Today was a problem-solving day.

Not because I had a problem with the market but because I had to solve a non-market problem that took all my concentration during market hours.  By the time I solved the problem, Holy Moly! there were only 20 minutes left before market close.

$AAPL opened higher and I knew I had to buy some.  The weekly chart show a Bullish Harami and any open higher than Friday close was a buy.  Take a look at the $AAPL weekly chart below.

The circle area is the Bullish Harami candlestick pattern. Today price action took out the high of last week bar so the probability of $AAPL bottoming is high. I bought a starter position and left it alone.  Later, when my attention came back to the market near the close, I added more $AAPL.

I also wanted to buy back my $SZYM I sold Friday.  I started to accumulate shares in the morning and then later in the day.  I bought back the size I wanted and is satisfied for the day.  Nevertheless, the spinning top candlestick chart formed today was not exactly an endearing pattern I wanted to see.  Let’s see if there is a confirmation for a top tomorrow.  Spinning top needs to be confirmed with down days afterward to considered a top.

$GLUU gapped up but price began to fall during the morning time.  At price got close to the half-way point of Friday bar, I sold to lock in profit.  Later, I went back in for a bounce but it was for naught since I was stopped out for small losses from re-entry point.

$RBCN was heading back up in the morning so I added.  Seeing that price was doing well in the morning, I placed a stop at breakeven not expecting it to be hit.  No!  Price had a bad hiccup and went straight down pretty fast and took out my stop and I didn’t even know I was stopped out until half-hour later since I wasn’t paying attention to it.  Oh well.  Seeing such volatility, I opted to stay away from $RBCN for now.

$BCRX was acting like it wanted to go up so I bought more.  I added more later to bring it to the position size I wanted.  Prices action went up later so I’m fine for now.

$MELA was having some correction today but I decided to keep my shares since price action hasn’t broken thru the $1.27 support line.  $MELA is reporting tomorrow; therefore, I’m basically holding this one thru earnings.

$CERS was showing strength in the morning so I decided to buy a small starter position so I don’t forget it.

Not much going on today since I didn’t have much time to stay with the market.

Current holdings:

AMRN, LRAD, SZYM, TINY, AAPL, MELA, BCRX, CERS and 32% cash.

My 2 cents.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was a hit and miss session.

Market opened in a yoyo fashion around the neutral point but that was not my focus in the morning.

I was watching $MELA because I came upon this stock and the chart looked ripe for a breakout thesis.  Price opened higher but I still wanted it so I bought at the open and continued to buy at price climbed.  I finished buying the position size I wanted and left it alone.  As of now, I’m a little bit under water due to its closing.  Nevertheless, I’m willing to give this a bit more time before deciding that the breakout is a fake.  It is still too early to tell since $MELA was up 6.45% for the day even though I had to pay premium to buy it.

$AAPL was looking strong at open so I decided to buy some for a daytrade.  I did not post my entry and exit at twitter since I don’t want to cluster my twitter account with daytrading activities.  Nevertheless, I got stopped out for a profit and missed the rest of the rally later in the day.  That was fine since I made it a point to stop the daytrading activities once I filled my quota for the day; otherwise, it it so easy to give your daytrading profit back when you over-trade.

Next, I saw the negative opening range on $PPC and $YGE and decided to sell them for small losses.  Dumping $PPC was the correct move but not $YGE since price turned around and ended up positive for the day.  But then, it is always so easy to judge yourself with hindsight information.  There are still time for me to get back in $YGE if next week provides a supportive market condition.

$RBCN was taking heat on the get go and I sold some shares to lock in profit.  Later, when prices tanked further down to the low  $7.3x area, I bought back shares for the bounce.

$DNN was having problem coming back to the surface for air so I dumped it to take my losses.

$SZYM opened up and I was elated; but it was short-lived.  Prices started to tank back down and I sold my shares along the way to protect the profit I made yesterday.  By the end of the day, I bought back 10% of what I came in from yesterday and price was actually closed up for the day.  Do I wish I sit on my hand on this one?  Yes!  Again, it is hindsight talking.  I’m fine with what I’ve and the profit I’ve locked in before the weekend.  I will evaluate my option again come Monday; perhaps, i can buy them back cheaper, or not.

Something told me to buy some more $BCRX and I did.

