Two New Positions

Entered two new swing positions today, FSLR and QQQQ. With the market so oversold, I wanted to play one of the index ETF's. For some reason, I have a preference for the Q's. FSLR is admittedly risky with earnings tomorrow. I don't plan to hold either of these very long.

These are my only two positions right now. I failed to mention that I was stopped out of TRA at b/e two weeks ago. I was in cash after being stopped out of RIMM and EWZ last Tuesday, which was a good place to be during last weeks market meltdown.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 7/30/07

Because of the beating stocks took last week, there are no IBD 100 stocks near their buy point for 7/30/07 .

Swing Trade Results

My SPWR and GOOG swing trades didn't do so hot. I descreased my postion size by 2/3 going into earnings, but both got clobbered. Here were my results:

SPWR: +$1.75
GOOG: +$1.16

I wasn't about to make the same mistake with AAPL, which reports earnings on Wednesday. I sold AAPL on Monday:

AAPL +$20.14

Even if AAPL has good earnings, I am happy with the trade. I am still holding RIMM, and also entered EWZ for a swing trade.

EDIT: Stopped out of RIMM: +$6.70
EDIT #2: Stopped out of EWZ: -$2

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 7/23/07

There are no IBD 100 stocks near their buy point for 7/23/07 .

Trading Results For The Last Week

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered if we are at a double top or double bottom. The question was answered last week as the Dow broke into new highs. Seriously, who was talking about Dow 14,000 a week ago? Now it’s just 50 points away, crazy stuff. So we now have a confirmed double bottom, which means stocks should move higher, but for how long?

I haven’t been day trading, except when getting stopped out. Just swing trading stocks that are breaking out of solid patterns on heavy volume. Here is what I traded in the last week:

JASO: - $1.29
This was last Monday morning. I bought at market open (mistake #1), was chopped/stopped out, the stock closed up 14%! Damn, stop was too tight (mistake #2).

MA: -$2
It seems like I always get burned when I trade this short term. It was my biggest swing trade winner in ’06. I shouldn’t have sold it. Next time, I will give it a generous stop.

AMZN: B/E
Stopped out today; had a feeling it would.

TSL: +$3
Bought it on Friday and sold it today near the dead nuts high of the day. It was just dumb luck that I sold it when I did. It finished down over 9% today!

Currently holding:
AAPL, GOOG, SPWR, RIMM, TRA

I took a little bit of profit in GOOG last Friday, since it was my largest position, and I wanted to have some cash for today. I am trailing my stops, hoping to keep at least some of my gains in these positions. I may need to rethink how I use stops. JASO would have been a nice payday, and MA is moving higher without me.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 7/16/07

Two stocks in the IBD 100 have been highlighted as being near their buy points for 07/16/07. They are:

#29, ICE.


#45, NTGR

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 7/09/07

Only one stock in the IBD 100 that has been highlighted in Mondays edition of IBD as being near its buy point.

It is #86, NTGR.

End of Week

Lot of Momo in the market today. I entered a GOOG long yesterday, and am still in AAPL and SPWR (which moved nicely today) but didn't day trade any of todays action due to a busy day schedule. Hope you were able to catch some of it. I'll be back Sunday with the IBD selections for Monday.

Hypnosis in Trading

After making some recent mistakes in my trading, even as early as this week, and not having the patience to let winners run, I have been looking into ways to improve my trading psychology. I started trying hypnosis last week. Before you laugh, let me explain.

I first read about hypnosis in trading in the book New Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, an awesome book. In the book is an interview with Robert Krausz, a trader and member of the British Hypnotist Examiners Council. In the book, Robert talks about how he began using hypnosis to improve his trading. He realized there were psychological reasons why he wasn’t trading well, mostly hesitation due to fear of losing. He explained:

If you have truly back-tested a methodology and are employing an effective trading plan, your conscious mind is already aware of its validity. It’s your subconscious mind that prevents you from taking correct action in the market.

With hypnosis, he was able to quickly bring his trading to break-even, then finally to become a successful trader. One of the reasons he cited that a lot of traders give their earnings back is because they feel they don’t deserve their earnings, and hypnosis can help with his.

The more closely the conscious mind is aligned with the subconscious, the easier it is to generate winnings. To keep those winnings, however, your subconscious mind must believe only one thing that you deserve your winnings.

Of course, he is quick to point out that hypnosis alone will not help a novice trader become an advanced trader, anymore than hypnosis would help a novice chess player become an advanced chess player. He goes on to say:

If you don’t have a methodology and trading plan, all the hypnosis n the world won’t help you.

I then read a blog entry about a well-known trading blogger who listens to an MP3 of affirmations he uses to help his trading. That seemed ridiculous to me initially, but the more I thought of it, the more it made sense.

Finally, I had a personal experience with hypnosis not long ago, and saw how affective it could be. I was experiencing a prolonged bout of insomnia. There were nights where I wasn’t sleeping at all, and when I did, it was just a couple of hours. For those of you who have had this, you know how grueling this can be. After a couple of weeks, I went to see a doctor. He performed a blood test, and the results came back showing there were no physical problems. I tried some prescription pills, which did work, but began losing their effect after a couple of weeks. Since there was no physical cause, I knew this was a psychological problem. There was nothing unusual going on in my personal life, so I wasn’t sure what was causing it. One night, I decided to take a look at hypnosis and stumbled upon HypnonsisDownloads.com. I downloaded their MP3 Cure Insomnia and tried it the next night, and it worked! I would fall right to sleep after the end of the audio, which was only about 15 minutes long. After several nights, I no longer needed it or any medications, and have been sleeping soundly ever since (I know this sounds like a commercial, but it's not. I am not part of their affiliate program or associated with them.). So naturally I began to wonder “What else can hypnosis do?” I was browsing through their site, and saw they had an MP3 called Traders Mind. I thought I would give it a try.

The verdict:

I am not sure. I am certainly trading calmer this week, but don’t know if I would attribute it to the hypnosis MP3. The guy on the MP3 is not a trader, and I didn’t expect him to be. Obviously, he doest talk about strategy, but talks about trading like a professional, which means planning your trades and not giving into the fear and greed and not looking back after the trade, something I do a lot. Pretty obvious stuff. I plan to continue using it for awhile and see if I notice any resuts. I would be interested in knowing what other traders use to improve trading phsycology.

July 2nd & 3rd Trading

On Monday, I day traded the following:

RIMM B/E (stopped out after moving stop to b/e)
TNH: +$2
SPWR: -$1 (stop too tight)

…and swing traded:

FWLT: +$1.83 (an auto trade; meant to adjust targets Tuesday morning but forgot. Hit initial target, should still be long)

I am currently in these stocks which I entered on Tuesday:

AAPL
SPWR (Try again)

Not sure why I chose to day trade TNH instead of a swing trade. This was an auto trade. That's twice I missed a good swing trade in this stock. I also left a lot of money on the table with BIDU last week. I realize it’s a bad habit to think of what I could have made, but those are trades I need to make if I want to do well. I'll have the post on what I'm trying to improve my trading psychology later this week. See you then.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 7/02/07

Only one stock out of the IBD 100 has been highlighted in this Mondays edition of Investors Business Daily as being near its buy point.

#46, CMG:




This is a weekly chart. Good trading.