Back to the four trades today. One small loser and not too much on the profits.
AEM opened up quite a bit and is doing some settling. I expect it to drop back to at least opening prices by days end but who's to say. Yesterday I thought that an overnight short position might have proved promising...although I would not have seriously considered it. I would have seen a $3 per share loss pretty soon in. I did miss out on the initial boom but the spread was large and the volatility was way up so I did not feel comfortable placing anything. I did one in my head that I would not have actually placed, but just curious if I called it right and I would have been out $1 per share in two minutes. The early morning rush is not the best time to play.
0.71% for today, 9.81% overall for the month of December, considering the Monday drawdown that isn't too bad as it still meets my 1% per day average goal (1.23%)...of course that is based on a 4 trading day week so 4% per week is the target.
I will not likely trade tomorrow and we will see about Friday when it arrives.
I would pop in two more trades but I am tired today and not on the ball.
A note about the volume in the quotes. I like to see a huge buying or selling pressure in the quotes, as I did today. At one point the asks had 223(00's) at one price, $44.25 I think. The price didn't do much moving for a few minutes, the asks stayed firm and started to sell. Normally I might expect that a large volume ask like that might drive the price down as someone is offloading shares but they were selling and the price didn't budge much. I have in the past used this as a cue to go long just as the asks are drying and the buyers are slavering for more and there is often a nice quick rally as the asks retreat into the 1's and 2's. This one was interesting as the R1 was at $44.38 so I really think that some astute trader was just selling into the top of the rally expecting the price to meet resistance at the R1 line. That wsa really why I only watched this one as I kind of expected it to drop afterwards also.
It did drop off a bit but rallied right on through afterwards. My last trade caught some of that as I entered long at $44.20 and bailed at $44.40, no stomach for holding anything this morning so not much more than break even on this one.
Interesting side note. The one training outfit that I would consider actually paying for their program suggests to trade for a month and aim for break even. I understand their thinking in not wanting new traders to try to hold positions for that big run that may not (most likely not for new traders) materialize. I must admit that I have been guilty of holding too long even after trading and knowing not to expect big things every time.
Jeff.
Questrade, My direct access discount broker.
Showing posts with label AEM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AEM. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Week wrap
In the interest of keeping ahead of any work stuff that comes up I had decided to not sequester myself and remain available during themorning trading times. I also do not let trading take priority so I will fake trade if something else is going on at the time rather than being stuck in a trade that I may have to leave.
So, I now realize that will not work. In order to actually realize real gains I will have to shut my door and only trade for the period. I suppose it is no different than taking 5 smoke breaks over the day, except I don't smoke so I don't get that time off.
Anyway, today is a case in point. 3 trades in 30 minutes done by 1000h. I left the fourth and last one go and didn't even fake it even though it slipped for one last dollar as I might not have traded it for real so I didn't count it, too far into a slide for my comfort even with gains to play with. 5.37% net return. I almost made the trades but had people looking for stuff or was on the phone. I am satisfied with the faking in the sense that it re-affirms my actual trade strategies so I am in good standing as far as keeping my edge is concerned.
I did cheat and place one last trade at about 1030h. The only reason that I did was that I had seta limit sell at $34.00 earlier, dropped in to take one last look at the morning activity and saw the setup at the right moment, called the short and let it go for a bit, caught 35 cents of the slide so worth the effort. My daily gain was bumped to 6.27% net.
Combined real and fake trading for the week is 11,42% net even after considering my 4% loss on Monday while getting my feet wet again. I still count that loser day even though I half expected it to be a loss before getting in. Just finding my edge.
Jeff.
So, I now realize that will not work. In order to actually realize real gains I will have to shut my door and only trade for the period. I suppose it is no different than taking 5 smoke breaks over the day, except I don't smoke so I don't get that time off.
Anyway, today is a case in point. 3 trades in 30 minutes done by 1000h. I left the fourth and last one go and didn't even fake it even though it slipped for one last dollar as I might not have traded it for real so I didn't count it, too far into a slide for my comfort even with gains to play with. 5.37% net return. I almost made the trades but had people looking for stuff or was on the phone. I am satisfied with the faking in the sense that it re-affirms my actual trade strategies so I am in good standing as far as keeping my edge is concerned.
I did cheat and place one last trade at about 1030h. The only reason that I did was that I had seta limit sell at $34.00 earlier, dropped in to take one last look at the morning activity and saw the setup at the right moment, called the short and let it go for a bit, caught 35 cents of the slide so worth the effort. My daily gain was bumped to 6.27% net.
Combined real and fake trading for the week is 11,42% net even after considering my 4% loss on Monday while getting my feet wet again. I still count that loser day even though I half expected it to be a loss before getting in. Just finding my edge.
Jeff.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
October a bust...not really for me.
Well,
This last month just did not work out for me. Conference, busy business schedule, platform issues and technology problems kept me away from almost all trading activity since my last posting. I think that I may have traded two or three days, a bust over all as that does not produce any measureable results....although I did have 58 trades I cannot really recall what transpired. I obviously didn't make or lose much or I am sure that I would have remembered, terrible but I am not going to even look at my spreadsheet now, looking forward only.
So, I know I said that October was going to ne THE month to really get this going...I guess I was wrong, although it was, I couldn't take advantage of any of it. So, I am aiming foor some activity in November, if life and factors don't get in the way again. My technology issues may still exist so I will have to work around them and that may be problematic.
Interesting note about the blog. I am getting a lot of hits on searches about Questrade and VTSO...so I assume there is something going on with this. Perhaps VTSO is not working yet. I know they shut down that option a while ago when they converted to a newer version of QTP and QTE, (the trading platforms). I would have assumed that they had straightened that issue out by now, perhaps not. I have stopped using them anyway as they tend to get me kicked out of trades too soon. Better to set manual stops and progress them as you see fit. VTSO was an interesting experiment for me but proved that it did not work as well as I anticipated it might to allow worry free longer term trading. With the current volatility it is a good thing to not be working if that is the case, chances of getting stopped for some serious losses are quite high, even with regular stops. In daytrading there really is not much place for VTSO's anyway. Long afternoon unmanned runs would be nice but not really the ideal. I have seen a few days where I might have done that as a test.
