ElecEquity's Active Trading Journal

Haven't posted in a few days. Basically flat so far this month, up a little. I've been mostly focusing on news plays intraday, a few RTM trades when I see them and nice looking breakouts on the daily charts. The latter two have been the main foci of my attention....I've been trading the news when I see it. I'm trading small size with my approach until I get into flow w/ my overnight strategy and then I'll be ready to turn up the juice. (flow for me = more clarity and I don't have to think through each trade actively...I just know my plan and I take action, sort of like how I approach RTM trades or news plays)

I'm heavily long overnight...the market looks like it could go either way right now..the employment #'s will be important...which is why I'll be at my desk bright and early ready to exit some of my positions and hedge myself as best I can should that number turn out to be poor.

Most positions are 500 shares...growth potential as large as I'm willing to embrace as some of these stocks are incredibly liquid. Open profit of $2,000.15.

Current holdings and entry prices (some entries from 2 days ago):
SFI - 10.26
VSH - 18.96
WLP - 68.71
LBTYA - 43.74
KLAC - 51.26
SFN - 14.57
NR - 7.49
CVH - 32.21
LSCC - 6.84
ALTR - 43.96
SCON - 3.54
UNH - 44.46
WLL - 66.57
XLNX - 33.70
CAM - 61.01
TTI - 14.10
WNR - 16.10

As you can see, I'm all momo overnight and looking to growmo. The market is definitely at an inflection point right now and looking somewhat weak w/leading stocks looking somewhat crippled. I'm hoping that the employment # doesn't suck tomorrow. If it misses expectations, I will short SPY, buy VXX pre-market and try to exit what I can pre-market.
 
Didn't get a chance to update until late tonight. I've had a very busy weekend...capping it all off this morning with a huge breakfast and mamosas. My first alcohol since New Year's. Anyways, back to business.

I pretty much got stopped out of most all of my overnight positions from Thursday in one way or another --- winners & losers.
I'm holding about 6 or 7 open trades coming into Monday. I'm pretty sure they're all precious metals, oil & gas related, and I think I'm holding one semiconductor stock...I can't list the symbols or entries tonight b/c I don't have access to my blotter until tomorrow morning. I'll post my the symbols and entry prices pre-market tomorrow morning.

There's a lot of economic data this week as well as the obvious Middle East tension. I'm not so sure what this market is doing. Although we sold of on Friday, I'll continue tentatively taking longs until I see some real confirmation on the downside. Thanks.
 
Present Holdings & entry prices as of 8:26 est...

LONGS
SCSS - 12.09
IVAN - 3.65
CPST - 1.63
HDY - 5.83
ICO - 10.35
EXK - 9.27
SVM - 14.22

SHORTS
None.

All low-priced stocks are just a coincidence. Futures are moderately positive...we'll see what happens. Good luck.
 
Okay day today. I made good money on my overnights from Friday. Being a momentum overnight kind of guy, I will be very, very reluctant to take any overnight longs...unless I try something that I've been noticing lately after reviewing my charts.

Most of my action in the near term will be RTM and news-related/earnings plays. I'm a little disappointed that the market is correcting right now as I've just become prepared to go full-steam ahead with my size in my overnight trades. But, it is what it is. If this market goes into full correction mode with strong volatile moves to the downside, RTM trades should provide great opportunities.

I may post a few stocks that I'm watching for short ideas tomorrow morning. As a heads up, IBD stocks that are finishing their run are always great short ideas. Thanks and good luck.
 
Sorry for not updating in awhile. I've been very busy tweaking and forward-testing 4 new automated systems and it's taken a lot of my time away from updating here on ET.

Not sure when I did the last update, but I've been trading well (up b/w $800-$1700 over past few days) and rediscovered how much I enjoy fading over the past few days. I haven't done very much trend trading ever since the market corrected, although Friday provided a few great opportunities for that style of trading. I've been pushing myself to consistently work my way into at least 3k shares/position (provided the liquidity is there) for fade plays. Once I become consistently comfortable at that tier level I'll be pushing it further.

My problem in the past with trading size in RTM plays was that I would push myself for a few days only to allow myself to habitually fall back into my 1k-2k/position comfortable zone. This time, mentally, things have definitely changed for me in regards to my vigilance in dealing w/ the ups and downs...probably b/c I've dealt with major drawdowns in my career since then (>$50k) and managed to recover.

