Good Wednesday

Despite the mixed sentiments all my open positions were doing quite ok, including the ALB Mar Call just opened. Although the later went South a bit.

While reading the eIBD
Have noticed that ETFs should be a natural choice for me until I reach the trading edge to train on separate issues. Once I start to fill up my trading account (expected from April on, latest). This idea brings the necessity of working more on my ETF Watchlist.
No new issue found for the candidate list.

Trading template confirmations found
TTC-A - RYAAY (only the volume is a bit shallow), UNH (quite ok). MACDV - none. GAPHV - CMI. All three were input to the daily Trade Candidate sheet.

Trading session
CTRP trailing stop closed out thus securing a $90 profit, closing out at $3.3 - while the daily range gone down till $2.85.
Markets were shaky in the morning, thus I have only put in a 50% trailing stop order for my VIP calls for APR at $3,8. Should the worst happen. I did not have time to wait for the FOMC policy statement. Also, only CMI stood in the right way (Up on good volume).

Open positions at market close 29-Jan-2007
ALB Mar 80 Call $1.95 (-$25)
CTRP Mar 75 Call ($330)
DECK Mar 60 Call (-$200)
VIP Apr 90 Call ($20)

Mars over Moon!

Yesterday was fine. I could open a winning position - as reported, now I have to make sure it stays a winner.

Trade candidates filtering
Have only found CAT through my GapV filter as a new entry to the potential trades, but it's trendlines are still going down. Has to wait for it.

Got three on my final trade candidate list they are:
STLD: Its traded on NASDAQ, so I put it to the end of the list, as I have already 2 other open positions on the same market.
WFR: A bit too aggressive seemingly, and going down on slightly higher volume in the early afternoon trading. So, a clear no!
ALB: Was my final retreat, and it gave me a good feeling that I have already had the issue on my possible trades for a number of cases. Probably, no is the time.

Trading
With ALB, the only issue was that I could not buy time (not enough open interest for June 80 Calls). Still, I feel confident that in the next 2 weeks - my max. possible open time for this show - will be enough to let it turn North.
This is the trade I tried to make: ALB Mar 80 Call (.ALBCP) limit @ $2.0, 5 contracts.
Also, I put in a 10% trailing stop at around $3.5 on my CTRP 75 MAR Call to make sure it stays a winning trade.

Open positions closing on 29-Jan
CTRP 75 Mar Call $3.3 ($120 North)
VIP 90 Apr Call $3.85 ($170 South)
DECK 60 Mar Call $2.3 ($260 South)

29 January 2007, Monday

Candidates filtering
Non through eIBD timesaver table. But 2 added to the split watchlist, both announced on 25-Jan, Thursday and one of them already on my watch list (inherited from Mr. Cooper).
TRMB
and ZOLL that had no apparent huge upswing based on announcement, but had a gap earlier and actual price is close to support.

Only a few trade candidates were found...
Through TTC-A (BUCY, ESRX), MACD V (CMI, GOOG, and WFR) and through GAP up V (STLD).

BUCY was not ok due to being under its 30d SMA and moving down. ESRX had not yet a nice trend and is $5.1 to its buying point (resistance), would be good for a swing trade maybe?
CMI good volume but 30 d SMA trending down. GOOG was surging pn up volume, but 30 d SMA down so its out as well. WFR on the other hand looked great with a MACD on huge volume + GAP up, due to great performance in 4Q. Look for the early profit takers and the market sentiment if trading WFR.
STLD is trading fine and already had a quick profit taking session in last bar. Interesting.

Trading time
Had only 3 left standing that moves with the market (up) seriously - CTRP, JEC and STLD.
Merits of each:

• STLD: (IBD Checkup A+, Industry fund rank is Bish) too high with regards buy point
  
• JEC: split announced 26-Jan (IBD Checkup B-) too high with regards buy point
  
• CTRP: (IBD checkup A+, Industry fund rank is C-ish)
  

Finally, gave an order - don't forget to cancel it the next day if limit not met - for CTRP MAR 75 Call @ $2.9! The max open days for this trade will be 16 days!