$GLUU made me a happy man today because prices finally rallied per my intuition.  The premium I paid to buy back yesterday after I sold was worth it after all.

$AMRN also made me happy because I didn’t have to dump my swing trades I added this week.  In fact, I like to keep my swing trades as part of the core position.  This can only happen if price do not trade back down below my swing trade entry point.  I will like to see a V shape correction on $AMRN here.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting on 42% cash to prepare for a possible bad May.

Current holdings:

ARMN, LRAD, TINY, MELA, GLUU, RBCN, BCRX, SZYM and 42% cash.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was a sit on your hand day.

Market opened up and my focus was immediately on $GLUU since $ZNGA gapped down from earnings report.  After a few minutes, I decided to sell $GLUU for losses in case price decided to do a waterfall style and I didn’t want to tie up my focus on $GLUU when I should be looking at other stocks.  Later, when $GLUU started to climb back up, I decided to jump back in and paid a premium for it.  Oh well, if $GLUU could take off from here, the premium I paid now would be a small token.

Since there were so many talk about solar stocks coming back into the limelight, I decided to look at $YGE which was an alert from RaginCajun.  I also traded $YGE long time ago so it was natural for me to pick $YGE as the solar play.  Chart looked good and I bought a starter position.

$BCRX was taking heat all day due to failure to foll0w-thru with yesterday big momentum day.  By the last hour of the trading day, I decided to reduce the position size to adjust my risk profile and to cut losses.

Seeing I was sitting on a very nice gain on $SZYM, I was getting a little concern about a late profit-taking coming later to erase my gain.  So I decided to take some profit first and see what happened later.  What happened later was that instead of profit-taking, there were more buyers coming in to rally the price further.  Seeing that I was wrong, I immediately jumped back in and bought back the shares I sold earlier.  And at price continued to rally toward the close, I bought some more.  Now I’m holding more shares than this morning before open.  Yes, I paid a premium to buy the shares back.  That is the price I’ve to pay for playing safe.

Seeing $RBCN gunning for a late run into the close, I added more shares.   I like to hear the squeaking sound from the shorts…

The charts on $CHK and $WPRT were doing a downside reversal later in the day and I decided I didn’t want to waste time managing these two stocks anymore; therefore, i sold $CHK at breakeven and $WPRT for a small gain.

I need to learn how to sit on my hands more so that I don’t have to pay premium to buy back stocks like $GLUU and $SZYM.  But my internal urge for safety can be very overwhelming sometimes.

Oh, btw, $AMRN did not take out yesterday low, so I’m content to continue to hold on to my swing trade position I added yesterday.

Current holdings:

AMRN, LRAD, SZYM, TINY, RBCN, GLUU, DNN, BCRX, PPC, YGE and 27% cash.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was a happy shopping day.

Market opened positive but slid into yoyo action b/w positive and negative during the first few hours.

Meanwhile, my first order of business was to watch $AAPL.  I had my position that turned from a healthy profit after earnings announcement into a loss before market open this morning.  Instead of dumping at market open which is my usual MO, I decided to wait and find a point to put my stop loss below overnight or intraday low.  Lo and behold, $AAPL took off after a few hiccups and I immediately moved my trailing stop along so as to protect myself from any sudden downside reaction.  Luckily, price continued upward and I used the 3min chart to guide me on the trailing stop.  By the time I was stopped out, not only did I not have to take a loss but ended the day taking home a decent profit.  Afterward, I left $AAPL alone because this stock still has issues for people to deal with.

$AMRN was my other stock I was keeping a close look because I bought add’l shares for my swing trade yesteraday and I didn’t want it to exacerbate my current drawdown.  Unfortunately for me, prices continued to head south so I dumped my swing trade position plus some that would reduce my core position by 30%.  I then watched $AMRN to settle down on the falling prices.  When it looked like it was about to bounce, I pounced back in.  I bought back my 30% and later on added more at price seemed to stabilize.  Yes, there are shares that are meant to be swing trades in the portfolio.

I moved my stop on $GLUU to breakeven since price took out half-way point of yesterday bar.  I was stopped out.  Later, when prices looked bouncy, I bought back half the shares.  Near the end of day, prices were showing strength so I bought back the other half I sold earlier plus some.  I added more because today recovery strengthened yesterday breakout pattern.

