About Intuitive trading, 2 April 2007

General notes
Through the weekend I have reviewed optionsxpress.com's option order possibilities and I've seen that should I go live, they have more advanced ordering possibilities than 'just' OTO and OCO. Namely, OT2 (one trigggers two) and OTO trailing stop (that gives the flexibility to trail a stop after another trade was executed, say a buy to open one). Sexy, isn't it?
Also, I have reviewed the trailing stop issue, also on optionsxpress.com and here's a wonder table, I have found:

Trailing Stops

1. On entry of the order the bid/ask will be used -- bid for sell order on long position, offer for buy order on short position;
2. On the movement of the trigger, the bid/ask is used, the bid is used on sell order on long position while the ask is used on buy order on short positions;
3. On the triggering of the order, the bid or last is used on buy orders while the ask or last is used on sell orders, the last is only used on triggering if it is in between the bid/ask quotes

I have changed the font face to bold at the most important point, at least for me it is the most interesting. As I have translated this to my words, it means that my trailing stop order by default is triggered if and when the actual ask or last (if it it between the bid and ask) price has been reached/printed/actualized.

Example:

I have gone long on KLA Tencor (KLAC APR 52.5 Call) @ $1.75 at market. Then when I see it moving above $1.9 (my first target) I want it to start to trail a stop down 5%, so I input a trailing stop order, as detailed above.
Then, I see the quote climbing up to $2.1 (bid $2.1 x ask $2.2 and last at $2.05) where it meets resistance and bears start to take over the terrain, causing the option price to move back under $2 (bid $1.9 x ask $1.95 and last at $2.03) .

What happens in this imaginary case with my poor trailing stop?

1. the ask moved up all the way to $2.1 first. Thus, installing a point from where the 5% (which is $0.105 in this case) can be calculated downward.
2. thus, now my trailing stop starts to work as a regular stop order at $1.995.
3. In the above scenario, my stop order would be executed in the moment the price prints under $1.995 by matching another trader's bid at $1.9 with my sell to close, market order.
   

Watchlist additions and filtered trade candidates
BSTE - Biosite ( a biotechnology firm to be acquired by a rival).
TTC-A & MACDV: (nil)
GAPHV: GRP
Tuto Long: VIP
Tuto Short: (none)

Trade Session notes
There was a positive bias in the air thus @ 11:18:59 AM - I went with a GS Apr 210 Call (4 contracts) at $2.2 each, based on a Tuto Long entry signal 2 bars earlier, already reversed from lower 2-3 SD BB area.

Open Trades at market close 31 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$131.93

2

$3.5

($140.00)

Friday, which way?

General notes
Today the first quarter is closing. Thus, I feel it will give a fore-feeling into what will be the main theme for the coming weeks.

Watchlist additions and filtered trade candidates
IPS - Ipsco Inc. -
TTC-A & GAPHV: (none)
MACDV: CEO

Trade session notes
Nikkei...17287.65...+23.71...+0.1%.
Hang Seng...19800.93...-20.85...-0.1%.
FTSE...6304.20...-20.00...-0.3%.
DAX...6901.65...+4.57...+0.1%.
Not sure it will be easy to figure out (at least from the international markets' trends) which direction I can trade. Only Tuto trades will be considered. Crude was up at $66 in the early morning.
9:27:37 AM ET First thing I did was to lock in some profit, from my yesterday trade (KLAC Apr 52.5 Call), so I sold 3 contracts, as I have already planned yesterday (with a limit order, that I could not set).
At 11:38:44 AM ET I have gone long with MRO (against the market, that is not fully sane since the whole energy sector is down, despite the raised crude prices) APR 100 Call at $2.7 market. Based on a Tuto Long trigger (3 day, 30 min chart). Only one thing I forgot is the IBD volume to average check.
Again I was tricked by the trade setting as the price slid under my hard stop (how on earth this could happen? I really hope for Optionsxpress.com's sake, albeit this is just the virtual trading platform! The other thing I was thinking of was that maybe the hard stop was not set to be triggered by the bid price, only on last.
I have decided to close out my two remaining KLAC contract at $2.05 each, even though it will probably stay in my virtual portfolio. Good ol' paper trading is back!
The MRO hard stop was filled @ $2.35 at 11:41 A.M. ET. A Loss but at least a controlled one. Enjoy the weekend folks!

