DT1 Swing Trading Journal

Quote from mars22:

hey,

NXTL has yet broken out of any key support/resistance. I have attached an annotated chart. One thing you need to be carefull when trying to trade a breakout out of one of these rectangle type trading range is that many times there is a false breakout which then reverses and ends up breaking the other way.



This is DT1's forum and I wouldn't want to deviate his forum way off topic. I think it would be a good idea to start a swing trading forum for the purpose of discussing various swing trading techniques.


Good idea mars.....

I am just curious to know what type of success you have had swing trading... Can you share your performance statisitcs with us... you can avoid the use of $ terms...
 
Quote from mars22:


This is DT1's forum and I wouldn't want to deviate his forum way off topic. I think it would be a good idea to start a swing trading forum for the purpose of discussing various swing trading techniques. [/B]

>> Hi Mars, I read your posts and appreciate your contribution to this thread. I am very interested in knowing more about the swing trading techniques you use. Please keep on posting here.
 
I did my homework this week-end. I analysed my past trades and read Mike and Mars posts. I will do a few changes to my strategy.

Stops
Obviously my stops are too tight. I was stopped out today on SEPR, ESI and CNF. As of now I will use larger stops. I will set them to the low or high of the "candle 2 days prior, or the privious day's low" as suggested by Mars. If I had worked like this from the begining I would have made a hurge profit on CERN as Mike pointed out. I review many stocks and this seems to be a very good strategy. The other thing is that I will set a maximum loss per stock equal to 1% of my account.

Trend
I had to take a lost today on ESI because I was not in the direction of the trend. As I said before I will always trade in the direction of the trend.

Entry point
My experience showed that it is better to trade durinf the last trading hour.

Volume
I use to trade stock with volume spike. I will keep on watching stocks trading 1.5 times above average volume. I did some tests on this and I get better results in these cases.

Trade exit
My strategy is to exit on the the first or second day.

Risk/reward
I select patterns where I "feel" there is room for a big move. Not easy to qualify. I try generaly to trade close to a R/S level or breakouts and I like to see that the move as already started.

Routine
One other thing that have not yet been mentioned is the importance of the routine. I review my Qcharts set up to accomodate my trading style.


Base on this analysis I selected only one stock today:
I sold 100 shares of CMNT at 5.32 with a stop loss at 7.41. I would appreciate to get your comments on this pick and also on my new trading rule.

DT1
 
DT1... I hope your adjustments will benefit you... It might take a some trades until you realize a difference..

I am a trend follower.. when I swing trade.. I never fade the trend.. dont let my screen name... fool you.. lol


--MIKE
 
Quote from DT1:

I did my homework this week-end. I analysed my past trades and read Mike and Mars posts. I will do a few changes to my strategy.

Stops
Obviously my stops are too tight. I was stopped out today on SEPR, ESI and CNF. As of now I will use larger stops. I will set them to the low or high of the "candle 2 days prior, or the privious day's low" as suggested by Mars. If I had worked like this from the begining I would have made a hurge profit on CERN as Mike pointed out. I review many stocks and this seems to be a very good strategy. The other thing is that I will set a maximum loss per stock equal to 1% of my account.

Trend
I had to take a lost today on ESI because I was not in the direction of the trend. As I said before I will always trade in the direction of the trend.

Entry point
My experience showed that it is better to trade durinf the last trading hour.

Volume
I use to trade stock with volume spike. I will keep on watching stocks trading 1.5 times above average volume. I did some tests on this and I get better results in these cases.

Trade exit
My strategy is to exit on the the first or second day.

Risk/reward
I select patterns where I "feel" there is room for a big move. Not easy to qualify. I try generaly to trade close to a R/S level or breakouts and I like to see that the move as already started.

Routine
One other thing that have not yet been mentioned is the importance of the routine. I review my Qcharts set up to accomodate my trading style.


Base on this analysis I selected only one stock today:
I sold 100 shares of CMNT at 5.32 with a stop loss at 7.41. I would appreciate to get your comments on this pick and also on my new trading rule.

DT1

OK.. here is a problem.. with CMNT... You have a %40 stop loss.. a little wacky...

If you cant find a good stop loss.. I would just take an arbitrary one .. like 2 or 3 times the ATR>.. In reality I woudlnt take a trade that didnt have a decent stop loss..

In order for you to make a 2:1 reward to risk on CMNT... the stock needs to go down 80%.. thats poor money mgmt..

In order to swing trade.. you constantly have to think of your gains as a multiple of your risk.. If your stop loss is at %5.. you should be trying to make atleast %7.5-10 on the trade...


--MIKE
 
Thank you for your journal. It is really teaching me. I have just begun to trade in the last month and I'm following the suggestions in Come Into My Trading Room. So far, I've learned I have a long way to go but I've learned that the money management part is really critical.

Jorge
 
Jorge,

I never read the book come into my trading room... is it worth reading.. any new key points Elder touches on? I am curtious as to what he has to say regarding exits and money mgmt.


--MIKE
 
Folks, thanks for the thread. I haven't done much posting before when I've had an open position. When I saw this thread, I thought to myself that I would start. Yet for some reason, I was reluctant to do so with this example:

4/7 Buy 300 BPUR @ $3.23 goal of $3.75ish (stop $3.10?)
4/8 Sell 300 BPUR @ $3.22 (-$9 total)

I just didn't like the way it was going. Wasn't really doing what I wanted/thought it might do. And then from reading some comments here on trend, I wondered why exactly I picked this time to get in. Probably paying too much attention to insider buying numbers, that I came late too anyway.

Generally, I feel good about getting better at taking a small loss that being stupid for a larger loss. However... I may have had a minor epiphany in looking at trends in a chart. Partially due to what I've read here and, I dunno, the self imposed pressure of posting an open position here... I feel like I have to be able to explain why I'm getting in. I'm thinking this is a good thing.

DT, do you mind if I post my trades as well?

André
 
Quote from Andre:

DT, do you mind if I post my trades as well?

>>> Hi Andre, You can post your trades here. That is fine with me. When this thread we'll be too long we could create another one and name it "Swing trading journals/technics" so that everybody can feel free to post their trades and comments.

I had a look at BPUR's chart. I think that if you get into a trade based on such fundamental analysis you have to give it some time. I only use technical analysis to trade. May be someone else could give you some advice regarding the analysis of insider avtivity.
 
Back
Top