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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

GILD - 081611 (from comments)

In comments of the last post, t-money asked:

"Trader X,

I was watching GILD today (8/16) on the 5 minute chart and was wondering if this was a setup that you would have considered?

It did not have a gap, but did shoot up over yesterday's high right away in the morning. I was looking to enter on either the 5th or 6th bar, but didn't consider either strong enough to take.

The stock took off immediately after those bars without me. Is this a good candidate, or not convincing enough even though it worked out?

Thanks"


Mike offered up his opinion:

"t-money, I traded GILD today. I trade based on X's textbook setup, of which GILD was perfect as it bounced off the retracement zone and had support from the 5EMA. But, I don't trade gaps exclusively. I scan for stocks that move up or down in the first few bars, and then pullback to the rz. GILD had a nice move up in the first two bars, and a perfect pullback and reversal.

Mike"


As for me, if I looked at non-gappers, I suspect this would have been a setup that I liked for the same reasons Mike pointed out above. Good trade!



note - I indicated the trigger bar that I assume Mike used for his trade, although he didn't specify. Also, I assume he exited at the Fibonacci extension (FE).

_______________

36 comments:

bl said...

GILD-nice pull back trade. fwiw Premkt WL per Busystock.com: IDCC WMT URBN BIDU DANG SODA BHP VIT PRGO MHLS, news(per Seeking Alpha): GOOG. No trades.

t-money said...

Grove,

Congrats on the SODA trade! That just maybe the trade of the year, yielding 15R...If only one could just find one of those a day, or even a week. Great job!

Klaorman said...

8/16/11 trades

Frustrating day today; my 2 trades offset each other, and the ones that I missed mostly did very well. When I’m watching a setup for the trigger, I stop going through my watchlist; when I’m in trades, I go through my list more slowly. After the morning, I go through the list sporadically. I’m not sure what can be done so that I can catch more trades.

MSHL 4th 2m bar
This was a great-looking hammer at the 5ema and 38 fib. Since this stock is low-priced, I’m kind of jittery trading it, though one may say that looking at the evidence, I’m jittery trading anything. I partialed at the ORH and wanted to hold out for the FE, but when the stock approached the ORH from above, I bailed. Whole number 2 supported it, however, and it went on to hit over the 200 extension. And of course, when the heat wasn’t on afterwards, I noticed that the 5ema supported the rise until around the 2.30s. In trying to look for another pullback afterwards, I spotted a narrow hammer on the 5m, but it was under the 8ema, so I didn’t take it. This time it pushed over the highs before falling back.

VVTV 5th 15m bar
This was a great-looking shooting star at the 5ema and 38 fib, very similar to MSHL. However, I got stopped out on a quick spike, and for the rest of the day the stock just sat inside a narrow range inside the spike bar. Great setup, but it didn’t work this time. Perhaps the gap and subsequent drop was so wide (VVTV was one of the top losers of the day) that there wasn’t much more room for it to fall.

Klaorman said...

8/16/11 missed trades

MEDH 4th 2m bar short
The setup bar on his thinly traded stock was a shooting star at the 5ema and 50 fib; I missed it because I had just gotten into MSHL. The stock hit the ORL in 1 bar and then proceeded to drift down all day, hitting the 300 extension by EOD.

FN 8th 5m bar
This was a hammer at the 5ema; its tail almost touched the 38 fib. Its initial move and pullback doesn’t look too orderly, but the trade still would've almost made it to the FE.

ALB 2nd 30m bar short
This was a fill the tail setup right at whole number 56. I was reluctant to give the .70 stop, even though I recalled that in the past I had passed on trading setups with large stops and most of those had hit their FEs. The market was also at highs; once again I didn’t “ignore the market.” When the setup triggered, I noticed that the trigger bar’s high would’ve given me a better stop, but I still didn’t take it, being mindful of the market. The stock went down about .50, but then when Sarkozy gave his comments, the market popped, taking ALB with it. If I was in the trade, I probably would’ve gotten out immediately (minding the market again), or worse yet, I might’ve held on determinedly and then lost my resolve when the trade came back to breakeven and then started going negative. Of course, that was the top, and ALB then easily hit the FE.