Open positions at market close 29 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$132.39

$3.9

($60.00)

.KCQDX

KLAC APR 52.5 Call

$53.47

$2.15

$200.00

Thursday, will it be the day?

Watchlist additions and filtered trade candidates
Neither watchlist addition, nor TTC-A, GAPHV or MACDV trade candidates found today.

Trade session notes
Nikkei...17263.94...+9.21...+0.1%.
Hang Seng...19821.78...+267.91...+1.4%.
FTSE...6303.00...+35.80...+0.6%.
DAX...6868.62...+51.73...+0.8%.
Will it be the day of rally cancelling or follow through reinforcing? Light Crude was down under $64 with a few cents. This might signal an up-day, at least at open.
9:55:11 AM ET. Markets up and only 4 issues declining on my Above 20 day SMA sub-watchlist. The only spot on the bride's face is that all 4 issues are from the same sector and encounters heavy selling (institutional investors getting off the board). Probably, the natural gas reserve reading will help to see if the markets can hold above the line during the trading day.
12:01:25 PM ET Sent a market order for 5 KLAC Apr 52.5 Call (filled at $1.75). Then set a hard stop order for $1.55. Then a OTO order as follows: sell 3 @ limit $2.1 each then set a stop order for the last 2 contract @ $2.1.

Open positions at market close 28 March 2007:

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$131.87

$3.7

($100.00)

Creative Wednesday

General notes
Got to review the trailing stop usage again as it was tripping me a few times in the past two days. Apparently hard stops and limits/targets are easier to work with. Even if they limit the possible gains, they might work better on a non-trending short time frame (days) trade.
Also, my last TuTo trade was a good showcase of how there is space for saving a trade from turning to lose.

Watchlist additions and filtered trade candidates
No additions to my watchlists.
TTC-A long, GAPHV or MACDV: (none)
Tuto Long: RYAAY
Tuto Short: TXU

Trade session notes
Nikkei...17254.73...-110.32...-0.6%.
Hang Seng...19553.87...-152.92...-0.8%.
FTSE...6292.90...+0.30...0%.
DAX...6834.49...-23.85...-0.3%.
International markets turned low after oil prices and yesterdays US market's performance. Unfortunately TXU is not a real volume one, to the extent that it hardly had any option trade volume yesterday.
Had to leave to early to make an educated trade. That was it for today!

Open positions at market close 27 March

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$132.00

2

$3.7

($100.00)

Being down

Watchlist additions and filtered trade candidates
TTC-A: RIMM
GAPHV: (none)
MACDV: (none)

Trade session notes
Nikkei...17365.05...-156.91...-0.9%.
Hang Seng...19706.79...-59.06...-0.3%.
FTSE...6305.30...+13.40...+0.2%.
DAX...6862.79...+33.97...+0.5%.
Markets in the US are heading the Far-East way, down! Tuto would be the name - ICE, mainly. In fact I had no time at all to concentrate on trading at all. This time as well my trailing stop 10 points down from 4.4 was not working as it went down all the way to 4.1 with out an exit triggered. I had to close out manually at the end giving a limit order for $4.5.

