January 26th, looking back a day.

Talisman Energy chart.


PP200 firm rule following today.

I checked the pre-market and figured that a run for R1 was in order, it made it sooner than I anticipated as the price opened above 1/2R1, hit R1 and hovered for 15 minutes then climbed again. I got taken by surprise as there was no pullback to test R1 so I did not get my entry. I think the long waver just under R1 might indicate that my PPs are a little high today. That and the quotes looked too heavy in the asks to comfortably enter a long position hoping for a quick R1 break. So the price made it to 1/2R2.

There were some small target possibilities over lunch as the 200 rose and crossed the price. At shortly after noon it looked like the 200 was setting up as nice support with 1/2R2 as the target. As it fails on the fourth test it becomes resistance. This is were I would just tkae a break as the targets between the 200 and the two closest pivot points are just too small.

I did make a trade at 1253h off of R1 as I figured that was as high as the 200 was likely to get, so I tested my entry plan.
R1=$12.11
Limit order filled at $12.12 (target is to be within 2 cents of the PP price)
Price reached $12.21 and I closed at $12.20
8 cents per share. Certainly nothing to write home about but still a $24 trade with 300 shares.

I almost made a second similar trade at 1257h but with the dropping 30 and 50 sma lines together I figured my target was no longer the 200sma. That and with the price under the tendancy might be towards a continuation of the down trend so I would be trading against the trend big time.

Speaking of trends and moving averages. It could be argued that there were a total of three trades this day.
Long form 0930h to 1130h
Short from 1130h to 1430h
Long from 1430 to 1530h.
For a rough total of about 90 cents per share

At 1330h there is a really nice example of why I like short selling so much. R1 gets broken on the way down, hesitates just enough for an entry and topples 25 cents in about 15 minutes. For curiosity sake that is about $5 per minute at my 300 shares.

This is the point where I should be entering HED long as capped energy peaked twice very near it's 1/2R2...Trying to follow PP200 I was watching for HED to hit 1/2S2. The relationship between it's pivot points and price are probably not as firm as it realy follows the index rather than it's own trading, so they are guidelines only. I know this but am hesitant to trade it until I get a firm foothold with TLM and the long only trades.

Horizons Betapro chart

I have been concentrating on a single stock trade for some time now and I have a hard time tracking two, especially one that inversely correlates. This may take some getting used to.

Jeff.