Short and sweet since I’m feeling a bit under the weather. I need to learn to not leave so much money on the table. It’s frustrating and starting to get on my nerves!
Trades Taken
- -1 x JASO June 25 Call
- -1 x LVS June 65 Put
- 1x VLO June 45 Put
Profit / Loss on the Day / Open: -$58.00 / -$95.50
Closed out my JASO calls around the high this morning only to see it fade the rest of the day. Solar play may be over for now especially with oil potentially fading from these levels. LVS took off like a rocket and hit my intraday stop and as a result I exited with little damage. VLO looks ripe for the drop so we’ll see what happens.
Okay.. someone explain to me what the heck just happened. Here’s a 1 minute chart of the Q’s.
Around 2:30 (yes, that 2:30 reversal period), the Qs and the rest of the market went right down the toilet. I think the bears were mocking the bulls and were loading up just to give them some false sense of hope before they brought out the bombers and obliterated any rally today. Now that the carnage is over, how’d I do?
Trades Taken
- 2 x NQ
- -1 x JASO June 25 Call
- 1 x LVS June 65 Put
- 1 x BBD June 25 Call
Profit / Loss for the Day: $132.50
Profit / Loss Currently Open: $32.50
I think something odd happened when I sold half of my JASO position. I sold one JASO contract at $2.75 for a profit of ($2.75 – $1.25) $150. However, my P/L for the day in JASO is $87.50 (JASO declined during the nasty selloff). Anywho, on the NQ front, I managed to escape with $80 on the day. I need to begin letting my NQs run a bit more. I could have easily captured another 5-10 points on the NQs had I let them run and watched my indicators. But that’s how one learns. It’s a matter of learning by experience.
Took a position against LVS near the close. LVS in the past has been very good to me so we’ll see if it cooperates with me this time around. I have a very tight leash on it with an entry near $72.20 and a stop around $72.50 + 0.5%. I also went ahead and increased my max risk level on BBD. Over the past couple of days, I’ve noticed BBD consolidating. While it’s close to violating my trendline, it’s still in play and so I increased my position to my max risk (using the initial purchase price for my BBD contracts).
Options expiry is Friday and I’m glad I’m done with my May options. Another options cycle is close to being in the books. Any thoughts on what tomorrow’s action will bring?
Another day in the books and another recap to be had. Quick and dirty since I’m at work today, unfortunately.
Trades Taken
Profit / Loss for the Day: $145
Profit / Loss Open: $115
Another good day. Slowly but surely I’m getting my bearings. The next step is to develop my own stock scans. If any of you have any tips feel free to drop by. Books or websites would be extremely helpful!
Took a quick NQ trade near the end of the day for a point scalp. I know I lose a bit on commissions but it’s more about learning than anything else. Once I’m more confident, I can begin to increase the point spreads. But for now, it’s just a matter of learning.
Solars broke out today and I was in position with JASO thanks to the OA crew. I know that most of what I trade is based off his teachings and there’s going to be a point where I need to learn how to fish for myself thus the urgency in learning proper stock screening techniques for swing traders. As with everything, it just takes time.
Tomorrow morning consists of a vet visit so I’ll be missing a bit of the morning’s actions. I need to go back and review thinkorswim’s lecture on options expiry week, but if I recall correctly, tomorrow’s going to be a big day one way or another. Yesterday and today felt very slow which may indicate consolidation so we’ll see. I’m currently in a long portfolio which somewhat scares me so I’ll need to hunt for puts over the next couple of days.
Overall, while still another loss, it wasn’t a bad day. Once again, however, tight stops on futures got the best of me. It’s a work in progress though. Once I refine my futures trading skills, I’ll be able to post more consistent profits. I did notice around lunch time trading in a zone somewhat. Remember that scene from Office Space where they head to the psychoanalyst and that funky music plays in the background as Peter’s hypnotized? Yeah, it was almost like that. Anywho…
Trades taken
- 2xNQs
- 1 June 95 V Call
- 2 June 25 JASO Calls
- 2 June 25 BBD Calls
Today’s Profit / Loss: -$25
Minor loss although off my lows for the day. Some strength near the close helped cut my NQ losses in half. Other than that, while I’m concerned I’m overly bullish, I couldn’t find many put plays today. I noticed the Option Addict boards discussing Valero (VLO), but if oil prices do begin to come down, I think VLO and other refiners benefit due to the decrease in crack spreads, making it more profitable for them to crank out the good stuff. Volume was awful as well as I’m sure others are saying. I haven’t been trading long enough to understand what the differences are between a low volume and a high volume day, but it appears there is quite the difference.
And will begin trading penny stocks! Well not entirely. This weekend, I took up a homework assignment by Timothy Sykes, of the penny stocking Sykes. His contest was a giveaway of his book, An American Hedge Fund, to the person with the most in-depth research on a penny stock, NT Holding (NTHH). After spending a couple of hours searching the internet, I posted a couple of responses as to what’s next with NTHH. You can find those comments here and a follow-up here. As a result, I won an autographed copy of his book wee! Thanks to Tim for his contest. Let’s see if NTHH really does follow a typical pump and dump scheme (which I think it will).
But no, I won’t give up my beloved options and futures. But who’s to say I can’t experiment with penny stocks in the future. It’s clear that they’re easily manipulated so why not capitalize off that?
In market news, futures are slightly up this morning. More than likely it’s going to be another snooze fest.