Open positions
My assumptions were right with regards both of my open calls (VIP 90 APR, and DECK 60 MAR) that they will get back above support. Now, they stand at $4 and $2.2 well above their lowest intra day standings respectively.

Black or Grey Friday?

It probably won't be but that's how a prospective trading tycoon feels about it now. Probably, it's Ms. Greed singing in my ears :)

New additions to my watch list today
None were added through the eIBD Timesaver list. Thus, I was looking for split opportunities to make a separate watchlist. Amphenol (APH) was announcing stock splits on 24-Jan. I have made a separate watchlist for both APH and SSI albeit the later did not seem to be a sweety. More about this later...

A few possible trades... should the market let it...
...includes:

• ALB - still the best with its gap up, MACD cross on volume + Buy Point cleared on 24-Jan,
  
• CTRP - also nice a clear trend but there was no correction in past 3 months, when they will take profits in these shaky times?
  
• MSTR -30 day SMA down sloping down, gap up is nice though,
• JEC - 30 day SMA is still going down despite gap up, they took some profit.
  

AMG, and FMD are still popping up in Watch List Scans. But Affiliated Manager's (AMG) extreme price swing (Range was between $221 and $110 during last day trading!) did not make it a nice bride for me. First Marblehead (FMD) is still under IBD buy-point and its 30 days SMA.

Open positions
Both VIP and DECK showed some profit taking on lower volume, which keeps me still confident in both trades (albeit VIP should not have been bought see in my last post).
DECK MAR 60 Call started @ 2.45 (-$230) that extended further down to 1.8 - 1.9. Volume was higher but it seemed to stop just around my limit stop.
VIP APR 90 Call started @ 3.9 (-$160) came down to 3.6ish but on lighter volume.

Thursday up or down?

Markets
... were ok yesterday. How they'll be today is something to be discovered. They were so good that my (virtual) position was not opened yesterday. Had my limit at 4.8 and the spread 4.7 to 5.0 per contract.

Found 2 entries for my watchlist
CHL - China Mobile and CTRP - Ctrip.com. Also, just figured that I can create a Java Watchlist within my Optionsxpress.com account. Great :)

Trade candidates sorting
Of course there was a huge amount of candidates poppin' up as it was a great day for the market. The initial pre-screening ditched some but still there was 10 left to gauge for the dance - ALB, AMG, AMX, BUCY, FMD, JEC, RS, PHI, plus today's newbies CHL and CTRP.

In the early trading session (around 10:00 A.M.) the market is not trending nicely at all. Most issues are declining.

ALB, CTRP and FMD made it to the Trade Candidate Final. I did the final roster based on a) IBD combined ratings both RS and EPS 90+ b) issue being in the positive after market close - YES I WAS LATE WITH PUTTING THIS TOGETHER, and c) high on volume both days. Later I took off FMD as it was quite away below it's buy point (as per CANSLIM method).
Finally, I put the whole candidate list away for the next day, maybe the market will pop in my direction finally.

Open positions report
I forgot to cancel the 'good till cancelled' order for 2 contracts of VIP 90 Apr Call. Ugly problem with the virtual trading platform of Optionsxpress.com! Should have made a 'good for the day' order, which is not existing.
Got to check both now open trades as markets where on the way down, to make sure there is a stop installed for both. Fortunately, both kept the big money in as they were trading lower on a lower then average volume.
DECK MAR 60 Call - I figured that the support is around $57. Now, the actual price $58,63 is roughly 2,8% above support. Now, taking the 0,4766 delta we will come to an option price -$.78, that rounds to a stop at $1.9.
VIP APR 90 Call - Short term support is at around $81,88. Actual price is $84,89. That translates to an option price stop at $2.7 (actual option price @ $4, delta 0.4266).

Wednesday, 24 January 2007

Watchlist addition
PHI - Philippine Telephone

Tradeable issues found
Found multiple issues both with TTC-A and MACDV, as markets started to raise the day before. So, the big job was to do the...