After ALB bounced, I noticed too late that it had formed a shooting star at the 8ema and 38 fib (fibs drawn from the Sarkozy high to the low) on the 10m and 15m, and the 5ema on the 30m. It then proceeded to hit the new FE easily.

CTXS 39th 5m bar short
SWKS 39th 5m bar short
Yep, 39th bar! The Sarkozy high produced big drops in these 2 stocks (and others); soon shooting stars appeared at the 5ema and 38 fib for both stocks, but I missed them. CTXS hit the new FE (fibs drawn from the Sarkozy high to the low of the drop) exactly; SWKS only made it to the ORL.

bl said...

Wed Premkt WL per BusyStock.com: BCSI FLSR REGN DE ANF DELL HPQ DRIV TGT SPLS SODA EK CHS. some beautiful charts 2-30 min. no trades. Putting 6 charts on a page x 3 pages and a 4th page with 4 periods(2,5,10,15/30)and WL to scroll thru works well for me with
22" screen. I also have a 5 and 6 page for daily weekly charts for mkt trend or indiv stocks. Question for all: how big is your monitor screen?

bl said...

As alt WL I'm looking at high priced nasdaq+ stocks for option trading mo/wk: AMZN GOOG AAPL FSLR WYNN NFLX PCLN LNKD GMCR BIDU SINA SHLD GS CF. Does anyone trade these? There is always someting going on with at least one of these(or all)and they move with OR the market.

t-money said...

I traded DKS today (8/17) on the 5 minute timeframe today after the 5th bar. I thought it looked like a nice setup at the time, but it ended up failing.

Did anyone else trade this, and if not, what made you pass on this setup?

Chips and Salsa said...

8/17/11

Lots o' stop-outs at break-even and a few losses.

Lame.

ADM, 5m, 5ema, Fibs OR, entry above bar 3, stopped out at breakeven, since I don't take anything off until 3R.

IBN, 15m, 5ema, Fibs OR, entry below bar 8 (smallest bar of the day), stopped out at breakeven, since I don't take anything off until 3R.

Could have played these differently, but I can't change my rules retroactively. Hmmm...

My day, in summary:
http://youtu.be/1nzd0R_OeOc?t=12s

Mike said...

t-money, didn't see it but I would have passed because of the long upper tail on the 2nd bar and the deep pullback which went to the bottom of the retracement zone. I like to see the pullback bounce off the top line, or the 50% level at the worst (and I usually will pass on those if other things aren't in place).

Roger said...

Chips and Salsa, I posted this in comments previously, but I am not sure if it was a response to you or someone else. If you plot standard pivot lines (pivot point, S1, S2, R1, R2) you will see that your ADM entry was right below R2. To me that makes it a low probability setup.

On IBN, I don't see a setup there. If you plot your lines over the opening range first 4-5 bars, you were shorting above the 50% retracement?

Grove Under said...

I found out the hard way that lack of sleep is hazardous to your trading discipline, and therefore, your trading P&L. But no excuses, it's all me.

I wrote about it in:
Ooops, I "blew up" my account, again...

Today was one of those days when I was right a lot, but still lost money on trades because of sloppy trade execution and stops that were way too tight. Next time I'm really tired, I need to take the day off!

* * * * *
bl:
I'm still using 5 year old 20" Dell monitor, still works great, but thinking of getting a dual monitor setup. But with my recent performance, maybe I need to go back to a single old school VGA monitor for greater focus.

* * * * *
t-money:
Thanks for the comment on the SODA trade, and I really wish I had another similar trade today. I'd say SODA was 90% luck for sure.

Times of Your Life said...

for the monitor question...
i use 24", the bigger the better

bl said...

