stockrookie

Watchlist: ILMN BLL ENER SEPR TIVO XLNX CHU

Stalling a little bit in my trading with three of the last four days break even. I'm using good risk management to keep losers small and avoiding catastrophic losses. In general, I have increased the percentage of my winning trades as well. Going forward, these are areas I want to work on as I have mentioned before:

1) Let my winners run longer ~ I will put my stop loss orders in and not move them. When a stock moves twenty cents (eventually want this to be more like 50 cents), I will take partial profit and exit half my position. The remaining 100 shares, I will let run until the initial profit target, usually a half or whole dollar price, with a stop loss order placed at break even in case it doesn't hit the target.

2) Reduce my hesi-trading ~ Enter set-ups as soon as I see them. Today, I had three tickets created in my Order Management System, but did not "start" them. They went on to make over a $1.50 price move as the morning progressed. If I am not 100% sure of a set-up (but like 90% certain), I will enter only a half position to reduce my risk but to get me into the trade.

3) Stay more alert and focused ~ I have a small watchlist but everyday, I miss clear breakouts and breakdowns because of distractions and poor mental acuity. I need to deal with the distractions by being more productive during my work hours, avoiding procrastination and doing deadline driven tasks ahead of time so my plate is cleared during the morning hours for trading. I need to improve my mental fitness through eating better, exercise and reducing my caffeine intake.

4) Better entries, tighter stops and selective flipping ~ On some of my trades I am chasing a bit rather than waiting for a pullback or bounce-up - with these I often get stopped out because I enter a position and then they retrace to the area where I should of waited for entry. On other occasions, I'm giving too much breathing room in my stops; I'm shorting at a clear resistance area, and if it busts above that area, it's likely a break out. With these, it would be better to make my stops tighter, and on real price pivots, as in my trading plan, I should flip the stock.

Here are my trades today:

Tick	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Set-Up	Actual
ILMN	200	L	34	-2.85	31.15	ORH-BO	ORH-BO
CHU	200	S	-19	-3.74	-22.74	ORL-BD	Bot Bou
XLNX	200	S	-5	-2.76	-7.76	Top Fade	ORH-BO
					$ 0.65

Watch List: SNDA ENDP OSK MYGN BLL WERN FRPT

No reason to trade more just to make up the nickel in losses today to keep a green streak going. Today, I passed / hesitated / got distracted away from trading SNDA as a break-out twice and MYGN as a break-down (though it is recovering now nicely).

Stock	Side	Shares	Gross	Fee	Net	Set-Up	True?
OSK	Flip	300	43	-4.13	38.87	ORL	n/a
BLL	Long	200	-35	-3.92	-38.92	ORH-BO	No
					-$0.05

I think starting tomorrow I should start having more time and energy to concentrate on trading.

Morning Watch List: XCO TNE SNDA TTM APOL ASBC TSL ERTS DV CECO

Left at least a $100 on the table as my second go of APOL- it dropped a half buck within minutes (literally right before 11am) after my inpatient exit, which was more related to being in a hurry this morning because of work and a meeting, and less than my mental anxiety. XCO was just a failed set-up and provides evidence again on the importance of stop loss orders.

Stock	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Set-Up	TRUE
APOL	200 x 2	S	65	-6.7	58.3	ORL-BD	Yes
XCO	200	L	-30	-3.72	-34	ORL-BO	No
					$24.60

Morning Watch List: TTM BIIB TRW CSIQ CLR LDK POT KBH MDRX SLM STP

Not by best day and things turned into just trying to break even and preserve my green streak instead of following my rules.

Stock	Shares	Gross	Side	Fee	Net	Set-Up	Yes
POT	200 X 2	24	Flip	-7.32	16.68	None	n/a
MDRX	200 X 2	-8.85	S	-7.54	-16.39	Top Fade	no
					$0.29

MDRX - Shorted a break out, giving it a wide stop; where I shorted around $16 it was actually a nice pullback (for a long entry) to ORH before it steadily rose to over $16.60. Later, I successfully faded it for a dime drop to reduce my losses on this tick.

POT - First I longed a half position. It spiked twenty cents; I meant to close out but added another 100 shares long, thus eating away on the profits on the first trade. The second play I got a bad fill - so likely $20 in slippage here between both transactions. This stock I wasn't using my opening range strategy and just trying to play the top or bottom of the range on a fast moving day ranger.












