Later in the day...

I added this practice-trade short in RIG during its last big push down at the 2:10 candle. I took it as it just started to break to a new LOD. Covered a bit early because I chose yesterday's late top (3:00 candle) as support. 25 cents off the low was close enough for me, considering the dayrange was $4.72. Turns out that the 1:50 to 2:50 pm base highs were the support of choice for the traders with enough juice to reverse a stock from its big daily slide.

This week so far...

Day job was busy Tuesday and Wednesday and I was out of the office while the market was open.

On Monday, however, I was able to practice-trade some in the afternoon. I held some shares of TNA overnight, mostly by accident. I couldn't close them the past two days for reasons I mentioned above.

The market has popped today so I've sold them with a limit order at $48, close to the top at open. I have to return to other duties so I am shutting down the computer for the rest of the day. I look forward to a day when trading takes precedent.

May 21 - Friday

It's Saturday and I'm just getting a moment to post yesterday's practice trades. In TNA, I made three trades investing about an hour and 15 minutes of my time. The first two trades were especially good for me in that as soon as I put them on, price moved away from the entry in positive territory and never looked back. I ended both trades far too soon although I didn't have time to sit and watch the second one because of other responsibilities. No excuse on the first one other than inexperience.

On the first trade, I had the presence of mind to think about going WITH the momo instead of counter to it, and I waitied for a pullback to do so. The second trade was nice in that I anticipated the reversal at the 12:20pm candle because of the near-doji. In the 12:25 candle, I waited for price to break below the close of the near-doji in the prior timeframe then took the short. Price just dropped away from the entry point. It was perfectly timed, and after closing out the trade and coming back later to the computer, found it to be well-timed on a longer time-frame.

The third trade long originated after seeing the large volume spike at 2:45 pm plus the next candle (2:50 pm) ending at its low point. My gut told me to wait for price to press down again before taking a reversal trade off those two signals. One thing I have learned with the 3x ETF's is that they are often like stopping and turning an oil tanker... the change of direction takes a little longer. I went long and price did move down against me some, but within an acceptable range, given the volatility of TNA throughout the day. The trade went positive and finally, I exited too soon but as has been the case recently, I don't have time to hang out and watch.

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An even better indicator of reversal came approx 25 mins later at 3:15pm with that volume spike after a run. Volume = trader activity. Activity tells me to "pay attention" as people smarter than me are making decisions; shorts cashing in their gains.

By this time, however, I had already stepped away from the computer.