Trader MD

I finally had the chance to put together a decent chart review last night. One thing that really stuck out to me (aside from the $VIX being far from elevated as everyone has mentioned), is the relative strength of the energy sector.

IMO, we're going to need a flush out of the weak holders in the XLE / energy sector related stocks in order to setup any type of real tradeable move higher.

Until then any bounce will be nothing more than a kick back rally.



Of course it'd also be nice if the $VIX and put/call ratio surged higher as well.

On an unrelated note: Thank God. I finally have a legitimate internet connection up and running. That took way too long.

Posted by Trader M.D. at 7:13 PM 1 comments

Labels: Energy, Index

Now that there's 1 trading day left in June, and the fact that I really haven't been able to trade all week, I'm looking forward to the 2nd half of the year.

I've been compiling goals and altering my trading strategy to incorporate the fact that I will now be away from my trading desk more often than I will be at it.

I figure I will have the first hour to hour and a half of each trading day to make trades and observe the market in real time. The rest of my market observations and trade planning will take place in the evenings when the market is closed.

The one thing I'm currently contemplating is what to do with day trades that still look good when I have to step out each morning.

Right now I figured that the bread and butter of my day trading strategy going forward will depend on the gap base & break setup I've been using more frequently over the last few months. The reason I say that, is because these trades can setup as early as a few minutes into the trading day and often have quick exits.

Getting back to managing trades away from the desk. My only real consistent way of following the market when I'm working, will be off of my Palm Treo (soon to be replaced with the new iPhone). The huge drawback of this is that I still don't know of a way to chart in real time off of it, and pages can load very slowly.

Another option is to get some type of wireless internet connection for the laptop and have that on me at all times. That's still up for debate and has to be looked into.

Finally the last option is to remain in the trade with a trailing stop.

For now I think my best option is to close out any day trades that I may be in before I leave my desk each morning. If I do attempt any remote management of day trades, it will be thoroughly tested via paper trading first.

In general though, the majority of my trades and trading profits will now come from swing trades. Just based on current market conditions alone, I'm guessing this will be harder than day trading has been the last few months.

As far as blog postings of my trades goes: Postings will now generally be in the evenings. I will still try to post every daytrade and swing trade I make. Posts definitely will not be as prompt as they were before (I used to try and post as soon as the market closed), as I will be away from my trading desk at the market close.

Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it :)

Posted by Trader M.D. at 12:22 PM 6 comments

Labels: General

Didn't get a chance to put together a post yesterday.

It's been fairly frustrating around here over the last few days and will be for the rest of the week.

Although I moved up my furniture into my apartment a week and a half ago, I didn't actually move in until this last weekend.

During that week in between, I requested that the A/C be fixed and well... it still hasn't. Its about 85-86 deg F inside at any given time. Even leaving the windows open at night only drops the temp by a few degrees. So it hasn't really been easy to sleep.

Cable/Satellite, which was supposed to be installed on Monday, will now be installed Saturday. They didn't have the reciever in stock, wth? Overall, not a big deal, but it would have been nice to have.

And most importantly, my internet, which should have been installed weeks ago, won't be installed until Friday. I swear AT&T is filled with some of the most incompetent people ever. I called up originally about a month ago, trying to setup dry-loop DSL (no phone line). They said DSL wasn't available at the address, as the address didn't exist. wth?!

Then I was told by the apartment manager, and others that DSL was indeed available, so I put in an order through a secondary company. The secondary company tells me the order goes through and that it will be setup very soon.

I give it a few days and call up AT&T again to find out that they have received no such order, and that I have to put in the order all over again.

Blah....

I have to say I have a ton more respect for those that are able to trade on their laptops and laptops alone, or just off of 1 screen. It's not easy.

I most likely won't be trading much for the rest of the week due to work obligations and lack of an internet connection.

I'll try to put together some setups or other useful information during that time if I'm able to.

As far as AMSC goes, I probably should have known better.

I took it it long as it based around 46.00 and broke through that level at ~11:45. My initial target was the recent morning highs of ~47.40. My stop was just below the base at ~45.50

Initially it broke out and looked promising but it began to gradually reverse and I was stopped out.

Here's AMSC:

Posted by Trader M.D. at 5:42 AM 3 comments

Labels: AMSC, BasenBreak, Failed, General

Sorry about the smaller, more crowded images. I'm on the laptop today, and until my internet connection is setup later this week. Thank God for WiFi, eh?

Here's the daily chart of CLF. Looks like a beauty if you ask me. CLF has had this well formed rising channel for the last few months from which it has gotten support from over the past 2-3 days.

In addition, it's been forming a symmetrical triangle with in that channel.

I think it can hit $120-123 over the near term with cooperation from the market & steel stocks.


Before the market opened, US Steel (X) was added to Goldman Sach's conviction buy list. With that news the steel sector gapped up.

Here's the CLF daily chart. It's a bit messy, but I tried to point out as much as I could and I removed any indicators that weren't useful in the trade decision process.



One of the reasons this trade worked out so well was the confluence of supporting factors: support on the daily chart, momentum in the sector, strong volume and a solid opening range bar. It also based below the down trendline of the symmetrical triangle, opening range high, and the R1 pivot point.

That all made for a very low risk trade.

The only other trade of the day was in X, which based under 190. I bought the break and was stopped out below 191.

Posted by Trader M.D. at 12:21 PM 0 comments

Labels: BasenBreak, CLF, Fibonacci, Pivots, Triangle

First a look @ the 3 minute chart (I managed the trade off this chart). I have to say I managed this trade nearly perfectly.



Now a look at the 15 minute chart, from which I entered off of.

Posted by Trader M.D. at 1:11 PM 0 comments

Labels: CupnHandle, FCL, InsideBar