Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

« Older Entries

The Perfect Trading Day

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Today’s post is for Friday’s session December 16, 2011 as I had the perfect trading day.

There was some pretty good moves early on in Friday’s session in the S&P’s, but mid day things just went to sleep. I took only one trade and was actively participating in the market for 45 minutes and in the trade for 30 minutes and closed the last of my scaled out position for around 5 points. The perfect trading day, with little struggle and only one tick of draw down for the session.

For Monday’s session, I do think we will see a number I put out for Thursday’s session 1198/97 in the S&P futures but this time it will be in the active session. We hit that number called and got the desired reaction of a instant 22 S&P point rally of which I did say would happen and it did on cue, but do believe we will need to see that number now for the regular session.

I won’t be overly anxious about seeing that come to pass but just think it will come Monday. We are in a pretty good position to hit that in pretty quick fashion but again think we should see some strong buying power lift prices back up and would be looking for an up week in the markets overall. Let me post my day’s trades below.

Currently the S&P futures are at 1210 and 1197/98 is 12-13 points away, so don’t be surprised to see that move early on as it should trade in the regular session to that point. This is just my opinion and not trade or investment advise, so be sure to do your own research and analysis.

I have a larger tick chart here to fit in the whole day, but no trade indicators.  I have been trying to drive home the point that the trading method is not indicator driven and has all its own basis for taking the trades or not. It is hard to not talk about it and not say how things work, so I show something that traders who look on can identify with, trade indicators. They are consistent with the trading method but are not the basis for it. It is all very specific and clear with entries, stops and targets.

I wanted traders who are learning the method to rely on there ability to read the price apart from the indicators and do training several times per week for members to drive that point home. When you put some of the indicators back up, you will see that they confirm very nicely to give you the same exact points that the method will give you on own method analysis. I hope that is clear.

The goal is to get traders to be able to read any price chart and have confidence to trade it if they choose. It can be any style of price charts, candle charts, minute charts, tick charts, point and figure charts, range charts, it does not matter. Again, it can be in any time frame as well.

This can be very valuable when looking at one’s long term portfolio of stocks and mutual funds if you have them. The same would apply to those as well. This is a skill that can be learned. There is more than one way to view and understand the markets and the approach I take is different and not rarely seen if ever in its combination of techniques. It is my method approach that is unique to me, built up over decades, literally.

Many traders use different styles that can include some of the various bar charts as mentioned. Let me reiterate, you can use candle charts, range charts, tick charts, minute charts, as that part really does not matter. I use tick charts and build the screen with more than one time frame to get the chart to view as just one screen and time frame and that is apart of the trading method.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Stock Market Hits A Wall

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Today is Thursday December 1st, 2011 and the Stock Market Hits A Wall as we ran into that overhead resistance I talked about in my last blog post.

A very decisive moment is coming within the first 2 hours of tomorrows session. If we break 1241 on the downside, I think we will see a lot of selling coming in. If we break the 1250 level, we could see a continuation of the recent rally. It would be more normal for the market to pull back for a few days before trying to attempt to break today’s highs and with that we will have to wait and see.

Overhead resistance is when the market has reached a point on the charts where sellers have overtaken the buyers to such a degree that it has to go down. There is no buyers at the asking price and the adjustment downwards quickly comes in to reflect the lack of interest at those levels. Today, I am sure that the protective stops have been place just above today’s high in an attempt to sell the market and profit on the downward move. The protective stops are regular buy orders that will trigger open market orders to buy if the price were to breach today’s highs. Many have placed there orders and will wait for a sell off to profit on the downside. They have positioned themselves for a longer term play that could last 1-3 days. If they are right, a big pay off will await, but if wrong, there stops will act like fuel for a continuation to the rally as they will be buyers in the open market which will add and or trigger additional stops at higher levels.

That is what we saw in the almost 500 point Dow move the other day. It happened in the night session where the volume is lighter and easier to push the prices in one direction or another. A chain reaction happened pushing prices up and up until it reached an area that it could not overcome and that was early on in today’s session.

It would be move normal for the market to pull back and work off some of the exuberance from the last few days, but we will have to wait and see. A very nice setup has been put in place with today’s price action and it is very clear to see. How the market will react in the opening hours of tomorrow session will give the insight into the next move.

A move back down to S&P 1200 would normal and natural and believe that will be the expected target if the break is to the downside. After hitting 1250 in today’s session and currently at 1243 that is a big move.

On the other hand, if we move up over the 1250 area with conviction, it could trigger the buy stops by those position traders and will add lots of fuel to push the market still yet higher. As mentioned, time will tell.