Open positions at market close 26 March 2006:

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$131.31

$3.5

$700.00

($140.00)

.GPYPB

GS APR 210 Put

$211.73

$3.9

$390.00

($40.00)

Quick Monday, 26 March 2007

Watchlist additions & filtered trade candidates
No additions.
TTC-A: ENR, MT
GAPHV: (None)
MACDV: (None)
TuTo short (scanned at 1:46:54 PM ET): NYX, RIMM

Trade session notes
Nikkei...17521.96...+41.35...+0.2%.
Hang Seng...19765.85...+73.21...+0.4%.
FTSE...6351.70...+12.30...+0.2%.
DAX...6896.56...-2.50...-0.0%.
International markets are a bit above the line.
By the time I got back to my desk (1 P.M.) it was already set for falling. In the same time I realized, that my first target was hit shaving off the first foam (
Thus, I was looking again to my TuTo short Power (read volume) watchlist and got down NYX and RIMM. The earlier seemed a nicer bride, thus I have been watching closely the NYX in the mony Put chain for April.
2:06:54 PM ET Just after the next 30 minutes bar printed for the stock (closing south of the upper 2 - 3 SD Bollinger bands), I went for an in the money April Put at market.
2:56:06 PM ET After 50 minutes the trade could not gain ground and was closed out at the hard stop. (It was making a -$194, instead of the -$100 set as my fixed hard stop for these short trades probably because of the number of contracts (3 not 2 like the last time, plus commission not counted for upfront).
Tried to manage well the second exit of the GS Put Trade, but it did not went well. Probably, because I have set the trailing stop on default and not bid 10 points down from $4.5. Tomorrow, I close out the position if GS and market is not going my way. Also, I have set the trailing stop again this time on bid.

Open positions at market close 23 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$129.94

$2.95

($250.00)

.GPYPB

GS APR 210 Put

$211.89

$3.9

($80.00)

Another bleak day or what?

Watchlist additions and setup filtered trade candidates
No watchlist additions.
TTC-A: ENR, PHI
GAPHV: ENR, HOC, HXM, MBT, VSEA, SNDK
MACDV: COP

Trade session notes
Major int'l markets pre-open activity:
Nikkei...17480.61...+61.41...+0.3%.
Hang Seng...19692.64...+2.39...+0.0%
FTSE...6323.60...+5.60...+0.1%.
DAX...6853.23...-3.73...-0.1%.
How the market will be trading is still a bit unclear to me. I am opting to go and use my TuTo, trading setup.
11:35:43 AM ET Made a TuTo short trade on GoldmanSachs 210 Put (hard stop at -$100 or $3.8) Will try to have the target at +$200 or trailing stop to be set, if the position will move upward. Depending how the markets will be when I finish.
2:05:59 PM ET Made an OCO order (hard stop at $3.8 for 2 contracts - max. risk $100 - and limit - read +$100 target - at $4.8 sell 1 contract). Still I will have a risk on the second contract but only 2 hrs to close I will bear it now.
... and call it a day!

Open trades at market close 22 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$128.89

$2.72

($296.00)

General notes
Will this follow through be a lasting one? Anyway, seemingly I can go back to my good old trading templates. I think that the stop rules should be made more severe though.

Watchlist additions and filtered trade candidates
VSEA - Varian SM (semiconductor).
TTC-A V: (none)
GAPH V: GILD
MACD V: GILD, MLM, RS, VSEA

Trade session notes
Probably, I will for a bit later to make a trade in either GILD or VSEA.
I had to go away too early and markets were trading in split fashion.

Open positions at market close 21 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$128.75

2

$2.7

($300.00)

Dull pre-FED deicision, day 1

Watchlist additions and scanned trade candidates
No additions to watchlists.
TuTo Long: Apple (AAPL)
TuTo Short: Baidu (BIDU), Goldman Sachs (GS), IBM, NYSE (NYX)

Trade session notes
I expect the market to start undecisive just like it did yesterday. So, it's still TuTo only that I have to trade with. Woodies CCI would still require too much of my energies to learn.
Int'l markets outlook at 6:18 A.M. EST
Nikkei...17163.20...+153.65...+0.9%.
Hang Seng...19516.41...+159.51...+0.8%.
FTSE...6232.90...+12.60...+0.2%.
DAX...6697.10...-3.19...-0.1%.

