Mike's Swing Trading Journal

Quote from aqtrader:

Insurance/Accident/Health group seems in trouble. Many stocks like CNC MOH AGP and WC were down a lot on heavy volume on 4/14. Looks like better to wait for more a few days. my 2c
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WC didnt get triggered anyways.. so I am not playing it anymore.
 
bought another 100 CREE in the after hours @ 25.32.

TXN good earnings.. techs might get a nice bounce. Cree is super strong the past few days.. coming off good earnings momentum.
 
Buystop Long 100 TAP @ 76.21

Buystop Long 100 MHS @ 50.31

These are 2 pretty strong orderly chart patterns. I am not doing any real size lately because of market conditions.
 
Thanks so much for sharing your info. I've only been in the market for a few years and probably qualify more as an "investor" then a "trader" - buying fundementally low valued stocks (or selling related puts) and holding for a while. This has done well for the last few years but I havn't liked the market for the last 3 or 4 months and have been looking at shorter term trading.

I've considered and studied a number of different approaches/styles/length and think that over time I'm going to do more swing trading then anything else. I will be following your journal as a learning tool and hope that I can share with you also.

I do have a question for you. Please keep in mind the fact that I'm very new to all this.... In the brief time I've been learning I've used indicators like the MACD and stochastic as a guide; and I like to look at the daily trends in context of weekly and monthly to get a feel for the general stock direction. In the case of CREE it sets up perfectly; the weekly is strong and should support a good push; in the case of MHS and TAP they look like they are just coming off overbought territory in the weeky view and have daily MACDs that look like they are more in a downtrend then not. In other words, looking at those indicators and not the trend lines or volume, they look weak. Anyway, I was wondering if you look at indicators like these when you trade or make selections - or if you look more at volume, trend lines, etc.

Thanks for sharing. Again I hope that I can help over time.

Mike
 
Quote from mlsignups:

Thanks so much for sharing your info. I've only been in the market for a few years and probalby qualify more as an "investor" then a "trader" - buying fundementally low valued stocks (or selling related puts) and holding for a while. This has done well for the last few years but I havn't liked the market for the last 3 or 4 months and have been looking at shorter term trading.

I've considered and studied a number of different approaches/styles/length and think that over time I'm going to do more swing trading then anything else. I will be following your journal as a learning tool and hope that I can share with you also.

Thanks
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Much obliged. I wll keep this journal going as long as I have people interested in reading and sharing.

I used to have another account that i used for longer trading which i liquidated a few months back. I looked for "cheap" stocks usually under $10 that i would hold for months. I did well and doubled the account in about 12 months. I bought a lot of oil, medical and metal stocks and rode the trends out. When those sectors started to get wild and prabolic i just finally dumped them for a nice profit. I definately left a lot of money on the table on many of my holdings, but thats part of the game.

The thing that I hated about that account was the volatility. It worked well because we were in a bull market but I hate riding drawdowns as the market pullback. Thats what i try to avoid in swing trading. I try to have a very smooth EOD account balance every day and week. I'd rather make less and be smooth than make a lot and have too much volatility. I tried daytrading everything from stocks to futures.. but nothing ever made real money. It was too much stress and I never felt comfortable moving around so much much $ to make so little.
 
I am out of Cree. Still holding half of MLNM.. if it closes above 8.70 will hold the remaining half.

MHS is a monster.. at EOD will sell a portion to lock in gains.

TAP trade was not taken.. i usually like to see the previous day's high get taken out before lunch time.
 
Nice Journal. I like you part on daytrading too. Too much stress for a little gain and the losses can add up. Somehow all the charts / time and sales DOM is good only for a few cents. I retired after big carnage in 01 and have been investing since 94.Most of my losses came thru @home - thinking broadband was the way and no other cable companies could replicate what they had. ( was I wrong ). I limped back in last yr daytrading but sitting in front of a computer for 10 hours to make 100/200 bucks or loose much more faster really did not make sense. I keep going back and revising my trading methods but still I think swing trading makes more sense. I know I am on the minority since most ppl on this site make money daytrading - maybe my methods are not upto everyone's standard ..

Keep up the good work
 
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