Feb 26th

This was a quick day for me trading. I watched the SKF during pre-mkt, saw the move down in the 9:33 am candle (on a 1-min timeframe) and shorted 1000 shares at 151.46once I thought it would soundly crack the $151.50 area. Boom, there was the breakdown and I rode through the candle and into the next one as SKF collapsed. I covered at 150.23 for a $1.23 gain per share. I forced myself to sit through the inter-candle chop... I really wanted to bail, truly had the feeling that I should cover when the wick rolled up to the $152.50 range but I bit the bullet, trusted my gut that this was a breakdown in the making and rode it. Now, I still think I got out too early. I covered into the 9:34 am candle at $150.23 but the price dropped fully to about $149. So, that "get out, get out" with short gain mentality is still in my head. Also, the reversal was right around the corner and would have made a nice long play starting with the 9:35 candle (1-min time) through the 9:39 candle if you could have sat still during the 9:38 red profit-taking candle. On a more big-picture view, long at the 9:35 reversal upward would have yielded a stronger gain if you could hold into the 9:49 am candle. It would have taken some fortitude though to sit through the 9:40-9:48 candles... that looks like an uncomfortable waiting period. As I write this, SKF is in the 10:01 candle and is tanking big time. 9:57 -10:01 candles...what a solid move down- 5 straight red candles on a 1-min timeframe!
I'm done and am watching, however! After the past two days, I'm going to take my $1.23 and run. I'm going to try to post today's screen shot onto the blog (thanks to Yngvai's hints on how to do it). We'll see how this goes. Plus, I've got a lot of tax stuff to do today and then volunteer teaching tonight to prep for.
Good luck all.
Green line on the chart indicates "go," my entry point short. Red is "stop," my point of exit.
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1 for 1; 100% winners. Gain of +1.23 per share.

Feb 25th - Wednesday

Well, more of the same from yesterday, although things didn't get so out of control before I shut it down for the day. Lots of nice moves in the SKF to play today but I again chose to "buy and sell" so much that I was down about $4.50 per share on a leg down that turned out to be all red candles!! That is really frustrating...knowing all you had to do is short, hold, then sell for a substantial gain. The hard part to take is that I called this particular move, waited for it to break support, then shorted it. I made a quick gain and SOLD IT. When the move kept on going, I tried to get more of it but it would shake me out for a dollar per share loss on some intra-candle action, then continue down even more!
I seem to recognize some of the real opportunities... I've studied tech analysis enough to identify them. I need to think about why I cannot stick with my winners, why I can't ride the MOMO.
It's back to the drawing board. I reset my practice account even though I had much more fake $ reamaining. I want a clean start. The trading from now on will be focusing on trying to find a few moves based on sound technicals, sticking with them, and really trying to identify the real changes in direction... not just the little back and forth "noise" that goes on inside each 5-minute candle timeframe.
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unknown trades; loss of -$4.50 per share

Feb 24th - Tuesday

Well. What a horrible day this was. One thing is abundantly clear. I struggle with days where there is strong movement in one direction. The big drop in the SKF corresponding with the nice move up of the markets just punished me. It happened once in January, happened yesterday before the big drop bailed me out, and then today. I usually have had good luck trading the probablilities of reversals after big moves. Today, I would play a reversal, it would fake me out, and the momo would continue... with extreme prejudice. The back and forth wasn't here... it was biased downward and it took a toll on my practice account. Again, focusing on the trees and not the forest, I would scalp the 5 minute candles. Then, after I was done for the day, the leg down I was playing was ALL RED CANDLES, yet I managed to lose about $8.00 per share in the same time frame! This should have been one short sell, hold on, and cash out the move. Clearly, the scalping that was working for me in Jan and early Feb does not work on definitive move days. This is the same problem I was having when I was trying to learn the GOTS method last fall. I'd bail on my winners much too soon, grabbing partial profits out of fear, and sit on my losers waiting for the move back in my favor that never came!
Recently, I'd get a few winners and be up .50 cents - $1.00 per share. Yesterday and today, it is too volatile to do that. I really need to learn to READ these high ADR issues and look for the easy move of the day. Bank on one or two moves instead of being an over-trading fool! Instead of scalping each 5-minute candle, I must look for the real momo and try to ride it; the SKF $6, $8, and $10 moves in one direction. There seem to be a few of them in any given day lately. I don't mind saying this was a very frustrating day for me. I was up most of the night thinking about it.
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unknown trades; loss of -$8.00 per share