Open positions at market close 20 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$128.02

2

$2.65

($310.00)

Rainy Tuesday, Moon in Aries and House 9

General notes
I was checking into some of my astro charts (notably the transits over birth chart) and I sort of get a relief in realizing that I shall not push to hard now, as far as trading concerned. Still, I keep the right to make educative trades obviously.
A new watchlist of mine has seen the light just recently, namely the Tuto on High Volume one. There I have sorted the items that are usually trading on high daily option volumes and are in one of my other watchlists.

Watchlist additions and trade candidates
PCAR - Paccar (commercial trucks & vehicles)
TTC-A long: ISE, PCU
GAPH Vol: MTW

Trade session notes
I have the gut feeling of falling or trading markets today, thus maybe the Tuto will be in play. If international stock markets will fall then I will opt for revising my watchlist for possible Tuto Trades - obviously using my brand new TuTo watchlist.
2 hours before the EST Markets going live this was the standing for majors int'l markets:
Nikkei...17163.20...+153.65...+0.9%,
Hang Seng...19356.90...+90.16...+0.5%,
FTSE - 6182.60...-6.80...-0.1%,
DAX...6651.17...-20.24...-0.3%
Thus, will have to wait for the bell to ring first, and then quickly analyse!
11:48AM ET - The system (new watchlist only with optionable 'blue chips' then sorted to possible short and long TuTo trades) is working fine but no sign of possible deal.
1:14PM ET - No possible trades for me today. I call it a day now...

Open positions at market close 19 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$127.69

$2.55

($330.00)

Gloomy Monday, 19 March 2007

General notes
A fresh start with a New Moon and a troubled love life... Stay or set myself free. Tough!
Ok, now let's see the biggest mistake of last week in detail.
As I wrote in my last entry, I have seen an opportunity in LVS with my TuTo setup.

Watchlist additions + trade candidates
WEBX - Webex, due largely to the Cisco takeover bid.
Did not work on trade candidates, but instead I have reorganized my watchlists and omitted all entries trading under $40. Issues omitted were: CCJ, DIGE.

Trade session notes
Had a weak effort to open a TuTo Call trade in either FDS or SNDK and later CME. None of them looked perfect, so I stood on the sideline.

Open positions at 16 March 2007 market close:

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$2.35

($370.00)

No trade Wednesday?

Still, I am watching my open position + gathering information and learning about markets and options trading.

Watchlist additions
None

General notes
Yesterday I was foolish enough to close out my CAT March in the money Put trade. Only to see it march into a good winner of around $100. Sorry, but I had a full down sentiment day. It is not good - I know - to let emotions sneak into trading, but I am about to hit a year-to-date low on spiritual ground.
On the other hand it is still good to see that I was right with choosing the instrument and that my quick trade setup (TuTo) works a lot better with liquid 'markets'.

Trade session notes
You can start to throw that proverbial stone on me right now, but I could not resist to give a more educated / disciplined try on my new TuTo trade. Using my hard learnt lesson from the last two trades. Differences: now I was selecting the option with a tight spread (15 points) and with good volume (LVS instead of CMC) and an April expiry as this week will not be enough.

The best way to filter down is still a bit manual (checking my full watchlist on Yahoo Finance, selecting ones that goes against the market, and then inputting them into the TuTo regular selection process - 30 min chart view with Tuto study set, then checking the ones that are about to close above 2 SD Bollinger Band for on the other side of the 20 day SMA than the current market).
Also, I have checked a new thing with the time frames - you might remember that I started with 30 min 3 day charts. Now, this is how it looked for LVS at the time of making the trade:










Then I have checked the 15 minutes chart as well to see if it would have worked better.










