Trades 1-30-09, weekly, and monthly totals

My total for the month of January is (+3.54%) or (+$887.17)
My total for the week (1-26-09 to 1-30-09) is (+2.19%) or (+$580.90)

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I’m happy with this month, but I need to do better. In order to do better I think that I should start watching for 10k picks again.

Looking forward to this weekend because I should be heading out on an overnight ice-fishing trip to a lake I haven’t fished in a long time.

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.49%) (+$130.84)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

DDM – Long (+.49%) (+$130.84) My only real trade for the day


SDS – Long (-.58%) paper-trade


Gapers: (0%) paper-trading

No trades

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-29-09

I can't think of anything to say today, so I'm just going to give you the numbers.

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.53%) (+$141.34)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

DDM – Long (+.53%) (+$141.34) My only real trade for the day


SDS – Long (+1.16%) paper-trade


DDM – Long (-.68%) paper-trade


Gapers: (+2.18%) paper-trading

SEPR – Long (+2.18%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-28-09

Today almost sucked, and I was reminded that I don’t like to trade fed rate decision days. After my trade this morning I more or less just took the rest of the day off (surfed the net).

I happily took the breakeven in SDS due to the fact that the market was going flat, and had a good chance of heading back up. The reason fed days suck for me is because the market tends to go flat (as you can see in the chart below) until the decision is announced, and it drives me insane! When things are flat/in a range like that I spend the whole time 2nd guessing myself.

Why I don’t like fed days:


The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.01%) (+$1.44)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

SDS – Long (+.01%) (+$1.44) My only real trade for the day Almost was reminded the hard way that I don't like to trade on fed rate decision days


No video today, went back to working on it.

Gapers: (-.66%) paper-trading

AVY – Long (-.66%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-27-09

Dinosaur Trader made a good post today about a chapter in the book Market Wizards, and I wanted to share it with you. The post is titled “Michael Marcus: Market Wizard”.

Orionmachine made a good video about why day trading is no riskier than long term investing/swing trading. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you. I would embed the video, but it looks so nice that you should head over there to watch it in HD. The link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yay_pGnDnMg

As far as my trading went, I almost screwed the pooch on my 1st trade in DDM. My mistake was not waiting a few more bars before I bought it. I thought about going short (buying TWM) instead but I noticed that the 10M chart was still in an uptrend, and the daily chart looked like we could break out to the upside.

After I exited DDM I decided to step away from the computer because I was a little shaken up. After about 10-15 minutes I came back, and found that I had missed a long in the DJIA (DDM) at about 11:45amMST. That didn’t bother me too much though because I know that it’s better to miss a gain than to trade while emotionally stressed. My 2 paper-trade losses in TWM, and DDM could have been avoided had I been willing to take more risk in TWM, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.92%) (+$243.09)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

DDM – Long (+.92%) (+$243.09) My only real trade for the day I should have waited longer before I entered, almost turned out to be a -1.24% mistake


TWM – Long (-1.47%) paper-trade Cut losses, would have held on but stop-loss would have been $69.98 and I couldn't take a 2.20% loss mentally


DDM – Long (-1.04%) paper-trade


UWM – Long (-.55%) paper-trade


Click here for a video of today’s trades

Gapers: (0%) paper-trading

No trades

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-26-09

I could have made more money today, but I thought things were going flat/the other way at the time so I took my profits.

No video today, I’m still working on the settings.

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.24%) (+$64.19)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

SDS – Long (+.24%) (+$64.19) My only real trade for the day


UWM – Long (-1.40%) paper-trade


TWM – Long (+.84%) paper-trade My risk was 1.87% (bad)


MS – Long (+.83%) paper-trade My risk was 2%, but it had a very nice reversal bar on the 10M chart so I went for it


Gapers: (+.30%) paper-trading

BVN – Short (+.30%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-23-09, and weekly total

My total for the week is (+1.20%) or (+$308.41).

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Things just weren't clicking for me today. I’m just glad I didn’t trade the whole day today.

No video today, orionmachine is helping me tweak some settings to record at higher resolutions (thanks man!).

