Mike's Swing Trading Journal

Trend Fader · Apr 13, 2005

Dumped EFD.. dont like the way stock is trading. Took a minimal loss on it.

Out of UGI... took a small gain on it. Just churning my account for now.. nothing really making money.

Trend Fader · Apr 13, 2005

Dumped everything.. dont like the market.

Trend Fader · Apr 13, 2005

My account is down a little for the week. Market is doing real bad... not the time to be heavily long.

Trend Fader · Apr 13, 2005

Short 300 SGR @ 19.07

Trend Fader · Apr 14, 2005

Dumped SGR for tiny profit. Market is super weak.

Now is a good time to tread very lightly. I am in cash as of this moment.

Trend Fader · Apr 14, 2005

Basically... my strategy is working. At times like these when anyone going long is getting killed.. I walk away with pretty much breakeven results. I took a very small loss because I was protecting my capital and recognized the weakness in the broader markets.

The only money to be made is shorting right now.. however its just not something that every made me real $. I do put occasional shorts for quick swing trades.. but the fact that I cant scale into the position.. is the problem. Pyramiding into a short position as the market is tanking is almost suicidal because a snap back reversal will easily wipe you out.

--MIKE

Trend Fader · Apr 14, 2005

short 100 kbh @ 116

Trend Fader · Apr 14, 2005

Short 150 MON.. @ 58.01

GoodPunk6 · Apr 14, 2005

Quote from Trend Fader:

Basically... my strategy is working. At times like these when anyone going long is getting killed.. I walk away with pretty much breakeven results. I took a very small loss because I was protecting my capital and recognized the weakness in the broader markets.

The only money to be made is shorting right now.. however its just not something that every made me real $. I do put occasional shorts for quick swing trades.. but the fact that I cant scale into the position.. is the problem. Pyramiding into a short position as the market is tanking is almost suicidal because a snap back reversal will easily wipe you out.

--MIKE

So once you go short you never add to your position? You can scale into your shorts in a similar fashion to your longs. As they say, "Wait for the bounce."

P.S. It's nice to see someone else taking losses. So how much of a loss are looking at here?

P.P.S. I'm not being funny.

Trend Fader · Apr 14, 2005

Quote from GoodPunk6:

So once you go short you never add to your position? You can scale into your shorts in a similar fashion to your longs. As they say, "Wait for the bounce."

P.S. It's nice to see someone else taking losses. So how much of a loss are looking at here?

P.P.S. I'm not being funny.

On page #2 i mention as to why I dont pyramid into shorts. It is a very dangerous practice.. and will only work in a full fledged bear market. Market corrections are short and extremely volatile.. its not a time to get heavy into a position.

Markets do not behave the same going up as they go down. Look at charts of DRL, IBM .. they are good examples. When pyramiding into a short the percentages are against you and to make it work you will have to increase much more size as you pyramid

Goodpunk,,, just to let you know.. i never look at intraday charts for swing trading they are irrelevant.

I am down slightly.. around the $500 amount the past few days. That is an insignificant amount for me. On good weeks i make about 3-5k. An avg loss for the week is about $1k. I have been doing this for many years.. so i dont even flinch taking losses.

--MIKE