In today’s trading, I did not have a good day. It happens and today was one of those days. I was just plan off all the way around. I had three small losses and hit my daily loss limit for the day. The trades and screen shot are below.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Smooth Trading Days

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Today is November 21st, 2011 and am traveling is S.F. Bay Area visiting family, but still got in a little trading.

I took four trades, all for gains and ended with a very good daily goal and in a little over an hour of trading. I also took three trades on Friday, two a little earlier in the session and one late. The late session trade short was my recovery trade and a little bigger in size as well. No trading on Thursday last week. Below are today and Fridays trades and are as marked.

Friday’s Trades Below;

Well, in the daily market I was wrong in looking for prices to hold and move higher. The break came to the downside first and will be looking for prices to firm up in this general area. There is some support in the area and we could see a fairly quick turn around in the weeks ahead.

The world is in a crazy state of affairs these days. The news is off the hook with everyone looking at Europe to see if things are going to stabilize. The long term answer to that is a definite no. The situation if it firms up will only be temporary and the end result is still going to be the same. They are all just going through an exercise to take the next step, which I won’t really comment upon to greatly since it is just my opinion. The aftermath will be a loss of national sovereignty and a large new block of govern-ship will emerge. What that will all look like, I don’t really know, but again this is just my opinion and like I said, I will keep that to a minimum. The long term will get a lot worst and it will spread to the U.S. Change will happen that is for sure, but it may not be what most welcome.

So, lets see in the days and weeks to come if they take the market up to only eventually take it down, time will tell. I will go a little more into this tomorrow, so for now, trade well and safe.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Trading Psychology and the Trader

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Tuesday October 4th, 2011;  Hello this is Vince and want to give a quick up date on today’s action. I traded for around 1 hour, picked up a modest daily goal and went deer hunting. I did not bag a deer yet this season, but I still have about 2 weeks.

We did have that market reversal I quietly was expecting, today Tuesday and not yesterday, but did give out a number that the S&P should stay above, 1120 and it broke it in yesterdays market. I did mention yesterday that the Dow should then stay above 10,600 and can see that we did do that today nicely, on a strong close.

Let me keep this part short as I have other good things to share in today’s post as described yesterday. Many think that this market is going to crack and break down. I personally don’t think it is going to happen now. It will come, but just don’t think it is going to come now, when most expect it. The negativity is so thick, I can feel it in the financial airwaves and I don’t even have cable TV, (by choice).  Things don’t happen when everyone is expecting them to happen and everyone expects this market to crash. We will see in the days ahead.

Above, I have a still shot of the day’s trades I took and below that, a video of the whole days turning points and some of the continuation points. These are just the raw signals and some are better than others. Certainly all of of them are not meant to be traded, as all you really need is a couple of trades to come out nicely most days. The key is keeping your gains and adding to them. Said many times, the trading signals are not the method, but only a nice reflection of it. The reasoning and rational behind it is where the power to act comes from and we all know the adage, “Knowledge is Power”. It is true in this case as well.

===========================================================================

Let me shift gears into what I will be covering in the days and even weeks to come. It is something that traders need so badly and intently that it can not be overlooked. Feeding the mind of traders is just as important as feeding the stomach of a trader. Without food, you will die, I don’t need to convince anyone of that, but the same is true in trading. If you don’t feed your mind with the right mental food and thoughts, your account will die, and that is just as real as the other example given.

Let me first lay some ground work to base some of this on. Psychology is a topic that is often talked about in many fields and it is one that can not be overlooked by traders especially.

The word psychology comes from from the Greek word “psyche”, translated, soul and so the term can be described as the study of the soul.

Man has been created in three parts, the body, the soul and the spirit. We will be discussing the soul and which is also made up of three parts. One of these parts is the emotion as it is the emotion that we love, desire, hate, and have joy or sorrow. Another part of the soul is the mind where we have thoughts, considerations, idea’s and concepts. The third part of the soul is the will, through which we make decisions. Our joy or sorrow is something of the emotion.

When we consider or reason, we are using the mind and when we make a decision to do a certain thing, the will is in operation.  The mind, the will and the emotions then are the three parts of the soul.  By the mind we think, by the will we choose, and by the emotions we like or dislike, love or hate.

The above will lay a ground work for us to best lay a foundation to build upon. It is in understanding who we are and why we do what we do that we can uncover our weaknesses and strengths. In uncovering our weakness, we can then take responsibility for our trades and not lend to the theory that the markets are out to get us. That is flawed thinking and can be a simple example of how we get what we most often are afraid of.

In uncovering something as so simple as our thoughts and taking them captive, we have to face ourselves and do something about those flawed thoughts. Left untouched, it can wreck havoc on our ability to reach our goals.

