Video

Professor Shiller discusses the effects of the financial crisis and the failed policies of investment banks.  He walks through the wreckless actions taken by investment banks, their effects on the secondary market, and the intervention by the federal reserve to soften the landing of the crisis. 

The speaker discusses the rationale for the Fed setting a target rate versus setting a money supply target. 

Below is my VRTX day trade from 5/21.  The stock had a silly green bar on the 5-minute chart.  On first glance it looked like a hammer, but the wick was so ridiculous, you knew that the longs were asking for it.  I took on a short position in anticipation of this level breaking. 

The below video is of my 5/7 JCOM morning breakout trade. We have been working on developing sound money making rules for trading and JCOM is a clear example of this system in real-time. JCOM had all green bars in the morning prior to retesting the high for the day.

Today I traded AU Optronics (AUO), Jabil Circuit (JBL), Ryland Group (RYL), Cameco Corp (CCJ), for a total gain of $24.80. I am beginning to notice that stocks which clear Fibonacci levels intraday have a greater success of going in your favor. So, I am going to draw retracement levels, just to see what is in play and maybe it will increase my win/loss ratio. I am also planning on splitting my positions up in to thirds, in order to scale out of the market when I am in a profitable trade. Check out my CCJ (last trade in the video) to see how I was able to scale out of a winner.

I put on a good number of trades today, but I was unable to have a breakthrough. I have to work on allowing my winners to run, if I plan on making real money in the market.

Today I had data issues first thing in the morning, because BIIB was moving so fast on the tape that it locked up my machine. I was able to recover but it was after 9:50, which normally I have already begun to identify my setups for the morning. I was able to rebound from these technical issues and still finish up for the day. I am beginning to avoid big losses, but I feel trapped in my ability to have a true breakout day. Now this is of course all my doing. I need to apply more focus in order to realize my full potential of my current level of trading experience.

Today was good because I felt in synch with the market. I have started to use the 100 tick chart to better manage the really volatile stocks as the 5-minute chart often lags the price movement. I have begun to get on a bit of a streak so I will need to keep this up for the next month or so, in order for me to begin using more money per play.

I put on a last minute trade on JPM near the end of the day after the fed announcement, but what looked so good ended up rolling and taking me for an end of day ride. I have not broken my golden rule of taking a hit greater than 1.5% over the last few weeks, so I am extremely pleased.

Could have been a big day for me, but I exited two trades a bit early. The market was up today, but it felt flat throughout the morning. Trading will be tough this week due to the quiet period before the interest rate announcement.

Today I clearly was just practicing as my account value only jumped $12 bucks. But, it is three winning days in a row and when you start to put on a winning streak, it can become contagious. I sold half positions today when I felt the tape slowing up, but I should have just closed the entire position as it would have represented an increase of roughly $150 - $200 dollars.

I started reading "Trading in the Zone" yesterday and I highly recommend this book to anyone active in the trading game. I am trying to figure out who I am at the core, because once I master myself, I will begin to master the market. Overall good trading today, I only put on two trades, but I felt that the market had little to offer after 11:30, so I stop trading. I traded Sotheby (BID) for a 2.08% gain and LG Philips LCD Co (LPL) for a .44% loss.

It was good to end my streak of losing days. I could have had a monster day, but I got a couple of poor fills on SOLF and FMD. Today my trading activity picked up, which is the key to my system. I am still working on the concept that trading is a game of odds and that I will be wrong at times.

Today the market was flat. There was a 70 point range established after the open, which held the market during the morning session. I put on one long trade today with Activision Ltd. (ATVI), but the trade was flat like the rest of the market. Today was really better for counter trades, so I will need to work on refinining my strategy to incorporate these types of setups.

Early on today, I lost my data feed for the NYSE and AMEX stocks. I have yet to remember a day where I have had technical issues and been able to pull out a victory. I took a 1% hit on ProLogis (PLD), when I put on a horrible short. I was within a few pennies from the low of the day. Trina Soalr Ltd (TSL) was a decent trade, went my way for a bit and then had a sharp decline. Overall not a bad day, but I need to increase the quality of my plays as my system is designed to profit on sizeable winners.