Stocks, on the other hand, reveal more in their quote stream than does the chart, often. So combining a streaming quote and chart for a stock that is familiar, liquid and moving well enough gives almost all the information that one needs to make good on the fly decisions about placing trades based on ideas formed from the information at hand.
Yamana Resources Inc., YRI.TO.
This stock is one of the stocks held in the Global Gold Index so it is at least as familiar as gold is to me in general, it tracks reasonably well with GD, not as nice as Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) but at over $50 AEM is slightly out of reach if I plan on using stops for my trading in my TFSA.
In addition to trying a stock back on for size I decided to use minimum position sizing for each and every trade today. 100 shares. I have been tied down to staying in a trade and not being able to make any other trade at the same time. As much as I want to concentrate on a particular trade I do need to have the flexibility to enter additional positions on other issues, or even adding to the same one should an idea work out well. Seeing as I am trading related stocks and ETFs I figure this is not too great a stretch.
YRI today:
Not a bad trade. 20 cents per share. So only $20 for my single lot gross profits, but that is not specifically the point here. Getting good trades does not mean making loads of cash.
HGU:
I was not even going to do anything with the bull Global Gold ETF but it was setting up so sweet that I couldn't help myself, besides, I kind of wanted to do some simul-trading.
6 cents per share gained. It didn't run like it might have and I didn't exit as early as I could have, letting the stops work for me right now gives me the minimum gains for these small momentum moves...if I am breaking even the end will be catching the larger moves and then seeing profits. So I don't mind.
HGD:
This is my plan now, play the stocks for the up moves, perhaps play the bull ETF in conjunction with those moves and play the bear ETF for the downside...at least until I get going and have some cash to add to my margin account to do some real short selling, then I will probably give up the ETF altogether. I am not as impressed with them as I thought that I might be.
These two trades totaled 4 cents per share gain.
Seeing as everything was 100 shares I lost a bit due to commissions and small position sizing BUT the small sizing let me not have to consider, as much, the downside if I was wrong....Of course I would pick a marginal day (not a loser, just marginal) to drop my sizing.
Today's total are $30 gross, about -$12 net due to commissions and fees. Trading stocks between $8 and $11 @ 100 shares makes it hard to dig out from a $11 commission unless some decent moves are captured well. But that is all part of the game.
Now, had I been trading full positions, I would not have been able to trade HGU as I was in YRI so the totals would be like this:
YRI for 20 cents at 300shares = $60
HGD for 4 cents at 400 shares = $16
Commissions and fees = $36
Net gain = $40.
Considering the small moves today and not much trading to pick from I still would have been happy enough to have seen a small gain.
Jeff.
great blog. i haven't made it through too many of your posts as of yet but it sounds like you're taking advantage of the TFSA and trying to build capital with slow & steady trades. just wondering how many trades/month you're looking at nowadays? enough to get the upgraded platforms covered? keep posting
ReplyDeleteAbout 80 trades this month, not counting today. I am running somewhere around 50-60 with about half days traded. I have been busy the last week or two though, more in my next post.
ReplyDeleteJeff.