Swing Trades

Today I framed three possible trade targets: BMY, TSLA, and MRCY. I was filled on two of the three. After a nice short trade in BMY, I am short again:

Also short MRCY:

Four swing trades closed today.
GRUB had a nice large pop yesterday that finally gave me confidence to move my stop up to NLD2 (No lose plus dinner for two). I had been patient with the trade, but the new stop got hit today. Net: +.22R

One other winner got closed out today, MRK. This was a breakout play from a pinch condition. I started moving the stop up after price made it to the +3 Bollinger Band and sold off yesterday. Final result: +1R.

Two trades closed at losses today. I believe I should have exited these sooner. The market has been in a sideways state recently, so I let my patience keep me in these trades that were either not going strongly my way or working their way against me. Short THC closed at -.8R and Long NKE closed for -.57R.

For the day, I have 2 less swing positions open, so a total of 24 positions currently at +22.2R.

Long: GDX, V, KO, CVX, XLE, ABX, AEM, CBRE, ESPR, GLD, MSFT, CSCO, DVN, EOG, PXD, SLB, USCI, QCOM, LMT.
Short: HSY, NYT, BMY, MRCY.

Day Trades

I was once again able to watch the market for the first 60-90 minutes and made 15 day trades. Net result was +1.88R. There were several order entry mistakes that got me into positions in places I was not planning on entering.

I primarily use the BookTrader at Interactive Brokers for the Dow Mini Futures when I day trade. My preference is to have the order transmitted as soon as I click on the appropriate spot. I’ve gotten stuck in the past when IB asks for confirmation, so this morning I went to put an order in ahead of time so that I could make it through the IB prompts before I wanted to be in the market. Unfortunately, I entered a Stop order instead of a Limit order, so it filled immediately. While I could have chosen to exit as soon as it filled, I decided to stick with the position and worked my way out of it. This did however shift my emotional state, and I ended up making 2-3 more order entry mistakes again as I either clicked on buy when I meant to sell, or submitted a stop order instead of a limit. Today was a sideways quiet sort of day, so I was able to work my way out of some of these mishaps, but I also stuck around too long and gave back gains that I could have had in hand.

Not my best day trading, but I’ll pat myself on the back for staying collected while fixing problems.