Day Trade - AAPL

Ok, I lied about not posting or trading this week. The buy stop order I mentioned last night was triggered today. It was AAPL, and I sold it for a gain of +$3.08. Looks like it will go higher though, but I am leaving tomorrow for a vacation, and am happy to be in cash.

I will be back later next week. Good trading!

Vacation; Zanger Video

I am going on vacation later this week, so I’m taking the rest of the week off from trading and posting, although I do have a buy stop order in for a possible swing trade.

Tried out the chat room at Deh Trader this afternoon. There was a small group in there talking about various trades, no BS like other chat rooms. I would recommend it, although I’m not much into chat rooms.

As you can see, I have banner ads on the top and bottom of this page for a service called the Zanger Report at ChartPattern.com. This is a newsletter sent out 4 nights week by Dan Zanger. If you don’t know who he is, he’s a swing trader who turned $11,000 into $42 million in the late 90’s. From what I understand, he gave almost half of it back in the 2000/2001 bear market, but made it all back and more in the current bull market, especially with GOOG in 2005.

He is a CANSLIM disciple, and only trades, as he puts it, stocks with explosive earnings and explosive price movement. I’ve tried dozens of newsletters, and his is easily the best I’ve found. He will consistently have you in the biggest movers in the market. There is a free trial, so try it out if you havent already.

Anyway, here is part 1 of a 3 part video interview with him for you to check out.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point

Once again I'll be posting those stocks in the IBD 100 that have been highlighted in the Monday Edition of Investors Business Daily as being near their buy points. I think I'll be making this a regular weekend post, so if you're interested in this information, you know where to find it.

Of the last weeks selections, RIMM did very well for the week, and you could have made some money day trading the other two on Monday morning. Let's see how these selections do on Tuesday. These stocks will be on my watch list.

Again, these are all weekly charts.

GME



MICC



PTI

Taking Profits Too Early

VRGY was the big volume gapper on my watch list this morning. I watched it closely, looking for a good entry. I made a quick trade in the morning for a small profit, and then walked away, believing that the stock, as well as the rest of the market, was done for the day. You can imagine how sickened I felt when I checked in about an hour and a half before market close to see the stock up another 8%! My original stop would not have been hit either. I left a lot of money on the table.

I am selling way too soon. To make big money in trading, it is important to let the winners run. This means not raising the stops or taking profts before they have a chance to run.

Earlier this week, I read the following at TraderMikes' site:

"The biggest problem I had was getting out of winning trades too soon. I always like to push my stops up to break-even when I can but my journal was screaming at me that I was adjusting my stops too aggressively. I kept getting stopped out of stocks that would have been big winners for me. What I noticed was that those stocks would typically have strong moves in less than 30 minutes or so and I'd push my stop up only to get stopped out and then the stock would turn again. So I made a rule that I can't touch my stops until at least 60 minutes after entry. It was one week after I made that change that I had my biggest day in years. And I haven't had the 'stopped out too soon' problem since."

It's refreshing to know that even great traders like Mike have had this same problem. I think his idea of waiting at least 60 minutes before adjusting stops is a good one. It will mean that my win ratio may decrease, but my earnings should increase. I tried this on my AMZN trade earlier this week, and it worked well. It won’t work as well for every trade, but it will allow me to stay in the winners longer.

I also traded FWLT for a small gain at the end of the day, but nothing major.

Have a good weekend.

End of Day: Winner Turns Into a Loss

I have been unable to watch the market as I frequently as I would like this week. When that happens, I usually swing trade. But the market has been looking toppy lately, and I haven’t felt comfortable about holding anything overnight. So I have been putting in buy stop orders on stocks that were about to break out, and checking in on the position every half hour or so; adjusting stops accordingly. My order for MA was filled today at a terrible $141.94 and missed my chance to take a profit. I was hoping this stock would gain momentum throughout the day, but it didn’t. I tightened my stop, and was eventually stopped out for a loss. I suppose I could have held it, but we are due for a correction, and I didn’t want to take any risks. So here’s my result for the day:

MA: -$.81

Losing is never fun.

End of Day: 1 Win, 1 Scratch

A lot of stocks on my watch list were moving up big, including SPN which I talked about in last nights post. I didn’t take that trade though. I made two other trades, one profitable and one a scratch.

AMZN: +$3.18
BIDU: B/E

Both of these stocks still look pretty good. I might try BIDU again later if it acts stronger. I didn't like the way it was behaving after I entered the trade, so I moved my stop to b/e. I wish I had more time to trade; today was one of those days where the market was giving money away.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point

I always check the Monday Special Edition of Investors Business Daily for stocks in the IBD 100 that are highlighted as being near their buy point. I like to watch these stocks because they can be very frisky on Monday morning. These stocks can be good swing and day trade candidates. Some traders even look for opportunities to short these stocks on Monday morning. Regardless, these will be on my watch list tomorrow.

This weeks selections are:

(These are all weekly charts)

RIMM: Slightly above buy point.



STLD: Slightly above buy point.



SPN: Slightly above buy point.

$100 Free When Opening a Savings Account

Saw this over at JohnChow.com; CitiBank is offering a special promotion through the month of May when opening a high interest (4.65%) savings account. New accounts will receive $100 free, 90 days after the account is open. Not bad at all. The promotion is only open to American citizens who have not had a CitiBank savings account previously.

I have a savings account with ING Direct with an annual yield of 4.5% . They offer $25 free when opening a new savings account when referred. If you're interested, send me an email and I will reply with the referral offer. Yeah, I get a $10 referral that way. I realize it's pocket change, but I won't turn it down. Besides, these are high interest savings accounts, and if you don't have one, you really should. Why not sign up for both and earn $125 in just a few minutes?