Did very little trading this week. Sold my swing trades and did a couple daytrades but that was it. Going to start trading again this week and hope earnings open things up a bit. It feels like this support level on the SPX isn't going to hold and were going lower but I'm in no mood to get aggressive and front run the action.
For the week:
Mon +424
Tue +621
Wen (756)
Thu +598
Fri (411)
===========
Total +476
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Week ending 7-3
Didn't travel anywhere this week, but I did take a break from trading and just hung out with the kids. Even after just 4 days away I'm already feeling freshed and looking forward to the second half of the year. I don't expect much to change trading condition wise until after summer, but maybe earnings will provide some nice opportunities. For the rest of July at least I'm going to approach trading on a day-by-day basis. If there's some decent setups then I'll hang around. If not then I'll go play or, most likely, pack some boxes to help get ready for our move at the end of the month.
I'm not sure what life will be like after the move with respect to trading time. I'm really looking forward to my new opportunity though. I can't say enough about living below your means, saving money and investing it wisely. If not for those things I wouldn't be able to take a stab at this opportunity. Basically I'm going into an established 40 year old business run by my father-in-law and hoping to grow it to the next level. While there's some financial security with this move the challenge is really what I'm after. I see a ton of money to be made capitalizing on what he's achieved over 4 decades.
At this point I do intend, with everyone's blessing I might add, to continue trading.
In some respect this month will end a chapter for this blog. When I first started in Mar I was without any job. As of August I will have income though at first it will be considerably less than I'm used to making. But, between my trading and other investments, I have managed to stay even financially so far after paying all living expenses. Our expenses will fall quite a bit after the move and we'll have income coming in so I hope to start growing my assets again in the very near future. I'm really looking forward to that!
This week is just the flucuation of a couple small swing trades I have open. No daytrades for the week.
Mon- +332
Tue- (270)
Wen- +156
Thu- (78)
Fri- mkt closed
===============
Total +140
I'm not sure what life will be like after the move with respect to trading time. I'm really looking forward to my new opportunity though. I can't say enough about living below your means, saving money and investing it wisely. If not for those things I wouldn't be able to take a stab at this opportunity. Basically I'm going into an established 40 year old business run by my father-in-law and hoping to grow it to the next level. While there's some financial security with this move the challenge is really what I'm after. I see a ton of money to be made capitalizing on what he's achieved over 4 decades.
At this point I do intend, with everyone's blessing I might add, to continue trading.
In some respect this month will end a chapter for this blog. When I first started in Mar I was without any job. As of August I will have income though at first it will be considerably less than I'm used to making. But, between my trading and other investments, I have managed to stay even financially so far after paying all living expenses. Our expenses will fall quite a bit after the move and we'll have income coming in so I hope to start growing my assets again in the very near future. I'm really looking forward to that!
This week is just the flucuation of a couple small swing trades I have open. No daytrades for the week.
Mon- +332
Tue- (270)
Wen- +156
Thu- (78)
Fri- mkt closed
===============
Total +140
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Week ending 6-26
I only traded one day this week and that was Monday. This market is just too damn boring right now and sitting there day after day doing nothing seems like a huge waste of time and there's no way I'm putting in 8 hours a day to make a lousy 69 bucks. Plus it's always a good idea to get away from the market every few months just to get recharged. I always seem to do much better after taking a break for some reason.
Anyway, looks like I didn't miss much. We are headed into a seasonally bullish period here so I did start a few swings trades last week. So far they're overall loser's but I'm willing to give them some room over this week and early next week.
Hopefully once earnings start the market will open up some but I'm prepared to sit on my hands and not do anything if that doesn't happen. Better times will come but for right now the best moves I've made all month have been to take vacations.
Here's the week, keep in mind everything after Monday was just the daily fluctuations for my swings. I may or may not trade next week depending on how I feel. Right now I'm inclined to continue in vacation mode.
Mon +69
Tue (640)
Wen (228)
Thu (1138)
Fri +571
===========
total (1366)
Anyway, looks like I didn't miss much. We are headed into a seasonally bullish period here so I did start a few swings trades last week. So far they're overall loser's but I'm willing to give them some room over this week and early next week.
Hopefully once earnings start the market will open up some but I'm prepared to sit on my hands and not do anything if that doesn't happen. Better times will come but for right now the best moves I've made all month have been to take vacations.
