Another losing day

0

Today was another losing day. I don't mind such losing day's, as long as I am able to avoid disasters like on Monday. While I avoided whipsaws with the wide Stop Losses, I also missed the risky twist and turns that I could have caught otherwise.

Safety first. Avoid whipsaws. Be the hunted.

Day Trading Price Action Chart

>>> My live tweets of the day's trades <<<

Read Full Post »

Got shaken out of the Opening Range Breakout trade

0

Today, I logged in early again in an attempt to replicate my success with Opening Range Breakout yesterday. I found the opening move in State Bank Of India to be impressive, and went short with it. But my Initial Stop Loss was tight and got hit. I had wanted to keep a Stop-and-Reverse to long at that point, but did not have sufficient margin. Such potential early morning whipsaws are the reason why I was logging in late prior to yesterday.

Anyway, if I had stayed on with State Bank Of India, I would have ridden the second breakdown successfully, but that was not to be.

I was already into Hindalco. My 2 trades in Hindalco did not give me much.

After that, I was back to State Bank Of India. I thought that my late short in State Bank would help me get into profits, but that was not to be. Actually, I was in profit in that trade, but the wide Trailing Stop Loss required by the One Good Trade rule, prevented locking any profits in it.

Day Trading Price Action SBIN

Day Trading Price Action HINDALCO

>>> My live tweets of today's trades <<<

 

Read Full Post »

More lessons about Initial Stop Losses

0

I started experimenting with small Initial Stop Losses yesterday. Today, I continued the experiment. The experiment has given me very bad results on both days. Is the market trying to tell me something?

Though the impact of today's misfortune with the small Initial Stop Loss in HINDALCO was much greater, I don't feel as bad about it as the small Initial Stop Loss exit in ICICIBANK yesterday. Something quirky - I don't know why. If I had been able to stick with that HINDALCO long, it would have been perhaps my best trading day this month. But I have still not decided whether to end this experiment with the Initial Stop Loss positioning. The perpetual dilemma about Stop Loss positioning continues....

2 losses in HINDALCO, followed by 3 losses in SBIN. Finally, one good trade in ICICIBANK, but overall a very bad day trading day.

That's trading. You win some, you lose some. You pick yourself up and then move on.... Right!!?

Day Trading Price Action HINDALCO

Day Trading Price Action SBIN

Day Trading Price Action ICICIBANK

>>> My live tweets of today's trades <<<

Read Full Post »

Need to focus on the Initial Stop Loss

0

Got back to trading after a break on Monday. Was a decent day today.

Traded two scrips - SBIN and TATAMOTORS - and managed to be in-the-money on both.

Started the day with 2 trades in Tata Motors. Scratched both those trades, though there was some profit in both. After that, I thought that Tata Motors might range, and decided to wait for either a Break Out or Break Out Failure at Range Extremes. However, in the meantime, I entered short in State Bank Of India, and so missed the fall in Tata Motors.

While Tata Motors fell, I was locked in my Short position in State Bank Of India, which did not move for quite sometime. But finally, it did fall, and I locked in some profit and reversed to long. I am experimenting with keeping the Initial Stop Loss small - sometimes smaller than what the One Good Trade rule would demand. More whipsaws are expected with smaller Stop Losses, and that is what happened to my long trade in State Bank Of India.

The final trade was a Long in Tata Motors above a congestion. That did not move much.

The whole of last week, I had been focusing on Trailing Stop Losses, and the result was the One Good Trade rule. While that rule has not yet caught any super duper trade for me, it has reduced the number of whipsaws and improved my performance.

Now, I am thinking about ways to reduce the Initial Stop Loss. If a wide Initial Stop Loss is hit, it takes away a considerable part of my profits every time, and I don't like that. Now what should I do about it?

Day Trading Price Action TATAMOTORS

Day Trading Price Action SBIN

>>> My live tweets of today's trades <<<

Read Full Post »

The long wait for the One Good Trade

0

Since I added the One Good Trade rule to my trading, it has been all about waiting for that One Good Trade, which may not even materialize. Yesterday and today, the day started off with losses, and the rest of the day was spent in waiting for the One Good Trade that did not materialize.

It is still early days to judge the rule, but so far, it has behaved reasonably. A very big factor in the results has been luck/fate/kismet - from choosing the scrip that would move on that day (SBIN was good pick today), to being able to get a fill on the order.

Today was another single scrip day for me. It started of with the bad whipsaw of 2 losses. The SAR that caused the whipsaw was particularly jarring, because the tick on which the reversal took place did not even show up on the chart. That's unfortunate, but sort of balances off against my fortune yesterday when the second trade survived by just one tick. See what I mean by luck/fate/kismet?

Even then, there was particular SAR point that I was eyeing after 12:30 PM, that could have turned this into a big profit day. But I was waiting for a retest of the immediate preceding Pivot High. That did not happen.

I will not be trading on Monday. I should be back on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Day Trading Price Action SBIN

>>> My live tweets of today's trades <<<

Read Full Post »

Minor Loss in Today's Trading

0

As the day started, I was undecided on where to take a trade. I had to choose between SBIN, ICICIBANK, VEDL and TATASTEEL.

First, I attempted a short in SBIN on break of the Opening Range Low. When that did not happen, I shifted focus to ICICIBANK. In hindsight, the right choice would have been VEDL, which kept falling through the day.

If instead to SBIN, I had started off with ICICI, I would have gone long on the break of the Opening Range High, and avoided the losing Short trade. Also, I think that the Stop Loss on that fist Short trade was a wide, but I had to keep it there at the Day's High due of the "One Good Trade" rule. Ended with a loss, though there were opportunities to lock in a profit in subsequent trades.

Day Trading Price Action ICICIBANK

Day Trading Price Action SBIN

>>> My live tweets of today's trades <<<

Read Full Post »

Rolodex Trading

0

I am not used to trading Stock Futures. Over the years, I have been focused on on trading NIFTY Futures and Options. Rarely, do I trade Stocks or Commodities.

Today, I did not even once check the Nifty Chart. I had my watchlist of Stock Futures. I wanted to focus only on one scrip at a time. So, it turned out to be a kind of rolodex, where I traded each Stock Future in turn.

JUBLFOOD (Jubilant Foodworks)

Was in a bit of a hurry to get on with today's trades. Bad decision (in hindsight). After a whipsaw, managed to pull in some profit with my 4th trade. Then, I thought that Jindal Steel was interesting and shifted focus.

Day Trading Price Action JUBLFOOD

TATASTEEL (Tata Steel)

There was a mismatch between the price in my data feed and the price on my trading terminal. In the confusion, I had to let go a short that was probably a good opportunity. I did not chase that short and shifted back to Jubilant Foods.

Day Trading Price Action TATASTEEL

JINDALSTEL (Jindal Steel & Power)

There was this news about increased steel production and sales by Jindal Steel. I thought that the news was bullish. But when the stock did not react, I was tempted to go short.

Day Trading Price Action JINDALSTEL

ICICIBANK (ICICI Bank)

Caught a very small part of the breakout.

Day Trading Price Action ICICIBANK

SBIN (State Bank Of India)

This one gave me a grand whipsaw, and I could not recover from it.

Day Trading Price Action SBIN

>>> My live tweets of today's trades <<<

Read Full Post »