Win Some, Lose Some

Made two day trades; one win, one loser:

NOV: +$2.91
GRMN: -$2.08

Overall, I am happy to have a net profit for the day, although the GRMN loss is still stinging a bit as a type this. If I had more time to watch the markets, I would like to think that I could have gotten more out of NOV, and perhaps made a profitable day trade in DRYS again, but maybe that wouldnt have been the case.

I also entered a RIMM swing trade, but not thrilled about holding it right now. Probably shouldn't have traded on the Friday before a three day weekend.

Have a good Labor Day weekend.

Lesson Learned

Didn’t trade today, but learned a valuable lesson.

There were a couple of stocks that I was interested in day trading, but didn’t have time to watch them all day. One stock that I was watching was DRYS, which I day traded earlier this week. Later in afternoon, I placed a Buy Stop+TTO order, with an entry, stop and target all in place. I got impatient watching it, and began second-guessing myself and cancelled the order. After the market closed, I took a look and saw that my order would have been triggered and my target reached for a nice profitable trade....If only I hadn’t cancelled.

The lesson: Place my order and leave it alone. If I’m wrong, let the stops take me out. Actually, this isn’t a new lesson. It’s one that I’ve learned before. One day I hope it sinks in.

Day Trade DRYS

Made a day trade today - DRYS: +$1.64

This was a Zanger pick last week when he recommended buying this on weakness. Buyers then would have done very well. I prefer to buy strength, so I bought today. It's showing some great momentum on the daily chart, and it could very well go higher. So why did I sell today? Good question. I prefer to take small profits in this market. If the market holds up, then there should be some nice swing trade opportunities in the fall. Until I see some signs of that happening, I'll stick with taking profits early.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 8/27/07

There are no IBD 100 stocks in the 8/27/07 edition of Investors Business Daily that are highlighted as being near their buy point.

Leaders Reemerging

If you subscribe to the Zanger Report, which I advertise here, then you probably would have entered AAPL, FWLT, BIDU for day or swing trades yesterday, and would have already been in RIMM. He's predicting more upside in the markets. I passed on these picks because I am a bit risk averse right now, which is probably a sure sign that the markets are going higher for now.

Out VDSI for Breakeven

Decided to dip my toes in this market and make a daytrade in VDSI. It made a nice little move after I entered the trade. I then moved my stop to b/e and got stopped out. I should have taken my own advice and taken some profits before moving my stop.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 8/20/07

There are no IBD 100 stocks in the 8/20/07 edition of Investors Business Daily that are highlighted as being near their buy point.

My Opinion on the Market, China and What's New

Big post today. I plan to have a busy week at work, so I don’t know how much trading I will get to do. This is not a market that I want to auto-trade or swing trade. My plan for now is to sit in cash, protect my gains and observe the carnage, and hopefully learn a few things along the way. I hope to make some money by day trading during rallies, which can be quite sharp in this kind of market. I may look to get short after the next rally, as I think the market is going to be in trouble or some time to come. Cash is a good place to be right now. But it is worth noting, that the uptrend since 2002 is still intact.

I have been reading some comments in other blogs and newsletters about Black Monday, the market crash of 1987, and something similar being just around the corner. Don Harrold has a new video on his site talking about similarities between the market just before the 1929 crash, and the market today. Although he will deny this, Don is a perma-bear, but he does raise some interesting comparisons. I am more concerned about a crash in China. A few months ago, the LA Times had an article about the investing going on among Chinese citizens. They are jumping into the market fully margined, even mortgaging their homes and taking credit card loans to buy stocks, making incredible paper returns. Sound familiar? The Shanghai composite is unquestionably a bubble ready to burst. I believe one morning, we are going to wake up to news of a huge crash in the Shanghai composite; a jump-out-of-window type crash, reminiscent of 1929. This would cause a huge ripple effect on markets around the globe. One site that is following the situation on China closely is StockTiming.com. Marty has a free daily newsletter, and sometimes has some good stuff regarding China.

On an unrelated note, I have posted a reply comment in one of the threads talking about my opinion on the trading hypnosis MP3 I used awhile back. You can check it out there if interested. I may post more on it here soon.

Lastly, I opened a demo Forex account this week that I am trading from as I type this. I would like to be able to trade in the evenings, since I have a day job. The Forex market provides the chance to do that. So maybe in a month or two, I’ll be posting Forex trades here too. I'll see how the demo goes first.

Good trading.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 8/13/07

There are no IBD 100 stocks in the 8/13/07 edition of Investors Business Daily that are highlighted as being near their buy point.

Trading Results for 8/08/07

Took 2 day trades today (I have no interest in swing trading this market right now). One win and one scratch.

GRMN: +$1
MOS: b/e

I think I may begin taking some profits before moving my stops to breakeven. I was up over $1 in MOS at one point. Glad I moved the stop though.

No more trading for me today, but it's sure fun to watch this action.

IBD 100 Stocks Near Their Buy Point for 8/06/07

There are no IBD 100 stocks near their buy point for 8/06/07 .

Trading Results for the Week

Here are my results for the week:

FSLR: -$2
QQQQ: +.25
CMI: +.65

I didn't trade much this week, due mostly to some problems with my broker. Probably a good thing, since I would have gotten eaten alive in this crazy market.

I was really PO'd with MB Trading, this week. I will need to look for a new broker, as they continue having costly technical problems. I will post more about it later. But let me just state for the record that MB Trading sucks!

I am sure by now most of you have seen this video of Jim Cramer going ballistic over the Fed sitting idly by while the market tanks on credit woes. If you haven't seen it, check it out, it' s worth watching.