May Recap

MAY TOTALS:
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Gain: $4981, net of commissions
Trades: 90 for 134; 67% winners
Ave gain per day traded: $356
Ave gain per hour traded: $150
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Days traded in May: 14 out of 20; 70%
Days traded with a gain: 13 out of 14; 93%
Days traded with a loss: 1 out of 14; 7%
Hours traded in May: 33.25 out of 130; 26%
Largest daily loss: -$5930 on May 18th (only day with a loss)
Smallest daily loss: *see above
Largest daily gain: $2995 on May 28th
Smallest daily gain: $190 on May 14th (the day with the least time spent trading: 1/2 hour)
Most active day: 17 for 30 on May 19th ( the only day I traded the full 6.5 hour session)
Least active day: 2 for 2 on May 26th
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Notable:
My time in front of the market seemed to shrink this month as day-job got busier. Because of this, I'm now tracking hours spent in the market as well as days to give me a feel for my efficiency as well as what the time commitment of my practice trading really is. My number of trades is down also, partly because of less time in themarkets but also because of more patience and discipline in my entries. This is a very positive change in behavior and the one thing this month of which I am happiest. There are still some "flunky" moves, of course.
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My average daily gain is down again this month, in part because I have been spending less time trading in the days which I can get into the market. I was in the market only 2.5 hours or fewer in 11 of the 14 days I traded. By the stats, with a 67% win rate and only one losing day all month, less time in the markets means less overall gains from missed opportunity. Day-job is at fault...
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With only one losing day all month, my gains should have been much bigger. Same old story as prior months... one or two really nasty losing days can offset a relatively high success rate of wins to losses. I'm hoping that becoming militant about setting stops will produce better results in June and beyond. I'm not ready to be a real trader until I can set stops and mitigate losses effectively.
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I have calculated the monthly stats in dollars rather than cents per share, although much of the month was not originally measured in dollars. This is the progression toward trading real cash.
Also part way into this month, I switched to measuring wins and losses by the cumulative position and not by the individual trades which make up each position. As such, the monthly stats are not precise.
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Overall: I am improving as time goes forward and I am happy about many parts of my practice trading. I am MUCH more comfortable getting in and out of trades and often find myself not looking at my gains and losses at all, just price and volume. I find I rarely get emotional about the various trades I put on. Mostly, I am just analytical about my activities in the market.
In mid-May, I decided to commit to trend trading and to wean myself from the practice of adding to losers to average a better overall price. This requires a concerted effort to use stops. My frustration with this change is exhibited on May 18th, my only losing day. It was a bad session as I tried this new approach for the first time and got chopped to bits after repeated hits on my stops. The next day May 17th was a tough one managing stops also although I scraped together a $770 gain. I fear it will take some time to master this new method...partly because I am so strongly compelled to revert back to my old trading style of averaging down by adding to losing positions. (like today for example)
Holding winners through a trend also seems to be tough for me. I attribute it to not having a "feel" for slowing momentum. As such, I take smaller gains when I have them. I believe the remedy is to focus closely on what happens as momo slows... and to study charts after-hours; my own and those at Fear & Greed Day Trader.
I do hope all of you had a productive month and I wish you good trading in June!

May 29th

Here's what carelessness and inattention will get you. Not to mention selling out a winning position instead of holding. In the morning, I had some early positive trades but closed it down for the late morning into mid-day for a lunch appointment. Back to the markets around 2:30 pm, I had a couple winning positions, one of which was a terrific entry short at about 2:45 pm on SKF; average price of $43.66. As it turns out, this was the beginning of a tremendous end of the day drop as the markets surged! I had a three-part position short but sold it for a small gain of $360. Had I held to EOD, that would have been a gain of about $5730! But I sold it... and then started trying to play some reversals on the way down. Getty sloppy and inattentive, I got sidetracked by playing GS at the same time. Now, this would have worked had I been playing only one or the other. I was caught off guard when I hit the margin limit on my account and I could no longer average down! The 3:30 pm candle would have given me a gain in either stock had I more funds to play with. So, instead of selling out the positions, I decided to see what would happen... I had never had any shares liquidated to meet margin requirements; two forced sales are the two losers on the tally above. Now I know how it works! Ha! Anyway, I took a day-job phone call and didn't sell before the close. I'm carrying big open positions into Monday with no way to monitor them as Monday's work appoinments will keep me away from the computer until mid-afternoon or end of the trading session.