So. Given that the market has changed so much since my last forays this should be an interesting time to restart my DTing plan. The price of AEM the last time I checked was down well under $50 as the price of gold is depressed now also. Everything is down but I do expect gold to be amoungst the first commodities, and gold related stocks to be amoungst the first stocks, to rebound following this severe correction. I know that a lot of people expected gold to keep increasing as people rushed to it as a hedge against the financial crisis, and they should have been correct, I even expected it but wold not put long term money on it...I didn't trust it anymore than anything else at the time. Goes to show that nothing is a sure thing.
I also think that there are quite a few investors out there wishing right now that they had set stop prices to exit at some respectable point. I know my plan would have had me out had I been playing long term stuff. Better to have to pay some taxes on profits than to get to claim losses should you bail at this time. Having said that I also think that some of this, financial aside, is exasperated by some of the automatic selling.
I notice that online brokers are claiming 80+ % increases in new client signups. I think that a lot of novice investors are getting ready to try to take advantage of low prices...I hope they are quite prepared to lose every cent and then some to the pros who are plying these waters. Price volatility works in their favour as they can knock out stops and control the price enough to play the greed and fear of the average trader. I have seen days in AEM that have shown 5 times the average daily price swing...that is $10 over a normal $2 daily swing. Nice if you are right, but I watched some of these unfold and they were not as predictable as some may have expected. Even so I would loved to have been there with some cash to try my hand at it. With a consistant plan there was a ton of dough to be made.
To those buy and holders all I can say is "RIDE 'EM COWBOY....YEEEEHAAAAAAWWWW!"
Jeff.
This last month just did not work out for me. Conference, busy business schedule, platform issues and technology problems kept me away from almost all trading activity since my last posting. I think that I may have traded two or three days, a bust over all as that does not produce any measureable results....although I did have 58 trades I cannot really recall what transpired. I obviously didn't make or lose much or I am sure that I would have remembered, terrible but I am not going to even look at my spreadsheet now, looking forward only.
So, I know I said that October was going to ne THE month to really get this going...I guess I was wrong, although it was, I couldn't take advantage of any of it. So, I am aiming foor some activity in November, if life and factors don't get in the way again. My technology issues may still exist so I will have to work around them and that may be problematic.
Interesting note about the blog. I am getting a lot of hits on searches about Questrade and VTSO...so I assume there is something going on with this. Perhaps VTSO is not working yet. I know they shut down that option a while ago when they converted to a newer version of QTP and QTE, (the trading platforms). I would have assumed that they had straightened that issue out by now, perhaps not. I have stopped using them anyway as they tend to get me kicked out of trades too soon. Better to set manual stops and progress them as you see fit. VTSO was an interesting experiment for me but proved that it did not work as well as I anticipated it might to allow worry free longer term trading. With the current volatility it is a good thing to not be working if that is the case, chances of getting stopped for some serious losses are quite high, even with regular stops. In daytrading there really is not much place for VTSO's anyway. Long afternoon unmanned runs would be nice but not really the ideal. I have seen a few days where I might have done that as a test.
So. Given that the market has changed so much since my last forays this should be an interesting time to restart my DTing plan. The price of AEM the last time I checked was down well under $50 as the price of gold is depressed now also. Everything is down but I do expect gold to be amoungst the first commodities, and gold related stocks to be amoungst the first stocks, to rebound following this severe correction. I know that a lot of people expected gold to keep increasing as people rushed to it as a hedge against the financial crisis, and they should have been correct, I even expected it but wold not put long term money on it...I didn't trust it anymore than anything else at the time. Goes to show that nothing is a sure thing.
I also think that there are quite a few investors out there wishing right now that they had set stop prices to exit at some respectable point. I know my plan would have had me out had I been playing long term stuff. Better to have to pay some taxes on profits than to get to claim losses should you bail at this time. Having said that I also think that some of this, financial aside, is exasperated by some of the automatic selling.
I notice that online brokers are claiming 80+ % increases in new client signups. I think that a lot of novice investors are getting ready to try to take advantage of low prices...I hope they are quite prepared to lose every cent and then some to the pros who are plying these waters. Price volatility works in their favour as they can knock out stops and control the price enough to play the greed and fear of the average trader. I have seen days in AEM that have shown 5 times the average daily price swing...that is $10 over a normal $2 daily swing. Nice if you are right, but I watched some of these unfold and they were not as predictable as some may have expected. Even so I would loved to have been there with some cash to try my hand at it. With a consistant plan there was a ton of dough to be made.
To those buy and holders all I can say is "RIDE 'EM COWBOY....YEEEEHAAAAAAWWWW!"
Jeff.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tuesday...back to basics.
That feels much better to be placing market orders.
I was right. Last week the price action was a little slower so my limits worked for me. This week the price is moving faster so markets are working better.
5 trades today, 3 winners, two losers but still up 1.63% for the day. Oh, right commissions...make that 0.38%. That's what sucks about 100 share trades with only small moves captured. Lot of work for a small gain...still in the learning curve though so I won't complain. More on position size in another post.
I won't go on about the winners as my entry was right and my exits were bang on...for me and my tolerance and the price action today. There isn't much more to say about those other than I would have liked to have a really big runner...not today after yesterdays' run though.
Second trade, short for a small loss. Looked like a consolidation triangle setup with a likely continuation down, called it wrong but got out well...8 seconds after exiting I reversed my trade long which was the right call, just not convincced so I bailed then waited for the break and jumped in long again. This time it stuck but was not a large move. Perhaps I should wait for the breaks or follow my pause before re-entering a trade rule...at least more than 8 seconds.
I did not make back my last week losses which is enough reason NOT to continue trading today. I think I will hold with an up day and bide my time for a stronger moving day. I was going to check the afternoon activity to see if anything looked really promising...it doesn't usually though as the timing doesn't work out for me....as it didn't today either.
I didn't take the time to update my stats but they are down from last week. I might have tried to work one more trade had I done the math with the commissions today, just as well as trading to try to make up for a loss is not in my rule book...wrong mindset.
JD.
I was right. Last week the price action was a little slower so my limits worked for me. This week the price is moving faster so markets are working better.
5 trades today, 3 winners, two losers but still up 1.63% for the day. Oh, right commissions...make that 0.38%. That's what sucks about 100 share trades with only small moves captured. Lot of work for a small gain...still in the learning curve though so I won't complain. More on position size in another post.
I won't go on about the winners as my entry was right and my exits were bang on...for me and my tolerance and the price action today. There isn't much more to say about those other than I would have liked to have a really big runner...not today after yesterdays' run though.