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.02%) (+$3.84)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

SSO – Long (+.02%) (+$3.84) My only real trade for the day. Looked like the market was going to go down so I took the breakeven


UWM – Long (-1.39%) paper-trade


DDM – Long (-1.21%) paper-trade


Gapers: (+1.86%) paper-trading

SYNA – Long (+1.86%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-22-09

Had a good trade this morning, and if the paper-trading keeps up like this then I might end up trading all day again. I also did some forex today, which was an overall gain.

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.90%) (+$231.69)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

TWM – Long (+.90%) (+$231.69) My only real trade of the day. My original stopgain was $75.94, but I tightened it because it was losing momentum.


USO – Short (+.90%) paper-trade.


SDS – Long (+.50%) paper-trade


DDM – Long (+.38%) paper-trade
DDM – Long (-1.05%) paper-trade


Video of my trades:


Gapers: (-1.17%) paper-trading

MSFT – Long (-1.17%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-21-09 (more video!)

Instead of typing I decided to do make a short video for today’s trading:

(Video was shot in 720p so if you click here you can see it in the best quality)

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.72%) (+$187.54)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

TWM – Long (+.72%) (+$187.54) My only real trade for the day


DDM – Long (0%) I took breakeven because it looked like the DJIA was going to head back down


Video of my trades:


Gapers: (0%) paper-trading

No trades

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-20-09 (with video!)

It was a hard day to figure out where things were going. We had an overall trend down, but it was slow with small/quick bursts. I also paper-traded forex again today, but have no results for you because I’m still in a trade :).

The total figure for “Discretionary trading” does not include my paper-trades.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (-.44%) (-$114.66)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

DOG – Long (-.44%) (-$114.66) My only real trade for the day. Jumped the gun a bit, I should have waited a bar or 2 before entry
DOG – Long (+.20%)


TWM – Long (+.46%) Entry was too soon with this one, I should have waited 2 bars


Video of my trades:


Gapers: (+.46%) paper-trading

BAC – Short (+.46%) Traded 1/2 shares because of big spread, and was trailing stopped out

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Playing with forex

The US markets were closed so I paper-traded with forex today. I did pretty well for someone who wasn’t taking it too seriously. All end results listed are in USD, and the times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

Discretionary forex trading: (+$405.7974) paper-trading

AUD/JPY – Short (+$214.2662)
EUR/GBP – Long (+$138.9321)
AUD/JPY – Short (+$325.5697)
EUR/GBP – Long (+$192.4931)
EUR/GBP – Short (-$-$583.4527) I should have had my stoploss above 0.9080 (stopped myself out too soon)
EUR/USD – Short (+$117.9890)

Here is the video of the charts, it’s a crappy looking video so if you want the screenshots let me know via comment.

Trades for 1-16-09, and weekly total

My total for the week is (+2.25%) or (+$568.17).

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Not much to say today other than I’m starting to get sick, which caused me to miss out on a gain this morning. I also played (paper-traded) with forex a little this afternoon which turned out good, but I didn’t take it seriously therefore I felt I shouldn’t post the results.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (-.70%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

TWM – Long (-1.16%)


DDM – Long (+.46%)


Gapers: (0%) paper-trading

No Trades

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-15-09

Most of the day was boring for me, no real trades just some paper-trades. My day consisted of surfing the net, and making forum posts. I also upgraded the software I use for the 10k strategy. It was called Blocks, but it’s now called StockFinder.

Edited yesterday’s post, it was showing a gain on the 10k strategy when I had no trades with 10k. Another edit was done to my link in “The 10k strategy” for my list of stocks I use for that strategy.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (-.83%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

TWM - Long (+.29%)
TWM – Long (-1.12%)


Gapers: (+1.21%) paper-trading

AAPL – Long (+1.21%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-14-09

Trading only the morning paid off again. I’m so used to trading flat markets that I just waited for where I thought the bottom would be then I went long. I was correct, but I came pretty close to being stopped out.

The total figure listed in “Discretionary trading” is my real trade figure.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.82%) (+$204.99)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

UWM – Long (+.82%) My only real trade for the day


SSO – Long (-.72%) paper-trade


UWM – Long (-.78%) paper-trade


Gapers: (+.36%) paper-trading

ERIC – Long (+.36%)

10k strategy: (+.43%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-13-09

I’m somewhat surprised with my gain today seeing that the DOW was in a 50ish point range until about 2pm market time. Looks like I’ll be sticking with my decision to only trade the mornings for the rest of the week.