This is a learning experience for a few reasons:

-1. I still must hold winners longer. I sold two positions much too soon today, especially the 2:58 pm in SKF. Had I held that one, I would have avoided my current negative situation; a result of messing with the reversals. (instead, I would have been riding the trend short with a nice winner) I still haven't had the the experience of holding a really long trend and am looking forward to it. Over the past month I have had some great entries which could have given me that elusive momo gainer, I just haven't HELD until a clear sell signal emerges. Part of this problem is in identifying the proper exit point. More study of Scott Farnham's blog is in order.

-2. Playing for reversals requires enough money in the account to execute an entry... duh?! The margin of safety is pretty thin when doing this type of trading because the reversals in a strong trend don't last long. Quick, flawless execution is necessary. Another reason to abandon this approach, perhaps?

-3. Adding to losers is a big mistake and I still do it... despite my ultimate goal not to. This really is ego driven, I cling to what has given me gains in the past because I like the feel of putting up winners; though it is ill-advised because of large loss exposure. I simply must set my stops, then either reverse direction or wait for a better entry. Darn, I was doing well beginning to break the habit last week! What happened? ...Ego happened, I think...

-4. Distractions are dangerous, especially phone calls. Two open positions required sharp attention, today. Admittedly, I would not be answering the phone with open day-trades had it been real money. Still, it is a good lesson.

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Let's see where these trades end up on Monday afternoon. IB will continue to liquidate shares if the market surges. Doesn't matter, I won't be here to close the positions anyway, whether it goes for or against me. Monday is June 1st: I'm counting gains and losses when I exit the trades so I actually finished the month of May on a winning note... ha! It also means I may be starting June with a loser :-) .

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4 for 6, 67% win rate. Gain of $432 in 2.5 hours of paper-trading. Two open positions.

May 28th

Quitting early today as I have a number of errands to which I must attend. Did 17 paper-trades into 8 positions on SKF, all for winners. Mostly fading strong market sentiment for reversals and trying to hold onto the trend as long as I could. For the most part, I did pretty well in taking a substantive portion of the move I happened to be in, although I had a couple where I covered much too early, one just as one of the most decisive trends of the day was starting; great entry but missed an overwhelming portion of the drop between 10:15 am and 11:05am. Overall, I am satisfied with my performance today, although I must continue to try to sharpen my entry and exit points... especially my exits. This will add to my comfort level while in a trade. Many of my entries and exits are noted on the chart.

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8 for 8, a 100% success rate. Gain of $2995 in 5 hours of paper-trading.

May 27th - No Trades

Ooops! I forgot to update the blog last night. No trades yesterday the 27th as Day-Job was extremely busy.

May 26th

I jumped into the markets just before 3:00 pm after getting back early from the day-job appointments. Made trades into two positions; both for winners.

Great opportunities abound in SKF this afternoon but alas, I must go back out to my last day-job appt. It seems I left a critical piece of equipment behind by mistake and one I'll need for tomorrow morning's appointment. Darn, things were looking great this afternoon for some late-day trades. I'll have to settle for what I have. It feels great getting back in after three days away from the market.

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2 for 2, a 100% win rate. Gain of $688 in one hour of trading.

May 22nd

I'm going to call it quits for the day at 12:45 pm. I have many things to do to prepare for the Memorial Day holiday week-end and I'll have to begin before end of day.

I had a pretty easy time of it today but i still am a bit shy about holding my winners. I'm still trying to get a feel for true changes of direction as opposed to fake outs. As such, I sell rather than give up gains. I'll studysome charts over the week-end to try to get a feel for volume and where these changes of direction take place. Monday is a holiday and Tuesday is a very busy Day-Job day so I don't expect to be back in front of the markets until next Wednesday. I'm still reading Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas so I'll work on that to keep my mind on stocks.