Here's the week, keep in mind everything after Monday was just the daily fluctuations for my swings. I may or may not trade next week depending on how I feel. Right now I'm inclined to continue in vacation mode.
Mon +69
Tue (640)
Wen (228)
Thu (1138)
Fri +571
===========
total (1366)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Week ending 6-19
Didn't trade much this week as I was out of town Sun-Wens, but at least I broke my 3 week losing streak.
All in all, the last 6 weeks have just been a complete waste and I've just been spinning my wheels. In fact, staying even over that time is somewhat of a victory, imo. Clearly I need to adjust my trading to this new market which is just boring beyond words. I think the best strategy going forward is to be extremely selective on set ups and perhaps incorporate a few swings trades even. One of my better trades this week was a swing and I probably sold way too soon I have a feeling. Oh well.
Given that this summer has been nothing less than brutally slow and boring with very few decent set ups on any given day I may well take a trip next week too. It seems to me the best idea of all maybe to just chill out and wait for better days to come. Patience, patience, patience.
For the week:
Mon +50
Tue +427
Wen (474)
Thu (833)
Fri +1133
===========
Total +303
All in all, the last 6 weeks have just been a complete waste and I've just been spinning my wheels. In fact, staying even over that time is somewhat of a victory, imo. Clearly I need to adjust my trading to this new market which is just boring beyond words. I think the best strategy going forward is to be extremely selective on set ups and perhaps incorporate a few swings trades even. One of my better trades this week was a swing and I probably sold way too soon I have a feeling. Oh well.
Given that this summer has been nothing less than brutally slow and boring with very few decent set ups on any given day I may well take a trip next week too. It seems to me the best idea of all maybe to just chill out and wait for better days to come. Patience, patience, patience.
For the week:
Mon +50
Tue +427
Wen (474)
Thu (833)
Fri +1133
===========
Total +303
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Week ending 6-12
I had a lot of stuff going on this week and that really effected my trading. I probably should have just taken off altogether in hindsight. I may not trade a few days next week since I'm likely going out of town to explore some business oportunities and check out houses out of state.
Anyway, for the week I managed only 2 winning days. The number should have been 4 but woulda's, coulda's and shoulda's don't count.
The two biggest mistakes this week, and there were several more, was on Wens I accidently shorted more ATNI that wanted too, 500 vs 100. To make matters worse I didin't realize it for a few minutes because I was distracted over some details with our upcoming move. That resulted in a $900 loss instead of $180 loss. Then on Thurs I shorted 1K ATPG near the close at 8.80 due to them pricing a secondary afterhours. My plan was to cover Fri morning. Well, Fri morning came and the stock opened around 8.70 in pre-market and again I had issue's going on regarding our move and covered at 8.70 for a $100 gain. Of course, the stock immediately fell to 8.00-8.10.
For the week:
Mon (80)
Tue +764
Wen (1176)
Thu +927
Fri (731)
===========
Total (296)
Anyway, for the week I managed only 2 winning days. The number should have been 4 but woulda's, coulda's and shoulda's don't count.
The two biggest mistakes this week, and there were several more, was on Wens I accidently shorted more ATNI that wanted too, 500 vs 100. To make matters worse I didin't realize it for a few minutes because I was distracted over some details with our upcoming move. That resulted in a $900 loss instead of $180 loss. Then on Thurs I shorted 1K ATPG near the close at 8.80 due to them pricing a secondary afterhours. My plan was to cover Fri morning. Well, Fri morning came and the stock opened around 8.70 in pre-market and again I had issue's going on regarding our move and covered at 8.70 for a $100 gain. Of course, the stock immediately fell to 8.00-8.10.
For the week:
Mon (80)
Tue +764
Wen (1176)
Thu +927
Fri (731)
===========
Total (296)
Friday, June 5, 2009
Week ending 6-5
These last 4 weeks have been nothing short of brutal and yet for some reason my confidence isn't being shaken and instead it's actually rising. The reason is because this is about the worst stretch I can ever remember having, but overall I've basically broke even.