C&S, IBN: 8/10" IB looks good short. Seems to me if one is getting stopped out on the long side the market isn't providing any wind at your back, same idea with shorts. This isn't an exuberant market at this time, imo.
ADM-good entry. no mkt cooperation
DKS-ditto.
trades not taken from premkt WL:
shorts
ANF 62Fib 10:25 5min IB
BCSI 6/10" IB
DRIV 4/10" IB
DELL 2/10 IB
HPQ 70/10 off setting bar
long fades: SPLS TGT SODA CHS
longs: EK 4/10

Chips and Salsa said...

Roger,

Thanks for the Pivot ideas. Much appreciated. I don't normally have those pulled up, so I'll check 'em out.



Roger & bl,

Unlike my ADM long, my short trade on IBN was on the 15m chart, not the 5m. I think that's where the confusion is coming from.

t-money said...

bl,

I used to flip between multiple pages as well with esignal. But now I use two 24" monitors. It is amazing what a difference it makes to have all the charts right in front of you and not have to flip pages.

However, I can't say it makes me a good trader, just makes it a lot easier to see stuff.

Klaorman said...

8/17/11 trades

SAPX 3rd 2m bar
This was a red hammer at the 5ema and 38 fib (fibs drawn over PDL/ORH) that I took for a bounce. The stock hit the ORH easily and almost hit the FE. However, I wasn’t watching it too carefully because by this time I was also in the next trade, ERX, so I let the stock fall. I also remembered MSHL from yesterday and tried to use the 5ema for support. When it fell below that and the ORH, I sold. It never got near the highs again.

ERX 6th 2m bar
This was a hammer at the 5ema and 38 fib. The stock blasted past the ORH and hit the FE. When it fell back a bit, I partialed. It then pushed back over the FE, but then it came back almost to breakeven, where I had moved my stop. The next push took it over the highs; I then set my sights for the 200 extension. However, I heard that crude and gas numbers were coming out, so I quickly got out at the FE. Good thing too, since the stock fell quickly and hit the lows and beyond. Whew!

PCX 9th 5m bar
This was a hammer following another hammer at the 5ema and 38 fib. The stock started well, going for the ORH, but then the gas numbers whacked this coal stock also. I got out quickly; it never recovered. Just my luck to find 2 setups in energy stocks right before numbers came out!

CREE 13th 15m bar short
I saw multiple stocks dropping the entire day and watched them all for bounces and shooting stars. Unfortunately, I picked 3 stocks with good setups that didn’t pan out, and others with so-so setups worked well. This shooting star was at the 8ema, 38 fib, and S2. The stock trended down, but as the market kept hitting new lows, this stock meandered, showing that it was stronger than the market. I got out near breakeven when one of its drops wouldn’t hold. Sure enough, my original stop would’ve been hit by EOD.

FINL 13th 15m bar short
At the same time, I saw this shooting star at the 8ema and S2, and it was below the 38 fib. Again, as with CREE, the stock tried to drop but couldn’t. I again got out early, this time with a few pennies of profit, and again my original stop would’ve been hit.

CHS 7th 30m bar short
This was a shooting star at the 5ema and S1, and it was below the 38 fib. This stock didn’t even pretend to drop, stopping me out in 2 bars.

Klaorman said...

8/17/11 missed trades

TZOO 6th 5m bar short
This great-looking shooting star was at the 5ema, 38 fib, and S1. Unfortunately, I didn’t have shares to borrow. I also never liked TZOO’s spread, so even if I had shares, I probably wouldn’t have traded it. I’ll have to learn to suck it up, though, since it kept dropping and dropping, hitting way past the 200 extension.

COST 9th 5m bar
This was a hammer at the 8ema and 38 fib. I saw it too late. The stock hit the ORH before falling.

