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Pizza Boy-Day Trader-Golf Pro-Attorney...And Back Again
I titled my journal after the jobs and experiences that have made me the trader that I am. Many of my thoughts and analogies about trading come from these areas. I have a plethora of old trading notebooks, index cards and emails that I have saved to make up my "scrapbook" of trading. I hope to be able to get rid of those as I transfer the important pieces to this journal.
I will also journal my thoughts and trades from the current day or the next couple of days or sometimes intraday. As the sticky at the top of this said, I am using this to help me. If anyone believes it to be a benefit to them than all the better. Happy trading everyone.
Pizza was fun. I ate well for sure. Loved going home every night with a pocket full of cash. And that whole "our drivers never carry more than $25" is NOT TRUE. Most delivery guys I knew never made a bank drop and by the end of the night were carrying $600-$1200. Not safe, but true.
Making money safely takes time. The only thing you get in a hurry is in trouble. Every day is not a trading day.
This is a "-ism" I've had in my trading arsenal for a while. It comes from Humphrey B. Neil's book Tape Reading & Market Tactics With yesterday being a gap up, consolidation and then a quick rally to the close my opinion towards the market today has many variations. We could gap down and have a trend day down. We could gap up and squeeze the shorts for a trend day up. We could consolidate all day as the market digests yesterdays gain. When I can see so many different possibilities I should make sure and keep my position size small. I should also not get married to a position. Today will likely be a scalping day for me.
Today was a hard day. The first couple of day trades were easy and I felt like I was in tune with the flows of the market. The tape felt very different at some key S&R points. The last few weeks the market seemed to have helium in it. Whenever we would reach a place I'd drawn support lines I could buy a couple of contracts and the market would bounce off the support and rally a little. Today felt much different. Almost the opposite. It seemed the market could not hold on to ANY gains. Maybe a couple of points for a couple of hours, but we always gave them back.
Having looked at last nights extending trading quotes I noticed the S&P rallied up to 1420 and then opened below the close of yesterday. This could be a short term top (I know its a short term top, because we are still lower today). But this could be a top for the next couple of weeks.
I keep a foam bull on my trading desk. It is my constant reminder of the trend. When I am bullish and feel the trend is bullish I position the bull so he is faced directly at me. When I am bearish I am looking at the butt of the bull. When I feel we are consolidating with no real indication of trend I turn him sideways.
The foam bull has been facing towards me since early February. After today's price action I am turning him on his side. I'll let the market tell me when we are trending again.
Hmm, I don't agree with this statement... it might be a lucky day, or you can count your blessings, or other ways of putting it. But it isn't a good day, and worse you definitely do not want to reinforce this type of behavior or response.
I think it is a good day when you traded well, but still lost money... personally... trading well should be the focus, of you trade well and follow your proven plan that you have developed and own with 100% accountability and confidence, then you will make money more days than not. Not even Goldman makes money every day.
I would have to agree with you. Any day you trade well is a good day. And not every day that you make money is necessarily good for one's long term viability. I should be more specific when I describe my trading day. I traded well today. I followed my trading strategy for the day. The money did not come easily like it does sometimes. I stayed patient. I didn't over trade like I sometimes do.
I am trying to think what a more correct title for my last post should have been... "It's a good day when you trade well, no matter the outcome." Sometimes I have a tendency to get a little negative. Your comments helped me reflect further. My trading today wasn't poor. I just didn't make much money. But progress is progress.
Pre Market Highlights that catch my attention, what is the market telling me?
1) AAPL is up again-I remember when YAHOO was running back in 1998-1999. There was an old trader friend of mine. He compared the internet stocks to radio and space stocks that he'd seen earlier in his trading career. He said that people were calling for tops in those markets for months before they actually topped out. He said he got out and back in those stocks on multiple occasions and didn't make near what a buy and holder could have made. He said he wasn't selling yahoo until it moved $100 higher in one day. A few weeks later AMZN, ETRADE, YAHOO were higher and he said the same thing. Later YAHOO made it's $100 move. He got out. There is a lot to be said for buying all time highs and watching it go higher.
2) someone bought $4 million of MSFT calls yesterday (WHY?)
3) lots of stocks making 52 week highs
4) the contrarian in me wants to try and pick a top, probably means the market goes higher still,
5) interesting to look at the similarity of the August 2010-February 2011 move and the current October 2011-Present move. I duplicated the trend line from 8/10 to 2/11 duplicated it and placed it over the current market, looks very similar. This is not something I will be trading off of, just noticing.
6)S&P futures made a lot of lower highs during the day yesterday, it will be interesting to see how price reacts at those same levels today.