Second trade, short for a small loss. Looked like a consolidation triangle setup with a likely continuation down, called it wrong but got out well...8 seconds after exiting I reversed my trade long which was the right call, just not convincced so I bailed then waited for the break and jumped in long again. This time it stuck but was not a large move. Perhaps I should wait for the breaks or follow my pause before re-entering a trade rule...at least more than 8 seconds.
I did not make back my last week losses which is enough reason NOT to continue trading today. I think I will hold with an up day and bide my time for a stronger moving day. I was going to check the afternoon activity to see if anything looked really promising...it doesn't usually though as the timing doesn't work out for me....as it didn't today either.
I didn't take the time to update my stats but they are down from last week. I might have tried to work one more trade had I done the math with the commissions today, just as well as trading to try to make up for a loss is not in my rule book...wrong mindset.
JD.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Friday
Friday was interesting. Over my testing period I logged no losing days and this was my first...but with real money so I lost...$11 over three trades.
Trade one was not bad but I exited too soon for 38 cents. I don't mind exiting early at this point, I am still learning and better to exit positive early than turn it into a loss by holding.
Trade two was just plain wrong and I see now why I placed it and why I should not have placed it. I was losing the focus that I was working so hard on. My mental state was ready to place a trade to just be in. I had missed the key entry point and watched as the price dropped figuring to let it go until the next setup...I actually went short after a large move without real confirmation. Then, once in and seeing it was not a good trade I told myself to go for a breakeven and mentally called the exit but did not place the order and it would have been a very small profit...instead I rode it to a 30 cent loss.
Trade three was a non-loser...if you can count 11 cents a gain. I called it wrong, went long and held past the only peak. Once again I mentally called it as I would have while faking but held to see if I could squeeze more out of it.
So down $11 for the day. I stil met my daily average goal as I only traded three days and hit 3.6% but I would have liked to have cleared my weekly goal. I almost called it a day after trade one and would have. Got to listen to my gut.
Interestingly, had I been trading 200 shares instead of 100 it would have been an up day, if only by $8. Basically I gained but then lost due to the commissions.
Also worth noting, I am planning on trading 200 share lots after next week but had I been trading them all along I would be at 9% return so far. I will give myself one more week before bumping that up though. I need a little more confidence in my method.
The end result of the week has me learning more, which is the whole point right now.
Go with the gut for the exits
Don't try to "squeeze" anything, there is no control, only reaction
Trust the entries
I may start using market orders for the next week. I am finding that the tight limit order is just a little too restrictive as I make the call, place the order then do some juggling to get it filled. The trouble is that once I see a setup I wait for some confirmation and sometimes that includes a price move which puts me chasing the price a bit. I do not like to chase prices, better to have placed a market order if the spread is small.
Hmmm... maybe just limit orders with a wider price margin. A market is prone to getting a poor fill so at least a limit will keep me from getting tagged way out of the inside prices.
JD.
Trade one was not bad but I exited too soon for 38 cents. I don't mind exiting early at this point, I am still learning and better to exit positive early than turn it into a loss by holding.
Trade two was just plain wrong and I see now why I placed it and why I should not have placed it. I was losing the focus that I was working so hard on. My mental state was ready to place a trade to just be in. I had missed the key entry point and watched as the price dropped figuring to let it go until the next setup...I actually went short after a large move without real confirmation. Then, once in and seeing it was not a good trade I told myself to go for a breakeven and mentally called the exit but did not place the order and it would have been a very small profit...instead I rode it to a 30 cent loss.
Trade three was a non-loser...if you can count 11 cents a gain. I called it wrong, went long and held past the only peak. Once again I mentally called it as I would have while faking but held to see if I could squeeze more out of it.
So down $11 for the day. I stil met my daily average goal as I only traded three days and hit 3.6% but I would have liked to have cleared my weekly goal. I almost called it a day after trade one and would have. Got to listen to my gut.
Interestingly, had I been trading 200 shares instead of 100 it would have been an up day, if only by $8. Basically I gained but then lost due to the commissions.
Also worth noting, I am planning on trading 200 share lots after next week but had I been trading them all along I would be at 9% return so far. I will give myself one more week before bumping that up though. I need a little more confidence in my method.
The end result of the week has me learning more, which is the whole point right now.
Go with the gut for the exits
Don't try to "squeeze" anything, there is no control, only reaction
Trust the entries
I may start using market orders for the next week. I am finding that the tight limit order is just a little too restrictive as I make the call, place the order then do some juggling to get it filled. The trouble is that once I see a setup I wait for some confirmation and sometimes that includes a price move which puts me chasing the price a bit. I do not like to chase prices, better to have placed a market order if the spread is small.
Hmmm... maybe just limit orders with a wider price margin. A market is prone to getting a poor fill so at least a limit will keep me from getting tagged way out of the inside prices.
JD.
Thursday trading...and non-trading
I am doing a bit of catching up as I was busy last week...short week and all.
On Thursday I only managed one trade due to work constraints...part of the arrangement I have means that some things take priority.
Having said that I wonder how long I will need to work...seriously. Sure, today's "take" was only $69 but it still surpassed my daily goal as that is a 1.73% gain. I missed out on 4 other trades that would have (yes I say would have) amounted to another $200 plus. I had the trading platform running and jotted down the trade entries and exits, I just knew that I could not make the trades as I might have to leave it or just exit at a not so great moment. Them's are the breaks.
Given the movement that DID occur in all the missed trades I COULD have placed the darned things and let a VTSO take the ride for me. I will have to investigate that option for future. Here are the missed trades using conservative entries and trigger happy exits...just for fun, they might have been more if I had been on the button but i will never know:
10:44h short either in at $55.60 OR $55.00 to $54.20 for minimum $80
10:56h long $54.40 to $55.20 for $80
11:12h short $55.20 to $54.20 for $100
11:59h long $54.52 to $54.80 for $28
Grand total of $240 net
I don't want to start tracking missed opportunities but this one really stood out. I feel that missed opportunities are good for learning by seeing what may have happened and why the trades were not made.
JD.
On Thursday I only managed one trade due to work constraints...part of the arrangement I have means that some things take priority.
Having said that I wonder how long I will need to work...seriously. Sure, today's "take" was only $69 but it still surpassed my daily goal as that is a 1.73% gain. I missed out on 4 other trades that would have (yes I say would have) amounted to another $200 plus. I had the trading platform running and jotted down the trade entries and exits, I just knew that I could not make the trades as I might have to leave it or just exit at a not so great moment. Them's are the breaks.
