The Life - Intraday trading journal

TheLife · Jan 4, 2011

11:41 Out of JBL +.04 --> adjusted stop to top of base that had formed

12:03 Out of AES B/E --> Adjusted stop to B/E after it got within 2 cents of my PT

12:09 Out of OVTI +.36 --> Hit my profit target

TheLife · Jan 4, 2011

Quote from jokepie:

WHY DID U not GO LONG after your short FAILED ???

It didn't meet my setup requirements and I felt I would be chasing the up move. I like to see a retracement first.

If you look at the COV chart, when my long didn't work and I was stopped out (look at the long red 5 min bar at 1015-1020) and then the short green bar followed by a break of that bar on the next bar, I tried to go short there and couldn't get shares.

jokepie · Jan 4, 2011

Quote from TheLife:

It didn't meet my setup requirements and I felt I would be chasing the up move. I like to see a retracement first.

If you look at the COV chart, when my long didn't work and I was stopped out (look at the long red 5 min bar at 1015-1020) and then the short green bar followed by a break of that bar on the next bar, I tried to go short there and couldn't get shares.

It seems like you are using your stops as your exits, i know when I say this that its tuff. Try to identify loosers early and close them sooner. After MCP failed at 59 then moved about 15 cents against, may be you should have closed or lightned your positions. Again a tuf argument.

TheLife · Jan 4, 2011

Thanks for the post. I have a great deal of trouble with my exits still. I definitely thought about moving my stop to B/E (59.25) when it failed to break 59.00. I normally do this, but as I've analyzed my trades I've noticed that I tend to close out a lot of stocks that end up reaching my profit target.

One could also make the argument that my stop should have been above 60.50 to give the trade more room, I've debating doing more of these larger range plays as I do tend to get stopped out a lot.

jokepie · Jan 4, 2011

Quote from TheLife:

Thanks for the post. I have a great deal of trouble with my exits still. I definitely thought about moving my stop to B/E (59.25) when it failed to break 59.00. I normally do this, but as I've analyzed my trades I've noticed that I tend to close out a lot of stocks that end up reaching my profit target.

One could also make the argument that my stop should have been above 60.50 to give the trade more room, I've debating doing more of these larger range plays as I do tend to get stopped out a lot.

I still sometimes have a hard time dealing with this. The fact is that key is to know that the trend that you expected did not pan out and therefore should give you ground to get out of it. Do you use any moving averages to guide your trades ? can you stick a chart in to see what you are working with.