June 18, A break.

I'm taking a bit of a break from blogging all my activities for a bit. Too much stuff going on so I have to cut back on time spent on less productive activities for a bit.

I paid more attention to the last few days and how the trading ranges set up so I did a wee bit of range trading, which I either try to stay away from normally or I just trade for breakouts that never materialize. I traded one for a break out that failed but got close to break even and had two others that made a bit of profit. I see now how to better utilize the TICK. I think trying to concentrate on it as a trade trigger alone is asking for trouble anyway. It may work sometimes but trading should always have an edge, not just sometimes.

I am also trying something a bit different, actually it is a medium term trade idea. I have accumulated a list of stocks that are reasonably big players that I see other traders trading intraday or these are used to gauge market sentiment. Either way they are fairly common and reasonably fluid issues.

I plan on putting all of these stocks (McDonalds, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, Dupont, Johnson and Johnson, 3M, etc.) on a page in my Esignal software. I am working on a script to monitor these for certain significant milestones and trends in order to do some swing trading and sector rotational style trading, perhaps a bit of hedging as well.

It would be fairly easy to even scroll through these one by one to watch for certain patterns and price positioning as well. I have been only trading full lots due to a restriction in Questrade that would not allow me to place a part lot stop loss. I figured that, seeing as the stop loss was a market restriction altogether, I should try a partial lot stop loss in the NYSE...surprise surprise! I am able to stop loss partials.

Now I will be trading in my TFSA using part lots of various companies with appropriate stops in place for each. I may even let them trickle into my other accounts if I can keep enough capital free for daytrading...although even there I could use smaller position sizing as the main restriction I have been considering was having to use lots of 100 shares which can, in slumps or testing periods, draw my account down. Live and learn.

Today I bought McDonalds (MCD) due to the significant 200DMA test. It was not ideal but I wanted to place with an order setup and test the stop loss order entry. I placed a limit order lower than my eventual entry which I should have just left in play. Due to impatience I replaced it with a market order, only to see the price drop 20 cents shortly afterward. Unlike day trading a drop of 20 cents in a medium term trade means next to nothing as my stop loss is a full $1 away. I sort of wanted to be in the trade today even though I likely could have gotten a better price tomorrow.

Jeff.