cm69,
I ran across your journal here and read it.
I have to compliment you on your honesty along the way.
You have reported the good, the bad, and the ugly and just kept going like the Energizer Bunny.
Here is a friendly suggestion from an older trader on a successful technique that I have used for years:
Since you started this adventure on July 11, 2006,
the SPX and Nasdaq are up roughly 15%.
Ask yourself a question:
Is you account up 10% to 15% since July 11th?
If the answer is yes, then you have done a good job.
If the answer is no, here is why:
The Nasdaq has been in a powerful uptrend since late August.
Bring up a 1 year chart of the $COMP (Nasdaq) with daily candles
and display the 20 day moving average and 50 day moving average.
When the rising 20dma is above the rising 50dma, this indicates we have a strong intermediate term uptrend.
Under these conditions I only go long on swing trades and I only trade uptrending stocks that have made a recent new monthly high and have now pulled back to their rising moving average support.
I want to see 3 to 5 consecutive negative candles with consecutive lower highs and then a narrow range bar or hammer candle at or around a support MA or a trendline.
The next day my entry is a price move 5 cents above the narrow range bar or hammer candle.
My initial Target is a 5% rise above my entry or the prior rally high, whichever is the lower of the two.
My stop is 11 cents under the lowest low of the prior two candles.
If the stock moves up +1.00 but I am not yet at the Target goal, I sell one half the position and move the stop to breakeven or
5 cents under the prior day's low, whichever is the higher of the two prices.
I give each trade a total of 5 days from entry day and if all or some of the position still remains open near the end of the 5th day, I close it.
This is classical swing trading learned in multi-day training schools many years ago.
Jeff
I ran across your journal here and read it.
I have to compliment you on your honesty along the way.
You have reported the good, the bad, and the ugly and just kept going like the Energizer Bunny.
Here is a friendly suggestion from an older trader on a successful technique that I have used for years:
Since you started this adventure on July 11, 2006,
the SPX and Nasdaq are up roughly 15%.
Ask yourself a question:
Is you account up 10% to 15% since July 11th?
If the answer is yes, then you have done a good job.
If the answer is no, here is why:
The Nasdaq has been in a powerful uptrend since late August.
Bring up a 1 year chart of the $COMP (Nasdaq) with daily candles
and display the 20 day moving average and 50 day moving average.
When the rising 20dma is above the rising 50dma, this indicates we have a strong intermediate term uptrend.
Under these conditions I only go long on swing trades and I only trade uptrending stocks that have made a recent new monthly high and have now pulled back to their rising moving average support.
I want to see 3 to 5 consecutive negative candles with consecutive lower highs and then a narrow range bar or hammer candle at or around a support MA or a trendline.
The next day my entry is a price move 5 cents above the narrow range bar or hammer candle.
My initial Target is a 5% rise above my entry or the prior rally high, whichever is the lower of the two.
My stop is 11 cents under the lowest low of the prior two candles.
If the stock moves up +1.00 but I am not yet at the Target goal, I sell one half the position and move the stop to breakeven or
5 cents under the prior day's low, whichever is the higher of the two prices.
I give each trade a total of 5 days from entry day and if all or some of the position still remains open near the end of the 5th day, I close it.
This is classical swing trading learned in multi-day training schools many years ago.
Jeff