The action today was anemic. Now I understand what folks like Dinosaur Trader and others complain about when the markets behave like today. It also didn’t help that oil reached a record $126.22ish at its high. Visa took another hit today, down another 4 points. It’s reaching my entry/exit target of ~$81. My feeling is that folks will begin to buy Visa next week and perhaps pin it near the 85 strike price but only Monday can tell. There’s quite a bit of call open interest from 80, 85, and 90, so I would expect Visa to recover rather nicely. With the larger bankroll I have, I’ll probably purchase one or two May 85 calls and one or two June 90s for a longer term hold.
Trades Taken: 3 x NQ
P/L: +$10
That’s right, I’m positive on the day and trading the NQs at that! A victory is a victory.
We’re off to Yappy Hour (happy hour for dogs… don’t ask). See you tomorrow!
Another rough day and once again it’s inexperience that causes me so much pain. Today additional funds were deposited into my account, finally giving me access to futures trading. My first NQ futures trade was successful, no matter how small the victory. Subsequent attempts at trading the NQs resulted in failure.
Trades taken: 5 x NQ
P/L: -$90
After becoming frustrated early in the day, I took the rest of the day off. Going back, I realized a few things about my first attempt at futures trading.
First, my stops were entirely too tight. I didn’t give my futures time to move and as a result I paid dearly for it with money left on the table. Trailing stops also don’t work well in a choppy market. This morning, the markets were extremely choppy. Of course hindsight’s 20/20, but it would have been best to sit out most of the morning. Around lunch time, futures across the board dropped but by then I was done for the day. This afternoon was probably the easiest time to have made a nice sum of money. C’est la vie.
Tomorrow’s another day although I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll see choppy action in the morning. Maybe taking the rest of the week off isn’t a bad idea.
By the way, crude just topped $124.