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To all American Veterans of military service out there...
You serve at often lousy pay, in less than ideal conditions, sometimes horrible conditions, while offering your lives in defense of the United States. You serve out of responsibility for your fellow Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen beside you. Thank you.
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And for those who have been wounded or killed in action, may God stand by you and keep you forever. No words can describe the sacrifice you have laid at the altar of freedom. I am humbled before you.
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To my late father Henry, US Navy 1944-1946, I honor you and wish every day that you were still here with us.
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To my late mother Rosalie, who during the same period struggled to keep the home going and raise a baby daughter while worrying that her husband would not return; working in the shipyard filling in for the men who were away at war; you too deserve the recognition afforded those on Memorial Day and my love and gratitude. It is often said that the toughest job in the armed forces is that of spouse to he or she who serves; you knew it first hand.
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8 for 8 winners, a 100% success rate. Gain of $1,071 in about 2.5 hours of paper-trading

May 21

Mrs. Bluecollar just got back from a half-day at work and we're going out to enjoy the beautiful weather we are having today. We in northern New England don't get a lot of these days; warm temps, a light breeze, and low humidity. So, we're taking full advantage by getting on the Harley and hitting the road. I'll sum up the morning of paper-trading by saying that I enjoyed it and despite a couple losses from stop-outs, I had a chance to hit part of a small trend in GS for $595 and scalp some pullbacks. I REALLY had to force myself to not sell out the GS trade for a quick gain. I only took about half the move available, but that is much better than I have been doing lately. I think I can train myself to do better, to stay in longer, once I have confidence in my ability to recognize the slowing/turning of whatever trend I am in. As I post this, I see a very nice trend down in SKF as the markets bounce. A trend which began about 11:00am where I was scalping reversals on the large divergence from the mean. That would have been a great short entry on SKF, confirming that my old triggers can be very reliable entries at the start of trends. After all, a trend has to begin with a reversal of direction, right? The following stats do not include one break-even trade .
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5 for 7 winners, a 71% success rate. Gain of $815 in about 2 hrs of paper-trading.
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Saw something here that I had to take a screen shot of and post it. For some time, Scott at Fear & Greed has instructed to keep an eye on volume of the indices. So, note the very light volume on the QQQQ at 9:55am corresponding to the large red candle on the Q's chart; long candle but no volume committment in this move down. I'm thinking a reversal to scalp... the next candle gave a chance to scalp out some gains but it also turned out to be red... but with very little price movement accompanying its large relative volume, also a sign that a reversal might be coming. Sure enough, the 10:05 candle was a nice upward move and the SRS had a nice LONG red candle down of 41 cents per share corresponding with it; I don't know if it will last and become a trend, but it's a very nice scalp, if that's your thing.

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May 20th - No trades expected

I don't expect to trade today because of Day-Job appointments. As it stands currently, I should be able to get back in on Thursday and Friday, although probably not all day.
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It's currently 5:25 am and I've been awake for 2 hours. Like the night before, I woke up with my mind churning over the markets; entries, stops , exits, wins and losses. I could never have believed even a year ago that I would have as much passion for something. I've never experienced anything like this in my life. Not in high-school sports, not in my high school or college studies, not in my early jobs, not even in my business of nearly nineteen years. In nothing I've ever tried have I approached the drive and will to succeed as I do with trading. In nothing I've ever tried have I experienced so much frustration and difficulty. Perhaps the two are related, eh?
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I constantly re-evaluate my trading education, considering changes that I feel will help me learn. On Monday I changed my general approach to focus more on trading in the direction of trend instead of strictly playing the reversals of trend for quick gains. Yesterday, I changed the way I calculate my won/loss percentage. I am now considering a change to how I process my entries to trades. I have a one-click entry and exit setting on my IB platform. This standardizes all my entries and exits to an inflexible, pre-set share lot; in my case, 1000 shares. The ease of use and quickness of this feature has made it a terrific tool. But, I am now considering going back to manual entry in order to allow varied share lots. I am toying with the idea of scaling my entry trades; initially using small lots like 200 shares and adding more weight as a pattern develops. If the trade moves counter to my direction, the effect will be minimal when my stop is tripped. When I am confident that the trade is going right for me, I will enter progressively more shares; 300 shares, then 500 as a trend develops. What this would allow me to do is mitigate my losses from getting stopped out so much while I learn to perfect my entries and also while I learn to recognize the choppy, range-bound periods which will send my losses soaring. If I do this, it will also necessitate that I start measuring my wins and losses in dollars and cents and not "cents per share," as I have been since the start of the blog. This is something which I must do anyway as I get closer to trading my real account. I may do this next week or sooner if I figure out how to make the changes in the IB platform. I still want to use one click for my exits, however. When it's time to get out, I don't want to mess with manual entry.
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Good luck to all today!

