Those of you who are from the USA and are around my age (47) or older remember the old 1960's TV show, "Get Smart." The oafish character Maxwell Smart would often say when he failed, "I missed it by THAT much!"
Well, I have been feeling like Max a lot over the past week or two. I have had my sim-trades stopped out by only a few pennies far too often recently. While it is encouraging that I am so close to the turn with my entryies, I am also frustrated by these repeated near-misses. The above chart of TNA is the most recent, from about 35 minutes ago.
It is clear from this that I am still not in the same mode of thinking as the professional traders who are capable of moving price with the size they trade. These pros know exactly where smaller operators put their stops and push price just beyond in order to generate liquidity by tripping stop-losses and enhancing profits as a result of their lower entry. My goal is to overcome this... not by widening my stop but by timing my entry later, after the turn has taken place. My greed associated with early picking of bottoms/tops in a stock will be exploited by savvy market veterans. If I can train myself to wait until the stock has run out of momo then begun its retracement, I will turn my good interpretations of direction change into gains.
UPDATE: After posting this, I noticed that the chart is not legible as it appears above. I haven't posted a chart in quite some time so maybe this is a format change by Blogger, not really sure. The chart is clear and easy to read if you click on it for the large version. As before when I once posted charts regularly, the slanted green line is my entry which tilts in the direction of the trade. In this case, UP to touch the candle at the entry price for a long. The slanted red line points to my exit spot and the short vertical line that connects them is colored green for a gain or red for a loss (as is the case here). The horizontal red line indicates my stop placement. I exited this trade at the dead bottom price on the chart, $60.27.
UPDATE 2: After the market closed, I went back to this post to correct the many typos and to note that the spot I chose to enter for the reversal was the eventual low of the day. Stopped out on the very lowest print of the day. Bummer!
So, this means that I entered short earlier in the session a few pennies from the top and entered long (unsuccessfully as noted above) at the lowest price of the day. In full disclosure, I was stopped out three times in a row at the top between 9:40 am and 10:00am before eventually being rewarded with a 60 cent winner on the fourth short attempt. I exited far, far too early on that trade. My short entry was eight cents down from, and just after the high of the day was printed. My practice trading needs a great deal of refinement, but I am hastened along toward my goal by reasonably good timing.