DECK 13th 15m bar short
Here are the stocks with so-so setups that worked better than the good setups that I took above. Frustrating, but I have to only take the good setups. DECK had a hanging man at the 5ema, but there really wasn’t much room to the ORL. I was also in the other stocks above already and didn’t want to take more trades. DECK did hit beyond the ORL a bit, which was still good for about .90.

ARUN 7th 30m bar short
This was a green shooting star at the 8ema and 38 fib, but it was above S2 and the previous bar was a hammer. Regardless, the stock hit about halfway between the ORL and the FE.

APKT 19th 10m bar short
This was a shooting star at the 8ema, but it was above S2. There was also an earlier bar behind it that had almost offset the bar previous to that one. No matter, as the stock hit beyond the ORL a bit before bouncing.

UA 19th 10m bar short
This was a shooting star at the 5ema, but it was very close to the ORL and whole number 60, which should provide support. The stock said, “Support? What support?” as it fell past 60 and the ORL to hit halfway to the FE.

Anonymous said...

Klaorman, how do you look at so many different timeframes? I am not trying to be confrontational, but I think your success would go up if you picked one and focused on it. I honestly don't think you can be successful looking at 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, etc. You might get lucky now and then, but I think consistent success is impossible.

I see a lot of you guys posting here, but you aren't really following the Trader-X methods. There is a high number of trades and a lack of real focus on what a good setup is, and when you execute you need to have the ability to monitor your positions and adjust accordingly. Thus, fewer and better trades. If you get down to analyzing a setup and studying the price action and bars like you should, you can't have a watchlist of 200 stocks and trade 5 timeframes. It just doesn't work that way.

Again, I am not trying to be confrontational, but I see you guys doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different outcome that won't happen. Focus, discipline...it pays off. I have not had an unprofitable week since 2010. I have an unprofitable day every now and then, but never an unprofitable week.

Good luck.

Ken

Grove Under said...

Ken:
Thanks for your great comment, it completely hits home with me -- a big wakeup call. And I'm taking it to heart.

Since I'm currently on the sidelines, I'm going spend extra time revisiting my trading plan, and getting back to the basics. I have the data now, so I need to focus on what has worked for me (i.e. my strengths).

I'm going to come up with a precise game plan for next week that is focused, measurable, achievable, and then execute. ZERO trades in a day will be completely acceptable, and perhaps encouraged.

I'm not as worried about the P&L -- I want to make sure that I follow the plan and execute well. All my past trades show that if I only take A & B trades, the profits will be there.

Just curious, how many different setups do you currently look for? And I know everyone is different, but how long did it take you to find a plan that consistently works for you?

Thanks again!

Chips and Salsa said...

8/18/11

ADSK, 5m, 5ema, Fibs OR, short below bar 5, exited near FE, nearly 2R net profit. Trigger candle was so large, I didn't want to hold out for 3R in case of a bounce from the market being so extended.

NAV, 5m, 5ema, Fibs OR, short below bar 6, exited 1/2 at 3R, exited 1/2 near FE, net 4R profit.

Will switch gears to look for 15m trades for a bit.

Chips and Salsa said...

I wish I had posted the following yesterday afternoon to avoid stirring up confusion or anxiety on the blog.

What has changed for me this week? After explaining my methods to t-money a few days ago, I realized that I was creating a lot of extra work for myself. And that I was taking nasty hits in one specific timeframe more than any other (2m).

I also realized that I'm starting to hit a mental wall from the tedium of "all or nothing".

I can't say whether or not it's valuable for every trader to trade multiple timeframes in the long run. But I can personally attest to the fact that it's ultimately exhausting for me to continue to follow this regimen.

After months of doing it, it starts to catch up with you mentally. Coincidentally, yesterday afternoon, I made peace with myself and reduced my watchlist from 200 stocks to 100. I also decided going forward to only trade 5m charts in the early morning and 15m/30m charts after mid-morning.

It just isn't worth the headache to keep up with more than this for me. And my win rate with 2m has been horrible anyway, so I'm not finding any solace there.