May 19th

Hmmm, that was an interesting day. There's lots of stuff I could throw in here, especially about the early part of the day. But, I'll try to keep it brief because I have to cut the lawn before a 6:30 pm meeting. I am still inclined to use my old method but I am trying to refine it in a way that works for the momo trading I am trying to learn. I find that a combination of the entry triggers from the old method are still valid and can be used still, as long as I am careful about adding to losers if I am not close to a reversal on my entry. I found today that for the most part, I was able to stick to my stops. My losers did rise in number however, but 9 of the 13 were under 12 cents per share; my mental stop amount for today. A couple really got away from me. This is day two of the focus on trend and it will take practice to manage: one early loss was nearly 47 cents, two others were 17 and 17.5 cents. If I had managed to keep the four losses which exceeded today's mental stop at the max of 12 cents, I would have added 48 cents onto my gain on the day. Discipline, discipline!

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Another item of note today was how quickly I was exiting my winners. With my "insurance policy" in place in the form of my stop, I was free to let the winners run. However, I was much too quick on the trigger. Too bad, because today was a super day for trending in SKF and GS; the two I paper-traded. Without precise numbers, I see eight good or very good entries (early in a trend) which I bailed on. I plan on calculating later just how early I was in relation to the whole move as well as how much I took as a percentage of the moves. On one of my final trades, for example, I was long on SKF for $41.70 at 3:05pm. This was within 5 cents of the low of the entire afternoon. I sold with a gain of 6.5 cents in less than a minute. I pretty much turned the best trend of the day into a tiny scalp. This trade never touched my stop. In other words, had I just let it run and kept my stop in place, the 6.5 cent gain could have been as much as $1.92 per share and that's if I didn't add a position onto it. That's the most egregious of them all but there are others. Day two: much to learn but I am encouraged by what I saw. Of course, I was aided by some nice action in the markets. Flatter days like yesterday are less forgiving.

-Gotta cut all losses with stops, gotta let my winners run, gotta focus on entry and exit triggers.

For the record, I will now be counting my winning and losing trades based on the entire position, not on the individual trades which may make up that position. If two trades yield a gain when I close the entire position, it is -counted as 1 for 1, a 100% win rate percentage. Same for losses.

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17 for 30 winners; a 57% success rate. Gain of 77 cents per share in 6.5 hours of trading.

May18th - turn the page

After continuing to read Trading In The Zone over the week-end and reading Scott Farnham's blog at Fear & Greed Day Trader, I decided to turn the page on my old style of paper-trading and move on to trying to trade with the trend. As regular readers know, I typically fade the momentum in anticipation of reversals of direction. Instead of selling if I don't get a good entry, I often add to my losers (scale in to average a better price). This is, in virtually every experienced trader's opinion, a faulty approach. I can't agree more and have known it for a long time. But, I was able to manage it into consistent gains. The problem isn't that it can't produce winners, it is the fact that in certain instances, the reversal doesn't come! Further, when gains are picked up, they tend to be relatively small, muted by the fact that the initial poorer entries on the position hold back the gains. And, without stops, the pain is potentially huge when the reversal doesn't come. This is not the way I'd like to trade my real account when the time comes.

