It was the game of two fills as I got a horrible fill in the morning and missed a critical fill in the afternoon that cost me what would have been an ok game. As it was, I was chopped into little pieces.
11200 shares on 6 of 13 shooting, +368 before commissions, +45 after.
This is the kind of day you absolutely need bottom-up plays to get the flow going. I just found a trading group that trades news, the group leader spends 10-12 hours a day at the firm to answer questions and help new guys out. Every morning he hosts a morning meeting and both before and during market hours he puts up bullets and shares them with guys who can't afford to put them up (the minimum is 1500 shares and that is a lot of money for guys trading 200 share positions). One guy in his group started fresh out of college and 2 months into the game he already scored a check, even more impressive, he had 6 four digit day's this month trading 400-500 share positions, while I still think it is a fluke (since one of my friends is in that group and not doing so well and not so happy), it is hard to argue with the leadership. Granted, he doesn't give good commission rates, but he really helps his traders to the best of his ability. They caught EK today and the entire group scored 22K on ENE yesterday (granted, most of it probably went to a few guys as more than half of his group is made of newbies), CAH too was a play from yesterday and the group leader had the bullet up for his traders during market hours. His strategy is combining news with daily's, and watch the tape for size BID/ASK's when the market actually opens, then just bullet away. Simply yet effective, if you can interpret news as well as he does that is. I am going to harrass my friend every day now and see what did he play each day and why.
One day, if I have my own group (and don't laugh, because people started their own group at this firm with numbers worse than mine, although I want to max out my own potential before I even think about touching others), that's the model I am going after, unlike Mrs. D. who has her own group but not a single group meeting nor lecture. Although I will be easier on commission rates, the news trader lost some loyalty points because he had too hard of a grip on people's commission rates.
The good news is that First Alert is finally up and running, I have recreated four of Tony's filters that interest me (3 day pullback/reversal, 20 day breakout/breakdown) and I will let you know how they work. I am also looking for new scan ideas, as the program is flexible enough for just about anything I can think of, whether a big BID stepping up taking out size or a hammer at the end of a certain downtrend. If you have a bread and butter set-up and don't mind sharing, please do. (Keep in mind that the fact that Tony is a good trader has nothing to do with his set-ups as they are dead simple, it is the way he executes those set-ups that make him who he is, not the magical set-ups).
Overall however, this program requires itself to be on literally all the times to download data and re-calculate user defined formulas, so now I understand the need for a second computer just to run this (and I am going to add addition scans as time progresses, my fifth screen can probably fit 10 filters. Unless you want the total package, as it comes with its own charting/order entry system, I would say you are better off getting some other filter program to do the job. Even if you do need the whole package, I would say you get more for your money with something like Trade Station Professional.
In other word, I personally would not pay for this program, there are smaller and faster real time scanners out there and there are better full packages out there, this program is somewhat in the "no man's land", but since it is free I am going to milk it for the time being.
Pre-Market: DD/PX positive earnings (CEX strength, ouch did I get that one wrong), positive earnings news in DRG/BTK.
9:30: What's up? CEX is tanking hard, bullet first ask question later, I bulleted PPG when a big offer showed up, sold 1000 at 49.76, it collapsed as the index tanked 2% in seconds, there was an offer at 49.26 where I can get out of the whole thing and I got out half. That happened to be the intraday low and it took me a few failed attempt to "sell more into the squeeze" before I realized that the morning earning will probably create a serious rally. Why did CEX sell-off so hard today? It could be the oil prices too as it went up substantially this morning, but oil stocks didn't go up. Anyway, I kept my long biase on CEX so I took ROH/EMN/DD long at various times, got a quarter point on DD and missed the rest of the move, got a dime out of EMN as it was a weak stock, lost a dime or two in ROH as it was very choppy.
10:00: Ouch, OSX rally, I thought it would be like yesterday! Took DO and got a horrible fill at 27.90, high print of the first 4 hours! Lost half a point on that plus some extra churns. Took NE at 28.50 and as soon as I saw SLB showing weakness I dumped it for flat.
10:30: Didn't get back into PPG in time to score that half point. Took PX instead and got a 40 cents move. I really focused on CEX this morning. Took a little MMM at 107.10 and it was a failed breakout as futures quickly collapsed and I was out for a dime loss.
12:00: Shorted 100 NYT at 42.27 from OZ's 3 day pullback scan and my stop was too tight, lost a quarter and it closed on the low. What can I say, my filter was finally complete and I was really excited to try it even tho I know it is not a good idea to use it during the dead zone.
2:00: Every Wed there is some sort of news release at 2PM on energy supply, and most of the times nothing more than a little move happens and I usually lose money trying to play it, but today a huge rally hit and I missed it completely. I switched to SGY (lagger) when he was offering some shares at 35.42 at 2:01PM, I wanted to grab them all but someone did it first and fortunately I used limit buy, next print was 36.25. Took a 15 cents scalp out of NOI on a pullback but really churned NE as I tried to short it after OSX pulled back, but the stock was so strong and it refused to give in.
3:00: Tried HRB (3 day reversal) and CSC (20 day breakout), I was too desperate, those were not good set-ups and while I only did 100 shares it was a waste of time. Churned some more NE and realized that futures won't do anything today, did someone switch the calendar to August today?
5 games left, up 5K for the month, I would love to close the month out with a rally.