Recently, I have NOT been paying for my lack of discipline but I know it will catch up to me soon. My life balance stuff is all of whack too, and I know that's were structure and consistency starts with my behavior. Before I was being sloppy with my exits but today it slipped to my entries as well.

The safest and most reliable sets are to Opening Range High Breakouts, by longing them when they pullback to ORH, or Opening Range Low Breakdowns, shorting on a bottom bounce back to ORL. Here are two charts on stocks in which I had orders open today but did not pull the trigger:

The green lines on the charts show the 15-minute opening range high and low at 9:45am.

Opening Range High Breakout (ORH-BO)














Opening Range Low Breakdown (ORL-BD)
















Bottom Bounce (Bot-Bou)
















Top Fade (Top-Fade)

Morning Gapper Watch List: PALM POT CHS SNY BBL UBS AAUK BLUD SLT

Really, really groggy today. Still playing it too safe...I hope to come up with a clear and concrete plan for starting next week to better let winners run and to in general stay in trades longer.

Stock	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Set-Up	TRUE
PALM	100	L	15	-0.88	14.12	ORH-BO	Yes
SNY	200	S	25	-2.82	22.18	ORL-BD	Yes
BLUD	200	S	-8	-2.75	-10.75	Top Fade	?
					$ 25.55

PALM - Left lots of profit on table by only entering half position and taking profits only minutes later. Now a half buck above where I entered, and nice break out above $16.

SNY - Last trade of day. I started out with following my rules for putting in a stop order and then a partial sell order at my first target price, but I over-rode them to lock in profit and call it a day.

BLUD - Trading in a range now, I exited in panic - a market order on a fast moving wick.

Morning Watchlist: MTL NVLS MDRX BBBY LEN GRMN JEF PAYX HTZ JAZZ NKE RHT

Really rushed today...

Stock	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Set Up	True?
BBBY	200	L	30	-1.81	$28.19	ORH-BO	Yes

I left money on the table wanting to lock in a profit within minutes so I could attend to deadlines. My initial partial profit should have been at $31.05, and maybe the rest at $31.25 as I see some resistance here on the daily chart. At 10:06am, BBBY is trading at $31.35.

My biggest area of growth continues to be letting my winners run further instead of exiting for emotional relief reasons. I may be in a hurry tomorrow too, but I hope not.

Morning Watch List: AAUK ORCL AES ADS SOL MGM WNR SVU POT MTL PETM

In a hurry today, more commentary tomorrow if I find time.

Stock	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Set-Up	TRUE
AAUK	100	S	19	-1.87	17.13	Top Fade	No
ADS	200	S	-18	-3.28	-21.28	Top Fade	Yes
ORCL	200	L	24	-3.27	20.73	ORH B-out	Yes
SVU	200	S	2	-2.24	-0.24	ORL B-down	No
					$ 16.34

Lots of slippage in my stops not being hit causing forced exits at less than ideal prices. Likely $25 between ADS, SVU, and ORCL. Only entered half position on AAUK as it felt like I was trying to pick a top on my entry and it moved quick so no opportunity to add more. ORCL was a nice breakout above a whole number threshold on volume, jiggy like level two action and trend continuation. On this stock I entered at $21.51 with stop at $21.49. My first price target should have been at least $21.70, and then letting rest run with a trailing stop, but I was anxious of my daily balance and wanted to end positive. The result would of likely been similar as it is now fading.

I need to improve in letting my winners run by NOT taking partial profits as soon as I get a dime in my favor. A quarter should be around the minimum initial price target unless technical indicators suggest otherwise. I'm exiting half the position now to relieve the fear of losing money and wanting to preserve the puny profits that I have garnered. Will try to exit partial from here on out now only when a stop is hit or the price has moved at least $.20. Will expand and fine tune this with more experience.











So much for a short post, man I'm long winded.

Morning Watchlist: BA RMBS NVS HXL PCS PCP CF PKI

Another positive day. I am so glad I have finally gotten into the habit of trading with real money everyday. I'm such a creature of routine and there is no reason I can't get at least get an hour in a day despite my other responsibilities. The main growing pain is learning to plan my work so I get things done ahead of time enough to always feel like I have time to devote to the markets every morning. I think my trading skills will increase exponentially with the CONSISTENT live real-time trading experience.

I hope to start detailing my rationale for each trade more thoroughly each day to help me retain the lessons learned.

