Today started with a bumpy ride for SEAS and my stop triggered. I still think it's going to go higher but I am going to stick with the rules I established, including respecting the stop loss that I set. So I made about 400 bucks profit and I'm not about to complain about that!


Actual numbers:

buy 385 shares @ 19.08, principal $7345.80
sell 385 shares @ 20.17, $7765.45

Gross profit $419.65
Gross profit percentage 5.7127

Commissions 14 dollars
Securities transaction fee $0.18

Net profit $405.47
Net profit percentage 5.5197


I consider this to be a good trade.


At the moment I'm all out of the market. Frankly I'm not seeing any market opportunities
that are clear enough to me for me to put any money into them.

But I searched my list of favorites and past winners for me and several of them would have been
good for me to get into this morning. Those have followed patterns I've seen in them repeatedly
and when they do those patterns, they're good for a few percent within a day or two, every time that I've observed.

I'm not going to go into a stock at random. I always want some reason to put money into them.

When I've done so without a reason, it hasn't worked out well for me. But conversely, when I have found my own
reasons to buy into a stock, so far every time I've pulled at least a modest profit out of it.

I simply may not trade today. As it's almost 11 AM it's looking less likely as I see a lot more price action before noon
than in the later half of the day.
Net

Good trade!
Not because you made money but because you followed your rules,

Carrerain4 

Today started with a bumpy ride for SEAS and my stop triggered. I still think it's going to go higher but I am going to stick with the rules I established, including respecting the stop loss that I set. So I made about 400 bucks profit and I'm not about to complain about that! Actual numbers: buy 385 shares @ 19.08, principal $7345.80 sell 385 shares @ 20.17, $7765.45 Gross profit $419.65 Gross profit percentage 5.7127 Commissions 14 dollars Securities transaction fee $0.18 Net profit $405.47 Net profit percentage 5.5197 I consider this to be a good trade. At the moment I'm all out of the market. Frankly I'm not seeing any market opportunities that are clear enough to me for me to put any money into them. But I searched my list of favorites and past winners for me and several of them would have been good for me to get into this morning. Those have followed patterns I've seen in them repeatedly and when they do those patterns, they're good for a few percent within a day or two, every time that I've observed. I'm not going to go into a stock at random. I always want some reason to put money into them. When I've done so without a reason, it hasn't worked out well for me. But conversely, when I have found my own reasons to buy into a stock, so far every time I've pulled at least a modest profit out of it. I simply may not trade today. As it's almost 11 AM it's looking less likely as I see a lot more price action before noon than in the later half of the day. Net

You stuck to your rules and took your exit. In my book that is a good trade whether it is for a profit or loss. Profit is the sweetener. Good luck.

Since you seem frustrated nobody is answering your questions I'll take a stab at a few...

Carrerain4 

There's a lot I don't understand too well. Let me address one particular concept that has been mentioned on several occasions: The idea of choosing your entry and exit points. Frankly I don't quite understand the part about choosing an entry point as to me it seems to be as simple as "Bargain spotted, don't wait for it to climb before buying it.". That may be a VERY wrong point of view. In fact I think that some people will say it IS a wrong point of view. So give me alternatives.

My son loves Raisin Bran. He wants to eat it every day. So we buy the generic Kroger version, usually ranging in price from $2.49 - $2.99 per box. I usually don't buy it unless I see it at the $2.49 price (support). One late night I was at the store and I saw it at $1.88 a box. I bought every box I could get my hands on. Why? Because I understood its value and saw a price as low as I had never seen. Were those boxes tainted? Past the expiration date? Was there a fundamental reason for the price drop that I didn't know about? Not that I could see. They were probably just trying to clear out inventory because they had more coming in so they had to blow it out. I've never see it that low again and it's been back between its $2.49-$2.99 price range ever since.

What does this have to do with anything? I knew my entry price, and when I saw value I scooped up all I could. I was the Warren Buffet of Raisin Bran, exploiting a supplier's distressed situation to my advantage.

Today I have limit orders to get into new longs on CDW, SLCA, TRN, URI, and ESRX. The price I'm trying to enter are based on my system rules (usually the bar's closing price when I got my signal, othertimes I look for a better entry price for various reasons). I may never get filled on my entries because they are quite bit below the current price. I did get filled on my entries for EBAY, ESRX and SLXP entries this morning, averaging $0.50 in commission per trade. Cool. If I don't get filled on my other trades, no biggie, there will be new trades to come my way.

I will admit there is some "gut" feeling to it but that's usually a reaction to what I see on a chart and sometimes fundamental reasons. However, sometimes, I don't even know what the company does, it's just a symbol that moves in price and has historically been positive reacting to my symbols (knowledge acquired through back testing). But I know my entries, and I know I will exit when price exceeds my mathematically computed trailing stop. That's one example of "knowing your entries and exits".

Carrerain4 

If I'm not asking too much, I would like for one of you to just tell me about one of your own current trades, here in this journal. When you buy something, give me the basics, and don't tell me anything more about it until you close your position. I'd like to watch your play and try to use at as a real world exercise in using and learning technical indicators.

There are a lot of journals here that do that, check them out. Since this is YOUR journal this isn't really the right place for it.

