast majority of orderflow occuring at the ask. Look for the institutions to back down in levels on the bid, but ensure that there is still buying. Since, for buys, real-time P&Ls are calculated assuming you sell at the bid, people who are long will see their profits diminish. They will start to hit the bid... the spread will be wide since the market makers have backed away, so simply step in and split the spread with an ECN. Depending on the size of the spread that you have split, either immediately offer out or wait a couple of minutes.
It works best on less liquid Nasdaq stocks, since everyone and his uncle is playing this game on the likes of JNPR.
>>> This is simply buying a pullback, using Level 2 i.e. playing the fear.
Slow choppy day but I managed to squeeze out my 11th victory in a row. With two more games left this may be my first ever pay period without a loss and that will be a great way to close out the year.
6100 shares on 5 of 7 shooting, +551 before commissions, +296 after, 2 bullets. Tight defense carried the day but I wish I was able to hit a few more shots. Quite a few times I had a big position that just another 10-20 cents would have made this a good day, unfortunately the positions reversed and the BID disappeared and I simply could not get anything going.
Pre-Market: Crude oil price fell on OPEC news
9:30: Energy stocks have been strong but I bulleted HP and BR anyway for a quarter a piece, really sucked with no real volume to push them down and after you take away the spread there was very little to be made. Lost 20 cents in LOW, RLX was going straight up and that stock just collapsed on me. Tried AMR on XAL strength and got just 5 cents.
10:00: Had EOG on XNG rebound, volume was thin and I was shaken out for a 10 cents gain. Took LM on a mini breakout for 10 cents when XBD went up. Tried NE on OSX reverse and out for flat as the index faded. Market felt like crap and I didn't take any more shots in the afternoon.
6100 shares on 5 of 7 shooting, +551 before commissions, +296 after, 2 bullets. Tight defense carried the day but I wish I was able to hit a few more shots. Quite a few times I had a big position that just another 10-20 cents would have made this a good day, unfortunately the positions reversed and the BID disappeared and I simply could not get anything going.
Pre-Market: Crude oil price fell on OPEC news
9:30: Energy stocks have been strong but I bulleted HP and BR anyway for a quarter a piece, really sucked with no real volume to push them down and after you take away the spread there was very little to be made. Lost 20 cents in LOW, RLX was going straight up and that stock just collapsed on me. Tried AMR on XAL strength and got just 5 cents.
10:00: Had EOG on XNG rebound, volume was thin and I was shaken out for a 10 cents gain. Took LM on a mini breakout for 10 cents when XBD went up. Tried NE on OSX reverse and out for flat as the index faded. Market felt like crap and I didn't take any more shots in the afternoon.
Had just 5 hour's worth of sleep last night and really struggled off the open. A few bad trades and the fact that I spreaded myself too thinly in a choppy market made it an uneventful day.
4 of 9 shooting on 7000 shares, +327 before commissions, +161 after. It is very important to maintain a razor's edge in my sharpness and today I could tell that it was just not there. So as soon as I saved my winning streak, I stopped, I must maintain this momentum and ride it all the way into the New Year.
Pre-Market: OPEC cut, three economy reports coming out at 10AM.
9:30: A big shake out on OSX before it went up for good and I took just 50 cents out of GSF. Scored 10 cents on SGY (late entry). All along I knew it was going up but I didn't stick to my conviction. Wish I focused on energy today but I did not. Took DNA on BTK strength and I got out at the intraday low of 54.50 in that morning shakeout for a 10 cents loss. Took some S on RLX strength and out for flat.
10:00: Futures went up hard but it felt really thin, and I went on a pathetic shopping spree, took LXK, SPF, GP heavy positions, and got smacked for 20 cents on SPF (uncharacteristic chase), out for flat on GP and LXK. Fortunately I saw BBY breaking out above yesterday's high and scored 40 cents there and that put me back in black. Not feeling the hot hand today and decided to lock it in early.