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So, today I got to the markets late; around 2:30pm. I had studied F & G Day Traders blog most of yesterday, doing research on his charts dating back to last June. I was trying to identify, as best as I could from a static chart, where his entries were taking place. So, today I decided I would only ride the momo! Well, like a couple weeks ago when I tried, I got chopped to bits as my mental stops were continuosly hit after I would buy or short at a point I thought resistance/support was crossed. I'm not accustomed to taking losses one after another like this! I was stopped out for losses on 4 of my first 5 trades and a 6th broke even when I stopped out. The one winner of the first six was a long trade which at one point had been a gain of up to 24 cents per share but then reversed instead of trending; I preserved the small gain by exiting just before it hit my stop. Very Frustrating!! So, I decide to persevere and do it again, going long on SKF... just as the big market eruption took place EOD. Caught on the wrong side and not wanting to get stopped out again, I decided to play my old way of fading a big move. This was a BIG mistake. First, I had a very bad entry for using my old style of trading, which really put me at a huge disadvantage from the start on this position. Then, the retracement a bit later was not enough to bring me up to a gain on the whole position, although it did bring me to even... (had I been using my old method from the outset on this trade, this retracement would have given me a reasonable gain and I would have sold as I have been accustomed to doing) But, it was not to be and SKF continued to pile drive down as the markets zoomed up. Finally, I decided to just quit on the "hybrid" trade ( hybrid as a result of trying to mix my old trading style with my new one). I then went to trying to get some gains out of the volatility by scalping. This gave me 4 out of 5 winners to close the session.

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If I had been on my toes, I would have waited and shorted at the LOD on SKF and ridden the momo as it plummeted on the big EOD move down. I find the the difficult part of this new method is trying to determine which break of support or resistance is real. Clearly, if I were to play every one as I was a few weeks ago and again today, I would mangle my account with small losses from continuously getting stopped out. "Death from a thousand paper-cuts."

I fully expect this trend of losers to continue as I adapt to this new style of trading; the correct style, if I want to be successful long-term. I will expect to use my old style when it feels appropriate to do so because with it, I can often get some great entries on nice long trends, which is really my new goal. But, I won't be adding to my losers to average in for a better price. I'll exit(stop out) on the trade and either reverse direction or just wait for a better entry.

Not included in the stats below is one trade which closed even.

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5 for 19 winners, a 26% success rate. Loss of $5.93 per share in 1.50 hours of trading.

May 15

Surprises never cease... I actually had a chnce to step in to the markets for about 30-45 minutes before my next day-job and I fired off 4 trades, three for winners; on one position. Sold too soon again, though.

Anyway, off to next appointment...

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3 for 4 winners; 75% win rate. Gain of 41 cents per share in 40 minutes of trading.

May 15th - No Trades Likely

Very busy line-up for the Day-Job today. No trades expected.

May 14th

Got in late after the day job, a trip to Wal-Mart, and the application of grub control on my lawn. I'd rather have been in the market but with rain coming in while I was coming home, i had to apply it right away. Filthy grubs have destoyed large parts of my lawn! I hate putting chemicals into the turf but these bugs are horrendous and I wasn't willing to spend the time and money to experiment with Beneficial Nematodes to combat them.

Anyway, back to the markets. I logged in at 3:30 pm and saw a paper-trade that looked interesting on SKF. I shorted into the large price spike that had begun at 3:30 and I added to the position; cashed it out with a small gain of 8 cents. I had one more trade long about 12 minutes later and took 11 cents from that, although I sold much too soon, missing the additional rise of over 40 cents per share. I was in early on that particular move but ended up getting only 21% of the rest of the move by selling quickly. I really have to work on my exit signal identification.

Four trades into two positions, both for winners.

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3 for 4 winning trades; 75% success rate. Gain of 19 cents per share in 30 minutes of trading.

