I have learned a lot doing this testing of my ideas, and some ideas of others as well. The thing that I find about all the old ideas that I have tried is that they always reside in the back of my mind as I think about future ideas or trades. Something will come up to remind me of something I tried before and may offer a new slant or a twist that may make it work better.
This is just another example, the early day trade. I plan to start with some pre-market setups this time...get positioned before the big volume start in some cases.
Today I jumped back in and joined a chat room style setup (paid subscription). It took only a few minutes to setup my charts in my old platform, nice to get back into something that has some faster execution and tracking tools. I am set up now for pre-market trading as well as after market...not that I plan on being there after market. It was also nice to hear some banter about the market and the securities being looked at.
RIMM and GOLD were on the plate and I ended up with a break even morning with only two trades. I looked at the options a bit and would have been better off trading those even with the higher commissions. That may become my focus in future.
I bailed on my trades before the big run up in GOLD and before the return to break even in RIMM. The GOLD potential had I played my stop just 5 cents lower (even a penny would have done it as I got nailed at $72.00) was a full $2 gain for my entry by noon.
The setup was to get in near the daily pivot point at $71.27, I waffled and got in at $71.40. I was following along with the room but my normal play would have been to follow the price with 1/2 PP moves...I split the pivot point and resistance 1, 2 etc in 1/2 size increments and move the stop as each higher (or lower for shorts) 1/2 point gets hit.
So, in at $71.40 or less (ideally). Initial stop at $70.80 (1/2 S1).
Trailing stops at $71.26, $72.07, $72.88, $73.33 and $73.76, all the 1/2 points of S1 through R2.
Price moves from PP to 1/2 R1 ($72.07) and I placed my stop at $72.00 I should know better then using even numbers as I should have used $71.95. I was stopped out and left the trade at that. Since, the price hovered there and moved past $72.88 without pause and cleared $73 to hover at the current $73.40 range. Consolidation and prime exit point here.
Definitely worth noting is that the monthly 1/2 R1 line is $73.41 which was the upper range of the day thus far.
RIMM was to have been the exact same play, the price did not approach the PP until about 1020h so I got in far too early. When it did approach it nailed the $70.45 and promptly headed back up returning to near the opening price. The best trade plan would have been to short this off the start for the move tot he PP (almost a full dollar) then reverse the trade at the pp for the return (75 to 90 cents depending upon the exit).
As long as I have charts with the pivots and support and resistance lines this is not a difficult method to trade. Right now I am using esignal delayed so my live charting is through my trading platform...there are very few usable tools there for charting... so I may upgrade my esignal package to realtime again soon. Once I establish a credible profitable trading strategy and pay for the service that is.
No charts today.
Jeff.
No comments:
Post a Comment