Given the movement that DID occur in all the missed trades I COULD have placed the darned things and let a VTSO take the ride for me. I will have to investigate that option for future. Here are the missed trades using conservative entries and trigger happy exits...just for fun, they might have been more if I had been on the button but i will never know:
10:44h short either in at $55.60 OR $55.00 to $54.20 for minimum $80
10:56h long $54.40 to $55.20 for $80
11:12h short $55.20 to $54.20 for $100
11:59h long $54.52 to $54.80 for $28
Grand total of $240 net
I don't want to start tracking missed opportunities but this one really stood out. I feel that missed opportunities are good for learning by seeing what may have happened and why the trades were not made.
JD.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Daily real update, AEM daytrade
Today I placed my first cash trade since starting my day trading trial with AEM about three weeks ago. In my fake portfolio I got a little over 23% return for the 14 trading days. I consider that a very good return as it is a 1.64% daily return based on $5,000 starting capital. 1% per day is a good return as well and is my initial goal.
Here is most of the chart for today, the part that has the good trading moves anyway.
The lower pivot points were the important ones today. top red line is R1, the light blue is the primary pivot point then green are S1, 2, and 3 in descending order. The price barely broke above the PP, then bounced briefly off the S1, broke cleanly through S2, bounced off of S3 then hovered about the S2. Real nice trading moves and most of them occured before noon. The price did make it back up to S1 for about a minute right near the end of the day before dropping nearer to the S2 at the close.
I placed two shorts near the start, 1006h and 1023h for 22 cents and 44 cents per share gains, small moves but I was anticipating the drop that ended up happening so I was considering those intra-day positioning trades. I actually placed a short right at the 1030h mark where the nice consolidation was coming to an apex and the price just broke out to the downside nicely...perfect entry and would have grabbed the 80 cent drop. What happened was the connection to the ECN dropped at the broker and my short never got through...it was a limit so it would not have gotten executed at all by the time that the connectin was back up. I was really ticked and had to take 10 minutes to cool down in order to not trade under the influence of negative emotions.
The thing that I was most concerned about was, had the order been received and executed and the price jumped up I would not have been able to close the trade so the downside might have been a loss that I had no control over. I would rather a missed trade than a missed exit, at least missing the trade is a break even proposition.
Once the price bounced off of the green S1 support line I lost confidence in the down trend. I never got back in until the very bottom turned on the S3 line so I entered a long for a 51 cent per share gain. The price of gold was coming up by this point so it was a fairly high probability trade supported by the Global index that I use as well.
All in all not a bad day, 2.18% portfolio return even considering the missed opportunities.
Worth noting. Seeing as my portfolio is down to about $4,000 after all of my testing and goofing around I have restarted with $4K as my initial working capital. The $1000 loss is far less than the commissions incurred during the last 7 months, so I can't complain...especially as I blew $300 just trying out market orders to determine how fast they would get executed at the very start of the market. I'll restart the side bar stats soon as well.
Also worth noting, even though fake trading this as if I had money on the line it is always different when the money is actually there. A couple of times a hesitated when I shouldn't have, but there will always be other trades so once I realized my mistkae I did not jump ahead in. Take a breath and check to see that the indicators are all still good THEN make the trade. This difference will pass as I get ore trades under my belt.
Jeff.
Here is most of the chart for today, the part that has the good trading moves anyway.
The lower pivot points were the important ones today. top red line is R1, the light blue is the primary pivot point then green are S1, 2, and 3 in descending order. The price barely broke above the PP, then bounced briefly off the S1, broke cleanly through S2, bounced off of S3 then hovered about the S2. Real nice trading moves and most of them occured before noon. The price did make it back up to S1 for about a minute right near the end of the day before dropping nearer to the S2 at the close.
I placed two shorts near the start, 1006h and 1023h for 22 cents and 44 cents per share gains, small moves but I was anticipating the drop that ended up happening so I was considering those intra-day positioning trades. I actually placed a short right at the 1030h mark where the nice consolidation was coming to an apex and the price just broke out to the downside nicely...perfect entry and would have grabbed the 80 cent drop. What happened was the connection to the ECN dropped at the broker and my short never got through...it was a limit so it would not have gotten executed at all by the time that the connectin was back up. I was really ticked and had to take 10 minutes to cool down in order to not trade under the influence of negative emotions.
The thing that I was most concerned about was, had the order been received and executed and the price jumped up I would not have been able to close the trade so the downside might have been a loss that I had no control over. I would rather a missed trade than a missed exit, at least missing the trade is a break even proposition.
Once the price bounced off of the green S1 support line I lost confidence in the down trend. I never got back in until the very bottom turned on the S3 line so I entered a long for a 51 cent per share gain. The price of gold was coming up by this point so it was a fairly high probability trade supported by the Global index that I use as well.
All in all not a bad day, 2.18% portfolio return even considering the missed opportunities.
Worth noting. Seeing as my portfolio is down to about $4,000 after all of my testing and goofing around I have restarted with $4K as my initial working capital. The $1000 loss is far less than the commissions incurred during the last 7 months, so I can't complain...especially as I blew $300 just trying out market orders to determine how fast they would get executed at the very start of the market. I'll restart the side bar stats soon as well.
Also worth noting, even though fake trading this as if I had money on the line it is always different when the money is actually there. A couple of times a hesitated when I shouldn't have, but there will always be other trades so once I realized my mistkae I did not jump ahead in. Take a breath and check to see that the indicators are all still good THEN make the trade. This difference will pass as I get ore trades under my belt.
Jeff.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Daily update.
I was not going to do anything today but I caved and opened my trading software at about 0945h to take a peak. Too bad I didn't follow it from the start. It followed yesterdays pattern, gap up, push up then a quick pullback from the peak in the very next minute and right down over the course of the morning.
I made some notes before doing anything and wrote "expect a short bias today and a possible late rally with the low around the PP". So why the heck did I place a long as the first trade? ...dumb dumb dumb. lost 29cents per share by the time I decided to bail, largest single trade loss since starting this. Forget about possibly having shorted it instead but had I just not traded it, accounting for commissions it was a $39 drawdown. I almost didn't place another trade.
7 minutes later I was into the shorts for a profitable day, too bad about that stinking first trade though, I didn't let it get to me and considered not counting it...but for the sake of accuracy I couldn't fudge it.
4 trades, finished at about 1140ish. $67 net profit, 1.34% return.