While watching $AAPL and $AMRN in the early morning hours, I also paid attention to $BCRX.  Although price action had not taking off at the time I was watching it, I sensed the underlying energy behind $BCRX and I just had to buy it.  Without hesitation, I bought some and when prices started to move, I added more.  I kept on adding until I got to the position size I wanted to be in.  I didn’t hesitate because the chart looked mighty good on the symmetrical triangle breakout.

Meanwhile, I was happy to see $SZYM price action staying above the $8 price support.  As price continued to struggle b/w $8.08 and $8, I continued to watch.  The next time price get near the $8.08 again, I added to my $SZYM position.  Price did not start the strong rally then but I l was too occupied with other stocks that I left it alone.  Lo and behold, $SZYM turned out later to be one of the strongest stock to rack up a nice percentage gain (the other two are $BCRX and $RBCN).  I was glad to add $SZYM.

I saw $CHK chart and price action broke out of the downtrend line so I bought a starter position.

Later, I also bought $WPRT to complement my purchase of $CHK.

Seeing $CCJ had a strong rally, I decided to buy $DNN instead since it has a tendency to run faster than $CCJ.

I saw The FLY post on $RBCN and decided to look at the chart.  I like what I saw and bought a starter position.  Later on, seeing that prices weren’t retracing much, I decided to add more instead of waiting around for a cheaper price.

Vertigo alerted me again on $PPC and after watching it a bit, I decided to buy a starter position.  The size is smaller than the first time I bought not too long ago.  I wanted to see if there is any follow thru before adding more.

All in all, today is a good day for my portfolio with $SZYM and $BCRX gaining a lot of ground for me.  Because I got in late on $RBCN, I will have to wait for follow-thru price action to rack up gain.  I’m satisfied with my new $AMRN position size and look forward for price action to bottom out from here so I don’t have to pare down my position size on $AMRN to get rid of the swing trade.

Current holdings:

AMRN  LRAD, SZYM, TINY, RBCN, GLUU, BCRX, CHK, WPRT, DNN, PPC and 25% cash.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was an $AAPL day.

I was not able to sit down and watch the market today so I really didn’t do much except to add $SZYM so that my position is now back to original size.

I was stopped out on my $AMRN swing trade which I later jumped back on for the bounce.  By end of day, my re-entry on the swing trade is at breakeven point.  I will see how price action behave tomorrow before deciding to scrap or keep it.

I was also stopped out of my $FB during the day.

$GLUU finally made its move today and I felt good since it was my pick for an aggressive bounce play yesterday.  I like to see $GLUU takes out the high of 03/18/2013 and go from there.  That will be my next target.

As I’m typing this post, $AAPL halt is lifted and price action was trading $18 higher.  Sweet!  I believe we may have found the bottom of $AAPL which will be last Friday low.  Now, let’s see if I can sit on my $AAPL share for a longer term hold.

Current holdings:

AMRN, LRAD, SZYM, TINY, AAPL, GLUU and 42% cash.

My 2 cents.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

 

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Today was peek-a-boo bull.

Market opened up and proceeded to head lower from there.  For about an hour after open, $SPY continued to head lower and to avoid being trapped into a waterfall down day, I started to liquidate most of my swing trade position.

First thing I did was to sell my $BCRX for small losses.  Price action was defensive from the get go and it was time to let it go.

$PACB, $CERS and $APRI were also not holding well and I dumped them quickly for small losses.

$SZYM was also under pressure.  I started to unload this one by chunk and before I knew it, I sold the whole thing in the morning.  My past experience with $SZYM was that this stock would drop like a rock rather quickly if I overstayed.  However, later in the day, $SZYM began to climb back up.  When I came back to look at the chart, I immediately bought back some shares.  And when prices continued to head higher, I bought back some more to bring it back to 70% of my original position.  Yes, I paid a premium to buy them back.

My current observation in $SZYM is that it is no longer following the old path it has taken.  Down day is now bouncing back up quickly before day is over.  I believe there are more buyers watching this stock now.  I need to evaluate if I should change my strategy on $SZYM to cut down the “quick sales” and give it more room to breathe.  My action today cost me some profit opportunity due to not holding my original position intact; but then this is hindsight talking.  Nevertheless, new information has been provided so I will take that into consideration.