11200 shares on 6 of 13 shooting, +368 before commissions, +45 after.
This is the kind of day you absolutely need bottom-up plays to get the flow going. I just found a trading group that trades news, the group leader spends 10-12 hours a day at the firm to answer questions and help new guys out. Every morning he hosts a morning meeting and both before and during market hours he puts up bullets and shares them with guys who can't afford to put them up (the minimum is 1500 shares and that is a lot of money for guys trading 200 share positions). One guy in his group started fresh out of college and 2 months into the game he already scored a check, even more impressive, he had 6 four digit day's this month trading 400-500 share positions, while I still think it is a fluke (since one of my friends is in that group and not doing so well and not so happy), it is hard to argue with the leadership. Granted, he doesn't give good commission rates, but he really helps his traders to the best of his ability. They caught EK today and the entire group scored 22K on ENE yesterday (granted, most of it probably went to a few guys as more than half of his group is made of newbies), CAH too was a play from yesterday and the group leader had the bullet up for his traders during market hours. His strategy is combining news with daily's, and watch the tape for size BID/ASK's when the market actually opens, then just bullet away. Simply yet effective, if you can interpret news as well as he does that is. I am going to harrass my friend every day now and see what did he play each day and why.
One day, if I have my own group (and don't laugh, because people started their own group at this firm with numbers worse than mine, although I want to max out my own potential before I even think about touching others), that's the model I am going after, unlike Mrs. D. who has her own group but not a single group meeting nor lecture. Although I will be easier on commission rates, the news trader lost some loyalty points because he had too hard of a grip on people's commission rates.
The good news is that First Alert is finally up and running, I have recreated four of Tony's filters that interest me (3 day pullback/reversal, 20 day breakout/breakdown) and I will let you know how they work. I am also looking for new scan ideas, as the program is flexible enough for just about anything I can think of, whether a big BID stepping up taking out size or a hammer at the end of a certain downtrend. If you have a bread and butter set-up and don't mind sharing, please do. (Keep in mind that the fact that Tony is a good trader has nothing to do with his set-ups as they are dead simple, it is the way he executes those set-ups that make him who he is, not the magical set-ups).
Overall however, this program requires itself to be on literally all the times to download data and re-calculate user defined formulas, so now I understand the need for a second computer just to run this (and I am going to add addition scans as time progresses, my fifth screen can probably fit 10 filters. Unless you want the total package, as it comes with its own charting/order entry system, I would say you are better off getting some other filter program to do the job. Even if you do need the whole package, I would say you get more for your money with something like Trade Station Professional.
In other word, I personally would not pay for this program, there are smaller and faster real time scanners out there and there are better full packages out there, this program is somewhat in the "no man's land", but since it is free I am going to milk it for the time being.
Pre-Market: DD/PX positive earnings (CEX strength, ouch did I get that one wrong), positive earnings news in DRG/BTK.
9:30: What's up? CEX is tanking hard, bullet first ask question later, I bulleted PPG when a big offer showed up, sold 1000 at 49.76, it collapsed as the index tanked 2% in seconds, there was an offer at 49.26 where I can get out of the whole thing and I got out half. That happened to be the intraday low and it took me a few failed attempt to "sell more into the squeeze" before I realized that the morning earning will probably create a serious rally. Why did CEX sell-off so hard today? It could be the oil prices too as it went up substantially this morning, but oil stocks didn't go up. Anyway, I kept my long biase on CEX so I took ROH/EMN/DD long at various times, got a quarter point on DD and missed the rest of the move, got a dime out of EMN as it was a weak stock, lost a dime or two in ROH as it was very choppy.
10:00: Ouch, OSX rally, I thought it would be like yesterday! Took DO and got a horrible fill at 27.90, high print of the first 4 hours! Lost half a point on that plus some extra churns. Took NE at 28.50 and as soon as I saw SLB showing weakness I dumped it for flat.
10:30: Didn't get back into PPG in time to score that half point. Took PX instead and got a 40 cents move. I really focused on CEX this morning. Took a little MMM at 107.10 and it was a failed breakout as futures quickly collapsed and I was out for a dime loss.
12:00: Shorted 100 NYT at 42.27 from OZ's 3 day pullback scan and my stop was too tight, lost a quarter and it closed on the low. What can I say, my filter was finally complete and I was really excited to try it even tho I know it is not a good idea to use it during the dead zone.
2:00: Every Wed there is some sort of news release at 2PM on energy supply, and most of the times nothing more than a little move happens and I usually lose money trying to play it, but today a huge rally hit and I missed it completely. I switched to SGY (lagger) when he was offering some shares at 35.42 at 2:01PM, I wanted to grab them all but someone did it first and fortunately I used limit buy, next print was 36.25. Took a 15 cents scalp out of NOI on a pullback but really churned NE as I tried to short it after OSX pulled back, but the stock was so strong and it refused to give in.
3:00: Tried HRB (3 day reversal) and CSC (20 day breakout), I was too desperate, those were not good set-ups and while I only did 100 shares it was a waste of time. Churned some more NE and realized that futures won't do anything today, did someone switch the calendar to August today?
5 games left, up 5K for the month, I would love to close the month out with a rally.
Man, that sounds familiar. Where did I hear that before� Oh yea, ME! Who says history doesn't repeat itself?