Tonight's Activity: NO trading. All Reading

Since I'm having one of those episodes where I feel lost in my methodologies while achieving NOTHING. I decided to just spend the time re-reading some portions of Brian Shannon's Technical Analysis Book.

Already, I have some ideas that MAY help me improve my entries and stock selection. Might incorporate some additional analysis too on the different time frames but I'm afraid I won't be able to analyze everything that I'm interested in in the interest of time.

I just came home from work so working on improving trading now given my limited time.

Still nothing interesting from scans...

I can't seem to find any setups that are interesting enough to monitor in the early am session. I have three scans running and nothing is of interest to me.

The major indices are still chopping around within a medium term range. The Russel seems to be leading weakness here. From what I understand, the small caps are indicative or risk-on or risk-off sentiment from investors. In this case, it seems to be leading towards the downside. This could mean a bias towards short trades but I'm not going to venture in that for now. I'm gonna have to focus on the setups that I take but for now there's really nothing for me.

In the meantime, I will probably take a stab at playing some video games for now.

Back from Bangkok and we're still in a Chop

 

Just got back from Bangkok and I was hoping for a more directional market when I came back but I guess we're still in this medium range chop fest. I'm not really playing support and resistance at these levels, I'd rather that the market get out of these zones whether for lower or for higher.

That's why for now, I'm kind of avoiding setups that I usually take/wait for. Case in point, I really like this ROKU setup but the overall market being choppy as it is, I think that a breakout in this stock will be met with selling, which might cause the breakout to fail. I'm going to focus on stocks that are pulling back and seem to have some room before a major resistance or new high. 

I sold my position in TTWO for a small profit (around $24 lol). I was going to hold it for 3-5 days but I saw that it wasn't moving on the third. I sold it whilst I was eating some Tom Yum during my vacation. I was glad to have scratched it for now. There was no follow through.

Would have gotten a little bit more out of the trade had I sold the day prior but that would have not given it enough room to move. I am just following my "rules" for now. I should ignore that thing on the chart. I am also paper trading it as well.

Stalking ROKU. Prepared for a move down.

I really think we're about to do a short term down trend after yesterday's price action. Seemed like a hesitation on that resistance level for me. I have the same read on the small caps and the tech stocks so this is broadbased. I'm trying to not be too bullish at this time and taking setups very selectively

 

Similar pattern in QQQ.

 

As is with IWM.

I am stalking an entry into ROKU. Same thing with TTWO, I will make a long if it shows good volume and good relative volatility in the first 30 minutes of the trading session. If it does not then it does not haha

I am traveling to Bangkok tomorrow so I'll probably only be managing the TTWO position which isn't that much for the entire week. I plan to sell it by Thursday / Friday if momentum is still absent. I am looking for those quick burst of wins and I don't want to overexpose myself in this choppy market. Kind of like overstaying my welcome.

Long TTWO - all hail claptrap

I went long TTWO this morning, I liked the price action, the relative volume not so much. Based on my scans it has only been doing 14% of the average volume. That's not too bad in the first 30 minutes of trading, but that's not great either. Anyway I can't resist the price action so I took a long there of around 12 shares, let's see if this continues to breakout in the coming days.

 

TTWO is the publisher of Borderlands 3, a much awaited game on the console and pc platforms. I myself am planning to get a copy for PC but will have to wait for the Steam version because I haven't been hearing good comments about the Epic store where Borderlands 3 is exclusive (PC) for 6 months from launch. 

New Names on the List - NWL and EHTH

Looks like the SPY is set to open strong today. Maybe it has something to do with Trump extending a lifeline to Huawei. Nevertheless, I don't think we're out of the woods just yet. The SPY is still trading within a range (within a larger range), so I continue to expect choppy action from here. I should be quick to take profits when I can.

I added some new names on my watchlist and post some screenshots of those that I like below. In particular what I'm looking for is strong relative volume in the first 15 to 30 minutes of the open as well as strong price action.I will trigger the trade by then.

 

EHTH - Nice ascending triangle setup right here. watching for a break of that horizontal line. But strength in this formation is enough of a trigger for me.

NWL - Similar triangle setup forming a nice flag with potential to break that gap high back in May. I'm buying on strength of volume and price at the first 30 minutes of the open.

