perfect

I got out of BTJ at almost the exact low: $14.15

Well, actually, I kept 60 shares, but I sold the majority.

Always cut losses at 8%!!!!

CTRN out of the box

I know it's wrong that the 50day is below the 200, but I'm back in CTRN
at 35.00. Money is flowing from commodoties into other sectors, and I
think falling gas prices make retail one of those sectors. We'll see.

cramer on commodities

"But what you need to know, though, is that there is no bottom to a
commodities stock when the commodity peaks," he continued. "They will go
down and overcorrect to the point that none of you listening will be
able to take the pain of the decline."

Hrm, that does not bode well. Still, BTJ is holding the 50dma so far.

BTJ line in the sand

Well, this is it. BTJ is right up against the 50dma at 14.79. Low of
the day so far is 14.76. A close below this and I'm gonna have to get
out and admit to a 20% loss on this badboy.

another rule broken

After BTJ closed above 20, I was up 10%, but didn't put a stop in for
breakeven. I also didn't sell part of my holdings, which I thought
about, but greed said, "Hey, why sell now? It might go higher."

out of btu

I sold it Thurs at open as it didn't look like it was holding support.
It went on to lose almost another $1.

Lesson: don't buy if it's not at a proper buypoint

back with SIM

After yesterday's breakout, I have new faith in SIM. I bought some
today at 14, which is what it closed at yesterday. Another buck or two
and this will make the IBD 100 as well. I just have to weather the
pullback.

The bad thing about this is that I've now used most of my (diminished)
cash resources, leaving me helpless to buy other breakout stocks, unless
I dump something. Of course, the way BTU is performing, that won't be
long.

BTJ breakout

After making #3 on the IBD 100, BTJ came roaring out of the gates today
to make a new all time high and break through the resistance at $19.48.
After it did so, I put a limit order in to buy more at $19.55 while it was bouncing
off of $20. I came home to find that it was now at $20.49 and my order
had filled! Sweet.

It closed at $20.35.

out of IMKTA

After the selloff on Friday, I decided to exit this, so I sold at open.
Of course, it's up $0.89 on the day, but I don't feel bad. I did what I
should have done. It's not if it went up or down, but that I made the
right trade at the right time.

2006.09.01 update

Just a note for myself here. My acct balance as of right now is -15R.
Is that bad? Is it good? I dunno, but I can't change it by worrying,
so it just is. I cannot sit obsessing about the money, instead I should
concentrate on making good trades and the results will follow.

I might try and recap my trades from Aug, if I can define which ones
those are (ones starting in Aug, closing in Aug, open, closed, etc)

I had a losing trade on CTRN of 2R. That was big and dumb. Did not buy
at a proper buypoint. I tried to average down, but also got shaken out
before it recovered.

IGT I had a small loss of 0.15R from a proper buypoint.

SWN was a momentum play that turned bad. Lost 1R in 2 days. It was
not at a proper buypoint but a speculative Nat Gas play that didn't
work.

TRMB lost 0.5R off a proper buypoint and watched it go up 5% before
that. Should have maybe upped my stop to breakeven in this tough
market.

SIM lost 0.36R on a speculative play on a volatile stock. Bought right
below the resistance level of a new high and it bounced back down.

GE short lost 0.8R
PZZA short lost 0.5R
LEV short improper buypoint. Lost 0.9R

So I closed out 8 losing trades and no winners with a loss of 6.21R. At
the moment I wave 5 open longs: BTJ, BTU, FUEL, WEBX, IMKTA

bought BTU

I bought some BTU today. It looks like it may have bottomed around 43
and was on it's way back up. As it found resistance at 44, I put in a
limit order for a small buy at 43.80, which filled this afternoon.

I'm not sure this is a good buy or not. I heard about it on a new chat
channel I'm on and the fundamentals look good and the chart looked
indeed like a bottom. FWIW, Cramer likes it, too. So we'll see.

riding the BTJ wave

I started seeing buzz for this stock last week. I bought some at open
on Thursday for $17. Friday I started hearing buzz about how it would
make the IBD100 for the first time since it just climbed to over $15 and
then it would gap up on Monday. At that time I decided to buy more and
it was at 19, so I waited and it dipped to 18.8 right before closing at
19.

It made #14 on the ibd100, but over the weekend it lost $1.60 in AH
trading. I'm still not sure why. I guess all the people that bought it
were looking to take profits. It gapped down to open mid-17s and closed
at 17.02, but I didn't sell because I didn't want to break my rule about
intraday trading.

So now what? My stop was supposed to be 17.29, but I removed it
yesterday so I wouldn't get shaken out. I was going to put in an order
t sell at open so I wouldn't get burned, but some folks at Investor's
Paradise said that the fundamentals were still good and that a pullback
was to be expected. I decided to see what Tuesday would bring.

Today it opened even lower at 16.78 and fell to 16.52 at one point. But
it stayed around 17 for most of the morning. At one point it started
running up and I put a buy order in for more at 17.40 while it was in
the .50s and .60s. It fell back through that and filled and then was in
the 17.20s. Dangit. I wondered if I had some kind of deathwish. Plus
I had broken my averaging down rule. Then, I did the smartest thing I
could do: go take a nap.

I came back later and it was high 17s. Later on it was in the 18s and
finished with a strong close for a day's high of 18.75! My acct was
down 2.5R at open to up 3.4R at close. Phew!

I have definitely not done things right here, and once again being lucky
might lead to bad habits, so I'll have to try and be conscious of those.

My trading rules

I have amended some of these. The old rule is still there in red, the current one is 1a, 1b, etc.

