Video

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. This gave us confidence in a long position, as odds where in our favor that the stock would not only test its morning high, but likely push through it.

The key to day trading, which I have to remind myself everyday, is that less is more. The clip is roughly 3 minutes and I hope you find it helpful.

Good Luck Trading

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.