4 of 9 shooting on 7000 shares, +327 before commissions, +161 after. It is very important to maintain a razor's edge in my sharpness and today I could tell that it was just not there. So as soon as I saved my winning streak, I stopped, I must maintain this momentum and ride it all the way into the New Year.
Pre-Market: OPEC cut, three economy reports coming out at 10AM.
9:30: A big shake out on OSX before it went up for good and I took just 50 cents out of GSF. Scored 10 cents on SGY (late entry). All along I knew it was going up but I didn't stick to my conviction. Wish I focused on energy today but I did not. Took DNA on BTK strength and I got out at the intraday low of 54.50 in that morning shakeout for a 10 cents loss. Took some S on RLX strength and out for flat.
10:00: Futures went up hard but it felt really thin, and I went on a pathetic shopping spree, took LXK, SPF, GP heavy positions, and got smacked for 20 cents on SPF (uncharacteristic chase), out for flat on GP and LXK. Fortunately I saw BBY breaking out above yesterday's high and scored 40 cents there and that put me back in black. Not feeling the hot hand today and decided to lock it in early.
I have everything archived at http://hitmantb.tripod.com A guy on my team who has been on a losing streak read it and felt much better about himself lol.
I started my career losing 19 out of 20 games, and at one point I was down $4500, almost all of which in firm capital. Granted, those were commissions (as I never really lost money to the market and was gross positive from day one), still . . .
January 2001 was my first profitable month after I started this job late October 2000.
I am for the most part happy about my performance, I had a serious slip-up after opening up April with a 10K lead in just two weeks, only to lose most of it before the month was over. It was understandable because at the time I was playing way above my actual skill level thanks to a market that was incredibly tradable. You can see that it took me an entire month to re-group in May, and another month and half to recover to April's high.
From there it was a nice uptrend but I really really choked in September . . . , I will have year end wrap-up after Monday's close . . .
I started my career losing 19 out of 20 games, and at one point I was down $4500, almost all of which in firm capital. Granted, those were commissions (as I never really lost money to the market and was gross positive from day one), still . . .
January 2001 was my first profitable month after I started this job late October 2000.
I am for the most part happy about my performance, I had a serious slip-up after opening up April with a 10K lead in just two weeks, only to lose most of it before the month was over. It was understandable because at the time I was playing way above my actual skill level thanks to a market that was incredibly tradable. You can see that it took me an entire month to re-group in May, and another month and half to recover to April's high.
From there it was a nice uptrend but I really really choked in September . . . , I will have year end wrap-up after Monday's close . . .
With year 2001 coming to an end, I barely kept my streak alive and finished my first flawless pay period ever. Took some heavy hits this morning as I went too aggressive in energy and had some serious execution errors in my DNA bullet, fortunately made a come back with home builders and with 30 minutes left in the game I was able to cut the deficit down to $200. Then market tanked and I milked that lone DNA bullet to the finish line.
16400 shares each way on 8 of 16 shooting, +508 before commissions, +7.62 after. Not exactly my vision of a New Year's eve as I worked all day to make seven bucks, but it will give me that very important psychological anchor going into 2002.
Pre-Market: Saw some negative news on oil price, IMCL downgrade made me look for a bullet on DNA. And when energy price is down I am supposed to be long airlines.
9:30: Right off the open I saw C gapping down and I took a small position for a gap-fill. Got out for flat and immediately it ripped. That was a very ill advised shot as I had ideas for three sectors and financials is not one of them. Don't try to do too much, focus on the stocks you picked out in the morning. DNA opened up 30 cents and I was filled at 55, covered for flat when futures squeezed a little. A very uncharacteristic mistake, BTK was the weakest sector of the day and I flipped DNA long, lost 20 cents perhaps more importantly missed the bulk of the downside move. OSX was up and HP was down and I went long with a market order, filled at 33.65 and out for flat. Chased AHC/GSF on fake energy rally (why did I chase a sector that had bad news in the morning?) lost 20 cents a piece. XBD squeezed and I went long LM amd took a 10 cents loss. With slightly larger size I tried to push today, it hurts. A look on my P&L I had zero winners and was down $700, ouch, not a good start for the New Year's Eve game. I started to think whether I have been too intense lately.
