Trade Journal 10-29 and 10-30

10/29/09

1. Symbol: EEM
Reason: Early strength in EEM
Long/Short: Long
Time: 6:31
Entry: 38.50
Size: 1000 Shares
Exit(s): 1/2 at 38.66, 1/2 at 38.70
Time in Trade: 1 minute, 4 minutes
SPY, Q's, and IWM confirmed strength shortly after entry, but EEM was far and away the leader. SPY was testing 105.30's before sliding back down to test the 105 fig. This was my sign to exit the 2nd half. Should have paid more attn to SPY at 105, since that has been a major battleground number.

2. Symbol: EEM
Reason: Base and break setup
Long/Short: Long
Time: 7:00
Entry: 38.70
Size: 1000 Shares
Exit(s): 600 at 38.85, 400 at 39.00
Time in Trade: 4 minutes, 21 minutes
SPY, IWM, Q's all near HOD when I entered EEM. Took quick profits on first half and held the other half for fig, since we had strength in all indices.













Best Practices:
1. Ability to identify momentum via change % from open (ch%O) on the EEM, SPY, IWM, and Q's. EEM was strongest off open, while the others chopped slightly. When the others picked up buying I entered EEM and caught a quick move.
2. Allowing position to go for T2

10/30/09

1. Symbol: EEM
Reason: Early weakness in EEM
Long/Short: Short
Time: 6:31
Entry: 39.03
Size: 1000 Shares
Exit(s): 1/2 at 38.93, 1/2 at 38.94
Time in Trade: 3 minutes, 3 minutes
Early weakness with IWM=EEM < SPY < Q's. Exited as SPY picked up strength. UUP was also moving up fractionally.

2. Symbol: EEM
Reason: Early weakness and a sudden pop that didn't look sustainable (SPY popped .60, but EEM/IWM remained relatively weak)
Long/Short: Short
Time: 6:45
Entry: 38.90
Size: 1000 Shares
Exit(s): 1/2 at 38.74, 1/2 at 38.46
Time in Trade: 6 minutes, 47 minutes













Best Practice(s): Identifying weakness, Staying with position through pullbacks to 20 sma (very difficult for me)

Worst Practice(s): Not adding when EEM pulled back up to 20 sma in the 38.80 area. These are rare since I usually only trade the first 30 minutes, so this is something I should def. watch for in the future.

Trade Journal 10-28-09

I was anticipating a rally since we had sold off so hard the past couple of days, but right from the open the bulls were not able to show any strength. The selling began with weakness in EEM, which was followed by IWM, then SPY and Q's.

1. Symbol: BTU
Reason: Support buy triggered near open
Time: 6:32
Entry: 41.00
Size: 500 Shares
Exit: Stopped out 40.91
Time in Trade: 8 minutes
It almost ran to T1 (41.41), but missed by pennies due to selloff in indices. Chart on bottom.

2. Symbol: WLT
Reason: Support buy triggered near the open
Time: 6:34
Entry: 60.00
Size: 300 Shares
Exit: 59.82
Time in Trade: 8 minutes
Got stopped out after not being able to hold above 60.30. A second try on this name would have yielded better results, but due to the big spreads (.10 at times) I decided to look elsewhere.













3. Symbol: SU
Reason: Support buy triggered near the open
Time: 6:42, 6:45
Entry: 34.04, 34.31
Size: 600, 600
Exit: Closed it out at break even as the indices sold off
Time in Trade: 5 min / 2 min
Added second position as it crossed early high of day. SU could not hold above high of day, so I closed it out.













4. Symbol: BTU
Reason: Short on resistance at target number after not being able to stay above it twice before.
Time: 6:52
Entry: 40.97
Size: 1000 Shares
Exits: 500 at T1 of 70.72
200 at 70.72 (prior to 7am housing report)
300 at 70.50 (right after housing report)
Time in Trade: 2 min / 7 min / 8 min













Best practice today: 2nd add on SU even though it didn't work out. It was aggressive and the risk/reward was good. Also glad that I cut it at break even.

Worst practice today: Not scratching WLT and BTU after they failed to hold in positive territory and the indices were showing weakness as well. Stops were in place and kept the losses minimal, but I should have closed them out after not holding above resistance numbers. These trades are to be somewhat quick scalps off support.

Trade Journal 10/27/09

Trades:

1. Symbol: MON
Reason: Support buy triggered on the open
Time: 6:30
Entry: 70.25
Size: 250 Shares
Exits: 1/2 at T1 of 70.95
1/2 at 70.50 as indices dumped off
Time in Trade: 6 minutes, 11 minutes













2. Symbol: EEM
Reason: Weakness after two strong up bars
Time: 6:52
Entry: 40.18
Size: 1,000
Exit: Scratch
Time in Trade: 1 minute

3. Symbol: EEM
Reason: Strong selling after touching 20 sma
Time: 6:55
Entry: 40.18
Size: 1,000
Exit: 1/2 at 40.09
1/2 at 40.10
Time in Trade: 3 minutes, 4 minutes













Best practices for today: Being decisive and catching MON on the open. Scratching EEM when risk/reward area near 20 sma had not been reached yet.

Worst practice for today: Not taking partial profits on EEM and holding the other half with stop at break even. Despite the housing report at 7am, I have to see if my initial assessment would play out fully.

Trade Journal 10/13/09

Recap of early session: Indices gapped down slightly and ran up for first 15 minutes with Q's > SPY > IWM. Sudden selloff at 6:55am with all indices near LOD.

Trade 1- RIMM
6:54am
300 shares (short)
68.30 w/ stop at 68.50 and T1 of 67.62
Entered on double top in the stock and with indices basing before the 6:55am selloff.


Trade 2- RIMM
7:05am
300 shares (short)
67.95 w/ stop at 68.18 and same T1 as above.
RIMM traded quickly down to 67.70 before reversing sharply and stopping out this trade and stopping out the other trade at BE.

Since I added to the position and since I was trading against the longer term trend, I should have tightened up the targets and taken profits more quickly. I followed correct sizing and was able to identify short term momentum.