I elected to move $FB stop to breakeven instead of jumping the gun to take profit and I’m glad I did.  As of now, I’m still in and has not been stopped out yet.

Unlike $FB,  I decided to take my tiny losses when $AAPL climbed back up  near my entry point this morning when I saw the over-bought signals on the momentum indicators.  Later on, I went back with a close stop and got stopped out in no time.  About five hours after open, $AAPL prices began to find support on the 89xma.  I decided to buy back in and wait.  I was not stopped out by day close even though price action gave back some territory in the last 15 minutes.  It’s all come down to earning announcement after tomorrow market close to confirm if we are seeing a bottom on $AAPL.

I saw the chart on $GLUU and I felt a calm sense that this one might be ready to bounce.  Just because I senses something doesn’t mean anything or that the price has to go up.   All it means is that there is not a lot of hesitation in me to buy this stock.  I just bought it after glancing it for a few minutes.  Currently, I’m under water for small paper losses.  I’ll see what price action will do tomorrow before deciding my future action on this one.

Current holdings:

AMRN, LRAD, TINY, AAPL, SZYM, FB, GLUU and 40% cash.

My 2 cents.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was like a drop of sunshine on my face.

The morning open was quite intriguing.  Dow Jones was down but the SP500-emini was up.  It was very rare to have DOW and the SP500 diverted away from each other.  Upon looking at the DJ30 watchlist, $IBM, $GE, & $HPQ were the culprits.  It was almost comical to watch how the SP500 and the DJ30 dueled with each other all day trying to get a upper hand.  At the end, the SP500 won over by dragging the DJ30 back into positive area.

Well, believe it or not, I bought additional shares of $AMRN today as a swing trade with a stop below yesterday low.  Now, some of you may say, “Hey, what happen to your ‘NEVER AVERAGE DOWN’ swan song you’ve been preaching all this times?”

Now, now… I’m not averaging down with no stop in sight for these new shares I’ve bought today.  I bought these shares with the expressed intention to dump it if my stop below yesterday low was hit.  In other words, while my core position shares have no stop (my loss of original investment is my worst case stop); these new shares don’t share the same flexibility.  However, if $AMRN continues to climb from here, I’ll eventually move my stop for these new shares to the breakeven point using a GTC (good till cancel) stop.  If prices continues on without hitting my breakeven stop, I’ll be riding $AMRN back up with more shares than original.

Now, isn’t it a swell plan?  I’ve this conditional average down scenario that will benefit me if $AMRN bottoms here; on the other hand, if $AMRN continues to head south even more, I’ll be back to my original shares with a swing trade losses which is no difference than a losses from another swing trade of another stock.

$PACB opened and headed higher right out of the gate, I immediately jumped in and bought back shares.  Let’s see if I can get a V-shape bounce from here starting next week.  By end of day, I’m in the money on this one.

$CERS offered the same opening pattern of $PACB and I jumped in as well.  I was well into the money until the last hour dumping put me back into a precarious position.  I immediately sold half of my position  and is now taking a small paper loss on the book.

$FB acted positively in the morning and I bought starter position.  $FB’s yesterday low was near the support established by the low of 02/28. Therefore with today positive opening, I didn’t hesitate to jump in. Later on I moved my stop to breakeven and was stopped out. And when the bounce came after I sold, I bought back in again.

$BCRX was refusing to tank so I bought back in a starter position.  However, toward the end of the day, price began to weaken so I sold half of the position I bought to minimize exposure.

$SZYM was actually quite volatile today despite being an up day.  After the gap-open.I waited for the retracement before I started adding.   Later on, $SZYM began a slow climb up and was looking strong all day until the tail end when it gave back half of the day gain back.  Seeing how much this stock wanted to go back up, I decided to hold on to what I added today.  After all, it was still an up day today.

As I scrolled through my watchlist, I found $AAPL to be enticing because of the three technical signals I saw. See here. I decided to buy a starter position and placed a GTC stop order below today low.  My stop wasn’t hit today but I am in the red currently.  Since this is meant to be a “bottom catcher” play.  I’m willing to risk the amount where the stop is.  If $AAPL wakes up next week, I’ll be fine; if not, I will take the loss.

Current holdings:

AMRN, LRAD, SZYM, TINY, AAPL, FB, PACB, CERS, BCRX, APRI and 34% cash.