Open positions at market close 13 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$2.75

($290.00)

Thuesday the hard way, 13 March 2007, Moon in Capricorn

New watchlist additions
TSO - Tesoro
TTC-A long: (none)
GAPHV long: (none)
MACDV long: ESRX, BEN

Trade session notes
Quite eminent is the fact that I did not make a good exit rule for my TuTo trades. Also, trailing stops only work fine in a really liquid market and finally. There should 1st be a hard stop, and if the trade goes my way then a trailing stop my be done.
Was only concentrating on the right time closing of my CAT Put trade. I screwed it. Thus, I finally had the thought of staying on the sideline for the rest of the week. That will be scattered with a National holiday (15 March). So, good bye for now.

Open positions at market close 12 March

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$3.2

($200.00)

.CATOM

CAT MAR 65 Put

$0.89

($147.00)

Week end shift, a review day!

It a switch working day to save us from working next Friday. Good ol' easy going Hungarian rules!

Watchlist additions and trade candidates
HYDL Hydril was the new addition
TTC-A long: AL, ALB, AMX, AZN, BEN, BG, BNI, BUCY, CAM, CAT, CMC, CMI, COP, CRDN, CRS, CTSH, DRIV, ENR, EOG, ESRX, GRMN, GRP, HOC, ISE, JEC, BXP, MICC, DE, GLDN, MLM, NUE, OII, OXY, PCU, PD, POT, PVH, RIG, RS, RYAAY, SLB, STLD, TNB, TRN, UCO, VIP, VOLV, WCC, WFR, X
GAPH V long: APH, CTSH, MICC, NUE, PCP, TEF, VIP
MACDV long: GRP, KSS,

Trade session
I only have had time to close out my really loosing MAN March 70 Put trade at a whopping 87% loss.

Positions at market close 9 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$3.1

($220.00)

.CATOM

CAT MAR 65 Put

$1.05

($99.00)

.MANON

MAN MAR 70 Put

$0.00

($400.00)

Rainy Friday of the Sea Scorpion!

Watchlist additions and trade candidates filtered
No watchlist addition.
TTC-A long: ACL, AL, ALB, BG, BUCY, CAM, CAT, CHRW, CMC, CMI, COP, CRDN, CRS, CTSH, ESRX, FCX, GRMN, GRP, HOC, ISE, JEC, BXP, DE, MICC, MLM, MRO, MSTR, NUE, OXY, PCU, PD, POT, PVH, RIG, RS, RYAAY, SLB, STLD, TNB, TRN, UCO, VIP, VOLV, WFR, X
MACDV long: CME, COP, FCX, MRO, NOV, SLB, VIP, VLO
GAPHV long: BUCY, CRDN, DE, SNDK

46 in initial screening for TTC-A.

Trade session notes
Only tried to cover my back.

Open positions at market close 8 March 2007

.CATOM

CAT MAR 65 Put

$1.23

($45.00)

.MANON

MAN MAR 70 Put

$0.05

($350.00)

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$2.55

($330.00)

Scorpion Moon Thursday

General notes
As I have written earlier I wanted to know more about advanced stop orders (trailing and contingent). Thus, I have jumped into the optionsxpress.com educate resources. Only, had no time to read them through the day.

Watchlist additions and trade candidates filtered
There's not much with watchlist additions obviously.
TTC-A long: AL, BUCY, CAM, ESRX, GRP, ISE, DE, MLM, MRO, PD, VOLV, X
GAPH long: (none)
MACDV long: HAL

Trade session notes
Not so much to speak about as I have had a really hectic day. My MAN Put has been adding to its loosing side, as the trailing stop did not work as expected. That was it for the day, I guess.

Open positions at market close 7 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$124.66

$2.05

($430.00)

.MANON

MAN MAR 70 Put

$73.25

$0.2

($200.00)

.CATOM

CAT MAR 65 Put

$64.23

3

$399.00

($15.00)

Wednesday the hard way!

General notes
Just for the records I am into option trading for the 4th month. I have made 12 full trade. My winning ratio is 58,33%. Max drawdown at 14,77%.
Also...