9:50: I have been using CTX as the index for home builders, and it went down hard, bulleted DHI for 40 cents (late entry, thankfully it had enough momentum to go down further). Then caught LEN, MHO, CTX, TOL, MDC near the bottom of that home builder sell-off. Got 5-10 cents scalp's off everything except MDC, which I took half a point out of.
11:00: Had someone in for an interview (if you are reading this journal, my sincere apology for not talking to you as much as I should have, I wasn't in the best of mood facing a deficit and literally zero opportunity to get back in the game) and loaded up a few more energy stocks. Had GSF, WFT, CVX, SII, lost 5 cents each on SII/CVS, got out of GSF/WFT for flat.
12:20: Scalped HI for 10 cents and I knew I was pushing my luck with no volume whatsoever, went to lunch.
2:30: Took LM long for a quarter on XBD pop. Scored 20 cents on DHI short. Unfortunately by this hour my sizes are a LOT smaller than morning lots so I had serious trouble erasing that deficit.
3:30: Bulleted DNA and at first he squeezed 25 cents in my face with futures tanking, covered half immediately for flat and when he came back in I went short for good. Took 40 cents and luckily covered at the bottom 53.51 with two minutes left in the game. Score check, I was up $7 and I am closing it out.
16400 shares each way on 8 of 16 shooting, +508 before commissions, +7.62 after. Not exactly my vision of a New Year's eve as I worked all day to make seven bucks, but it will give me that very important psychological anchor going into 2002.
Pre-Market: Saw some negative news on oil price, IMCL downgrade made me look for a bullet on DNA. And when energy price is down I am supposed to be long airlines.
9:30: Right off the open I saw C gapping down and I took a small position for a gap-fill. Got out for flat and immediately it ripped. That was a very ill advised shot as I had ideas for three sectors and financials is not one of them. Don't try to do too much, focus on the stocks you picked out in the morning. DNA opened up 30 cents and I was filled at 55, covered for flat when futures squeezed a little. A very uncharacteristic mistake, BTK was the weakest sector of the day and I flipped DNA long, lost 20 cents perhaps more importantly missed the bulk of the downside move. OSX was up and HP was down and I went long with a market order, filled at 33.65 and out for flat. Chased AHC/GSF on fake energy rally (why did I chase a sector that had bad news in the morning?) lost 20 cents a piece. XBD squeezed and I went long LM amd took a 10 cents loss. With slightly larger size I tried to push today, it hurts. A look on my P&L I had zero winners and was down $700, ouch, not a good start for the New Year's Eve game. I started to think whether I have been too intense lately.
9:50: I have been using CTX as the index for home builders, and it went down hard, bulleted DHI for 40 cents (late entry, thankfully it had enough momentum to go down further). Then caught LEN, MHO, CTX, TOL, MDC near the bottom of that home builder sell-off. Got 5-10 cents scalp's off everything except MDC, which I took half a point out of.
11:00: Had someone in for an interview (if you are reading this journal, my sincere apology for not talking to you as much as I should have, I wasn't in the best of mood facing a deficit and literally zero opportunity to get back in the game) and loaded up a few more energy stocks. Had GSF, WFT, CVX, SII, lost 5 cents each on SII/CVS, got out of GSF/WFT for flat.
12:20: Scalped HI for 10 cents and I knew I was pushing my luck with no volume whatsoever, went to lunch.
2:30: Took LM long for a quarter on XBD pop. Scored 20 cents on DHI short. Unfortunately by this hour my sizes are a LOT smaller than morning lots so I had serious trouble erasing that deficit.
3:30: Bulleted DNA and at first he squeezed 25 cents in my face with futures tanking, covered half immediately for flat and when he came back in I went short for good. Took 40 cents and luckily covered at the bottom 53.51 with two minutes left in the game. Score check, I was up $7 and I am closing it out.