Trades 26/11/14

Happy with my trading today - showed enough patience with $XOMA, but knew when to take profits. $VGGL finally I was able to trade in/out quickly for a profit without getting spooked out or overstaying my welcome

Longs: 

$KSS calls on Ackman news, in .85 out .95

Shorts: 
$AMCN with 3 risk; stopped out, should have waited for better entry as it did as I expected
$XOMA held some o/n and added some, then covered most low 5.30s and mid 5.20s; added on a bounce 5.33

$BDR 2.70 risk - small position, still holding
$CANF on this dead cat bounce, started in tiny

$BECN starter 27.2 risk; no go

$VNET .60 risk

$VGGL on hod rejection - tight stop and small size, will cover on quick dips; glad I did, it bounced back quickly. For once I was happy with a few cents rather than waiting for a big flush and watching my position going back to even

Trades 25/11/14

Another short day for me, if I make a few hundred buck in the first hour no point to stick around if I have other things to tend to

Longs:  

$AEMD blarg, couldnt stand being long this pos, even with 2500 lousy shares; turned out i sold near hods, cant be too careful with these

Shorts: 

$ISNS on $DGLY weakness - good trade, though I expected it to drop more considering how weak DGLY was; re-shorted tiny later when it finally seemed to crack, unfortunately filled less size than original position

$XOMA with hod risk on lower high; lovely trade, except i added lower thinking g/r wash, since i lowered my avg, i covered when it started grinding back, will look for another pop; pretty annoyed i let other traders influence my decision making here, adding lower anticipating a wash is not my style 

$GERN added to swing position i had; also fat fingered a small add (was meant to be a cover, marked in blue)

$TENX 4.03 on momentun lost

$NES tiny; didnt like it

$AMCN 2.90 risk; no go

$BDR 2.5 risk too illiquid, cut it flat

$MNK small trade

Trades 24/11/14

Short day for me, only traded the first half hour.

Longs: 

$TENX in 4.30s didnt fill much, out in the 4.50s

Trades 21/11/14

Made majority of the trades uncharacteristically in the first 30 minutes, was trying out a few new setups which worked well mostly

Longs: 

$GERN with .40 risk (some of my sells I executed via IB so they don't show on the chart)

$ECRY with a lousy 1k shares just to say I traded it - bought 25 sold 30-32

$EDAP (sold on IB)

Shorts: 

$SPY 200 puts on this gap up

$ARUN best trade of the day, applied patience, covered washes, add near support

$ERY another decent trade

$MOLG with 6 risk- should have waited for a better entry near 6; annoyed how I messed this up, covered over 6, and reshorted lower; overall not a big loss but bad entry; ah that big drop to re-test lows ... where I originally had my covers. 

$WAIR $15 risk, again here, should have waited for the trade to come to me, nearer 15 instead of taking full position in the 80s only to be spooked out of half when it crossed 15; got bored eveutally

$BIND tiny position 7.8 risk

$VLCCF .90 risk worked ok, spooked out by a big 6.75 bid, eventually it snapped and went lower

$TASR .75 risk worked perfectly, used very little size though

$CLVS

Trades 19/11/14

First hour or so I was just shorting under $5 gold stocks and selling my o/n $SPY and $YHOO puts; On some puts I was patience enough to sell for a double (the small positions) on the larger ones (still only 30 contracts) I scaled out, last few were doubles; I again lacked the patience to hold for the bigger prize ... I'll eventually learn, especially as these were meant to be swing positions rather than o/n gappers;
Unfortunately I used IB this am mostly (meaning crappy charts today), as I'm still more comfortable using it, especially at the open.

Pretty pleased with my $VIPS trades, played really small, however nailed tops and covered washes really well. Should provide me with confidence to take more risk next time.

Longs:  

$CLF 8.8 risk for 9+ didnt work

Shorts: 

$CSTM with .50 risk; stopped out - wasnt best setup 

$KGC on trend break, hod risk, looking for 5-10c

$NADL flat line so tiny position and tight stop 3.35, looking for fade back to 3; Gave up on it 3.17-3.21

$RIC $MDW $IAG $PPP on $ANV death; s/s at the open and scaled out

$VGGL got bored, took a few cents; need to work on them boredom covers

$VIPS 21.4 risk - nice covers! shorted again 21.5 and covered quickly to focus on $RIC; later shorted on parabolic, only 100sh, covered into a wash; 3rd time 22.15 with 22.25 risk, again covered on a dip; final time at 22.40s with 22.60 risk

$CLF only filled 100 - nice duvet! 

