Trading Recap 1/8/11

Well another winner for me and a pretty decent sized one at that. The streak continues but I will disregard that since I may not take trades in order to keep my streak alive. I did hesitate about entering the trade but then I saw one of modern rock's tweets about FURUs not trading and only showing off their nice calls and real traders take the actual trade and aren't afraid of losing. I didn't want to be a furu so I clicked the button and it worked out. The biggest help for me so far has been to integrate a thesis/understanding of what is happening with the stock and the participants. This has helped narrow my focus and help me avoid trades that I don't have much faith in. My process for taking a trade is now to have a thesis/understanding of the participants and why the stock is possibly doing what it is doing and then secondly understand that the price action can confirm or deny my thoughts. I also have started utilizing the 2/3min candles much more instead of the 1min since my personality is to take everything too literally and over analyze everything. With the 2/3min candles there is less noise and less chance for me to incorrectly assume something is happening when it isn't.

White arrows are entries followed by exits.

EARS: I had this on watch for a short and after monitoring it for a bit and seeing it look weak compared to prior days and the fact that it had failed to go green meant it was weak and that the squeeze was most likely done and that any reason for longs to sell would be taken. This is what I mean by having a thesis and understanding of what is going on. I shorted after it failed to go green and after it made nLODs I looked to add on any pops but didn't get filled due to the SSR. If the SSR wasn't on I would have added on the nLOD break instead but wanted to be cautious and only fill on pops due to the SSR. Even though I didn't get any adds, I had good patience with it and captured just over a $1 move on it. I covered after it looked like it had a washout candle on volume and was consolidating.

SIEN: I had this on watch due to it looking to be a known junker and any gap up would be a good opportunity to short. It played out exactly like NURO where it fell a little bit at the open and then stuffed everybody out of it and then fell. I did try to get filled when it stuffed but I was too slow with my entry on the suretrader website.

WTW: I saw this gap up and thought again that any gap up opportunity would be a good short and I was right but it was non-shortable so I took it off watch. I figured that most of the move was just a squeeze so the unwind can begin with any failed follow through.