I'm not saying people can't trade a lot more timeframes. I've been doing it with fairly good, but not great, results on the average. But my level of burnout has started to reach the ridiculous.

I look at so many charts and timeframes every day during and after market hours that I actually dream about them and even imagine them in patterns on the sidewalk. The same thing used to happen to me when I played chess for months on end, until I finally had to stop playing for a long while.

I've noticed that I just naturally gravitate towards a specific number of stocks, regardless of how long the watchlist is, and a specific number of timeframes, regardless of trying to include every timeframe in existence. (At one point, I even considered 1m, 20m, and 60m charts. I realized I was just being a control-freak and needed to back way off.)

Sorry if I've made things complicated for folks here. Like I said the other day, like everyone else, I'm still developing, learning, etc.

t-money, whether realizing it or not, helped me see that I've been fighting against a natural law in the markets and in life: the law of diminishing returns. At some point, "better" becomes the enemy of "good enough".

Thanks to t-money and Ken for bringing these issues up.

t-money said...

8/18/2011

Had 3 trades today that I thought were fairly similar to how Trader X trades, and I would be interested to know if he would have taken any of these.

The trades were TDC, BEN, and SUN. All were on the 5 minute timeframe, and all were shorted below the 6th 5 minute bar. It seems like a lot of stocks were carried sharply down after the 6th bar today looking back at some of my charts, so I am not sure if I got lucky with the market bringing these 3 down. Did anyone else play these, and are these setups that anyone else would have taken?

Thanks.

bl said...

Th 18Aug.
Anon thanks for your trading comments. So true. For me I'm finding a Premkt WL works well and if not then I go to an Open WL of 15 naz+ high price stocks. BusyStock.com premlt WL: NTAP MGM EMC C HPQ RIG LULU CREE FFIV VMW CROX DLTR APKT OPEN. I noticed a fast sell off from the open with tech stocks continued down and retailers didn't. Point being 1) grouping like industry stocks togethor can give one a better feel for where money is going or leaving 2)using a 2"(min) chart on the techs would have worked esp in this fast market:
all IB(inside bars my fav set up)
NTAP 4/2"
EMC 2/2"
CREE 2/2"
FFIV 2/2"
APKT 3/2"
I didn't see any 5" or 10" IB

Anonymous said...

Grove, I really only trade about three setups. I only look at the 5-minute timeframe, and use a 5EMA. I don't trade exactly like X, but I use the same principles. I focus more on plotting Fib lines over bigger moves which may or may not happen at the opening range. I am looking for a failure through the retracement zone or a nice bounce off of the top of it, with solid support form the 5EMA. I like the 5EMA to be right under price lifting it (or vice versa for a short). I probably put more emphasis on the 5EMA than most readers or X himself.

I have been making solid profits consistently for almost five years, and dabbled in trading for about ten before that but not as a full-time venture.

For me it is about discipline to only take good setups and about focus to only look at a small, defined watchlist and monitor what I am doing closely. And I don't trade a lot, though it is relative. On average I probably make 3 round-trip trades a day. Hope that helps.

Ken

Grove Under said...

Ken,
Thanks much for the feedback, very helpful information. I have to keep reminding myself that I've been in this for a very short time, and that I just need to survive so that I can stay in the game and continue to learn.

Klaorman said...

8/18/11 trades

Didn’t trade too much today. Missed the usual amount of trades. During the market’s slow midday retrace and then drop back to lows I kept looking for shooting stars at the 5ema or 8ema and couldn’t find any. Every stock I looked at found resistance at the emas and dropped to lows with the market, but none produced a shooting star entry candle!

RVBD 2nd 2m bar short
This was a short pause in RVBD’s drop. I played it as a fill the tail setup. Everything else I saw was dropping with no pause. I shorted under the 1st bar’s low. I was aiming for the FE (fibs drawn over PDH/ORL), but the stock paused a bit at around 21.20 and I got jittery and covered. Silly me, it hit the FE on the next drop and bounced. “Set and forget,” “trust the setup,” yep, yep.

