TraderPlanet.com :: stockrookie's Commentaries

Update - looking to 2011

Charlie G. — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:41:00 +0000

Hello Blogosphere!

Things are going well, though I have not made the progress in some personal arenas that I intended during my trading hiatus in 2010.

My plan is to dedicate 9:00am to 10:30am to read trading blogs and watch the opening bell of the markets from January through March, and then make a decision about what to do about trading after that....I really wish I had more time to dedicate to this, but I have to pay the bills with the rest of the day.

Have a good holiday season!

Peace,
Charlie

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

Gone Fishing

Charlie G. — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Greetings. Hope all had a great new year and holidays.

Things are good for me, my business has picked up with my renewed focus and energy put into it, and several of my house projects have accelerated ahead.

I'm still very interested in trading. I'm going to return to the markets, and this blog when I'm ready.

While there is never the "best" time to tackle any big challenge, I think trading requires one to be grounded in strength. For me, this means financial, mental, physical and domestic robus...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

Decision Made

Charlie G. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:28:00 +0000

I don't need an extended cooling period to make the move...I'm going to stop trading and watching the markets for likely at least six months or probably at least a year. I'm thinking I should have my ducks in a row by January 2011. The main thing is family finances. My wife was laid off in April and I'm the sole source of income now, a big change from when I started down this path last fall. The time I was spending on trading, I'm going to devote to doing extra contract work. It will be quite...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

Trade or "Off the Pot" Deadline

Charlie G. — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Well, it looks like the hard drive died on the new computer. I could of got the lap top going for trading using a one of the monitors, but before I knew it, the week was over.

In the meanwhile, this week I got the opportunity to take on several projects to make $3K-$4K between now and the first of year. For the most part, I've resisted taking on extra work in 2009, but the money would come in handy and make me very valuable to an ongoing client I've been somewhat passive with lately. Between t...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

hanging left after the u-turn

Charlie G. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:43:00 +0000

On Monday, I finally got my work and mental worlds focused enough to get really motivated to do some paper trading...and the new computer I bought in April did not boot, not even in Safe Mode. I still haven't figured it out but should soon. It's funny, that's happened several times in this fall when I got all set to trade - one time my internet was down, another time a cold really started to get kick my butt . Maybe it's a sign.

When I do get my computer running again, my intention is to make ...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

faking it to I make it

Charlie G. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Blindsided, I did not see coming - at all - my interest and energy for trading absolutely falling off the cliff. It was a year ago this month that I opened a TD Ameritrade account on a Friday and purchased $2K of GM stock because the price looked so "cheap". It was under $5 a share and I thought if I just held on to them for a couple years, I could triple or quadruple my money. On the Monday after, the markets soared and I made like $500 overnight, locking in my profit despite my long-term pl...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

Lost....

Charlie G. — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Somehow I've lost all interest / energy to trade; I would rather do my day job or projects around the house, than to even paper trade.

Or go to the batting cages, or research blogs for my fantasy football team, or run errands to get out of my office away from my computer...

Made four sim trades today on CTAS, CTV, GIS, and XLNX - I shorted and longed them 50%-50%, but all of them hit their stops, each failed or had weak breakouts.

I used a trailing stop on one of the positions, but want to just ...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

another shift in gears

Charlie G. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:05:00 +0000

I'm having trouble getting back on track with trading. The break I took after my August losses has left me out of touch with the markets, and I can't seem to reconnect.

I'm going to continue to paper trade when I get the chance, but am not going to put pressure on myself to do it everyday. For the time being, I will discontinue posting my daily sim results, and try doing a weekly recap.

I'm going to experiment some with my approach in the next couple weeks. The main things I will be focusing i...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

SIM 9.17.09 | 75% Discipline

Charlie G. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Today was ugly as I made lots of clerical errors, though it was technically profitable in terms of paper trades.

Orders: 25% - I exited two trades immediately by accident by putting in limit orders instead of stops, and I re-entered another position by not realizing that a stop had been filled. Very sloppy. I was trying to multi-task with some work assignments, but was not just not mentally fit to trade today.

Stops: 75% - On STEC, I had my first paper trade position in which the stock moved vi...Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

SIM 9.15.09 | No Trades

Charlie G. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Watchlist: GOLD APC AGCO LVS DGX ADBE ITT GNW TPX MIR EGO

My charts were screwing up, and lagging so much/not populating with data, I was not able to trade despite all sorts of tinkering. They appear to operational Thursday. Very frustrating as I was feeling mentally ready to trade yesterday.

8698206194413458448-1723954221928789187?l=stockrookgoespro.blogspot.com

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

SIM 9.15.09 | 75% Discipline

Charlie G. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Watchlist: GR BCRX LVS RCL GNW SOA CAH ING SFD

Really having trouble with focusing on trading right now...also, TOS Paper Money wa acting up alot today.

...big issue right now is my new rule of buying on pullbacks. I have been great on not entering until something pulls back from the trend I think is developing, but have not waited until it clearly resumes heading back in the projected direction. I failed to do this 3 out of 4 trades today, but followed my rules on Orders, Exits, and Stops.

Long...

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

SIM 9.14.09 | 91.6% Discipline

Charlie G. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:20:00 +0000

Watchlist: ING OMX CTB COCO GT CDE MTL

Forget about a traffic court date yesterday, so was rushed and wasn't available to paper trade until 10:00am. Made three trades that met my criteria, all longs around 10:15am on CTB, ING, COCO.

I followed my rules on Orders, Exits, Stops and Exits, except on COCO, I did not let the stock show renewed strength after the pullback, so I did follow my entry rules.

CTB and ING followed up their set-ups as ORH-BOs, but COCO failed. It was my first profitable pape...

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

Sim Trading Aims For Next Week

Charlie G. — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:17:00 +0000

I was not able to paper trade yesterday, big grant deadline that kept me busy from 7am to 8pm. Right now I have work, house projects and family competing for my attention and I am having trouble getting back to prioritizing trading, though I still don't want go to the extreme where I'm obsessed with the markets.

Overall, last week was a good start to getting back to trading. Most off all, by the end of the week, with every simulated trade, I was reflexively putting in a Stop Loss order in imme...

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

SIM 9.10.09 | 96.8% Discipline

Charlie G. — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Watchlist: ITW ABB RSH XL VMED SNH VVUS ASML PG LVS BX ERTS

With this simple paper trading plan, I'm not having to deal yet very much with emotions. I feel a little anxiety following my entry rules 100% of the time because I know the chart many times is looking like a questionable set-up for a long or short entry even though it its breaking through the opening range, and I'm getting entry signal for this temporary practice regime.

But the plan is so basic that I can do it on auto pilot just aft...

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »

SIM 9.09.09 | 92.8% Discipline

Charlie G. — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Watchlist: CREE SNDK ATPG ABB PHG PALM UNG WM DISH OPXA

Rushed again. Wednesday was a trend day, all my paper trades were long above the Opening Range High - anticipating breakouts. I took simulated positions in ABB, ATPG, CREE, PHG, SNDK, UNG, and DISH. Only CREE garnered some profit, but I was wicked out on a pullback so only go a .20 cent profit. The rest either broke near even by trailing stop or with a .20 cent loss with my initial stop order. I ended up being about -$60 in the red with o...

Read More at TraderPlanet.com »