Slightly below my average daily net of $84.15 return of 1.68%
Return to date for 13 trading days = 21.88% or $1094.00
Interesting stat, long : short ratio is 1.31:1, the imbalance is due mainly to the general uptrend on the daily chart since the 11th.
Of my 8 losing trades the short losers vs long losers ratio is 1.7:1. I almost expected it to be closer to the long:short ratio.
I made some notes before doing anything and wrote "expect a short bias today and a possible late rally with the low around the PP". So why the heck did I place a long as the first trade? ...dumb dumb dumb. lost 29cents per share by the time I decided to bail, largest single trade loss since starting this. Forget about possibly having shorted it instead but had I just not traded it, accounting for commissions it was a $39 drawdown. I almost didn't place another trade.
7 minutes later I was into the shorts for a profitable day, too bad about that stinking first trade though, I didn't let it get to me and considered not counting it...but for the sake of accuracy I couldn't fudge it.
4 trades, finished at about 1140ish. $67 net profit, 1.34% return.
Slightly below my average daily net of $84.15 return of 1.68%
Return to date for 13 trading days = 21.88% or $1094.00
Interesting stat, long : short ratio is 1.31:1, the imbalance is due mainly to the general uptrend on the daily chart since the 11th.
Of my 8 losing trades the short losers vs long losers ratio is 1.7:1. I almost expected it to be closer to the long:short ratio.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Daily update
I tried a speculative day today, a few trades that I would not normally do, some that I would have just to mix things up a bit. I figured that I would need to add a few trades to my numbers today as I figured I would just have more entries due to the playful nature of the day. Had I been actively trading seriously I might have skipped today altogether as it felt like another flat day and many small trades didn't feel like fun...which was the drive for the changeup.
So, 6 trades altogether. Had I been on the ball I would have entered long in the 2-5 minute area as the price came off of the reaction low after the initial gap...I was too stuck on my 20 minute minimum...so I went with that. I missed a $1.24 move which I would have nabbed about 70 cents of...but no trade. Instead I rode the followup roller coaster. I had half expected the price to be trending up after the strong move but the volume petered off and I was not really thinking this through. Anywhere above $61 would have been good short entry points right up to 1023h and holding for a $30 maximum loss allowance would have kept me in if I was looking for intra-day trend trading...but I'm not.
Trades 1 through 3 were not too exciting, between all three I lost $30 net. I gave the price time to settle into a trend, entered one too soon, the other just wrong and the last made a bit of profit.
Interestingly I set a short limit order for $61 at 1035 when I saw that spike in price...missed it by 2 cents...should have just done a market order and I would have been in for $60.95. The volume dropped off in the next few minutes which was a good sign to short soon as the price wallowed about under the trendline. I ended up getting in short at $60.80, rode it down to just below the R1 and exited at $60.38 as it hovered below $60.40 on really low volume... unpredictable. It rallied briefly up to $60.47 (note that R1 is $60.46) so I jumped in as it started to head down at $60.38, my exit price last trade...almost a shame not to have held it through the rally but I am not interested in trying to squeeze out every drop, just taking profits as they present themselves. Even so I should trust the pivot points a bit more and given this a little more headroom as it did not cross the line enough to worry about....hindsight. I exited at $60.10 as the price came off the low of $59.92.
The last trade, #6, was about the same as I watched the price approach the R1 line again and slow down it's upward movement...I jumped in sooner than I might normally except I recalled the R1 acting as resistance once already today...in at $60.31 out at $60.08. Had I been planning to trade for the day I would have re-entered around $60.10 and rode it down for another 30 cents. The rest I think may be a wash but I will not even be looking at the afternoon activity until after hours anyway.
Turned out the afternoon wouldn't have been bad to trade and add to the profits. The blue line is the primary pivot point from yesterdays numbers, the red is the first resistance level R1. R2 is off the chart a bit and first support S1 is below the chart.
Red boxes are the loosing trades and the green are the winning trades.
So, 6 trades altogether. Had I been on the ball I would have entered long in the 2-5 minute area as the price came off of the reaction low after the initial gap...I was too stuck on my 20 minute minimum...so I went with that. I missed a $1.24 move which I would have nabbed about 70 cents of...but no trade. Instead I rode the followup roller coaster. I had half expected the price to be trending up after the strong move but the volume petered off and I was not really thinking this through. Anywhere above $61 would have been good short entry points right up to 1023h and holding for a $30 maximum loss allowance would have kept me in if I was looking for intra-day trend trading...but I'm not.
Trades 1 through 3 were not too exciting, between all three I lost $30 net. I gave the price time to settle into a trend, entered one too soon, the other just wrong and the last made a bit of profit.
Interestingly I set a short limit order for $61 at 1035 when I saw that spike in price...missed it by 2 cents...should have just done a market order and I would have been in for $60.95. The volume dropped off in the next few minutes which was a good sign to short soon as the price wallowed about under the trendline. I ended up getting in short at $60.80, rode it down to just below the R1 and exited at $60.38 as it hovered below $60.40 on really low volume... unpredictable. It rallied briefly up to $60.47 (note that R1 is $60.46) so I jumped in as it started to head down at $60.38, my exit price last trade...almost a shame not to have held it through the rally but I am not interested in trying to squeeze out every drop, just taking profits as they present themselves. Even so I should trust the pivot points a bit more and given this a little more headroom as it did not cross the line enough to worry about....hindsight. I exited at $60.10 as the price came off the low of $59.92.
The last trade, #6, was about the same as I watched the price approach the R1 line again and slow down it's upward movement...I jumped in sooner than I might normally except I recalled the R1 acting as resistance once already today...in at $60.31 out at $60.08. Had I been planning to trade for the day I would have re-entered around $60.10 and rode it down for another 30 cents. The rest I think may be a wash but I will not even be looking at the afternoon activity until after hours anyway.
Turned out the afternoon wouldn't have been bad to trade and add to the profits. The blue line is the primary pivot point from yesterdays numbers, the red is the first resistance level R1. R2 is off the chart a bit and first support S1 is below the chart.
Red boxes are the loosing trades and the green are the winning trades.
Notice how the price reaches the PP and pretty much bounces along for a bit...depending on the volume and activity there were four points of entry down there and if I had gotten in low enough any one of them could have held for a long trade but that middle one and the last one would have been the most likely attempts...say one 20 cent trade in the middle as the rally failed then a 45 cent trade as the last.
