I found a nice BOB setup in California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) this morning and decisively pulled the trigger. Then it immediately went to sleep on me.I bought as soon as the 10:30 bar printed at $33.25. It rose about a nickel or so and then sat there for hours on end. I tightened my stop to break even early in the afternoon and waited for something to happen. It never did and I was stopped out in the 3:30 bar at $33.257. That fraction of a penny gain covered a nice portion of my commission on the trade.On a far more interesting note, I am a big fan of CPK's Hawaiian Pizza. There's nothing fancy about it. It's just ham and pineapple...you know, the standard Hawaiian stuff. But it's good with a capital G.Disclaimer: This IS a recommendation to order CPK's Hawaiian Pizza. However, you should do your own due diligence. Should you order it based on my recommendation and end up not enjoying it, that's tough luck.
I had three day trades today and only one was profitable. Luckily my two losses were each smaller than my one winner, so my net loss on the day was just 1.2 beers.The Good One:This is a nice blow off bottom sequence from 11:45 to 12:15. I love the 12:00 bar with its really big volume and long tail. Then the 12:15 bar was up nicely so buying was a no brainer (even for me). I bought at $17.98 and was stopped out at 1:19 at $18.33 for a decent 36 cent gain. I once again was a bit obsessive in raising my stop loss almost constantly as the stock rose, but it worked out OK because the bounce was pretty short-lived. This trade netted 3.3 beers.The Good Setup that didn't work out:FSLR gapped up huge at the open and the first two bars looked like the rise might continue. Using the Trader X approach I bought for $43.15 as soon as the second candle printed. Unfortunately the stock immediately pooped out and my stop was hit a whopping 3 minutes later at $42.81. If this exact setup comes
As a total novice to day trading, I really only have two tools in my toolbox at this point. The first is the basic Trader X method where I look for stocks that gapped up at the open and buy them when they close above the high of the first 15 minute range. This method worked beautifully this morning with my ONXX trade.The second method, which I learned from my mentor Marlyn at Filtering Wall Street, is to buy stocks that have been crushed and then show a blow off bottom. I used this method this afternoon with LQDT.Looking at the 15 minute chart for LQDT, the blow off bottom took its time arriving with long red bars on big volume from the 12:15 through 1:30 bars. The positive 1:45 bar told me it was a blow off bottom and I immediately bought for $19.44 in the 2:00 bar. When the 2:30 bar looked toppy to me I narrowed my stop loss order to less than a dime and was eventually stopped out at $19.77. This was a net gain of around 3 beers.For the day that is a net gain of just less than
Alright, I'm still not very good at this whole day trading thing quite yet. I took three trades on the day and made money on just one. I guess the good news is that my one winner (+4.7 beers) was a little bigger than my two losers (-3.2 and -3.3 beers). The net on the day of -1.7 beers lowers my average net per day to 0.4 beers versus my goal of 1.0.The good one:NYNY exhibited a fantastic blow off bottom from 10:15 to 10:45. I broke the rules in that I jumped on it way before the 10:45 candle printed but I got lucky this time. I bought at 10:48 for $11.94 and was stopped out in the 11:15 bar at $12.18.The one where I was impatient and then hesitated to buy:My ACOR buy today is another one where I abandoned the playbook because I was impatient. I switched to a ten minute chart because the 15 minute wasn't telling me what I wanted it to. Then the blow off bottom happened in the 10:40 bar and I waited way too long to buy. I bought at 10:57 for $22.33 and was stopped out at 11:12