 

What's the Plan

PLAN looks like a good setup for me, in the first 30 minutes of trading it has already done half of its average volume and is trading at a decent range relative to recent past. But the problem is that it hasn't announced earnings yet and the estimated earnings announcement date is on the 27th. That is too close for comfort for me.

Other than that, my watchlist seems quiet and no activity has taken place. Not initiating any positions yet just being patient in this choppy market.The SPY is gapping up again as of this moment. It's hella confusing but would like it to take out swing lows so it can go back to $272 where we can either get a solid tradeable bounce.

New Setups - COUP, PRO, TTD

Here's where it gets confusing, the SPY is entering the bigger term range again here after a month or so of trading at the highs. All of a sudden bearish news come in (trade war.. again?) and to be able to bet on the direction of the spy in the next few days seems like a coin toss (maybe the odds are even lower).

I have set up my anticipation setup scan from which I will monitor opening range drives. I realized that just scanning for high relative volume and high opening range at the beginning of trading is not that efficient. I would be skipping stocks here and there and always get something that is either just bouncing from weakness and the like.

I think some of these names might work. COUP, PRO, and TTD are in my strongest stocks scan list as measured by the stocks' 12-month price return. All three seem to be pulling back and retracing. I will watch out for these guys in the first 30 minutes and decide to enter.

Tough time looking for anything

THis is one of those days when I can't seem to find any setup that I like. Whenever this happens, I always feel the urge to research some new setup or scan or take a look at what other people are doing. I know I should just be staying put but I feel that not doing anything is being lazy.

I've taken a look at the scans today and most of them are down. At the same time looking within those stocks, I still don't have any setup to initiate some shorts, so I am back to just watching the market for now, maybe for another 15-30 minutes.

Feels Stupid - Shorting $DESP, Long $KNDI

I feel very stupid for shorting $DESP as it quickly proved me wrong throughout the session yesterday.

I really thought it was going to fail at the wick at the 15th minute mark but it was strong throughout the day. I was trading in the direction of the trade (the stock gapped down) but this quickly reversed. I wonder if this can be a tradeable bounce in the future but I don't know what the trigger was and all that. I was thinking since it failed support at the open it would continue to go down. Hmmm.

Good thing this was just a simulated trade as I'm still trying this out.

So this morning, I'm still scanning stocks that are showing some nice volume at the open with a decent opening range.

I flagged Kandi as I feel like it has been in some consolidation for a while now and then now it is showing good volume and the range is more than double the past 10-days average. I don't know what the news is but the intraday structure looks decent, formed a new high.

Let's see what happens with this. VCTR and BPMC are kind of similar to DESP in that both stocks gapped down and are showing some strength. I'm keeping these two in mind but not going long the stock until I find some pattern that I can use to trade with.

My DESP position is still under water, it could have been a good long but nope. For now I am enjoying this process of looking for "stocks in play" as I borrow it from SMB Cap. Although I don't think these guys are in play they're just showing really nice volume and volatility. Two things that I need to trade.

The only limitation that I see is that I am only "on" on the first 30 min to an hour of the trading session, and so I have to make a decision on the price discovery phase of the stock...and "hope" that it will continue in the direction I want it to. I'm still trying to understand how the "overall" market, as represented by the SPY, will fit into all of these things. Right now I don't have an opinion on the SPY because it has entered a medium term range, and I guess from here anything goes for now. So I don't know how that will help me with the trades that I'm doing now.

Opening Range Scans

I am waiting for the market to open to show me some opening drives in the morning. My recent project is watching stocks that have nice opening drives at the beginning of the session. I have set up the scans for it. I am looking for stocks that have nice relative volume and significant opening range compared to 20 and 10-day averages respectively.

I still don't know what to look for, so I am going to take some samples and watch the stocks for a few days, see if I can get a 3-5 day swing out of them.

 

Note that this is a simulated trade, as I am just getting my feet wet for now. I went short on DESP since it gapped down and was weak on the pre-market (i should know premarket levels beforehand, I should take note of that).

I shorted quite a bit early as I am now finding out , I thought momentum was topping out at 12. But I'm just going to hold this overnight and see what happens.

For now this is the only play I'm seeing. Going to observe some more because this could turn out to be a sort of bounce play setup, INstead of a short.

Hello World

Guess this is the first post here. There will be some trade related posts later on. I am making some changes to my trading and will be trying out some new stuff on Telechart.