Christmas Eve Day trading.

Today is Christmas Eve day and there was not much going on at work so I thought I might see how the market would fair on this pre-holiday day. I did not know that the market was going to close early, although I should have expected it, closed at 1300h. Not that this affected my trading as I am usually done by 1030h anyway but it can affect the outlook for the day and I would probably choose not to trade on a half day market.

Here is the chart anyway. I took three trades and met my goal with a 1.26% return on the trade value. Considering that the price is dropping this return on trade is lower then my return on portfolio...but that doesn't really make that much difference in the long run.



The pivot points were just on the edge of the chart, $21.45 was S1 (green) and $22.33 was P (light blue) while the highest price off the bell is dashed red.

The price gapped down this morning so this was the reverse of yesterday's gap up. The price closed the gap, but did not hold it. If this were the end of a normal day, and tomorrow was a trading day, I might expect an open very near to the close and a downtrending day. With the holidays here now trading is suspended until Monday so a lot can happen in the news with regards to oil so Monday will only be known when Monday starts.

A quick note about this type of open, or any time that a price shoots quickly in one direction but does not hold it. I have noticed that this high (or low) price spike very often sets an intention or direction. I have often seen that as soon as the price gets back to where it started it slowly inches toward the spike price. I have made quite a few trades in the direction of the spike and used the high price as the possible target. While it is only an impression I feel that it is a surer trade than a gap fade but a lot depends on the setup.

Trade one was pretty good and it met my daily goal right off the start but I figured I should at least try a couple more trades. The second lost a couple of dollars as I misjudged that small blip down and exited just before it hit. I managed to time the third, a short, pretty well and catch the quick pullback. The final trade should have happened at ?? and there were two prime entries marked by the arrows...I think I must have fell asleep to have missed that one or perhaps I was looking at something else. It was actually later than my normal quitting time so I suppose I can be excused.

A note about the rest of the day. Normally when the price hits the 200 it does some decent moving using the 200 sma as resistance or support creating a nice string of reasonably probable trading options. Today, perhaps due to the short day, created a very tough chart to make anything without fighting for pennies, not worth the hassle.

So, all in all this trial is working out very well. I am staying away from edgy stuff, sticking with SU which is turning out to be a pussycat and playing tight as if my money was on the line although I always play it that way.

Jeff.