2/25 Portfolio Update

Crazy day from the trading day… made a few great trades and made a few not-so-great…
First, the not-so-great:

• I took a chance on FIG yesterday and took a small position into the close.  This goes against my rules because this morning they reported earnings – they weren’t that bad, but the street didn’t like them, so I got stopped out for a small loss.
• I also bought VG on news this morning at horizontal resistance.  Bad play… I should have waited for breakout confirmation first.  The good news is that I sold pretty quickly on the failed move for a small loss.

Now, the good news:

• DPTR and KFN both had strong days. Still holding these swings into Friday.
• I also picked up some HL at 4.92 and am holding it into close at 5.18 – great day for gold.
• Late day pickup of RNN – flat here. We’ll see how it goes.

Tags: DPTR, FIG, HL, KFN, RNN, VG

2/24 Portfolio Update

I had a hard time getting the momentum going today.  I did make a few scalps in PSID – made $800 .

Here is the rest of today’s activity:

YRCW scalp 7% gain

CVM scalp – lost 1.8%

HLCS – flat swing.
Holding FIG, KFN, DPTR over night.

Tags: CVM, DPTR, FIG, HLCS, KFN, PSID, YRCW

Portfolio Update

As usual, I had limited time to play last week, but here is how the week ended up..

• Sold $FIG for 6% gain
• Exited $XOMA for wash.. didn’t gain or lose a thing.
• Exited remainder of $MENT for 4.5% gain
• Exited remainder of $CTIC for 4% gain

Overall, my sells didn’t bring me massive returns considering the great volatility throughout the week. Oh, well.

New positions

Against my better judgment, I took some positions Friday and held over the weekend – I have no idea why  – it is  a trading no-no for me…  Oh, we’ll. We’ll see how it plays out.

• $AMAT – Long at 12.59 – large position
• $HGSI- Short at 3.47 – large position
• $RAD – Long at 1.27 (MA50 support holding, I hope) – small position
• $FEED – Long 5.7.  Will not likely hold if it falls much under MA50 – small position

Tags: AMAT, CTIC, FEED, FIG, HGSI, MENT, RAD, XOMA

Sitting on the Sidelines

As an optimistic swing/day trader, I tend to look for technical setups that are ready to move to the upside.  So, on days like this, I sit on the sidelines and watch. I learned a long time ago (and still get hurt by it on occasion) to not chase stocks when the majority of the market is down.  It’s tough to sit, I know.

On that note, let’s see what’s going on.. first, from my Watch List… I doubt we’ll see much, but maybe there are a few stocks still setup that are worth watching IF we rebound back up.

(more…)

Tags: ALD, BZH, CAEI, CI, CPBY, DCT, DNN, EGT, EROC, FIG, HOV, KFN, LINTA, MRVC, NOVL, SNV, SQNM

Bad News Bears

The market gave back today as investors continue to worry about how soon a recession recovery will occur. I had a feeling we would see this today (see the daily scan) and as a result, most of my setups did not play out – unless you were looking for shorts.

In the very wide macro view, both the S&P 500 and the DOW finished sitting on MA20. The DOW actually fell below MA200.  More bad news?  Full Sto looks topped out and headed down like a rock off a cliff.

The good news?  The volume wasn’t crazy high (wasn’t a massive selloff).

Overall, it is a bearish picture and the DOW looks less likely to hold support (hope I’m wrong).

From the Watch List:

As someone that looks for bullish breakouts, I pretty much found nothing that worked from the Watch List. However, here are a few that managed to hold support and still have a chance to move if the market recovers tomorrow..

• $CPBY – doesn’t look great, but volume could snap this one back up.  Risky at these levels.
• $EGT – still within consolidation range, but has lost some of its bullish qualities.  I still don’t like it under .225
• $FIG held on to MA200.. barely. chart
• $ALD actually finished up from the open.. not bad on a day like this. Full Sto still bullish.

That’s about it.  A closer look at the Watch List shows a really rough day all the way around with most losing their bullish setups.  I’ll keep an eye on these tomorrow for possible rebounds, but I’m not holding my breath. I’ll screen for more setups later this evening.

Tags: ALD, CPBY, EGT, FIG