SFSF 5th 5m bar short
This was a green shooting star at the 5ema. However, I had forgotten for the moment that the Philly Fed numbers were coming out soon. When SFSF hit the whole number, I bailed. The numbers came out and tanked the stock to the ORL, which was right near S2, where it bounced. It was probably correct not to hold thru the numbers, but regardless I seem to be very jittery these days, even more than usual.


Missed trades

HOG 6th 2m bar short
This was a shooting star at the 5ema and 38 fib. I was in RVBD at the time and didn’t see this. The stock bounced near the ORL to almost stop out, but then it reversed and hit the FE.

INFA 13th 2m bar short
This was a shooting star at the 8ema and under the 38 fib. I was in SFSF at the time. The stock bounced after testing the ORL.

TDC 6th 5m bar short
This was a shooting star at the 5ema and 50 fib. I was in SFSF at the time. The stock bounced after testing the ORL, found resistance at the 38 fib, and then hit the FE near EOD. Patience would’ve been rewarded.

t-money, I would’ve taken TDC if I had seen it in time. I wouldn’t have taken BEN or SUN because they retraced deeper than I would’ve liked.

GT 6th 5m bar short
This was a green shooting star at the 5ema and 38 fib. Yes, I was dealing with SFSF at the time. The stock dropped with the bad Philly Fed numbers and hit the FE within 2 bars, where it bounced.

GPOR 6th 5m bar short
This was a green shooting star at the 5ema and 50 fib. SFSF once again. The stock used the numbers to hit the ORL, where it bounced.

Times of Your Life said...

um....can i ask this question here?
um....does anyone of you guys have some recommended blogs that you don't mind to share?
is there any blog that specifically use SMA and EMA?

Klaorman said...

Ken,

Thanks for your feedback; I know you’re not being confrontational. I have all timeframes up along with the daily so that I can find a setup in one glance. I literally whip through my list and view all timeframes for each stock in about a second, looking for sustained moves and hammers/shooting stars. If I don’t see a sustained move in a stock, I drop it from my list. If I see a hammer/shooting star at a 5ema or 8ema, I check the daily (which has MAs and EMAs) and the pivots for support/resistance, draw fibs, and then make sure that the bars leading up to the setup bar are orderly. I do cheat some, as someone here had suggested, by mostly looking at the 2m off the open, then gradually moving to the slower timeframes as the day progresses. However, all timeframes are still up; the other day I found several late-day 5m setups.

I try to follow the Trader-X methods; I think most of the charts I post show a retrace to an EMA from a strong move, and then a hammer/shooting star forming. I also try to look for fill-the-tail setups. Sometimes I catch a reversal hammer/shooting star at an EMA. Please feel free to let me know which charts I post are not really Trader-X style.

I honestly think that I’m not trading enough! I miss a lot of good setups that would’ve worked. If I caught those, I’d be doing better.

Congrats on your success!

Matt said...

Klaorman-

You said "I honestly think that I’m not trading enough! I miss a lot of good setups that would’ve worked. If I caught those, I’d be doing better."

This sounds like classic addiction behavior, and trust me I'm an addict. If you are making money, more power to you. But, if you aren't making money this is your problem. X made a great post or comment a while back about there being setups you always miss. Don't focus on those, focus on what is in front of you and make that count. Hell, I love seeing all the setups I missed when I review the day because it means my strategy works. I also don't mind because I took the best ones and made money - you can't get them all.

bl said...

Fri 19Aug fwiw alot of snap back gap dn stocs like BIDU on premkt BusyStock.com WL of 18. What's a "bonified" gap dn/up on the WL?:
MRVL INTU SGI ANN ARO HPQ CRM SODA CLWR. CRM quick 3-5min up and reverse. Nice contra trade. The most important thing for me is these 18 stocks are already charted up(5 and 10min) premkt and that's all I need to focus on: out of the 18 odds are that there is at least one good trade set up that will unfold if I just be patient. There is nowhere else to go but stay put...and very hard to do

Chips and Salsa said...