Have a great weekend!

My 2 cents.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was a sell to close only and no buying.

Market opened almost neutral.  A little tug or war here and there and then BOOM! price began to tank.

I saw $BCRX playing defensive right at the opening gate and I was going, “Wait a minute! Ain’t you supposed to gap up because of the dire news on possible human-to-human transmission?”  No, the prices was having trouble keeping up on the high $1.9x area so I figured the situation in China might actually be better.  Without further thinking, I started selling $BCRX by chunks and eventually sold down to 80% of the original position for a small losses.  As time wore on and price didn’t seem to come back up, I sold the other 20% and called this gamble a breakeven.

Maybe, just maybe, $BCRX will gap up tomorrow without me.  What?  You think like this too?  Hmm, this is  a very common follow-up thought for a lot of people who have made up their mind to cut losses.  The way I see it, if thinking like this help you to cut losses, why not?  Half of the time when prices take a dumper after we’ve sold, we secretly pat ourselves on the back to congratulate ourselves on a job well-done.  And the other half-of-the-time, we simply say, “I knew it!”  There is nothing like proving yourself “right”, eh?

$APRI began to drop off and I immediately took action to sell as well.  Following $APRI, I sold $CERS as well.  Took small losses on both.

With general market continued to head south, I decided to reduce further my $SZYM investment as well.

After raising cash to 60% level.  I called it a day and stopped watching the market.  I don’t want to short because we may have a bounce next week due to 4/5/2013 support.  And I don’t want to buy because I don’t know if the 04/05 support will hold.  This leave me with a very comfortable cash position to wait it out.  Let’s see what happen tomorrow.

I did not take a very active approach to the market or my contribution to ibankcoin this week due to my catching a flu earlier in the week; if some of you are thinking I’m running out of gas, not quite yet!

My 2 cents.

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Today was a two slaps on the face and a kick on my groin.

Market opened down and that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day.  The bullish harami became the bearish harami and transformed into three inside down candlestick pattern.  A very bearish forecast and one not to be brushed away easily.

Seeing that I still had too much $PACB, I sold half to reduce risk.  Later on, when prices continued south, I sold the rest just to get my peace of mind.

Early in the morning, I got carry-away with the $FB runner and bought a starter position for taking out previous day high.  Like a sucker falling for the cheap trick, I realized this run was fake and immediately dumped it for small losses.  Note to self- when you are in a general market down day, don’t buy anything no matter how tempting it is.  Good thing I dumped it quick for the waterfall price action took place right after the day top was made.

Later on, I reduced my position size on $SZYM to reduce risk and locked in profit from prior entry.

$BCRX spiked up by last hour before market close due to news that this bird flu may involve human-to-human transmission.  This is grave news and I wish that $BCRX’s peramivir can work effectively against this H7N9 strain.  Naturally, I added more $BCRX.

Meanwhile, I’m getting kicked on the groin for my position trades on $AMRN and $LRAD.  These two alone provided quite a bit of damage to my portfolio.  Nevertheless, these two may also be the ones that will make my portfolio shines in the future.  The Stock God is seeing to it that I suffer dutifully before being rewarded.  This is how it always work.  No one getting anything for free or without suffering.  Because I haven’t averaged down, my suffering is manageable.

That is for the day.

Current holdings:

AMRN, LRAD, TINY, SZYM, BCRX, APRI, CERS & 49% cash.

My 2 cents.

@tradingmy2cents

The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter

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Today was a volatile and yet sleepy day for me.

Market opened positive so I bought $FB, $DDD, and $CERS at the open.

Unfortunately, $FB could not hold on to its price gap up and started a waterfall price drop instead.  It triggered my stop and I was out with a small losses.

$DDD took a little longer but I was stopped out eventually.

These two stops being activated in the morning on my buys gave me the idea that price action would be volatile today.

I started to build back my position on $CERS and $APRI and was buying them back bits by bits since the volumes were low.

Afterward, I just left the market alone because despite its roaring up day, the volatility of the stocks I was watching was all over the places; therefore, I pretty much decided today was a rest day for me.

I guess there wasn’t much to report today.

Current holdings:

LRAD, AMRN, SZYM, TINY, PACB, BCRX, CERS, APRI and 46% cash.

My 2 cents.

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