Date: 4/9/07
Symbol: DD
Entry: 49.84 (Stop Loss 48.19, Target 51.50)
Exit 48.78
Grade: F!
Okay, so this was my first trade, and everything that could go wrong went wrong:
1) I wanted to buy at around 48.75, however the market gapped up monday morning on rumors of a DOW buyout. I bought anyways, thinking this was the move that I was about to see. Bad move...
2) Big big mistake, was damn fidelity set ATP to use margin on all my new buys after I setup margin. So accidently I bought this using margin. That won't happen again, it was a simple change in the software to make CASH the default.
3) Entry was made because of MACD price divergence, buying value below 20 day EMA. DD had been in a rather tight MA channel (probably too tight).
End result: I sell out early to get it off margin, after it didn't move the direction I wanted. It did hit a high a few days later of 51.41, which would have just missed my target, and now it has swung back to the down side.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
To Trade or Invest
Wow, I just read the last post I did back in January. Shortly after that post, I realized truly how little I knew just a few short months ago. I've hit the books quite hard in the last few months and have come a long way, but I still have a long way to go.
I am starting to formulate a strategy. I am definetly a trader and not an investor. I am confident I have the discipline and technical skills to trade. I much prefer the idea of being in and out of stocks on a more regular basis rather than looking to hold securities long-term. I may just be thinking this now because I just finished an excellent book by Alexander Elder on trading... I may turn out to be a horrible trader, but I'm willing to take that risk now and find out.
By no means am I planning on becoming a day trader. I am looking at the daily (and weekly) charts for trends for good entry and exit points. I haven't actually placed my first trade yet (as a trader as opposed to an investor), but hopefully I will come back to the blog to share my success (and not my failure).
Since I have discovered MACD, I've been slowly adding to my arsenal of technical indicators. I have picked some indicators that work for me, and I'm ready to use those to look for trends and buy and sell signals. I am not abandoning fundamental analysis by any means. I am a strong believer that there is a place for technical analysis and fundamentals for all investors and traders.
Most importantly, I'm ready to get disciplined. Tracking my trades, and using the 2% and 6% rules Elder outlines to manage my money. So here I go, Hopefully I will be publishing some trades in the near future.
I am starting to formulate a strategy. I am definetly a trader and not an investor. I am confident I have the discipline and technical skills to trade. I much prefer the idea of being in and out of stocks on a more regular basis rather than looking to hold securities long-term. I may just be thinking this now because I just finished an excellent book by Alexander Elder on trading... I may turn out to be a horrible trader, but I'm willing to take that risk now and find out.
By no means am I planning on becoming a day trader. I am looking at the daily (and weekly) charts for trends for good entry and exit points. I haven't actually placed my first trade yet (as a trader as opposed to an investor), but hopefully I will come back to the blog to share my success (and not my failure).
Since I have discovered MACD, I've been slowly adding to my arsenal of technical indicators. I have picked some indicators that work for me, and I'm ready to use those to look for trends and buy and sell signals. I am not abandoning fundamental analysis by any means. I am a strong believer that there is a place for technical analysis and fundamentals for all investors and traders.
Most importantly, I'm ready to get disciplined. Tracking my trades, and using the 2% and 6% rules Elder outlines to manage my money. So here I go, Hopefully I will be publishing some trades in the near future.
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