8/19/11

DELL, 5m, 5ema, Fibs OR, entry above bar 8, stopped out at breakeven.

I'm questioning my trade management. I have enough trades that work in my favor, but I'm not always getting money out of them.

When the stock doesn't trend for long, I don't reach my 3R target for partial profit taking. I keep hitting breakeven or taking a small loss from slippage.

I know that summer can be choppy.
I also read somewhere that from the end of August to the beginning of September, a lot of traders are on vacation.

Thoughts on alternatives for profit management?

http://youtu.be/eQ99MdxVVKY?t=1m5s

joshua said...

bl, i'm a monitor snob. for 5 years while i was saving my money to trade, i envisioned my dream setup and now i have it. 3 22's an one 28 that is mounted above the side by side 22s. doesn't make me trade better, but does help me organize better. plus, it makes me feel like a man, lol.

joshua said...

grove, do not say the SODA trade was 90% luck. that is the self-deprecating (i kept thinking defecating, and i'm like, that is not the right word). it is what i do to myself as well. we end up harping and reviewing the bad trades and then never give our selves credit for the good ones. remember, you are an excellent trader, you have worked hard, your successes are not an accident but a result of your hard work an focus, etc...i listen to positive affirmations like this nightly. deep down, i know i still don't fully believe them but it does help. i think once we fully believe these things, it will all fall into place. for me though, its like chicken or the egg. i need confidence to trade well but i can't trade well until i have confidence.

Grove Under said...

joshua:
Thanks for keeping things in the right perspective, you have a very good point. Trading is hard enough as it is, so we need to give ourselves every mental edge we can to stay one step ahead!

Klaorman:
Trader-X has built up a great community here, and I'm very thankful it exists. In some ways, it has always been and hopefully always be in part, a support community for traders.

You have a lot of guts and courage to write out all of your trades (unlike me), and it's great that there are people who even take the time to respond so thoughtfully.

I'm obviously not in the position to tell you whether what you're doing is right or wrong...I'd say ultimately, that's something each trader will discover on their own via their P&L as well as overall level of satisfaction with their trading method.

But what I can tell you is that I know you give trading a tremendous amount of effort -- the passion and dedication is obviously there.

I myself am doing everything I can to improve my discipline via specific, measurable goals and exercises to improve my behavior. There have been countless other very insightful suggestions and words of wisdom from this blog. Best thing -- you, me, and the entire community benefits.

So, keep up the strong efforts to constantly learn and improve!

bl said...

19Aug Fri: I mentioned that the Busystock premkt WL of 18 >$10 were mostly fades either way during the first hour: the gap ups faded CRM MRVL and the gap downs filled the gap and more so: BIDU LULU NDSN WYNN LVS WLT. HPQ ARO were in a world of there own. Nothing wrong with going contra esp on the big names like AAPL AMZN GOOG PCLN NFLX... the machine is working. I don't think one will get much to the upside and less charts to deal with the better.
Joshua good to hear you have a manly set of monitors: compare and contrast charts, pull the trigger, go to the beach!!

Grove Under said...

Chips & Salsa:
Regarding your question on profit management, attitudetrader.blogspot.com has a lot of great links on his website, some of which are to Tradermike.net.

You might have already read this, but Tradermike had a post years ago about scaling out (moving stop to B/E after 1R):

Post from TraderMike.net

And from within that post, he referenced this one (it justified the cost of reduced absolute profits from scaling out because of significantly reduced drawdowns):

Post from taylortree.com

The posts are around 6 years old, but still just as relevant than ever. I can't vouch for the statistics, but it's a great starting point for eventually finding what works for each individual.