NoDoji's Day Trading Log

[trader_david]

nice job.

but you should not lock your view about a thing. the best trader never uses bias to trade, just the direction. No pre-set opinion is the best mental status since market may quickly turn around and throw at your face and negnate your view.

if you lock a view, you could not see market's another side or will neglect other very important information.

it is hard to keep neutral.

Quote from NoDoji:

+$400

The schizoid action on the job numbers left me with no taste for the ORB. I felt the market was too toppy to break out hard to the upside and too strong to break down hard to the down side.

I decided instead to play with my fave, ANF, larger size.

Short ANF @ 37.43 quick pullback from double top overbought, covered @ 37.02 for +$200.

Sim traded CL for a while, as usual consistently leaving money on the table by trailing stops too close. Finally, found a decent strategy in bracketing the order and placing a limit near the next S/R zone and just leaving the initial stop in place; whichever filled first canceled the other and that was that. I put on a bracketed trade, left my office and returned to see my Realized P&L larger. This was a great to avoid the slippage of getting stopped out of the trade. At some point I really am going to trade this thing live…

Later, short ANF @ 37.52 momentum drop off failed break out through the new HOD, covered @ 37.11 pivot off oversold for +$200. I had to laugh that both trades ended up being the exact same net profit.

I can’t ever bring myself to trade ANF to the long side of its swings, because I have a personal bias that a retail stock should not be trading at a P/E of 70, so I always feel like it’s gonna puke when it’s near lows. I should know better than that with a short interest of 15% (probably higher now that it was upgraded and made new highs recently).

After those moves, the chop zone ensued and I backed away from my trading platform…

 

[bighog]

Difficulty with trail stops really mean your risk management is off. Think about that for a minute. If you were giving your trades enough room to "WORK" then you would not be getting stopped out so much.

You should try to NOT put trail stops in and just finesse your trades more. It is incorrect to use TRAIL stops when your profit targets for the trail stop is not in line with the potential of the trades pre-determined profit target. No one likes to give profits back. A cow needs time in the grass to produce milk, bring them in to milk to often and you will end up with less milk for the day.

I believe many traders use trail stops believing they can save profits more than MAKE profits. Trail stops appear to be more than they really are because the first part of trading needs to be how to accumulate profits and not how to protect fragments of those profit targets. That is why many that use trail stops say they are getting stopped out to often.

Plan the profits first, worry about saving them later.

Do not put the EGG before the CHICKEN. Hope this helps.

Nod is back to making grocery money. Keep it up, i see progress in the technique. I am glad you can see some good in stochs. Whatever works......... thats what makes a mkt. Never give up on simple though because thats where it's at.

PS: When i look at a chart with stochs i just shake my head. I remember Connie Brown in her book, she loves stochs. What was that guys name, George Lane?

YEP, http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...chastics+george+lane&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

PSS: maybe in a year or so Nod will say "I can feel price momentum without watching stochs.

 

[wmb]

Lane willmove his stop up to the bottom ofeach of these pullbacks, sometimesraising his stops five or six times ina day.Managing stocks“I keep following up the market asit’s going my way by bringing thestops up close,” he continued. “Soafter a while, I can’t lose becausethe stop is higher than where I gotin. I’m forcing myself to take aprofit.“This is money-management –and the most important part oftrading. Any fool can trade... buthe’s got to develop rules to protecthimself against losses. There arelots of guys out there trading andmaking fabulous amounts ofmoney, but they give so much of itback. You’ve got to have the atti-tude that once you’ve mademoney, they don’t take any of itback. “

well that was a great article and thanks for the info about trailing stops. it makes sense that im not planning enough ! i plan my entries pretty thoroughly but the exits are an issue!

 

[NoDoji]

I've made a mess of profits by trailing stops. I've been learning that, for me at least, it's best to leave the initial stop in place until reasonable move has been made in my favor, then I move it to b/e and try to exit the trade via a limit order at a specific S/R zone where price will likely pivot.

This is nice trade management in a range or a trending range, like ANF today. ANF was basically trading in one wide range and stochastics were my guide to entry and exit.

In an established trend, I think moving stops just outside each pullback pivot makes sense. Then you'll either get stopped out when price breaks down the trend, or if you have a good feel for the price action after a certain number of legs in the trend, you'll sense support or resistance starting to kick in and get exit near a swing high or low.

My ANF trade yesterday was a trending trade so the only use I had for stochastics was to see that on the DAILY chart ANF was hugely overbought and once it pulled back from a new high, chances were very good it would trend down several legs before buyers came back in, which is why I decided to sit on my hands and let the trade work.

So much to learn; I imagine some day it all becomes second nature. I'd like to stand behind a long-time pro trader for about a month and just watch.

 

[oraclewizard77]

I don't trail stops with futures at this point. I have a profit target and a stop loss.

For real account made more money on my put trade than in futures.

For longer term stock swing trades, I like to scale out and in.

For example, news is starting to get negative or no news is being reported, so start to scale out no matter if I am at a profit or a loss.

For example, news is starting to get better, I start to scale in again no matter if I am already at a profit or underwater in the trade.

Diversification, if I feel some stocks are performing much better than others, add more shares to those names.

I also have certain targets that I plan to sell the shares, not just hold forever.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from oraclewizard77:

For longer term stock swing trades, I like to scale out and in.

For your swing trades, do you start scaling early in expectation of a swing reversal of the current trend (such as AMT scaling his ES short from the 1070's through the 1090's, then taking profits on the major pullback to 1028), or do you scale throughout a particular trend, adding on each pullback in the trend (basically adding to a winner)?

 

[trader_david]

bought 500shares ANF at 38.8, just a test. ANF is in up trend. trend is your firend

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from trader_david:

bought 500shares ANF at 38.8, just a test. ANF is in up trend. trend is your firend

Also ANF beat earnings AND has very high short interest, so 38.80 should be a fine entry point.

 

[trader_david]

bought another 500shares at 38.9.

plan to lose

Quote from NoDoji:

Also ANF beat earnings AND has very high short interest, so 38.80 should be a fine entry point.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from trader_david:

bought another 500shares at 38.9.

plan to lose

It's been in the 39.00's for a while now. Hope you took some profits @ 39.40 in case of a gap and crap