Sorting
I was looking for good volumes for a real confirmation, CAM and CRS fell out. Then I was checking the IBD figures (CANSLIM), where BUCY has fallen out.
Got still VIP, AYI, MBT and PHI left to figure. The later three were leading in up volume change though AYI still did not have enough open interest. Sorry, you're out AYI!

Trade candidates notes
MBT - historic to implied volatility seems ok (really close and implied was lower).
PHI - really large bid-ask spread. Is it a good sign? But implied volatility is below historic @ 16.
VIP - was looking also fine, and options seemed cheaper than MBT.

Finally, I have made my choice and set myself up for a VIP Apr 90 C trade. But when I first tried to open the position I calculated 4.5 being a fine limit halfway in the spread. A half an hour later I have noticed the spread has moved higher leaving my limit price in the blue. 2 hours later after an exhausting Watchlist overview (more about it further down). I have cancelled and reopened the position (only 2 contracts instead of 3 though) at 4.8 limit. We will see...

Watchlist review
I have pulled up all charts in optionxpress.com's java charting facility that I quite like. Checked all issues on my 149 strong Cooperian watchlist. And figured if there are issues (there were 21) interesting for any meaningful reason - I have been looking at IBD buypoints. In fact issues that were pulling back / retracing to test the 50 day SMA after a serious uptrend.

Open position changes
My Deck Mar 60 Call has performed quite ok ~10% north of open, but still $160 in the red.

Easy Tuesday

My standard trading schedule starts to evolve, as:

Morning session (CET 8:00 - 12:30) before US Markets open

1. eIBD browsing (Big Picture, Money Making > Time Saver tables to seek for possible watchlist additions).
2. checking my open position(s) (Virtual yet)
3. scanning my watch list (on Wealth-lab.com) with all trading templates (TTC-A, MACD+V, GAP 2H+V)
4. If there are trade candidates, choose best by patterns and habits and IBD check-ups then check chains and strikes for options and record them.
   

Trading session (CET 15:30 - 18:00) US Markets open

1. Checking for actual market trends and making orders if possible, intuition ride...

Today's happening
My scans did not return anything spectacular. But at least the markets were performing all right. And I have found two items for my watchlist AYI and MBT.

What I will try tomorrow?
Is to go through my watchlist and pull up all charts in the optionsxpress.com java charting to get a buy point for all possible entries (based on IBD ideas). Buypoint is for any trending issues (of course in the same direction as the market). Where it pops back from the 30 or 50 day SMA before continuing up- (or down)ward. The buy point is reached when the issue surpasses the (resistance or support) point where the issue was before turning towards the SMA trendline.

Good night there...

The day of reignition

Why I start blogging again?
It's a good question in fact. Seemingly I can't let go publishing my ideas - now about what it takes to be a tycoon through trading. Also, it helps me tremendously in looking back and learning from my mistakes and semi-intuitive decisions.

What this blog is about?
I started paper trading back in 2004 with the Investopedia.com Simulator. My express purpose was to get some deeper insight in the world of investment, through action without the risk attached.
Chiefly I traded stocks as it seemed a good and easy start. In deed I was quite successful. Already at that time I have tried to figure how I could trade options. Only I could not find a way to make it work.
Then I stopped paper trading and get back to other projects (this was the time when I started blogging). Finally in the last few months my attention was falling back on to trading (still just paper), after I have found Dr. Cooper's Option Trading education offer. I got the knack right away. Then last November I went on and selected an on-line broker that offered virtual trading and no minimum account fee to start with (you guessed www.optionsxpress.com).

What should have happened today?
Through the weekend I have re-read dr. Cooper's Online Option Trader manual... and figured that I need to refine some of my WealthLab scripts (TTC-A and MACD13/50) and make some new (GAP+Volume and Channel Breakout on Volume) to have 4 usable and testable trading templates at hand.

What I have done today?

1. Took out the stop close for my DECK March call, as the market seems shaky.


2. As many times before I was somewhat lost in the scripting and had to work (for bread and butter ya know)...


3. Also, the markets were not trading in my direction so I did not open any position.

HomeWork
Start to pull together a serious trading business plan.