May 13th

I thought I wouldn't get in to see the markets today but the day-job finished earlier than expected. After a quick errand to prepare for tomorrow's day job, I had a chance to sign into IB around 3:00pm for the last hour of trading. I saw a few opportunities and jumped in, paper-trading SKF exclusively. I traded a long into the beginning of the big leg up in SKF which started at 3:00, I expected the choppiness to continue from before and sold out for a quick profit. Bad move, as it turns out... because it just shot up! Wow... I hate chickening out on a nice move as it is just getting started. Then, I shorted anticipating a quick reversal at resistance. But, it was into that big move... I had the patience to sit by with one losing short-trade as it pushed higher. While this one position was a stinker for me, (yes, I know I should sell these and take the loss then either reverse toward the trend or wait for a better short entry) I held it and looked to scale in short to increase the position size. After the fourth partial position scaled-in, the reversal came at 3:18 and I covered into it, getting nearly all the move down. This allowed all but the first scale-in trade to be winners. SKF rested for about five more candles (15 minutes) and then popped again at 3:36. Again, I scaled in short on this move up and covered at 3:46. The postion made money, although the move did continue down in the next candle, leaving up to $1.20 on the table. It's ok though, I didn't want to get stuck with the large position over night so I booked a small gain of 12 cents per share when I had it. One last trade was long, a scalp, and picked up 9 cents per share before I called it quits for the day. All four positions today were winners.

7 for 10, for a 70% win rate. Gain of 58 cents per share in 1 hour of paper-trading.

Addendum @ 9:00pm: After posting my comments, I checked out some other blogs as I normally do to see how my fellow bloggers are doing and to get instruction where I can find it. As always, I started with Fear & Greed Day Trader. As it happens, he was playing SKF at the end of the day at the same time as I was. What a difference in performance. My first trade, the long at $47.79 at 3:00 was within 2 cents of his long. From there, I see the difference between a trader and a novice simulated trader. Where I got cold feet and bailed with a small gain, he stayed in, adding onto his position at what appears to be a breakthrough of resistance. Where I shorted a second trade in anticipation of a reversal, he continued long... eventually picking up about $2.60 per share when he exited ($2600 in real cash). I took 49 cents of "paper gains" in the same timeframe while being negative much of the time awaiting my reversal. Talk about getting a gain the hard way...

I overlayed his entries and exits on my chart and studied it for 20-30 minutes in multiple timeframes, trying to decipher what was going on. It is clear after seeing this where I want to be someday and how far I have to go to get there.

March 12th - No Trades

No trades today... didn't even log into the markets. Too much day-job!

May 11th

Closing things down early today paper-trading the markets as a day-job appointment at 3:15pm must be met.
It is now evening and I am throwing in a few details about today. First, I strayed from regular plays by trading in 5 different stocks; GS for + 17 cents per share, QLD for + 24.7 cents per share, RIMM for +22.4 cents per share, SKF for +20 cents per share, and SRS for +15.5 cents. I really liked the early action in the QQQQ's and played some QLD for the first time ever because of it. What I'm finding is that the skills I've been working on, such as they are, seem to work on lots of issues; ETF, listed shares, and nasdaq stocks. Today I mostly faded strong diversions from the mean accompanied by decent volume, in anticipation of pullbacks. One of these days I'll try to figure out how to ride with the momentum and not fade it! Until then, this is what I have. 15 trades spread out over 5 stocks, on 9 positions in 4.5 hours of paper-trading. All positions for winners, although some individual trades that made up those positions were not winners.
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10 for 15 winning trades; a 67% success rate. Gain of $1.00 per share.

Book Review

As I mentioned a week or so ago, Mrs. Bluecollar purchased Mark Douglas' book, "Trading in the Zone" for me. I received it last week from Amazon and have had a chance to read the first chapter. So far, so good. In fact: so far, so awesome. This is exactly what I was looking for and I can't wait to read more.
I'm hoping I don't run afoul of copyright laws when I excerpt:
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"...I can state without a doubt that there are specific reasons why the best traders consistently out-perform everyone else. If I had to distill all of the reasons down to one, I would simply say that the best traders think differently from the rest."
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and:
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"The defining characteristic that separates the consistent winners from everyone else is this: The winners have attained a mind-set-- a unique set of attitudes--that allows them to remain disciplined, focused, and, above all, confident in spite of the adverse conditions. As a result they are no longer susceptible to the common fears and trading errors which plague everyone else. Everyone who trades ends up learning something about the markets; very few people who trade ever learn the attitudes that are absolutely essential to becoming a consistent winner."
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I will continue to snip out great pieces of this book, write it here, and credit it accordingly in hope that it will inspire you to pick up the book yourself.

May 8th

Between day-jobs and some other duties, I was able to sneak in to trade a bit from the open to about 10:45am.

