Stocks
Trades: 8
Shares: 1,000
P/L: -186.00

Stocks
Trades: 7
Shares: 900
P/L: -592.00

Stocks
Trades: 7
Shares: 1,300
P/L: +490.50

Ah the joys of being an idiot from time to time. You know, after almost two years of active daytrading (only 1 year and 6 months full-time) you would think that those novice mistakes (like accidentally doubling down when you meant to close a position, or buying 1000 shares instead of 100) would be behind you. But today I proved that those mistakes will haunt you much longer than you think.

I came in today planning on only trading for a few hours in the morning and taking the rest of the day off. I got to the office 1min after the market opened and saw that CSIQ had reported earnings and gapped up. I had a good feeling that FSLR would be a good long given the right entry.

FSLR has had strong resistance around the $288-$289 level since the second test of $305 early this month. From the gap point on April 30 and the test of that level, sellers have been coming in and keeping FSLR in check. However, you can see a bullish setup in the MFI with higher lows for the first 10 trading day. A nice ascending wedge had formed coming to a point with about a $5 range. With CSIQ’s earnings release, FSLR gapped above the resistance level on the open which really made a strong case for the $300 level to be tested again.

Taking this into account, I was looking to be long on the open. I was given a beautiful opportunity when FSLR sold off from $293 to $290 and proceeded to trade sideways for a few minutes. I wasn’t getting much of a signal out of the MFI this time, but I knew there was a good chance for an early morning rally. I have been using Book Trader the last few weeks to try and get better limit entries, and this time it cost me. I waited for the right entry, watched the bid/ask and then quickly jumped in. Little did I know, I made the classic novice mistake of taking the wrong side of the trade. About 30 seconds after entry I figured out what I had done and luckily I was able to exit the trade with +$5. But it cost me. After making that mistake my confidence was a little low, and I couldn’t get myself to reenter the trade on the right side. FSLR quickly ran up to $295.50, leaving me behind. My last two trades were very straightforward, positive divergence on the MFI coupled with some sideways price action. I made around $275 on these. Here are the charts.

Today started off very well for us and we are ending our trading day at 9:30. I had 3 good winners and one small loser. I was long STP basicly from the open and it went my way quickly. I waited for a pullback and added again for a total of 200 shares. STP then moves back to its previous high where I sell, just before the stock moves another dollar. I think I exited STP to soon because I had just added to my AAPL position and I was now long 400 shares. I was worried that AAPL would turn around on me and become a loser and I would need the STP profits to pad the loss. So I bail on STP and keep the AAPL. But it only takes a couple more minutes of holding 400 shares before I begin to get worried that AAPL wont continue to go and I exit the WHOLE trade, just before it moves another dollar fifty. If I had just stayed with the original 200 I would have held and at least made $300 instead of $75. I know now that I will have to be more carefull with my positon sizing so as not to scare myself out of winning trades. I also caught about a dollar move in EXM that I also exited to soon, with only 100 shares. The funny thing is that I made more money on EXM than I did in AAPL. That really hurts!! My only loser was in GS and it was only $50. I was up over $100 on the trade but thought it could continue to move and it ended up turning into a loser. Here are the charts.

Stocks
Trades: 11
Shares: 1,800
P/L: +272.50

I had a few good trades today each of which I should have held longer or had more size on. The only really good trade that I made was in DRYS which I had good size on and sold at a good level. The AAPL trade, the GS trade and the HES trade all should have been held longer or had more size. I think my main problem was that I was afraid of starting the week of with a loss so I kept my size small and took my winners to quickly. I did not want to begin the week on the wrong foot so I stayed conservative so that maybe we can have another good week. My only bad trade was in PCLN which I had traded on Friday. The stock was weak at the open and I wanted to get short but could not pull the trigger. When PCLN dropped to new lows and looked like it was going to go back to 130 I got short hoping to get some of the three dollar move that I had just missed by not shorting at the open. Of course I get crushed when the stock rips up on two 5min bars and I lose $185 on the trade. The GS trade was a winner but I wanted to add an additional 200 shares on the very next 5min bar after my original entry but once again I could not execute and GS moved 1.30 and I only had 100. Here are the charts.

Dr. Niederhoffer offered up an interesting post about the correlation between a plant’s ecosystem and the market.

As I’ve watched my food plots grow, it’s hard not to notice the connections between them and the markets and economy. I see staunch stalky plants and they remind me of the big blue chip companies. They provide the back bone upon which the economy is built. But they are now more important than the smaller companies which account for the majority of the economy employment. These smaller companies grow around and circumnuate around the stalks of the big companies.

Stocks
Trades: 58
Shares: 8,900
P/L: +1,153.58

Swing Trades
Trades: 2
Shares: 100
P/L: -372.00

Stocks
Trades: 8
Shares: 1,100
P/L: +533.88

Swing Trades
Closed: 1
Shares: 50
P/L: -224.50