Monday, October 25, 2010

Day Trades - LRCX, ISRG, FFIV, SOHU, TIBX (HCPG)

LRCX - Failed BO on Thursday, turned into a big winner on Friday. I should have been on this one on the open because from the daily, we can see that Friday's close edged out of the base and follow through was expected. I had too many names on my focus list this morning and couldn't get to LRCX in time.

ISRG - Big winner on Friday. Today it tried to follow through but failed, setting up a short. Slippage on the fill, but it worked anyway.

FFIV - Friday in sympathy with RVBD, a cloud name that reported strong earnings. Using Fib retracement to find an entry after the initial thrust on the open. According to Ratio Trader, if price can close above 1.27% extension, it has a good chance to move to 1.62%. FFIV couldn't close that scenario, but I worked it on the pullback to support.

Watch the Fibonacci Ratio Analysis program on stock twits TV.

SOHU was a gapper with big volume. I waited for price to find support after the intial gap and go. Once it became obvious that the 38% Fib. retracement level was going to hold, I went long. Price stalled at the 1.27% extension, but here again, I was able to play the support back to the base.


TIBX was a HCPG setup from yesterday's newsletter. It had edged out of it's daily base on Friday, so I had to trade this one on the open.


2 comments:

Ashish said...

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for all the great posts! As a novice trader, one of the hardest things I find is executing on a trade in real-time. I either get to setups too late, or if I have identified a setup, I get distracted by action elsewhere, only to see the stock take off.

I have noticed that you execute your trades in a range of time-frames from 1, 5 to 15 minutes. Can you share some thoughts on how you are able to balance deep-diving into potential setups with scanning the watchlist for new ideas.

I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks,
Ash

TJ said...

Thanks Ashish,

The key is preparation in pre-market. Looking at the pre-market action, or lack thereof of your focus list names. Sometimes, the focus list is too long and encumbers the trade execution. I missed a couple of trades today - LRCX and RDWR because my trading list was too long.

I constantly sort my WL by % change. Most days the early leaders take the day, but on days like today with stocks giving back early gains, the leadership can quickly change, opening up new trading opps. I also, watch the hot list names of momentum stocks, so I can get in at key Fib. retracement levels. The Trade-Ideas scanner is my market pulse - green scans vs. red scans lets me know if I should focus on long or short setups. I use multiple timeframes because I can see the bases and handles more clearly on the lower timeframes. But I prefer to manage trades on the longer 15 min. timeframe to avoid bailing too soon. I use multiple computers for maximum efficiency.

Hope that helps.