Trading Recap 1/23/15

I finally got to trade this week but unfortunately this Friday afternoon was a low volume environment. I think my eagerness to trade may have gotten me into plays that I would not take normally. I am still paper trading and I have a feeling if I was trading real money I would not have taken the only losing trade for me today. There were some nice shorts like TASR and FXCM that I was considering but I did not take them. I only had a very small loss for the day and kept calm throughout it and mostly patient so that is good. Before I would get excited for every tick up/down in my direction, now I am just much more calm.

I need to work on my longs and buying on dips in anticipation of the breakout instead of the breakout itself. I can short pops when shorting, but I am just not used to buying dips when going long so I will focus on that going forward.

White arrows are entries.

TKMR: I saw higher lows developing on the daily and that peaked my interest for a day trade. I then saw an ABCD pattern forming/ascending triangle and I set a buy limit right above the HOD which got filled. It came down and I was considering taking it off but I saw it making a double bottom at a prior low and kept it and then it went to new highs at 26 before coming down. I set my stop to breakeven and I got filled. I could have taken a small gain theoretically but I was only up .20/share and wanted to be patient. I figured if I get stopped out at breakeven, no big deal.

UPS: This was my loser for the day. There was poor earnings guidance and fell sharply, but I saw an intraday cup and handle forming and decided to get long above it. It came down but made a higher low so I stayed in. It then went up to 104 before getting rejected and coming back down. I put my stop at the higher low and it got filled. I was only up around .20/share on a $100 stock and I thought it could keep going but it didn't so I stopped out. The setup wasn't great but it was alright, just didn't work. I was considering put the stop to breakeven but I thought it would make a higher low before going past 104, but it didn't.

LOCO: I actually saw the r/g move and wanted to get in but I was in class and didn't take it. That would have been nice. However, it was still on watch and I saw it setting higher lows after the big move. I saw where the resistance was and I took it once it broke out. It set a higher low which was fine and then channeled for a bit. I stayed patient throughout and increased my stop to right under the channel. It went to .50 but then got stuffed and so I put my stop to breakeven and I got stopped out there for flat.

CSC: I shorted this after a decent move up and it hitting resistance on the daily. What really convinced me was the 15 min candle which was a pure plunger candle right at the highs and it looked like an ideal 15s setup. I went short some after it went below the candle's low and I wanted to readd on the lower highs but never did. With the way the market was I didn't trust anything so I put my stop to the prior support thinking if it went back and reclaimed it, it could go higher. I think if this was any other time of day, I would have still kept it in because I was never underwater, but I wanted to play it safe. Again, not having traded the entire week gave me a big urge to just trade today. It ended up fading nicely the rest of the day. Note: stop out was at the price line in the chart below.

Things to work on:

1. Don't trade at bad times with low volume/the lull just because you weren't able to trade before.
2. Buy dips instead of breakouts if possible for longs.