Also, I just want to say don't take everybody's comments too hard. People have different motives for responding to you that serve their purposes. Some are altruistic and want to prevent you from making the same mistakes they made. Others displaying I-know-more-than-you attitude. Some are just haters/trolls but Mike does a good job of limiting their existence here. Stay positive but open minded and keep learning all you can. You may lose money like some are saying but that would just be falling off the horse in one of the many horseback lessons of trading. Just make sure you don't risk so much that you can't get back on the horse.

I'll take a stab at another one...

Carrerain4 

In fact I think it would be great if various technicals were explained to me in real world terms, rather than just the Investopedia definitions. Definitions are great but actually having some insight into how they work in the real world is SO much better. A specific example: I sort of understand what the Bollinger Bands are. But I don't really know what they're telling me in a real world situation. Again, I appreciate all input. But I'd appreciate it even more if it was educational. As in, give a reason for why your opinion is what it is.

Much has been written about Bollinger Bands. They are often used as a measure of volatility. They are based on statistics, "standard deviations", which you should try to understand. A Google search will teach you plenty more

Bollinger Band® Definition | Investopedia
Bollinger Bands | Official site of John Bollinger's Bollinger Bands and Capital Growth Letter

I have used them in my studies but currently not of my trading systems use them. Standard deviations are popular with options traders, mainly sellers. Some use them us support and resistance. Some use tight Bollinger bands to signify periods of tight volatility in the market for placing directional bets with low risk. There are many ways to use them. It just depends on what works for you.

As far as specific examples to look at, Let me google that for you

I guess I do understand picking your entry and exit points, to some extent at least.

One of the stocks that I've been keeping my eye on, in no small part because it gave me 10.6 percent one fine day recently, is WCPS.

I have watched WCPS ever since then. It is a reliable repeater, or has been lately. Its price falls down to the low end of its range, which was 98 cents and is now about 1.03, and it then climbs a minimum of 4 percent and then comes back down.

This morning I looked at it with the idea of watching it, and maybe buying it, and it opened at 1.03. Well, it hit 1.11 today and that's nearly 8 percent profit.

I thought that 1.03 was a bit higher than I wanted it to be. At 1.00 I'd have snapped it right up. Or even 1.01, but as
I did not expect it to pile on 8 more cents per share I decided to wait for a better day.

The next time it hits 1.03 or less, I will buy into it again. And if it does what it has done routinely and consistently lately, then I should not be surprised to get at least a nickel a share out of it.

So I have established entry and exit points for the next time that I trade WCPS. Enter at anything under 1.04,
exit at 1.08. Depending on what WCPS does between now and then, I may put this plan into action on Thursday.

If it goes under 1.04 on Thursday, I'll buy it.

Unless there's bad news about the company, of course.

I would suggest checking out @Underexposed journal. He broke down some different TA and provides some good pros and cons of each.

Underexposed - Canadian Stock Journal Hi, My handle is "Underexposed" which makes the title a bit provocative I suppose but I have used this handle for several years now and some people may recognize me because of it. This is a great site and primarily devoted to American stocks. …

You can also see how he approaches some of the fundamentals for different companies he is stalking or trading.

Also check out ChartSchool [ChartSchool] for some TA 101.

Candlestick patterns are not the end all and be all of trading. But understanding some of the basic ideas can help you interpret what a chart may be saying and what may be likely to happen next. In trading context is king, and learning to understand the context the market is in will help you make better decisions.

Oh, as for checking out other trading journals, I've been reading a few of them but it seems that most of them concern options and forex trading.

Although I understand the basic concept of options trading, the details of it absolutely have me mystified.
I don't yet understand anything beyond the basic concepts of calls and puts.

I've been learning about various options trading strategies (Straddles, strangles, and all other sorts of strangely named strategies) but actually having a clue as to how to make an options trade is something I just don't get.

I don't even know if I can, for example, place a call on SEAS at 22 dollars a share a month from now, figuring that it
could be going for more than that by that time. I don't understand how much flexibility the trader has to specify the
terms of what he's optioning.


If I understood it better, I might give some consideration to trading in options. But certainly not at this point!

And forex...that's a complete mystery to me. I don't understand how that works at all.

Carrerain4 

Oh, as for checking out other trading journals, I've been reading a few of them but it seems that most of them concern options and forex trading.

futures.io (formerly BMT) is overwhelmingly for futures traders. Reading their journals will do you some good, most the concepts are identical regardless of the instrument. Don't focus or get caught up on indicators and methodologies, instead focus on the process, the psychology, the risk approach, measurement, ways of analyzing your behavior and improving, etc. If you come back with a bunch of new indicators or ideas you've completely missed the point.

Mike

Big Mike 

futures.io (formerly BMT) is overwhelmingly for futures traders. Reading their journals will do you some good, most the concepts are identical regardless of the instrument. Don't focus or get caught up on indicators and methodologies, instead focus on the process, the psychology, the risk approach, measurement, ways of analyzing your behavior and improving, etc. If you come back with a bunch of new indicators or ideas you've completely missed the point. Mike

Also, You will find many more VERY valuable Futures - and Commodity Journals in the Elite section
(many People want their readers to actually be seriously commited to a certain extend - avoids spam and grumpy naz-Sayers..)

You should consider Elite for that reason alone I guess ^^