The greatest element of this for me is that, for a long while, I had no strategy for up-trending markets and I only looked forward to volatility...now when the market is accommodating trend trades, I can focus on those throughout the day and when the market is more accommodating towards fading, I'll be focusing on largely on that.

For all you new guys out there, being able to adapt to changing market conditions is REAL. Even more importantly, you must recognize when what you're doing isn't working anymore...the sooner you can do that, the more money that you'll save yourself. Thanks for reading.
 
Today's results: +$1036.64

SHAW +683.52 -- gave back a lot of profits in this one
AMSC +460.84 --- good job taking the position (bad job holding for the big move)
HIG +422.38 -- all around good job on this one...kinda dragged my feet on size in this trade
KV.A +207.48 -- this stock tanked, I bought it, and exited on the bid on level 1 that kept stepping up; I exited on him once everyone started to take him out
CCJ +51.40 --- horrible..this stock should've been my biggest winner of the day...I hesitated at the open when I should've been diving in headfirst

SINA -300.16 -- should've stuck with this stock; but I let it go after losing in it twice --- 3rd time would've been the charm...
LWSN -137.80 -- this stock hit my long filter early & I missed the long and tried the fade and made a little money but later lost it all when it spiked later on in the day when I got long when I the Carl Icahn news came out --- not a bad job b/c usually Icahn's name associated with a a stock usually causes that stock to run, but maybe this one has been running for too many days already.

Those are my most significant trades of the day.

Today wasn't my best trading day, but I'm not complaining. I really feel like things are coming together even more for me. I've certainly noticed an overall improvement in my trading ever since I've returned to working out regularly.

The market is still not a buy according to everything that I watch. I only look to buy and hold overnight when the market is going up btw...I'm not into buying pullbacks in my active trading account. There are still headwinds for the market.

Looking forward:
- FOMC rate decision tomorrow
- Japan's nuclear situation continues to develop
- Libya and Middle East tension continues to develop
- USO looks like it may have found some support today

Good luck.
 
Japan now down 12%...we'll see what the situation looks like tomorrow morning. It's terrible what's going on in Japan right now. My prayers and thoughts go out to anyone and everyone involved and everyone that has family there and has lost family there. These are tumultuous times.

It's also unfortunate that due to what's going on in Japan, the situations in Libya and Bahrain aren't receiving any major coverage (on CNN at least...and understandably so).

Here's a link to a good article from a Chief Investment Officer on a blog that I follow quite closely.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/03/japan-and-bahrain-oh-my/
 
Today's results: +$5073.19 realized & +$5213.48 unrealized

Solid day thanks to volatility returning...even with good results there are still botched trades...

Best winners
EPD +5213.48 (unrealized)
CCJ +2029.30
SHAW +1888.06
VZ +1192.40 (didn't have nearly enough size here)
COP +518.45 (this is a botched trade should've been a multiple k winner)
FCX +306.94 (I was long for the upmove should've flipped it short in size and made this a big trade)

Worst losers
XOM -505.76 (this trade happened right after FOMC...had I stuck with it I would've killed it...this one hurts b/c it should be in the winner column)
MCP -261.48 (played the news and lost...I passed on playing the fade earlier and instead of at least making some money I lost...this is a tough stock to trade)
RIMM -253.40 (shorted the news b/c it was old..I was early and wrong)
AFL -216.00
NFLX -184 (what a run this stock had today...too bad it ran over me)
AAPL -132 (played the delayed Japanese iPad2 release news and lost)

Lessons for me today:
  • Feels nice to have the breakthrough day I've been feeling like was coming based on what I've been working on
  • Still find myself from time-to-time allowing myself to revert to small size...it's important to get comfortable in size b/c whenever the volatility returns, I need to be making 3x+ what I made today
  • I need to layoff the news plays, b/c I feel like they're mostly costing me money
  • I also need to remain open to trend plays and not make a decision pre-market that it's not going to be a trend day for strong stocks...I left a lot of money on the table by passing on a lot of breakout trades...I have to continue to trade these plays and continue to build my tolerance for holding multiple positions and dealing with the P&L swings that accompany this style trading.

Thanks for reading and good luck to you all.
 
Congrats for the good day !

And thanks for the journal, quite interesting with your posting of fav quotes from other treders.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top