$YHOO real tight stop, eyeing the bottom falling off

Trades 18/11/14

So while I did trade plenty of stocks today, I did exercise *some* patience (with entries) and traded well today. I'd possibly be able to squeeze more from individual stocks if I had more patience and not jump to the next setup, but I'm still learning, so I like to experiment with as many setups until I find my favourites.
Only got caught out on one trade ($SUNE) used too much size when it was way too bullish to short. 

Lessons:

• Be patient when going long and have the "big picture" view:
• as soon as I bought today I was underwater and about to sell for a loss, had to remind myself the big picture and actually respect my stoploss instead of just bailing. 
• $CANF was too illiquid to trade even if it was setting up nicely, one big seller could ruin it

Longs: 

$SNSS great trade, textbook @investorslive weak open r/g

$CANF I bought where I'd normally s/s - figuring this should squeeze more; worked well; Tried again on ABCD, wasnt really liquid enough, when it failed and broke support I sold rest and shorted; Overall was up on the trade.

$BDR 2.15 risk - nice patience here, buying on dips and not getting spooked when "they" pulled support making it look weak; nice hod sells too

Shorts:

$GERN 3.10 risk; couldnt break 3.10 so I added a few; covered when it made nhods; reshorted when it broke support and it became resistance; just burnt commissions on it, had no real range, but didnt want to miss a big flush

$VGGL had a great avg, but not enough confidence after y'days diabolical trading that I took a quick profit; re-shorted later in the day anticipating further bleed at 2.50s; shorted pops covered flushes

$AEMD with .47 risk IB had only 2k shares

$YHOO puts - great covers as this thing spiked $1 rather quickly off lows; Later in the day it looked weak again (especially compared to SPY) so I am swinging some puts

$NBS daimn i had a good entry there ... again y'days trading was on my mind so covered for a quick profit ... what an epic fade

$OME with .80 risk; good for a few pennies

$TERP ouch, got caught in a spike, i am done shorting on day1 strength. DERP.

$CYBR small position, 43 risk, looking to make 1-2 bucks; made a few pennies

$CLF 10.30 risk

$JASO on trend break, only a small position

Trades 17/11/14

Had one of them horrible trading days where I just couldn't stick to my rules.
For the hundredth time I promise myself this is the last time ...

I find that 9/10 times when I start the day by breaking a rule, and starting the day down on the day I end up having a shi**y day.
Today I started for some reason by a completely unnecessary rule breaking pre-market trade on $BHI which set me back $250. Not the best way to start the day. And that trade messed up the rest of the day for me. I traded it again, and $HAL trying to make the cash back, in pre market again, and that set me back even further.
Sure, "only" $500, but that completely messed up my focus going into the open, and instead of what I usually try to do (not make trades the first half hour) I started shorting $VGGL and $GERN without respecting rule no.1 - FOCUS ON ENTRY; 
So while I cut $VGGL for -25c (my average was in the low 3.20 so could have been a catastrophe) I used too much size on it (to make up losses) and now I was down 1.5k. $GERN similar story, set me back another $500.
Another rule I have is to step away when I'm down more than $1k on the day. Didn't respect that either.


Below are a few trades I made with DAS which actually made sense. I'm going to start using DAS exclusively, it somehow forces me to at least consider my entries and I'm less compulsive doing so.

Longs: 

$VGGL with 4 risk for eod run

Shorts: 0/1 

$BHI

$GPRO

$MOBI another commission burner. That's ok, helps with the learning

$RCPT 105 risk, 103 target; I seem to have the habit of getting tired of winners and hanging on to losers much too often,target hit right on the head

$GPRO

$HGR started on trend break, added higher and it turned into a decent trade

$JNUG

$DNR didnt work first time, tried again on parabolic 10.25 with 10.30 risk; didnt work again, that's the problem with anticipating, you're sometimes (most times) wrong. At least I cut it loose quickly once proven wrong; Third time worked the charm, though it *just* covered the losses of the two previous attempts

$MOBI with 6.40 risk