So many traders can not understand themselves and why they do what they do, only to see what they have done after the dust settles in horror.

When traders pull stops because they can not accept the fact that they might be wrong, there are underlying problems in his or her thinking that is at the root of those actions. Again, left untouched a trader will only see looses in his account as an end result and have no idea why.

To often, traders give up there current trading method, thinking that the method is flawed, instead of looking within themselves as described above.

This is what I want to uncover in laying the ground work above. Some may not agree with my assessments of what we are made up of and my description of the soul and that is OK. It is not the spirit I will be discussing, but the soul, THE MIND, THE WILL, THE EMOTIONS.

My source for all the above is the Bible as all of what I said is back up with numerous scriptures. I did not give them as a specific references, but if anyone wants them I can provide that.

As we continue to study this topic and come up with practical applications on what we can do as traders to improve our overall performances, it will become clear that this is an area that is overlooked and in great need of discussion and training.

More to come in the next sessions. Trade well, trade committed.   Vince

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Taking off for Opening Deer Season

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

I will be taking a few days off for the opening days of deer season in Northern California.  I am going up into the high country to see if I can bag myself a California Deer. The valley from where I live is about 2800 feet and will be driving up to about 5500 feet and from there taking ATV’s on up to around 7,000 feet into the Marble Mountain Wilderness. It will be an eventful few days either way and plan on taking a few pic’s, hopefully with a nice 4 point buck in it.

So, I won’t be trading for a few days until I get back, with  plans to trade on  Thursday and Friday God willing.

Until then, you may find some of my previous posts interesting to help pass the time. You can go to the archieve section and pull up any title that strikes you to help fill in  the gaps while I am gone. So until then, I wish all my readers the very best.

Vince

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Down Day in the Markets Brewing

Monday, February 21st, 2011

This is Monday, February 21st and the markets were closed today. Most reading this by now already know that, so I will keep it moving. My results from Friday’s trading are below.

The market today sold off in the closed regular session as we will likely see a gap opening in tomorrows opening as a result. The move is pretty substantial at this point, S&P 1343 to now 13227, a 16 S&P point difference at 7:20 p.m.  Monday evening, West Coast. I could have said on Friday if I had updated my post then that the market was smack dab up against the upper most portion of its range and likely to pull back, but I won’t even try and call an after the fact move like that. My member although will know that I pointed it out to them in the training video’s I did in Fridays live session. So, I will just leave that one alone for now. We will see how the real session works itself out for Tuesday morning.

I wanted to continue where I left off in my last post, but I have just been enjoying the long weekend, I just can’t seem to get back into it just yet. I am sure with a new shortened work week before me, I will find the will to write as I usually do. It is really not a chore to write and on my blog as I usually do. It does not seem like work, but something very normal and natural, so look for some new added insight on Tuesdays post and we will just see what that brings us.

So, that is it for now. The move so far is for a gap opening lower, but we could be on the look out for a gap fill, which would be amazing if that happened. Lets just wait and see and trade accordingly. Best to all my readers.  Vince!

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Very Slow Stock Market Action

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Just a quick update with some of the days results over the past few days. I did not post for a few days because I was a bit busy doing a series of new training video’s for my members. These are full length video’s covering the method in full.  It is a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. Only so many hours in a day!

Anyway, I picked up my daily goal Thursday and Friday as Friday took me a bit longer than I wanted to spend at it. The price action has been off, to say the least. I changed the tick chart settings on Friday to fit in the better part of the day, but it changed the signals that you usually see so, I just elected to turn it off.

In today’s trading I took only two trades and as I came in late to see that the price action was so weak and anemic that I would have done just fine to skip it all together. I thought about doing that, but changed my mind and gave it a shot. With only a two tick stop, I did not give it enough room and got stopped out for -2 ticks on my first trade, no conviction.  Having a 1 point stop as I usually would at a minimum, I would have done OK. The move was a valid one moving up from a average position in the chart.

The end result was -1 point for the day on two trades. I was going to skip it altogether and would have been good doing so. The volume was the slowest I have seen in years. With an hour to go before the close, we did not even hit 1 million contracts. As I mentioned to my group, a trader could have watched paint dry, it was so slow.

I don’t like it when the action is like that, as I am sure most don’t, but it is what it is. If you can scalp trade as I had in mind on Friday, you could have still done OK.  That was a day for a trending mindset and today pure scalp trades. O Well, no harm no foul.  My trades the last three days below.

