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Economic Calendar

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Entries and psychology

Observations
I am noticing a tendency in me to enter a trade as soon as I exit one. Especially if I take a profit. Looking at cash seems to make me want to trade. As if some thing needs to be done. I start looking for trades and usually do not do well in such a frame of mind.
I did not make a trade immediately after exiting a position. Instead I am looking at stocks to enter either short or long tomorrow or later.
I need to have some stocks on hand to enter when cash is available and the market trend supports my trade.

Entered a short position (PDLI) after six down days in the market. The stock bottomed and then rose along with the market. It looks like the stock gives out a big dividend which is attractive for the longs. Holding it short means I could take a loss for the dividend.

Entered a long position in HL after it crossed the 50 MA for a day trade.
I entered the trade late in the day since I was not at the desk when market opened.
The stock went up and then stalled with the market. A good opportunity to exit and re-enter at support.
The stock then rallied towards the end of day making my exit sub-optimal.

Entered a long position in COGT since it was acquired by 3M for $10.50.
The reason for entry was that the acquisition price sets a floor and the upside is another company offering more (3PAR by Dell and HP is an example).
The exit was reasonably good. A better exit would have been to set it above pre-market high by a couple of
cents. The stock rallied towards the close similar to HL in the previous trade.
The challenge in trading today was that the Dow was tanking through the day so not much conviction in the buyers.
Entered a trade in SKS on rumors of takeover. Mentally I was really tired and did not have the alertness to trade so made a mistake of trading in the wrong frame of mind. I did not look at the daily chart to see a bearish trend. On the daily chart the trend was going down since open. The futures were down before open and the market tanked for most of the day and recovered in between. In all it was a bad entry and a poor trade management since there was no stop in place and I did not place an exit both towards the down and upside.

Review:
I reviewed the trading performance over the past year and saw that:
1. Losses are much larger than profits.
2. I held onto to losing positions longer than required. Exiting the same day would have decreased the losses.

Lessons:

1. Do not enter into a short position when the market has been down for multiple sessions.
2. Find out whether a stock is giving out a dividend soon since this is a risky short to hold till dividend date.
3. Cut losses short and close a losing trade the same day. The trend assessment was wrong so its better to close it and move to another trade.
4. Follow steps of entering a trade: Futures, stock chart, financial, news in that order.
   

Entries:

The short entry was not really required since there were long opportunities in strong stocks. Entering into a short when the stock had tanked a lot makes less sense since the risk is high that the stock recovers. The downtrend should continue into the next two days else it means the stock has bottomed and could rise in the short term.

Exits:

My exits need to cut losses when positions go against me after a 30 minutes of entry.
Exiting when the market is strong does not make sense.
Exit when the stock and the market stalls.
Exit at Fib levels.

ESCA

Monthly chart


Weekly chart


Daily chart


The stock is in an accumulation phase.
Buy signal: When stock breaks $5.00.
Upside target: $8.00
Business: Escalade, Incorporated engages in the manufacture and sale of sporting goods and office products in the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Asia.
Risks: Products are consumer discretionary. Earnings outside US should be good while earnings in US could be at risk in a slow economy.
Insider purchases: Director purchased shares in June 2010.
Insider own: 41% (+)
Institutions own: 5% (-)

JASO

Entered JASO at 5.18 with a market order. I did not look at signals or 1-min chart. Just put a market order since it was moving up and I wanted to catch the move. The stock moved up a few cents and I was looking at 200 in profit. Put an exit for 400 profit (when all I needed was 200) and then watched the stock go down the entire day. I took a loss a few months ago in this stock and I knew that the stock was not strong in its up moves. Either I should have exited immediately with a profit or entered a few cents lower to exit with my profit goal. Did not do either and I am holding this position over the weekend. Looks like I would have to take a loss next week simple to get out of this position and protect my capital.

Lesson: Do not trade when you are not in right mindset and with all the process in place.

Entry: SNIC

ADCT long

Entry: 6.18. Set exit for 6.28. Did not enter again. Missed a big move up.