• 13 trades left to go live.
• average days in trade: 16,8
• estimated date of going live: 11 October 2007
  

Watchlist additions and trade candidates filtered
No new watchlist entries.
TTC-A: CAM, CTSH, KSS, MRO, PD, WFR
MACDV: BOT, WFT
GAPH: (none)

Trade session notes
As the IBD big picture says yesterday might have been the first day of a new rally after the correction, to be confirmed. Thus, beside staying alert, if the market would go high regular long strategies might be used. Most probably though markets will stay in a range for a short while (intuitive influx). Thus, RSI Swinger might be the taste of the day! Will have to check, later.
As markets were slightly rolling south, I was turning for my fresh favourite TuTO and threw one on CAT 65 Mar Put (good volume, good volatility figures and moving up - against the market - on lower than average volumes).
Now I set the trailing stop - I hope, as for the MAN Put's trailing stop failed. Ok, I know it's just paper trade but still it is down to the 50% of the, already screwed, initial price.
Neither of my positions seemed to be right now. So, probably, I was overtrading. Thus, I will wait for some eminent trend to trade with. Also, probably I will query how the default trailing stop is working as it is not behaving as expected. (I have thought it will close out once the bid prints the limit).

Open positions at market close 6 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$125.17

2

$4.20

$840.00

$2

$400.00

($440.00)

.MANON

MAN MAR 70 Put

$73.99

10

$0.40

$400.00

$0.2

$200.00

($200.00)

Ruby Tuesday

Watch list additions & trade candidates
No watchlist entries - no surprises!
TTC-A long: DECK, FLR
MACDV long: AAPL
GAPH long: (none)Publish

Trade session notes
There was too TuTo signals early in the morning, but the market was continously heading upward.

Open positions at market close 5 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$1.75

($490.00)

.MANON

MAN MAR 70 Put

$0.35

($50.00)

Monday, 5 March 2007

I have figured to put together a quick watchlist from the highly coveted IBD eTables (you only got tomorrow to try 'em out, if you are not a subscriber), for this correction and my 'turn to trade template. The main scanning criteria run on the IBD 100, IBD New America and IBD Bigcap 20 indices entries were:

• Closing price: should be above $50
• 52 highs: should be no more than 10% off its NH
• Of course optionable
• Not on my Cooperian watchlist yet

My findings: TSO (Tesoro, oil), PCAR (Paccar Inc., trucks), FDS (Factsetresearch, financial), TIN (Temple inland, packaging), USNA (US Naturals Health, health), PCLN (Priceline, online travel), ESI (ITT Educational, edu), GD (General Dynamics, defense), MAN (Manpower, staffing), AGE (Edwards AG Inc, investment), CERN (Cerner, software), DKS (Dicks Sporting, sporting retail), SYK (Stryker, medical), NKE (Nike, retail), ZMH (Zimmer, medical), DD (DuPont, chemical), SHLD (Sears Holding, retail)

Setup/template scan results
TTC-A long: DECK, KSS
MACDV long: UNH
GAPH long: (None)
Turn-to-trade short:

General notes for the session
The really appropriate question might arise deep within: "Why are you scanning for long trades in a market in a clear correction?" Right, my idea is that shall a stock raise in a market that is in correction, rather soon will come a time it has to align with the broader market sentiment. Thus, it can be a good 'turn-to-trade' short.
There is an important question with my new game (e.g. 'turn-to-trade' baby). This is about the right trigger to choose for the trailing stop. Through the weekend I was pondering and I have chosen the Bid price as trigger. As probably it is changing at the fastest rate, which is important.
The other remaining question is if shorter term (near to expiry) options really work better with this quite aggressive, only a few days in a trade template/set-up. (My intuitive part would say yes, because of the higher delta and

Trade session
Wella, I was too late with both possible trades (CME and MAN Puts for March expiry). I have finally made an order for the MAN Put March trade but for the slightly out of the money option. Only I did not take care of the large spread between bid and ask and I made a market order, thus throwing out $150 through the window right away. Has to be more concious and take a better care from now on!