The total figure listed in “Discretionary trading” is my real trade figure.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+1.01%) (+$257.34)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

TWM – Long (+1.01%) My only real trade for the day


SSO – Long (+.01%) paper-trade It was likely to go down so I took the breakeven. I was right, but I could have gotten my stopgain @ $24.84.


DOG – Long (-.18%)


UWM – Long (+.54%)


Gapers: (-.33%) paper-trading

FSLR – Short (-1.62%)
FSLR – Long (+1.29%)

10k strategy: (0%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

No trades

Trades for 1-12-09

Today I’m glad I stuck with my decision to only trade the mornings then paper-trade the rest of the day. Had I of traded for real all day I would have ended my day down in “Discretionary trading,” but flat over all due to the paper-trade in 10k. The total figure listed in “Discretionary trading” is my real trade figure, so if you want to include my paper-trades you’ll have to do the math yourself :P.

I also started paper-trading gapers, and only the results (below) will be posted unless screenshots are requested via comment.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.42%) (+$105.84)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

UWM – Long (+.42%) My only real trade of the day
UWM – Long (-.78%) paper-trade


BAC – Long (-.90%) paper-trade
BAC – Short (+.87%) paper-trade


10k strategy: (+.43%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Eastern Standard Time.

DOV – Short (+.43%) paper-trade


Gapers: (+.85%) paper-trading

NIHD – Short (+.85%)

Trades for 1-9-09, and weekly total

My total for the week is (-2.10%) or (-$570.31)

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This week was crap for trading, and I hope all you other traders out there did better than I did. I’d say all but one of the days this week were choppy. Today I just made a paper-trade this morning then called it quits because I figured it’d be choppy, and I had to do some projects around the house.

Once I was done with the handy work I sat down with my dad and we did some thinking about how we could make some money in this market. What we came up with was that I should just trade the morning (until noon NYSE time) then call it quits for the rest of the day until things go back to “normal.” The reason we came up with that is I noticed that I do ok early in the day, but as the day goes on I rack up the losses. We also looked at my old results from trading gapers, and decided that I should start paper-trading them again from market open till about 10am NYSE time.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (+.02%) paper-trading
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

DOG – Long (+.02%) The DOW hit support on the daily chart, so I took the breakeven


10k strategy: (0%)

No trades

Trades for 1-8-09

So yeah, down again which made me down 2.27% from the last trade of yesterday to today. About 2%-2.50% (or 4 down trades in a row) is where my rule tells me to stop with discretionary trading. I did stop, and looked over my trading to see if there was anything wrong. What I found was that it was a combination of little things that added up, of which 2 were big enough to note. The first was that I’ve been paying too much attention to the indexes (dow, s&p, etc.) which was influencing my stock picks. The only time I should be using the index is when I am playing an index ETF, not when I’m looking at a stock. The 2nd thing was that I need to blow up each chart (5M, 10M, daily) before my entry to spot any support/resistance levels that I missed.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (-1.27%) (-$332.16)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

UWM – Long (-1.27%) Missed the stop-loss level I should have picked @ $19.74


10k strategy: (0%)

No trades

Trades for 1-7-09

Sorry it took me so long to post, I went ice-fishing after I was done for the day.

Totals for the day
Discretionary trading: (-.74%) (-$205.48)
All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time.

TWM – Long (+.34%) I should have stuck with $61.48 for my stopgain


USO – Short (+.59%) Played the oil inventory report


MON – Long (-1.22%)


SSO – Long (+.55%)


DDM – Long (-1%)


10k strategy: (0%)

No trades

Trades for 1-6-09

It was a chopfest for most of the day, and I should have trusted my gut when it told me to stop trading. I didn’t and entered BA on a short, not knowing that the market was going to rally. I’d also like to say hello to my new followers, and feel free to comment on anything :). Totals for the day Discretionary trading: (-.40%) (-$114.50) All times on the charts are Mountain Standard Time. FCX – Long (+.33%) UWM - Long (-.21%) UWM – Long (+.16%) Was only looking for a "quickie" RIG – Short (+.04%) BA – Short (-.72%) I should have trusted my gut and took the rest of the day off before I entered this one 10k strategy: (0%) No trades