This week though was pretty much a dog fight every day. The repeating scenerio was starting out with losing trades right off the bat and then trying to recoup as much of the losses as possible. Thursday was kind of a break through day though. I came into the day down $1500 for the week. AGEN, a piece of trash biotech, was gapping up for the 4th day in a row and screaming to be shorted. In the past I would have either avoided it for fear of getting caught in a short squeeze or more than likely taken a smallish position so as to insure I would turn a bad week into a horrible week. Instead, I decided to not let the 3 previous days influence me (thankfully I had a little time to think) and I shorted it with some size; by my standards at least. I was risking about $1200 so had it not worked it would have been painful but the setup was every bit what I hope for every day. In the end the trade worked and I covered for a $2500 gain. The lesson I guess is you need to know what a good setup is and be prepared to go for it regardless. That and measuring performance on a daily or even weekly level may be too restrictive to actually produce great results. That one trade really saved my week for being much worse though.
It looks as though we're probably going to be moving to another state in a few months. The move will greatly reduce our expenses plus provide me with a little non trading income. So far, in the 3 months I've been unemployed, between my trading and other investments, I've made almost exactly what I need to stay even. Hopefully the new situation will allow me to start getting ahead since I'll need to make about 3K/mo less it appears.
One weird thing....Even though my life hasn't really changed and I have just as much money as I did 3 months ago I still feel unemployed. I constantly feel like I need to get a job and I have to literally sit down and go over the numbers to convince myself that we're not going backwards and heading towards poverty. This has certainly been some experience thats for sure.
For the week:
Mon (978)
Tue (23)
Wen (503)
Thu +1848
Fri (898)
==============
Total (554)
This week though was pretty much a dog fight every day. The repeating scenerio was starting out with losing trades right off the bat and then trying to recoup as much of the losses as possible. Thursday was kind of a break through day though. I came into the day down $1500 for the week. AGEN, a piece of trash biotech, was gapping up for the 4th day in a row and screaming to be shorted. In the past I would have either avoided it for fear of getting caught in a short squeeze or more than likely taken a smallish position so as to insure I would turn a bad week into a horrible week. Instead, I decided to not let the 3 previous days influence me (thankfully I had a little time to think) and I shorted it with some size; by my standards at least. I was risking about $1200 so had it not worked it would have been painful but the setup was every bit what I hope for every day. In the end the trade worked and I covered for a $2500 gain. The lesson I guess is you need to know what a good setup is and be prepared to go for it regardless. That and measuring performance on a daily or even weekly level may be too restrictive to actually produce great results. That one trade really saved my week for being much worse though.
It looks as though we're probably going to be moving to another state in a few months. The move will greatly reduce our expenses plus provide me with a little non trading income. So far, in the 3 months I've been unemployed, between my trading and other investments, I've made almost exactly what I need to stay even. Hopefully the new situation will allow me to start getting ahead since I'll need to make about 3K/mo less it appears.
One weird thing....Even though my life hasn't really changed and I have just as much money as I did 3 months ago I still feel unemployed. I constantly feel like I need to get a job and I have to literally sit down and go over the numbers to convince myself that we're not going backwards and heading towards poverty. This has certainly been some experience thats for sure.
For the week:
Mon (978)
Tue (23)
Wen (503)
Thu +1848
Fri (898)
==============
Total (554)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Week ending 5-29
Thankfully May is over!
For the past 3 weeks trying to trade this market has been next to impossible for me. The first week of May was nice but after that all I did was churn and go nowhere. I guess the only good news is I didn't lose money over that time.
To me all I see right now is one headfake after another with no follow thru at all. When the moves come they seem to come out of nowhere for no reason I can discern. A stock that shows relative strength one minute becomes dead the next. Very frustrating to put it mildly. In hindsight taking quick gains was the was to trade, but thats not my style at all. All in all though, considering how poorly I traded it could have been a lot worse.
For the week:
Mon holiday
Tue +701
Wen (475)
Thu (475)
Fri (611)
============
total (860)
Month of May: +2933
For the past 3 weeks trying to trade this market has been next to impossible for me. The first week of May was nice but after that all I did was churn and go nowhere. I guess the only good news is I didn't lose money over that time.
To me all I see right now is one headfake after another with no follow thru at all. When the moves come they seem to come out of nowhere for no reason I can discern. A stock that shows relative strength one minute becomes dead the next. Very frustrating to put it mildly. In hindsight taking quick gains was the was to trade, but thats not my style at all. All in all though, considering how poorly I traded it could have been a lot worse.
For the week:
Mon holiday
Tue +701
Wen (475)
Thu (475)
Fri (611)
============
total (860)
Month of May: +2933
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