OK, net profit $33...a lot of work for $33 but the stocl only changed 4 cents over the day. A very emotionless day, which is the goal. I am finding that speaking my observations out loud while watching the trades helps to keep me detached and objective.
Net P/L = $33, 0.66% return
Total just crossed $1000 to $1027 which is a 20.54% return. This was my unspoken target to hit to see how many days it would take...12 trading days.
total swing or Beta = $1.70
Captured beta = 54.7%
I had figured that the price was going to stay within the PP and R1 based on the premarket bids, I wasn't too far off as the price remained around that area once it settled down.
JD
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday update, Agnico-Eagle Mines
This morning was pretty good, had to really work for it....had to trade right through to 1130h and four full trades.
Net $73
return 1.46%
I added a few calculations to my spreadsheet to give me some better performance indicators and they are, for the first 10 trading days for me (I ended up including last Friday even though I kind of have a no trading Friday rule), as follows:
Gross profit = $1243.00
Net profit = $953.00
Net return = 19.06%
Daily net profit average = $95.30
Daily return average = 1.9%
Trades total = 29
Average profit per trade = $32.86
Average return per trade = 0.66%
Average number of trades per day = 2.9
Totals for the first 10 trading days for me (missed one day in the first week...Friday)
I also added the S&P TSX Capped Gold index as a reference indicator. I was using the TSX but the AEM price follows the gold musch closer...so I will leave both up. Charts monitoring right now are the AEM 1 minute and 3 minute, TSX and Capped Gold 1 minutes. The level one and market depth for AEM. This is easy to do...I have room to add one more chart but I cannot add another quote box without making things too small so I will work that out once I get real comfortable with the one stock.
So the setups were decent but the movements were not large.
Pivot Points as follows:
R2=$60.95 R1= $59.74 PP= $58.68 S1=%7.47 S2=$56.41
The PP for the day was the first price to watch as the price opened at $59.02. The price dropped to a low of $58.70...almost exactly on cue for the PP then rallied right up to R1 and hovered for almost 10 minutes. I waited 28 minutes to trade as the R1 was broken and all my indicators looked good for a long position with a possible target of R2...about $1 away. It made it to $60.55 before the volume dropped off and my indicators weakened. I exited at $60.19 during the second minute of the dropping price. It rallied a bit after but only for a minute or so, nothing convincing.
Hindsight would have me follow my altered rule (see next post) and enter long as the price bounced off of the PP after seeing some indication of a continued rally, this in the first few minutes. All the indications were for this rally to run but I held fast, or pretty close, to my 30 minute rule. Otherwise I might have jumped in at one of the three long entry points at 6 mins, 9 mins or 18mins (my actual entry). The ideal were the first and last as they were the farthest from any line of resistance and on top of support while the second was at the midpoint...not as strong a trade.
Second trade I jumped the gun a bit as I did not wait for the price to convincingly cross below the R1 to short ($59.68) but it turned out OK as I rode through the rally (potential loss was never larger than $20) and made it to $58.94.
Trade three I misread as the price approached the PP again I went short as I should have waited it out a little longer for a higher probabilty long trade...lost a couple of dollars there...$27 net.
Trade four was a squeaker as I entered short at $59.40 at 1057h right after a brief consolidation with a slight downtrend, the highest trading afterward was $59.48 but the consolidation was not quite done. I kept plotting the downtrend line and seeing it continue so I stayed in...the longer a consolidation continues the less likely it will do what I might expect...or at least the odds approach 50% so as long as the price keeps doing what I expect...heading down, albeit slowly, I stayed firm. I exited after a nice pullback to a low of $59.04 at $59.13 for a net $17 gain, not much but it did eventually give me a profit move. This trade turned into a "get a good exit" trade rather than a real winner.
As I write this the price is sloshing about within a 50cent range on lowish volume so I don't expect any great things this afternoon.
Keeping in mind that this is as close to trading as I can get without actually hitting the buy/sell button and using the worst trade entry at the given spread when I decide to enter and exit the trade. I am looking forward to trading and posting these or similar figures for real next week. Today was a bit of a test to see if trading on the Pro vs Elite software package would make any appreciable difference...I didn't see any. The look was a bit different but the numbers are all mostly there, the execution for a single stock will be clean. When I step up to two or more I will need to upgrade...if I feel the need to trade simultaneous stocks...I don't know that I will need to though.
JD.
Net $73
return 1.46%
I added a few calculations to my spreadsheet to give me some better performance indicators and they are, for the first 10 trading days for me (I ended up including last Friday even though I kind of have a no trading Friday rule), as follows:
Gross profit = $1243.00
Net profit = $953.00
Net return = 19.06%
Daily net profit average = $95.30
Daily return average = 1.9%
Trades total = 29
Average profit per trade = $32.86
Average return per trade = 0.66%
Average number of trades per day = 2.9
Totals for the first 10 trading days for me (missed one day in the first week...Friday)
I also added the S&P TSX Capped Gold index as a reference indicator. I was using the TSX but the AEM price follows the gold musch closer...so I will leave both up. Charts monitoring right now are the AEM 1 minute and 3 minute, TSX and Capped Gold 1 minutes. The level one and market depth for AEM. This is easy to do...I have room to add one more chart but I cannot add another quote box without making things too small so I will work that out once I get real comfortable with the one stock.
So the setups were decent but the movements were not large.
Pivot Points as follows:
R2=$60.95 R1= $59.74 PP= $58.68 S1=%7.47 S2=$56.41
The PP for the day was the first price to watch as the price opened at $59.02. The price dropped to a low of $58.70...almost exactly on cue for the PP then rallied right up to R1 and hovered for almost 10 minutes. I waited 28 minutes to trade as the R1 was broken and all my indicators looked good for a long position with a possible target of R2...about $1 away. It made it to $60.55 before the volume dropped off and my indicators weakened. I exited at $60.19 during the second minute of the dropping price. It rallied a bit after but only for a minute or so, nothing convincing.
Hindsight would have me follow my altered rule (see next post) and enter long as the price bounced off of the PP after seeing some indication of a continued rally, this in the first few minutes. All the indications were for this rally to run but I held fast, or pretty close, to my 30 minute rule. Otherwise I might have jumped in at one of the three long entry points at 6 mins, 9 mins or 18mins (my actual entry). The ideal were the first and last as they were the farthest from any line of resistance and on top of support while the second was at the midpoint...not as strong a trade.