1. Don't buy or sell anything during the day.
1a. Buy using limit orders after watching the opening range of the first 30mins or 1 hr after market open. Only buy if it's an up day for the market, and your stock is above the opening range.
2. Use a "mental stop" based on close prices. A tight physical stop will often
get shaken out during the day. A wider emergency stop might be a good
idea, though.
2a. Now when I buy, I put in a physical stop at 3 * ATR(14) below my buypoint.
3. My R is 1% (0.5% in a downtrend).
4. Don't go long during a downtrend.
5. Once you're up 10%, don't take a loss on that stock.
6. At 20% profit, sell half.
7. Stop shorting stuff until you can make money on longs.
8. NEVER AVERAGE DOWN
9. Only buy at a proper buypoint. Ones I will use are cup & handle, double bottom (with handle), 3 weeks tight, and bounce off the 50dma. All these should be accompanied with at least 50% greater than average volume on the breakout day.
10. Don't buy right before or after an earnings release.
11. If a stock does not break out the first day, sell half of it. You only want stocks that are going to go up immediately.
12. Only buy good-quality IBD stocks. They should be above the 50day, have a 50day above the 200day and trade more than 150k shares daily. And they should have a share price above $10.
13. Remember, there is always another stock.
14. Before you buy a stock, know where you want to get in, where you want to take profits, and where you will bail out.

climax tops will burn ya

My trading buddy bought SIM at 10.35 and watched it go up everyday all
last week. I thought it looked similar to ERS and IFO (now IFON) when
they topped and told him so. He had 20% profit on it last friday and
was wondering what to do. I suggested selling half. He declined.
Monday it went down for the first time in 8 days on what looked like a
lot of churning, and today the sellers swooped in. He got out at 10.79
and ended up with 4% profit instead of 20. It was brutal, 10% drop.

The lesson here is that if something's going straight up, you better be
careful with it. Don't be afraid to get out on the first sign of
weakness.

Also, I think you have to write yourself notes after something like this
happens to you. Or the next time you'll think, "ah, this is nothing.
Look how fast it's gone up 20%. It'll keep going." or "This might just
be a blip and then it will keep going and I don't want to miss it."

goodbye CTRN

Well, I got stopped out of CTRN today. I had left my stop at 29,
deciding that I would not ride that elevator down again. So I lost 7%,
which is not great, since I had too many shares. It ended up being a 2R
loss on one stock. Not cool, but it could have been worse.

phew

I've done something extremely stupid, once again: buying on the way
down. This time it's with CTRN. It was down, and I bought it at 34,
then at 31, and put in an order for 28. For a while, it's been basing
at around 30, and I thought well, my 3rd buy won't fill and it will go
back up and the biggest problem I'll have was that I didn't buy enough
(greed). Store sales #s for the month and quarter would be released
this week and earnings in 2 weeks, so I was still thinking this was a
good time to buy.

Then it slipped and closed in the 29s for a couple of days,
then dipped in the 28s and Tuesday closed in the 27s (with my buy
filling on the way down. Hrm, be careful what you wish for.

Yesterday it closed in the 26s and I realized that there was no longer
anything holding this ride up. But do I get out now? Do I buy more
lower? I still feel this is a good company with good future growth
(they're going from regional to national), but that doesn't matter to
stock prices. What if this thing sinks to below 20 and languishes
there? Do I want my capital tied up in something like that, hoping that
maybe one day it will climb 50% to what I paid for it?

Ugh. Well, I have been somewhat saved. They released sales #s after
close yesterday and they were good. Sales are up, but SSSs were down
from the period last year. Ruh roh. It seems like lately the market
looks for any little thing to get out (and also there's a lot of shorts
in this float).

This morning I put in a sell stop for all my CTRN shares at 26. But it
went up to 27. Then 27.5, then 28, so I moved my stop to 27. Then it
went to high 28s, so I moved my stop up to 28. It closed at 29.59.
Phew! My stop is now at 28.50.

What I should have done was watch it go down and wait for it to rebound,
then start buying some. As it goes higher, buy more. This was totally
backward and I must not congratulate myself or be so happy about it. I
don't want my brain to think of this as a positive experience and be
tempted to do it again. You would think I would have learned my lesson
with NWRE.

NOTE TO SELF: NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER AVERAGE DOWN!

deja vu

Well, I set my stop on SWN close alright--too close. I got stopped out
on a dip early on Aug 1, then the stock tookoff for $3. It's the age
old question of mental vs entered stops. If I want my stop for a
closing price to be 5% to cause me to exit, I should probably just enter
a stop for 10-15% as a safety net.

don't buy during the day

I just got swept up in the natural gas craze and jumped in and bought
SWN at $35.25, which will probably turn out to be the high for the day.
I also thought about doing a smaller volume test buy, then waiting for a
follow up, but though, "nah, it's up 7% on the day, that's enough of a
signal." I better set my stop close on this one.

do the sure things first

I planned to put in an order to buy FUEL at open. 15 mins before open,
I'm reviewing some charts and trying to decide which short play I'm
going to do. As I'm entering my short, I notice it's 8:30, so I put in
my buy limit order for FUEL, but it's already passed my limit. So then
I upped my limit and got it like 1% higher than I would have just doing
a pre-market order. Not a big deal, but it was a stupid mistake.

I think low volume counts

IBD is saying Wednesday didn't count as a distribution day because the
volume was low. Same thing they said earlier in the week. Their count
is 2 distribution days, but I say it's 4.

I have been scooping up CTRN after it's slide this week. Some at 34.85
and some at 31 today. Totally breaking all the rules, and it will
probably burn me, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.