Stock	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Set-Up	TRUE
NVS	400	Flip	-6	-6.16	-12.16	ORL - flip	No
PCP	200	Long	26	-2.56	23.44	ORH B-out	Yes
HXL	200	Short	22	-2.7	19.3	ORL B-down	Yes
					$30.58

I longed NVS above $42, looking for a bounce off of the whole number under the Opening Range Low. This looked like a solid support area with prices late last week. I accidentally exited half right away putting in my stop order (placed a limit sell order instead). The half position of the stock started to sputter and I anticipated a fail at $42, and flipped short by selling 200 shares. However, supply came in strong right at $42 and price bounced. I averaged in, and NVS flirted with under $42 for a short bit, and I manually exited to keep my losses low as I had no idea where the stock was heading....currently continuing to float just above $42.

Hesitated on PCP at $74.20 with volume and momo candles, and it ran up to ORH without me. I longed on a pullback to $74.50, and entered the rest at $74.55. I exited half near ORH, and the remaining was stopped out at $74.50 to cut into the trade's profits. This stock really brokeout more around lunch. Re-entering this stock long when it sold off under $74.40 would of really paid out at this juncture with a more than $1 move from there.

I shorted HXL at $9.03 which was ORL as well. I moved my stop very tight around $8.90ish and tool a small profit on the trade, in part because I had to move on to work and partly because of impatience.

9:45am Gapper Watch List: FCX BBL AU FRO SSRI CSIQ PAAS WRE WAG FEED AAUK SOL TTI AUY

Didn't get my run in or a weekend analysis of my trades last week, but did eat and sleep better. Today you could of shorted at open and made money. 10 of the 14 stocks above broke down below their opening ranges. All three of my trades were nice shorts but I either hesitated on entry, exited too quickly, or my stop was too tight. However, after so many losing days with my prop account, I will take a small daily winner to bring me green 4 out of the last 6 days, and essentially break even on the month of June in terms of trades and commissions. Need to win small before you can win big I guess. My goal right now is to get live real trading experience everyday without eating up my capital, more than it is to rack up profits.

Stock	Side	Shares	Gross	Fee	Net	Notes
AU	S	200	-24	-3.36	-27.36	Blew thru stop
FCX	S	200	48	-2.4	45.6	Hesitated too much
BBL	S	200	7	-2.89	4.11	Played tight
					$ 22.35

FCX was the play of the day. I did not enter short at $48 and again at $47.50 - not hitting start on my orders - but finally sold short at $47. With 17 million average volume with a over $3 average daily range, a nice stock to play today now trading around $46.50. BBL if I had kept my initial stop would of been nice but it brokedown a little and I moved my stop tighter to not let a winner turn into a loser. It went up to $45 (my stop was a couple pennies above that) and it's now at $44.20. AU similar pattern with my stop was at the same place but just above $36 - it didn't get executed so I manually exited around $36.04 (with a high of just a little higher at $36.12 ~ now at $35.50ish).









I think the next step for letting my winners run is taking my partial 50% position profits at where I'm typically taking my remaining profits, and then let things go from there.

Gapper Watchlist at 9:45am: RCL YGE SOA PALM GOLD RT MPEL SPWRA FRO KMX CCL HPT STAR HSP

I've had my best week with prop trading since I started with 3 out 5 green days, and Gross $26.19 but Net -$27.86. I have to start making progress somehow and this is a baby step despite being so rusty. I traded 5 days in a row and my losses were not too great, so this was a decent live training week at a reasonable tuition rate. I know I got way more out of this than from my paper trading last week.

Stock	Shares	Side	Gross	Fee	Net	Note
GOLD	200	S	-16	-2.49	-18.49	Stopped Out
HSP	200	L	12	-3.9	8.1	Stalled
SOA	200	L	47	-2.7	44.3	Played Right
KMX	200	L	-39.76	-2.25	-42.01	Stopped Out
RCL	200	S	24	-3.24	20.76	Stopped Out
					$12.66

The set-ups went the way I thought would on all five trades; my two losers I did not wait for big enough pullbacks/bounce ups for entries and got stopped out before they went in the anticipated direction. I stayed in my trades longer and actually had some long winners after not having much success with buying recently. When I got stopped out of my GOLD short and it then pulled back, I thought about flipping long as it was acting very bullish and, of course, it really broke out from there.

I'm going to try to do a longer post this weekend to review all my trades this week and post more detailed charts.

Also, have a 5K on Sunday. Physical fitness will eventually equate to superior trading, I know it!