Second trade I jumped the gun a bit as I did not wait for the price to convincingly cross below the R1 to short ($59.68) but it turned out OK as I rode through the rally (potential loss was never larger than $20) and made it to $58.94.
Trade three I misread as the price approached the PP again I went short as I should have waited it out a little longer for a higher probabilty long trade...lost a couple of dollars there...$27 net.
Trade four was a squeaker as I entered short at $59.40 at 1057h right after a brief consolidation with a slight downtrend, the highest trading afterward was $59.48 but the consolidation was not quite done. I kept plotting the downtrend line and seeing it continue so I stayed in...the longer a consolidation continues the less likely it will do what I might expect...or at least the odds approach 50% so as long as the price keeps doing what I expect...heading down, albeit slowly, I stayed firm. I exited after a nice pullback to a low of $59.04 at $59.13 for a net $17 gain, not much but it did eventually give me a profit move. This trade turned into a "get a good exit" trade rather than a real winner.
As I write this the price is sloshing about within a 50cent range on lowish volume so I don't expect any great things this afternoon.
Keeping in mind that this is as close to trading as I can get without actually hitting the buy/sell button and using the worst trade entry at the given spread when I decide to enter and exit the trade. I am looking forward to trading and posting these or similar figures for real next week. Today was a bit of a test to see if trading on the Pro vs Elite software package would make any appreciable difference...I didn't see any. The look was a bit different but the numbers are all mostly there, the execution for a single stock will be clean. When I step up to two or more I will need to upgrade...if I feel the need to trade simultaneous stocks...I don't know that I will need to though.
JD.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Friday the non-trading day
One of my rules has been to avoid trading on Friday's...that was when I was measuring results daily. I may change that rule now that I am into the daytrading. It was a slightly lower volume day and the price showed that by chopping around a bit more on the minute scale...perhaps the spreads were a bit larger but I never checked the intraday once today.
I did log in aftermarket to get an idea of what I may have missed. The morning was poor as it had gapped down about half of yesterdays' gap up and it looked like it tried to rally but failed at the S 1 pivot point from yesterday...hit it as resistance three times between 10 and 11. Once things got rolling the stock price mimicked the TSX well so it was a good indicator. So the gap yeasterday was essentially closed today.
Possible trades were many and small until after lunch. Estimated entries working the chart blind by minute would see me in long at 1004h for a 50cent gain then I would not have traded again until 1316h for a short gain of 90 cents...based on the flailing about for most of the AM I would have skipped the rest of the day anyway...
...having said that the setup for the afternoon short was nice and there were about six peaks that could have produced 20 to 40 cent gains per trade, too much work for a small position trade though. Worth noting (I'll stick a chart in here somewhere) the 200SMA on the minute chart swooped in after 1200h and acted as a resistance zone to correspond with the S1 pivot...what exactly drove the price down doesn't really matter as it dropped to $57.63 from about $59.70. That is one of those setups that I would jump on early as the price dropped below $59.30... basically where the low resistance of the morning was broken and it would be a keeper as it blew past the S2 pivot and stayed below the 30SMA all the way down.
I didn't have the time today to trade and certainly not the way the day progressed so I will not count this potential gain in my fake results... it would have been a $120 net day, certainly not my largest but a good day. 2.4% which is slightly above my goal range. I would take that.
I did log in aftermarket to get an idea of what I may have missed. The morning was poor as it had gapped down about half of yesterdays' gap up and it looked like it tried to rally but failed at the S 1 pivot point from yesterday...hit it as resistance three times between 10 and 11. Once things got rolling the stock price mimicked the TSX well so it was a good indicator. So the gap yeasterday was essentially closed today.
Possible trades were many and small until after lunch. Estimated entries working the chart blind by minute would see me in long at 1004h for a 50cent gain then I would not have traded again until 1316h for a short gain of 90 cents...based on the flailing about for most of the AM I would have skipped the rest of the day anyway...
...having said that the setup for the afternoon short was nice and there were about six peaks that could have produced 20 to 40 cent gains per trade, too much work for a small position trade though. Worth noting (I'll stick a chart in here somewhere) the 200SMA on the minute chart swooped in after 1200h and acted as a resistance zone to correspond with the S1 pivot...what exactly drove the price down doesn't really matter as it dropped to $57.63 from about $59.70. That is one of those setups that I would jump on early as the price dropped below $59.30... basically where the low resistance of the morning was broken and it would be a keeper as it blew past the S2 pivot and stayed below the 30SMA all the way down.
I didn't have the time today to trade and certainly not the way the day progressed so I will not count this potential gain in my fake results... it would have been a $120 net day, certainly not my largest but a good day. 2.4% which is slightly above my goal range. I would take that.
The blue circles are the trade entry areas that I used. All those choppy peaks could have been shorted (to stay trading witht he overall trend down). That would match an aggressive method as that would put me in the trade short and only covering as the price bounced or showed signs of weakening selling pressure...this would have left me in the trade from the last peak as it plummeted through any support for a $1.60 or so profit. The true daytrader would have been in and out of this stock quite a number of times with a larger position for some decent profits...say 500 shares for 6 trades leading up the the drop for a total of $2 ps gain BEFORE hitting the big drop....perhaps a $3.60 ps gain at 500 shares for a a cool $1800 less commisions of maybe $80. I'm not certain that the volume today would have supported daytrades much larger than 200 shares though.
My aim is lower with 100 shares so I need slightly larger moves. This means that I am working harder for any gains. I hope, in the long run, that this hard work (if you can call this hard work)pays off when I can put larger positions in play, use the same strategies.
One thing that I need to investigate further is the difference in the action between the morning and the afternoon. The morning is quite choppy with more smaller sporadic but tradeable moves and high initial volume. I suspect limit orders and stop orders are triggered and this may drive a large part of the morning move...it would appear that a lot of people are losing money here...and some are making a killing. If I had to guess I'd say that most of this action is from small traders trying to get an early position or trying to dump (intentionally or not) and the bigger guys are just sopping up the remains...just a guess so far though.
JD.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
today's trading
I almost went for real trading today but figured I would have some interruptions and I couldn't pay as close attention as I would like for the 1.5 hrs needed.
I kept the trading software in the background and placed some fakers again and did a comparison to what I would have done had I had the open time slot.
I figured it would be a good day for long trades in this stock today.
