26 Jan
A light watch list going into the weekend. Remember Friday is NOT the day to be a hero (in the markets).
Longs: NWSA
Shorts: NIHD
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25 Jan
FOMC Announcement keeping rates unchanged for the infamous “extended period of time.” A nice rally in the stocks from yesterday’s watch list. Here’s a couple more to watch for tomorrow.
Longs: ABV, BIP, CB, PRX, PSA
Shorts: none
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24 Jan
“A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.” We trade to make money, that’s the bottom line. Keep your position sizes small enough that you can sleep at night without worry.
Longs: AWI, CAG, CBST, CGNX, DCI, FEIC, MDVN, YUM
Shorts: none
When trading options in a sideways market or over a consolidation period, it can be effective to keep your net delta as close to neutral as possible.
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23 Jan
Today’s selling could spark some good intraday trading ranges, but we’ll confirm the ensuing sell off on a break of today’s low. Sometimes when we become so ‘extended’ and the talking heads are all saying ‘a sell off is overdue’ the opposite occurs and we see a big rally. As always, plan for both scenarios.
Longs: CGNX, CNC, CP, HD, LOW
Shorts: IART, SA
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22 Jan
After looking at over 400 different charts this weekend I’ve come up with a total of 3 stocks that looked somewhat decent. I use this as a sign that the market is not a healthy place for putting on either longs and shorts. Instead, we will manage current positions.
From my experience this is the hardest part of trading. Doing nothing when there’s nothing to do. It’s times like these where I would look for trades and in turn, force trades that didn’t quite meet my criteria resulting in necessary losses.
Rather than go into each day and week searching for something to trade. I go through my watch lists each night looking at stocks from different sectors, industry groups, and market cap. If there are no setups presenting themselves I simply wait. Cash is a position and while it may not be a very profitable one, I’d rather be flat at the end of the week than down.
Longs: O, ROST
Shorts: IART
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19 Jan
The broader market has seen a flurry of gaps for the past few days, all of which have filled, but one. That one being the opening gap up from the year. Put a post it note in front of your computer with the number 1251.75. This is the unfilled gap on the S&P500 and we will look to fill it in the coming weeks.
Given that the market has rallied this week, stocks that didn’t participate in the rally and are just setting up long now are considered relatively weak, therefore we won’t be placing any new positions tomorrow.
Longs: None
Shorts: None
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17 Jan
What a crazy week it’s been. Finally all setup and back in the groove, now coming to you from a new location. Scottsdale, AZ. What you don’t see in the photo is the nice view of palm trees and green grass out the window to my left (I snapped the photo at night).
I begin my watch list building by looking at the broader market before I begin. I ask myself “Where are we on the S&P500?.” Are we in a down trend, up trend, sideways? Are we in the middle of a price pattern such as head and shoulders, cup and handle, or reversal?
This is important because it gives you a market sentiment baseline. From there I assess which stocks are acting relatively stronger than the market, these I want to buy, and stocks that are acting relatively weak I look to sell (or buy puts).
Longs: JAZZ, LKQX, OZRK, SBH, SSD, TCBI
Shorts: BMC, SA
Don’t forget to check the earnings calendar as Alcoa (AA) kicked off earnings season last week.
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9 Jan
The markets formed a doji in week one of 2012. This is a sign of indecision and could be expected at the onset as traders and hedge funds begin to pick up trading again in the new year. That being said it is the long term investors which drive the long term trend of the markets.
Aside from the intraday and a few small daily trends, we have really gone nowhere in the past year. We saw a few longs fire off last week with a couple shorts from our watch lists.
Nothing significant showed itself over the weekend so we will sit tight with our current positions and patiently wait for the setups to occur. I would rather maximize my profits on the trades I do take rather than try to increase my number of winning trades.
Here are a variety of trading videos for you to enjoy! Everything from swing trading analysis, to intraday price action, the NYSE Tick, live trades, and examples of different indicators.
Check back tomorrow for some stocks to watch this week.
