As each month comes to an end I will post a review of the month along some stats that pertained to my trading that month.

I started day trading and blogging again on January 24th so this month was only made up of 6 trading days for me. I’m happy to report that I had a nice run netting $1923.94 on 26 trades.

Breaking down the individual trades I realized a profit on 18 of them, a loss on 7 of them and 1 was breakeven.

Here are the stats (not including commissions/fees) of how each stock I traded panned out:

• Long Positions: 16-4-1 +$2949.50
• Short Positions: 2-2 -$172.00
• Inverse ETFs: 0-1 -$432.00
• FSLR: 2-0 +$861.00
• MA: 1-0 +$658.00
• AAPL: 5-1 +$558.00
• ICE: 1-0-1 +$260.00
• WFR: 2-0 +$254.00
• CF: 1-0 +$206.00
• POT: 1-0 +$200.00
• MELI: 1-0 +$180.00
• FXI: 1-0 +$100.50
• QLD: 1-0 +$94.00
• AGU: 1-0 +$70.00
• STP: 0-1 -$28.00
• RIMM: 0-1 -$60.00
• GS: 0-1 -$108.00
• X: 1-1 -$208.00
• AMZN: 0-1 -$260.00
• SKF: 0-1 -$432.00

Commission fees on 26 round trip trades (52 total orders) amounted to $364.00.

6 days were net positive. 0 days were net negative.

Let’s hope I can build on this and have an even better February.

Today started off bad when I entered into a SKF long feeling that the financials would take a breather. The SKF is an inverse fund of the Dow Jones US Financials index so it’s a bearish play. Held it for a little while and then it started breaking down so I bailed.

A little bit later I caught a very nice trade in MA and another quick trade in AAPL.

Looking back on the day it seems I was going long stocks that were down which isn’t something I normally like to do but the market was catching a bid and looked ripe to reverse the downside so I felt my actions were justified.

I was happy with  six of the trades I took today, even the SKF. The only one that was a pain was AMZN. I went long at basically the high of the day at the time and top ticked it. I chased that one and wound up with a nice sized loss. The gap fill that AMZN did today was quite fast and powerful. So much so that I should have known it was going to need a rest. I needed to be much more patient with this trade.

Here is the recap:

Seven round trip trades cost me $98 in commissions so the bottom line amounted to $443.15.

Now for the daily self-evaluation:

Pros:

1. I traded pretty well today. Recognized the trends and was able to take losses. I know I have the $200 max loss rule but sometimes I guess it makes sense to let things play out. I don’t regret the SKF loss because it was something that could have went for big bucks had the financials tanked. Once I recognized that it wasn’t to be, I did bail.
2. Even though I went long down stocks the market was trending up after the initial gap down so I believe my actions were justified.

Cons:

1. Like I mentioned earlier, on the AMZN trade I should have realized that the stock would need to take a breather after such a quick and powerful gap fill. Top ticking the stock was just an impulsive & impatient play, a combination that never produces a profit.

I’ll have another post recapping the month. Well actually a recap since the 24th as that was when I started this blog up again.

I took today’s Fed Day as an opportunity to catch up on my sleep. These days are usually a churn before the statement comes out and not much really goes on so it’s not conducive to trading.

The Fed game plan I set up once I woke up was the if the announcement was positive I was going to go long FSLR and if it were negative I would go long SKF.

I wound up playing a nice bounce in FSLR and profited quite nicely.

Then came my GS play which turned out to be one big missed opportunity. It had pulled back to the 5MA (on the 5 minute chart)  and I went long at 200.04 only to watch the stock drop to 198 and bounce of its 50MA. At one point I was sitting on a $400 loss on this position and was glad to get out on a bounce to 199.50 for a small loss.

GS proceeded to rip to 205 (where it’s trading right now as I write this). In retro spect my mistake on this play was to play the bounce on the 5MA after such a quick spike up and the market still digesting the Fed news. Next time should I play something like this I should wait for a test of a greater Moving Average like the 20 or 50.

I also let the loss in GS scare me out of the turnaround bounce and I got out once I had a manageable loss not noticing that the market was starting to find a bid.

After getting out of GS and clearing my head I realized that the market was catching a bid and proceeded to go long AAPL which had a very similar chart to that of GS. Went long at 133.40 and sold at 134.00. There was really no reason for me to sell AAPL at 134 but I think psychologically I just wanted to book the gain to offset the GS loss. This kind of thinking ended up costing me as AAPL continued to rise.

Here at the trades:

Commission costs amounted to $42 so my profit was $523.68.

Now for the daily self-evaluation:

Pros:

1. Nice day money wise.
2. I took the loss on GS which is a positive in some sorts even though, had I waited, it wouldn’t have turned into a profit.
3. Took my original plan of not trading in the morning ahead of the Fed. Staying in a comfy bed certainly took away any temptation so I don’t know if I would have done that had I been in front of the computer.

Cons:

1. Let my GS loss get too big and thus causing me to sell even when the market and the stock proceeded to rip higher.
2. My AAPL trade seemed like a revenge trade to get my GS loss back and thus I didn’t maximize profits. Should have squeezed another $100 out of that one.
3. Fought the trend in FSLR (it was down quite a bit on the day when I went long).

I think the major takeaway I can take from today is the lesson of letting a stock test a greater level of support when the conditions are: a) a fairly big and quick spike up in the stock, and b) an overall market that is trying to digest a market moving news event. This makes sense because the 5MA on a 5 or 15 minute chart will be heavily weighted towards the spike in the near term whereas the 20MA or 50MA will give a more balanced picture.

Hope you all did well. See you tomorrow.