With interruptions: (so I had to exit more often than I would have liked)
first was a short (thought I might catch a quick impulse...actually itchy to get a trade in really, I should know better)
Short 0959h - net loss $0.19 ps
Long 1008h - net gain $0.30 ps
Long 1021h - net gain $0.15 ps
Long 1008h - net gain $0
Total net gain $0.26 ps
Uninterrupted:
Short 0959h - net loss $0.19 ps
Long 1008h - net gain $0.89 ps
Total net gain $0.70 ps
I didn't stick around after 1045h to be able to let it ride longer...it may have gained more but I had to get out when I did.
Not a stellar day but still a 1.4% portfolio gain day...in theory. 0.54% with interruptions.
JD.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Lines of Support and Resistance
See the previous posting's chart and commentary as I charted lines of resistance and support for AEM. I was looking to try to set up a system or method to pick these lines out easily and plot them in some useable format for morning daytrading and was having some difficulty. The lines were good, historical lines would follow through with some relevance for future moves but I could not come up with any good method other than just charting them in.
I seem to stumble over things while working on my plans that are relevant so often it is almost un-natural. I think it has to do with the fact that I am looking at a plan and see something similar so I pursue it. Often it clarifies or simplies what I was trying to get to. This was no exception.
I ran across somone using Pivot Points (PP) since plotting that last chart. I have used them yesterday and today during my fake trading and have very good success. I'm not certain if the prices follow these lines or the lines follow the prices but they verge on being a leading indicator...somewhat prescient and at least as reliable as my historical resistance and support lines.
Monday I pulled $1.43 per share out of the market and today I pulled $1.23. I stopped at four trades Tuesday to track but I went ahead and faked two more while on the phone and pulled another $1.06 per share out. I made one losing trade (-6 cents per share).
NOTE: I didn't get this post done until Thursday night so this was as of Tuesday.
Total net gains this week based on 100 share trades = $196.00 or 3.9% portfolio gain
Total net gains for last week = $523 or 10.4% portfolio gain (no trading on Friday)
Total net gains since starting this plan = $719.00 or 14.3% portfolio gain
Keeping in mind that I eliminated variances between real trading and fake trading by testing the trades and losing money in the testing to determine how these get executed. These are fake trades but very accurate fake trades. This would not work the same for 1000 share trades but will for 100 or 200 share trades in a liquid stock.
Even so, assume the worst and this is twice what I might expect.
JD.
I seem to stumble over things while working on my plans that are relevant so often it is almost un-natural. I think it has to do with the fact that I am looking at a plan and see something similar so I pursue it. Often it clarifies or simplies what I was trying to get to. This was no exception.
I ran across somone using Pivot Points (PP) since plotting that last chart. I have used them yesterday and today during my fake trading and have very good success. I'm not certain if the prices follow these lines or the lines follow the prices but they verge on being a leading indicator...somewhat prescient and at least as reliable as my historical resistance and support lines.
Monday I pulled $1.43 per share out of the market and today I pulled $1.23. I stopped at four trades Tuesday to track but I went ahead and faked two more while on the phone and pulled another $1.06 per share out. I made one losing trade (-6 cents per share).
NOTE: I didn't get this post done until Thursday night so this was as of Tuesday.
Total net gains this week based on 100 share trades = $196.00 or 3.9% portfolio gain
Total net gains for last week = $523 or 10.4% portfolio gain (no trading on Friday)
Total net gains since starting this plan = $719.00 or 14.3% portfolio gain
Keeping in mind that I eliminated variances between real trading and fake trading by testing the trades and losing money in the testing to determine how these get executed. These are fake trades but very accurate fake trades. This would not work the same for 1000 share trades but will for 100 or 200 share trades in a liquid stock.
Even so, assume the worst and this is twice what I might expect.
Total net gains this week based on 100 share trades = $98.00 or 1.95% portfolio gain
Total net gains for last week = $261 or 5.2% portfolio gain (no trading on Friday)
Total net gains since starting this plan = $360.00 or 7.2% portfolio gain
Either way, if the trading proves half as consistant as it has I would be happy with the results as I am trading with half of my available buying power right now. So doubling the trade size can result in slightly better than double the returns (commission only paid once) which puts me back to where I was with the firts calculations. Considering that this could be an income replacement strategy, at a 1% to 2% return daily (quite doable) based on a $20,000 trading account that could produce $200 to $400 per trading day which adds up to $40,000 to $80,000 per year. Using the new TFSA and adding the full $5K per year allowance that makes this a 4 year plan with no tax implications, the downside is no margin is available in a TFSA so it may be a toss up...lose 30%+ to taxes or loose the 3x leverage power of the margin account. I really like the tax free aspect.
But I digress, this is my personal hope that the trading is profitable enough to turn into a real "business" sometime. I may have alluded to that in the past on this blog, I cannot recall.
JD.
Monday, August 18, 2008
AEM, Agnico Eagle Mines daytrading
This is a 2 day, 5 minute chart for AEM showing the four support and resistance lines that I found.A - the closing price on the 13th, a major line
B - seemed to be a minor line from the 13th
C - The opening price on the 14th, a major line
D - another line established on the 13th, fairly major possibly...turned out it was.
Keep in mind that these lines are really just zones and a lot can happen around them. They do not indicate a point where a price will do anything in particular but an area or zone where the price is more likely to do something .
I place red arrows for resitance and green for support.
The original plan that I had would have had me attempt to buy the stock at the price right as the market opened, about $55.45 and take advantage of the first impulse move toward the closing price on the 13th, about $57.00. The price jumped to about $56.60 in the first minute then dropped back to $55.70...too fast to try to do anything with I have found so I have given up on that plan.
Using line A and C as guides I entered a long position at 945h at $55.85. On the 1 minute chart with better detail their is a drop to near line C and the price follows the 10 sma line trending up from there. I ended up getting out of the trade at $56.50 for a $65 gain.
The second trade would have me in again long at 1047h at $55.80 as the price appeared to bounce off the C line and headed back up. I got out at $56.00 when the price failed to head up convincingly.
Had I been trading past 1100h the line C became very important as the price ranged between it and B for an hour...once it convinvingly broke the C line down it would have made a good short entry...probably around $55.30. Using the upper Bollinger band as a guide for a stop limit would have worked well as the price stayed below this line and hovered around the D line for two hours then headed back down for an end of day exit to gain about $1 per share. But that is all hindsight, I likely would have covered at $54.60 as the price headed back up over the D line at about 1345h. A lot of this depends on wht the 1 minute chart looks like as the moving averages and the Bollinger band are faster moving at the smaller scale.
That is a short blurb on the above chart.
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