Five trades, four in SKF and one in GS. Modest gains as has been my plan of late. Take my profits and preserve my win rate. Although, my long entry on SKF at 9:47 was a great entry at the beginning of the reversal off the morning move and one I could have stayed with for a terrific gain! But, I sold it out. Clearly, I still need work on my exits. I sold it for a $.13 cent per share gain but the whole move was about $1.61 per share. I got only 8% of it after getting in long within 44 cents of the very bottom.

But, I am grateful for a gain on that trade and for the day.

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4 for 5 today; an 80% win rate. Gain of 43 cents per share.

Look-Back: My first blog post Feb 3rd, 2009

I was looking back at the start of my blog and decided to re-print the original post from Feb 3rd:
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What this is about...
This is my first post on the first blog I've ever done, on a topic that I don't always seem to know well, surrounded in the financial blogosphere by blogs of great distinction. I guess you could say this is an inauspicious, humble, but hopeful beginning!I have loved the idea of money as far back as I can remember. My father owned a few stocks and I still remember my fascination with the annual reports he would get in the mail. I still recall his discussions with me of how he should have bought Chrysler stock back when the first "auto bailout" occurred. I chose Economics, the dismal science, as a major in college. I pursued the job of treasurer when I could; the alumni board for my college fraternity for 3 1/2 years, two years for a local trade-association with whom I aspired to do business. I do my own book keeping and taxes for my business of nearly 19 years. Economy, money, investing: they have been a large part of my world since I was a child. Trading is just the next logical step for me.The purpose of doing the blog is mostly to hold myself accountable for the work I put into trading. That if everyone can see on the screen my losses and wins, perhaps it will incite me to bull ahead... to continue to improve and to progress toward my ultimate goal: To earn my living as a self-employed stock trader.To say that this is my ultimate goal somehow seems an understatement! I want it so badly that I can feel it in my every movement. I trade stocks in my sleep and I see big-volume momentum plays where others see the common sights of daily life. Stock trading is woven into everything I do and I love it.Secondly, the reason for blogging is to keep a written record of my trading activities and the thoughts that accompany them. It is common for traders to keep a trading journal. Record keeping and admin. duties are not my strong suit and this blog, if I can keep at it, will allow me to perform this function.I am a devotee of short-term momentum-driven day trading. I have been studying the "Momo Method" since the summer of 2008 through various blogs and chat rooms. I like the fact that there is no overnight risk. I like the fact that it is fast and edgy. I like the fact that it can be done from virtually anywhere. And, I like the fact that if it can be learned, it is a skill which can provide a nice living with very little overhead, well into old age.In the interest of disclosure, I started with $35,000 in an IB trading account in Mid-October. I currently have $33,800. I also have an active paper-trading account with IB and that's where I spend 90% of my time. Admittedly, I am still trying to master parts of the platform, which should not be done with real dollars, in my opinion. I have been a little fickle in my trading approach, trying to discover a style which will work for the long-term. I began watching Cramer on CNBC a couple years ago, delved into swing-trading in March of 2008 by visiting Day-Trader Rock Star's blog before it went pay, and listening to his live radio web-cast (still do, from time-to-time). After becoming disillusioned by long-biased trading, I found Green on the Screen and immediately liked what was there. GOTS morphed into Dark Side Trading and when its founders recently went pay, I expanded my exposure to the Momo method by finding Fear & Greed Day Trader thanks to James (aka Yngvai), at his blog home: welcometothegutter.blogspot.comI highly recommend his site and occasionally weight it down with posts of my own!If you are reading this, thank you for checking it out. As I mentioned earlier, it is a humble beginning. I don't expect to have many visitors and certainly don't foresee repeat visitors! It is my hope that as I progress as a trader, the content will improve and perhaps be of interest even to experienced market folks. Until then, you can expect mostly personal reflections of trading, discussion of other blogs, of the economy, politics, and finance rather than stunning technical analysis and savvy trading ideas!Once I learn how to manage the site better, I hope to include charts.Once again, thanks for taking a look... drop by again!
Posted by bluecollartrader at 7:30 PM 0 comments

May 7th - No Trades

Busy with the Day-Job all day.

