Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Dummy Trade of the Day - Continental Airlines, Inc. (Public, NYSE:CAL)

Yesterday I was a bit ahead of the curve on my CAL trade. Today I got it just right. Yesterday's late day selling on increasing volume was the perfect lead in to the open. Short on a break of yesterday's closing low. I knew we would get some consolidation at $30.00, but it was very orderly. I covered just as price approached $29.10 because the previous bar was hammer-like on very high volume so I didn't want to get caught in a capitulation bounce.

After a lengthy sideways basing period, CAL set up a NR B&B long all the way back up to the $30.00 PP. On a retracement basis, this was very close to 62% Fib. retracement of the last leg down (from $30.90). Small move into the close.


AFFX was my gapper play. I tried to do a sophisticated, OONR7 inspired, Fib. retracement play here. I did a Fib. retracement of the last leg down from yesterday's late day high to today's ORL. AFFX retraced 62% of that move and carved out two stars, the latter of which was red with a long upper shadow. I shorted a break of the second star, took a partial on the third WRB and moved my stop on the balance to BE. I was hoping for a little better on the second half, but it didn't happen.
BCSI was a NR B&B short with mixed results. The BO bar did not close near its low, which is one of the things I look for when I take these types of setups. It was choppy and had a wide spread at certain intervals so I kept a close watch and played it textbook which generated an early stop out.

Some stocks work better as longs than shorts. Another example that comes to mind is TBSI. I still remember one short I took in TBSI where the spread got as wide as 40 cents.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice trades on CAL, like a dance.

TJ said...

Thanks GT,

CAL is a very smooth dance partner, and we get along great. As you know, we've had a lot of practice. :)

Anonymous said...

Would a break of $30.15 initiate a dance on the long side :-)

OONR7 said...

you played CAL perfectly. With AFFX, what made you take a partial at that time? Hammer-like bar with high volume?

TJ said...

GT,

A cup & handle in that price range would do it., but I'm predisposed on the short side at the moment. If oil goes down, CAL is always a long.

Closet Daytrader said...

Jamie,

Re: your CAL trade, specifically the 'return trip' Long entry, you seemed to have ignored the 12:00 inverted Hammer when you drew the blue line. Yet, such Hammer had more volume and longer Upper Shadow than the 11:15 Hammer.

Why didn't you drew your 'entry line' using the high of the 12:00 bar instead? Weren't you worried that the high of the 12:00 bar might be a potential Resistance?

Thanks,
CDt

TJ said...

OONR7,

The high volume and distance from the 5 EMA. Plus I'm not that familiar with the stock so I'm ready to book profit after three WRBs, otherwise I could be stuck holding into a consolidation.

TJ said...

CDt,

I was aware of the potential hurdle of the 12:00 bar and would have moved my stop to BE if it had stalled at that resistance level.

There's some psychology at play here as well, because I had a big win under my belt. Bascially, I wanted to get in early because, in my mind the target was fixed at $30.00.

LP said...

Jamie...when can I lean on your for that book deal?

TJ said...

Flatwallet,

LOL, To book or to blog? I'll stick with blogging for now.