Open positions at market close 2 March 2007

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$122.73

$1.45

($550.00)

.MBTOJ

MBT MAR 50 Put

$49.80

$1.55

$140.00

Weekly recap

Last week was not a great one for most investors. However I was standing on the shoreline for most of the time, save my May call in ACL (seeming still to be a looser, and probably a candidate for a trade where I did not act along my strategy). I still feel lucky!

Lucky, because early enough in my trading (ok, now just virtual) career I have seen a good correction. Even better than that is the fact that seemingly I am educated to the point when I can quickly adapt to changing situations. (Here I refer to the fact that within 4 days of looking and trying I have found an FX strategy that I could shape to options trading).
This was promising.

So, a few more words about my first 'Turn-to-trade' short trade in options. As I wrote in my Friday post about it, I was worried because the stock (MBT) was trading high on a strong volume. But infact I had my intuition working in a good way as I have thought that a non-US stock will be more likely hit by sellers, when the mood goes South. Finally, this have happened as my Put got $140 (or +29%) in the green within the day. The only thing I have to do now is to set a better trailing stop. I have figured that to have the Ask price as a trigger is probably not too straight, as the order might not get filled consistently. As far as I see the Ask prices tend to fluctuate less (Sellers, like in many walks of life, are usually not so keen to accept the fact that their holdings might worth less on the market.)

Finally, a few interesting notes from the last eIBD Big Picture of the week, that goes well with my above trade experience.

Don’t even consider buying stocks until you see the market hit bottom and stage a followthrough day. ... /...
Many foreign stocks have a reputation for being more volatile, and thus more susceptible to big losses when the market turns lower. That proved to be the case last week.

Now get some life and start to enjoy the weekend, folks!

Tough Friday, baby!

New watch list addition(s)
HYSL - Hyper Solutions Corp. on the Oracle takeover news.

Trade candidates:
TTC-A: (Only Deckers as the day before)
MACD: DECK
GAP: (none)

Trading session
I was making a try on the turn to trade variation (watchlist scanned manually for stock closing in between 2 and 3 SD upper Bollinger band - on the 3 day 30 min. chart, then checking which ones were trading under its 20 day SMA on the 1 month, daily chart). There were 4 closing just in the half hour ending at 11 EST. Finally, to were heading down straight after 11 EST - PCP, VIP and MBT. Then I was looking at their respective March Puts.
Finally, I could not resist to try on an MBT 50 March Put (MBTOJ), that I made a market order for. Then immediately, I have made a trailing stop order 10 points down from Ask. The only worrying part was the +159% of average volume reading on the my IBD list... Will see.

Open positions at market close 1 March 2007:

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$1.75

($490.00)

Thursday's blood shed

My open position showed some real weakness lately. Now, it has passed my 50% stop loss rule for looser trades. Albeit there were no trades under $2.35 the bid level is down at $1.95. Although a short term support is broken, I still pretend to stay in the trade if it goes up during the day (also mid-term support - last close before gap up @ $120.74 - is still away).

No new watchlist entries

Trade candidates
Although markets are in correction, I have run the queries.
TTC-A: DECK (long)
MACD: (loads of shorts / sell)
GAPH: (none)

Trading session
There is still room for ACL I think, thus I stick. Also, I was looking at the activity that was pretty low, mainly bidders trying to force it down.
I did not try on the trade of DECK, as I take the IBD warning of not longing till the rally (Bull's market) is not confirmed. Now, the market is in correction.
Was trying on an optionized FX trading setup (Turn-to-Trade) that uses 2 and 3 SD Bollinger bands. But none of them were fine for a trade (moving up, while I tried to buy Puts).
I think it is high time to buy Dr. Setphen Cooper's Windows to Wealth, where he details more options trading templates and technical analysis clues.

Open position(s) at market close 28 February 2007:

.ACLEG

ACL MAY 135 Call

$1.95

($450.00)