Friday, December 28, 2007

Friday Trade

Another trade today, decent, but not perfect. But, as always, I'll take a profit and learn something along the way.

CALM:

Bought 11:50am doji/hammer (not perfect),
50 shares @ $28.02,
target $28.50,
stop loss $ 27.55,
risk/reward 1.02 (usually low for long hammers such as these),
exit $28.04 (subjective sell, had to go as the wife was starving, she may be good luck as I'm getting out at good prices when she is waiting/begging/pleating for me to finish..)

All in all, a decent trade. Showed patience early on and then quickly exitted when I needed to go. The stock was looking 'heavy' when I sold, but that is not sufficient objective evidence for a sell. Nonetheless, I'll take the profit and move on.

Gross P/L: $19.00 net $16.98

As for my weekly stats, it was a great after-the-holidays market, at least for me.

Weekend balance: $3047.67, up +$31.36, +1.04%

Always another trade,
Masterjaz out

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Thursday Trade

Almost a week since my last trade, but it does not mean I've been ignoring the markets, just waiting for an opportunity. Found one today.

CHINA:

Bought 10:40am doji/hammer (not perfect),
370 shares @ $4.0595,
target $4.12,
stop loss $ 4.02,
risk/reward 1.5,
complex exit--
sold 100 shares @ $4.0905 (after move started, stagnated early)
sold 100 shares @ $4.1105 (at target)
sold 170 shares @ $4.1405 (subjective sell after my wife nearly broke my computer because I placed the trade a few minutes before we were supposed to go shopping!).

In reality, the final sell would have been at $4.10 (a new trade low after run and consolidation).

Lucky trade, I did like the 'waterfall' selloff into the doji (not perfect, but slight rise is due to the thinnly traded nature of the stock). I also watched the market and saw it was putting in a short term reversal when I bought and should've provided support for the trade.

Gross P/L: $21.97, net $14.38

I'll be watching the markets tomorrow am and see how the week closes and will post my weekend balance at the close.

Always another trade,
Masterjaz out

Friday, December 21, 2007

Friday Trade

Took a shot on Friday, in the afternoon after the morning was boring, at least with respect to my desired setups. So here we go:

GILD:

Bought 12:10pm doji (not perfect),
20 shares @ $46.04,
target $46.20,
stop loss $ 45.98,
risk/reward 2.67,
exited at $46.00 after revised stop loss (previous candle low if it makes a new trade high)

Gross P/L: -$0.80, net -$2.82

I would probably take this trade again, not a long enough lower wick and not a high moving stock.

Weekend balance: $3016.31, up +$7.76, +0.26%

Short week next week, we'll see what happens, have 2 trades available thru Thursday (may need to adjust for 'buisness' days).

Always another day,
Masterjaz out

Monday, December 17, 2007

Beauty...

My first winning trade, *smile*, and it was a wonderful setup with wonderful procedural work by yours truely.

ARTC:

Bought 9:50am doji (beautifully formed after long decline)
20 shares @ $48.19 (newbie mistake here, large spread, doji at $48.10, 9c slippage),
target $48.90,
stop loss $47.87,
Reward/Risk of 2.22,
Exited at $48.82 after current candle took out previous candle's low (after that candle hit a new trade high, make sense?).

Gross P/L: +$12.60, net +$10.58

Good stuff. Used up my 3 pattern day trades for the week and won't trade again until Friday. In the meantime, I'll watch the markets, miss a bunch of fantastic setups, and curse my account balance...or maybe I'll watch and learn!

Always another day,
Masterjaz out

Friday, December 14, 2007

Welcome

I think this is blog number 3, but each offers something new, and an opportunity for me to fall behind in posting and lose all my non-existent readers. Anyways, this blog will chronical in great, gory detail my foray into day trading. Profit, losses, charts, humility, and maybe a monster bank roll will greet me and you day in and day out.

So, the setup. I have a whopping 3k available for trading. It is in an IRA account with MB Trading. Yes, I'm trading retirement money, I'm crazy, but I'm young. 3k won't make or break me, so here we go. I am going to plot my weekly account balance coupled with details concerning each trade I make. It won't be too many trades as pattern day trading rules are in full effect.

Trading system, weakly defined. I am attempting to trade intraday reversals signaled by doji, hammers, and bullish engulfings using 10min candles.

Trades for today, 2:

LEAP:
Bought at 9am engulfing.
30 shares entered at $36.50,
targeting $37.00,
with a weakly defined stop-loss at $36.15.
Gives a reward/risk of 1.43 (weak at best).
Exited at $36.47 after the stock chopped for 30min or so. Did not wait for stop loss, but stock just missed my target by 2c and reversed hard. Ouch.
Gross P/L: -$0.90, net -$2.90.

CSUN: Poor trade taken while still working LEAP.
Bought 9:20am engulfing.
90 shares entered at $11.02,
target $11.30,
stop-loss at $10.85.
R/R of 1.65.
Exited at $10.90 after I made super newbie mistake of entering $10.85 limit sell order instead of stop market order. Dope, but it did save me 5c/shr or $4.50.
Gross P/L: -$10.80, net -$12.80.

So, for the day, 0 of 2, for a total net loss of -$15.70 or roughly -0.52%. Not worried about the losses, this is a learning experience. I'll sit on my hands and watch the markets for a few days and allow my trades to expire (wrt pattern day trader rules), and will start trading again on Thursday or Friday.

Weekend balance: $3008.59, down -$15.70, -0.52%

Always another day,
Masterjaz out