A beginner's wild ride

So-So Day.

billtokarz — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:28:54 +0000

Not a great day trading today but made a little money on two trades. First trade was RAS which gave me a moderate return. Second trade was PWAV that I decided to hold over the weekend since it ran stagnant after peaking early in the afternoon. Not much risk in my opinion.

Tough day finding movers.

billtokarz — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:43:07 +0000

Today was a difficult day to find a mover in my pool of stocks I watch. Most of the stock opened in a gap up today. I generally stay away from gap up stock because it seems that they always drop back down on me. I ended up watching CRXX and JMBA all morning waiting for the usual morning decline to hopefully catch a rebound. JMBA finally gave me an opportunity that did not follow my written trading plan but did follow a pattern I could see over the past few days. The stock hasn’t dipped under its 20 day moving average. I watched the stock hit the 20 day line and bounce back up so I pulled the trigger. The stock moved up but never broke the upper resistance. I sold at the top of the resistance for a small profit and called it a day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better trading day.

It is hard to bring a Monday down…even with terrible bills becoming law.

billtokarz — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:37:48 +0000

Friday saw a flat market in anticipation of the health care bill vote over the weekend. Investors either sold off or held off due to the increase in taxes that are aimed directly at us traders and investors. I personally expected the bill to pass and cause the market to tank this morning. In preparation of that belief I bought ZSL. The move proved to be a good one early this morning as i sold ZSL for a gain.

Late in the morning the index’s moving to the green side and created some nice buying prospects off of Fridays flats and lows. I bought BBX and made another substantial profit off its sale. Deciding that I had used all “luck” on those two trades I thought about calling it a day while I was ahead…way ahead. Then ARWR caught my eye on a tip from #daytraders. Again, the technicals for my trading plan were all there and again another nice profit from its sale.

This is the best day I have had trading since I started this endeavor. 20 out of 28 Mondays this year have been green and even with the most terrible legislation to pass in our country EVER…Monday’s are still hard to beat down into the reds.

SIRI Climbs Out

billtokarz — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:41:13 +0000

Sirius Radio (SIRI) Is at risk for being dropped from the NASDAQ listing if it does not trade for over $1.00 for 10 consecutive days. SIRI dropped to .82 today and I got my trading signal at .84. The stock didn’t move much but when it did it would climb .02 – .04 over a 60 minute period then set into a consolidation rhythm and then climb up again. I place my trailing stop a bit to tight and got stopped out at .915. I missed a additional gain of .02 for that trade. My target price was $1.00 which it may very likely hit tomorrow if the stock continues on its current trend.

Jobs and Durable Goods

billtokarz — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:36:58 +0000

The market took a 1 – 2 punch to the jaw this morning. After yesterdays reaction to the news I thought the market would just shrug it off again. This morning the market got taken to the mat. By the end of the day it was on its way up but still stumbling like a boxer about to be put down for the count. Tomorrow brings two more economic indicator reports. Those two are on the consensus reports of Existing Home Sales and consumer sentiment. This could prove to be another jab to the nose.

After a CCI down day the market tells the news to stuff it.

billtokarz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:30:11 +0000

Lots of news today. Bernake spoke, the SEC voted on and passed an alternative uptick rule for short sales, housing upstarts down, and the Toyota hearings have been center stage all day. It seemed as if it would be another day of a face beating in the markets. But it wasn’t. After a slow start to the trading day it seemed that everyone was waiting for the speeches, votes and hearings. The market told the news to stuff it today and did not react positively or negatively to the news. The market just went on as if nothing occurred. So I figured if the market is not reacting then its a safe day to be optimistic. Well the market told me to stuff it as well. Another down day but after learning my lesson yesterday I TRADED THE PLAN! My technicals said buy and I did. I watched nothing but sideways movement the rest of the morning. Early in the afternoon the stocks dipped to my get out point and I did. Tomorrow is a off day for me as I wait for funds to settle.

On another note, I watched Bernake speak today. I want to know what statistic is used to decide if the stimulus saved or created jobs. He swore by this stat and as far as I am concerned he is an idiot in regards to believing that statistic, not to mention the dunces that were polled for that stat. Also, is Maxine Waters that dense? Why couldn’t she understand that the discount rate has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with mortgage rates. Bernake should have slapped her after repeating for the third time that there is no correlation between the two rates.

Ever wonder what happens when you deviate from your trading plan?

billtokarz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:40:05 +0000

I have this post-it on my monitor that says in block letters “PLAN THE TRADE, TRADE THE PLAN!” This little bit of advice has served me well over the past month. While I have not made a killing in the market, I have been running without a single loss to the market. I knew that I would eventually take a loss as I still learn to read the indicators correctly and make proper assumptions combining those indicators with technical analysis. Well today was that day and it was a significant hit.

I bought CIMT today as it was on a break out. I got in late on the uptrend but with enough room to still make some money. I got in at $3.35 and watched it rise to a BID price of $3.57 and hit the sell command. I however, forgot to change my limit price and watched as it went down, FAST. I have a rule to get out of a trade when it is up a 1/8 of a point unless momentum is building and it was so I stayed till the $3.57. However, instead of putting in a market order to sell I held telling myself, “oh it will get back there again.” If only I had followed MY rules. It never got there again. By the time I finally smacked myself and dumped the stock I lost $0.22 per share. Here was the second rule in which I broke. I also am to get out of a trade when loss is also at 1/16 of a point. Bad move for the beginner.

Moral of the story. “PLAN THE TRADE, TRADE THE PLAN!!” Today could have been a nice gain for me but in the end I let greed override my plan.

Why I started this blog.

billtokarz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:58:06 +0000

Well because everyone else has one and its the “in” thing to do. This is being started so that I may share my adventure through the stock market in a time of Obamunism. Not only am I a new trader, but I am starting in a time when our government has business in its cross-hairs. This endeavor will prove to be a complicated and challenging task.
This blog will also function as a history book of sorts for me should I become a successful trader. I will have a written history of my decisions, failures, successes and thoughts as I navigate the technical side of stock analysis. I also hope that others can learn from my mistake as I try to learn from others at this time.
Well lets get this roller coaster started.