November 22

I had some time in the afternoon to sit in on the markets to practice. First around lunch, then later near EOD. I thought that RIMM was poised for reversal based on the chart and feel of momentum. I was, as has been the case recently, just a bit early; what I have come to characterize as "early wrong". I took a long trade at 58.51, corresponding to the price at the near-doji yesterday at 11:40 am. Nope, that wasn't the level traders were seeking: RIMM dropped further to significant levels from Nov 15th (see doji at 1:10pm), the 16th, and the 18th. I felt momo shift in my favor around $58.20 so I took two more longs at 27 cents. Price dipped only six cents below that level in the next candle then moved up. I exited early for a small gainer.

I then left to remove a desk from Mrs. Bluecollar's old office in Portland. When I returned near the end of the day, I found that my exit from RIMM was close to the low of the day and its price had climbed about $1.20 per share from my exit.

I then went to TNA which was moving up near the close... the run-up was getting stale and I didn't want to push my luck by going with trend. I waited until it felt like momo was going to shift then I set a mental stop (red line above) while taking a short. Price rose against me about nine cents before dropping into the close. I got out about 13 cents shy of the bottom of the move but I'm satisfied with my 20 cent winner to end the day.

I'm twisted and think this is funny...

I found this on http://www.pointsandfigures.com/ and got a nice chuckle from it; 2 minutes 45 seconds of fun, especially for aspiring traders.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=85lpWoESHUM&feature=player_embedded

November 19th

Like yesterday, I was in the office briefly between day-job appts. and took a practice trade short in TNA and had a very similar result as yesterday. That is to say, it stop-limited out automatically while I was away. It was a short just prior to a pull back but it was not the drop I was looking for.

When I returned to the office, I traded manually(?) and took a short that proceeded to give me a small gain. I was out a bit early but the stock did reverse and head up so I made a good choice. At EOD, I shorted again, sat through a slight move up that didn't trigger a stop, then got the drop I had anticipated and covered in the last 30 seconds of the session for a winner. Positive for the day in my practice trading.

One thing for sure, this works much better when one is present to actually perform the trading. duh!