April 27th, The Plan

Well, I don't know how many times I've said in the past that I am going to stick to the plan and failed to do so as move after move looks good so I deviate...often losing any previous gains in the process. If nothing else my deviations serve to teach me some very important lessons in money management, humility and just some hard knocks to keep me in line in the long run.

Today was different. I stuck to the plan.

The only downfall was my timing was not so great. The first trade was well timed but short lived as I accidentally closed the position based on my first target, I meant to set a stop and leave it some room to move as it moved into the money fast. Another lesson.

The rest of the day was nicely setup and I set a few limit orders but did not place them in time as I was waiting for that one more penny move in my favour first... I should know better. I try to keep my maximum loss allowance very small but arguing with myself over a 5 cent stop or a 6 cent stop is ridiculous when it makes me hesitate, the order gets placed and the price moves away.

Here is the entire day chart for SPY including Friday's post-market and today's pre-market activity.

I always like to have some plan going in as it gives me somewhere to start. If it is wrong I still have a reference. So here is a snippet from my journal just before the market opened:

"SPY gapped down to open level...within range (previous day Hi/Lo range)
**target trades - Pivot Point/ 200sma/ momentum"

Here is a zoom in of the first trade, a nice entry:

Entry was exactly as planned, test of the 200SMA and the previous day low price, nice setup. I was setting my stop and for what ever reason I placed a market order to close, likely doing too many thing at once here... 23 cent gain anyway, better than a mistaken losing exit.

I would have been using a combination of the 50 SMA and the various support/resistance lines along the way depending on how far advanced the price gets. Exit would have been near the light blue line, yesterday's closing price, $86.66. Considering my entry was a solid one this should have been a nice trade of the day...$85.75 open for a 91 cps gain.

I decided to wait out the trades for the rest of the day as they approached and crossed the 200 sma, according to plan. While these may not be the ideal trades they give me a certain guide to follow and a good place to start with some decent profits. I'll get back to the fancier stuff later.

Other trade ideas, some I missed due to not being there (travelling home for lunch when the first one happened) and just missing the entries on the others jockeying for those pennies.
That one was from $65.40 to $66.32 in SDS, 92 cents per share. Nice.

Small target trade...the rest of the day was just all over the place.

Jeff.