May 6th

After a day-job cancellation, I had a chance to sneak in for a few trades between 10:00 am and 12:30pm today. I made four trades, three in SKF and one in RIMM. Two trades were in one position. I am still sticking to cashing in quickly to give me a high success rate in lieu of bigger gains coupled with higher risk. All four trades were winners.
I only wish I could trade all day.
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4 for 4 winners; a 100% win rate. Gain of 29 cents per share in two hours of trading.

May 5th- No Trades

No Trades. Busy all day with the Day-Job.

May 4th

First day paper-trading a new month. It was nearly 2:00 pm before I could get involved because of day-job duties. When I come in late, I always feel at a disadvantage. There is a certain "feel" one gets for the market after watching and it generally takes me awhile to get that feel. Today, on a nice up day in the markets, my favorite trading vehicles, SKF and GS, were making some moves I could comfortably play. Despite my goal to follow the momentum and ride along with the trend. I found myself going to the old favorite, playing reversals. I have tried to develop some patience when scaling in on multi-trade positions, holding out for better prices based on short-term market emotion/sentiment. When I have profits, I take them quickly; especially on a day where all the action is in one direction opposite of my trade. At least recently, it seems to be working. I had no losing positions today, although I did have a couple of my scale-in trades not go positive gain. Overall, a satisfactory day.
I haven't mentioned it lately but I love trading. The charts, the blogs, watching CNBC, business and the economy in general. It's all still a thrill.
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I feel blessed to be an American citizen. There's no doubt in my mind that the United States of America is the finest social/government experiment ever created by human-kind; created based on the rule of law, individual liberty and individual responsibility. Everyone pulls their weight and no one rides for free. Let's try to keep America strong... every gain in the power of government is a step away from what the founders of this great country had in mind. True social justice means equal opportunity, equal access. What the individual gets in life, that is to say where an individual ends up on the socio-ecomomic ladder, is up to her/him. Success or failure is not the responsibility of others. It is up to the one looking in the mirror. You have the right to try, not a guaranteed result. The very fact that you draw a breath does not entitle you to what is earned by another. It is immoral and unethical to do so, despite what any law or policy may allow.
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One must believe in charity and helping their fellow man. It is the absolute pinnacle of humanity to serve others and to assist in the plight of others. But it must be individual choice to do so. It should never be forced at the barrel of a gun; literally or proverbally. That is madness. In a free society, one must be allowed their greed as well as their selflessness.
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10 for 12; an 83% success rate. Gain of $1.24 per share.

April Recap

APRIL TOTALS:
Gain: $7.15 per share, net of commissions
Trades: 250 for 396; a win rate of 63.1%
Ave Gain Per Day Traded: 39.7 cents per share
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Days Traded in April: 18 days out of 21; 85.7%
Days Traded with a Gain: 15 out of 18; 83.3%
Days Traded with a Loss: 3 out of 18; 16.7%
Largest Daily Loss: -$4.37 per share on April 14th
Smallest Daily Loss: -.86 cents per share on April 9th
Average Daily Loss: -$2.34 per share
Largest Daily Gain: $2.78 per share on April 2nd
Smallest Daily Gain: $.05 cents per share on April 13th; also my least active day.
Average Daily Gain: $.397 cents per share
Most active day: 34 for 63 on April 23rd for a gain of $.98 cents per share
Least active day: 2 for 2 on April 13th for a gain of $.05 cents
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Notable: Missed one day of trading because the IB paper trading platform was down. One day was closed for Good Friday.

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Footnote - In the Interest of Disclosure:
Regular readers will note that my overnight postion of April 23rd to April 24th is not listed in any of the data. I chose to remove it altogether. It was the day where I carried a large position of SKF into the next day but was unable to be online to close it out. In the early morning before leaving for my day-job, I posted that my intent would be to sell when it went positive gain. When I returned later in the day, it was down a lot ($ 27 per share) but the chart stated that it went positive for a few minutes during the morning. So, with that in mind, I choose not to count the loss or the gain I would certainly have had. I try to be as open and forthright about what I do here. I think this a fair decision... if you have any input, I am surely open to it. Feel free to post.