That’s it for now. I hope to be finished this week so I can get back to focusing on good low risk trading.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Todays price action in Emini S&P

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

1-18-11;

A video of today’s S&P emini price action. The market gave the early traders a few good entries as shown in the video, but later slowly died. I was only able to pick up a few ticks on the day, as their was just limited opportunity. Just before the close, I had reversed directions but bailed out at break even.  If the trade went against me late in the session, I may have ended the day with a small loss. Trading on the open or much earlier, would fix that. Overall about a 1 point gain, I will take it.

We trade the price first, the trading indicators are second. I don’t show all of my screen, but just a small portion and have most of it hidden, but I can tell you it all fits together like a glove. I use multiple time frames and again, use price action, combined with a unique analysis of support, resistance and price projections not seem anywhere else, or non that I have seen.

If you missed yesterdays article, you may want to check it out. I give some interesting insight on what it takes to be successful at scalp trading the emini market or any market for that fact. If you are struggling with your trading, their is help that can really make a difference.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Major Index’s move to New Highs

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Today is Wednesday January 12th, as we saw the Dow Index +83 points and the S&P emini futures +12.

The volume came early on and very late in the session. From 8:30 to 12:30 West Coast, the market went to sleep. That was 4 hours of nothing. It can be hard to trade with no volume and movement as I saw today.

I have gotten off to a slow start this year, with a few points gain on Monday and 1 point gain yesterday. Both of those days I was only in the market a few minutes combined. I did not have the time to trade and was able to slip in a few trades. Today I had more time but hit that slow patch in the market, that is just how it goes. I was down about 1.50 points with a few small losses in the S&P, but decided to take a trade out of the Nasdaq Market. I don’t usually switch markets, but did today and hit a piece of that late market move for a few points.  I show it in the U-Tube video below towards the very end.

The second video under that is from Monday’s sessions which just shows more of the same, turning points and continuation entries.  I or any trader does not have to trade all of these area’s, but just a few will do and often times, just one to make a nice daily return. It is not to hard, but using good judgment and the method in full which is never really talked about, can help you get that done.  Being successful at day trading is a lot harder than most people make it, because they are acting from emotions. Having a solid method that looks to price structure, support and resistance in a very unique way and the nature momentum of the market to help get this done is key. The trade indicators are only a reflection of all of these things just mentioned. When you have both, it can be a powerful combination.

Monday’s Session

Good Trading to all !

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Trading the Opening Gap

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Today is Monday October 25th, 2010 as the markets took off early on to only fail late in the session.

The Dow was still up about 30 points and the S&P up a few points also, but could not hang on to the early gains. Much of the move came early in the night session and the mornings open prices jumped to catch up to what the futures traders deemed as fair value. That value was later adjusted in lower prices as the session went on.

Often times when you see a gap opening, it gets filled. Most of the time depending on the size of the gap, it gets filled quickly, but not today. When you see a jump in the opening prices, their are no stocks that had a chance to trade in between that gap, again after the open. Prices tend to fall back and “fill the trading gap” as it is called, usually around 70% of the time and do it rather quickly. So, having a good strategy for playing the gap openings, is a good idea.

As traders, you need to have an entry that is low risk. You can not just sell after the open, because you see a gap higher. You need to know exactly where your lowest risk entry will be and then you can enjoy the strategy. At times it does not come back all that fast as in today, where it was dragged out for some time. Only until late in the session did prices give up their hold on the market to adjust itself. The S&P filled the trading gap to the tick and held while the Dow still has about 30 points or so for its gap to get filled. We are likely to see it filled in the early session tomorrow, then we will see what the markets true intentions are.

When you have gap days, it is best to get the gap filled quickly, because it tends to pull on the market. Once filled, the market is somewhat re-balanced and it can continue on with normal market flow patterns.

This is just something to be aware of, if you see it again in the future. I have one screen devoted to little or no indicators and on that screen I have a separate window using a 2 minute chart of the S&P futures and a 2 minute chart of the cash Dow. For the futures, I use a continuous contract chart with a .d after the symbol. In Trade Station it is @es.d    for a continuous contract chart of the S&P 500 emini without the globex or night trading in it. So in this chart you only see the price action start at the open. It is very easy to spot where any trading gaps are by using this type of chart. In addition, it is no secret that I trade using tick charts, but I do look at time charts for a variety of reasons. I glance at them to see if their are discrepancies between the two style charts. Time charts show me when the market is slow at a glance as bars are being posted with little or no movement behind them. In addition, support and resistance analysis can get thrown off when using different tools. Also, this shows me, what the bulk of other traders are looking at and how they might react.

I am sure the 80/20 rule would apply to the amount of traders that use time charts to tick charts, 80% using time charts and 20% using tick charts or some other style. (range charts, volume charts)

In today’s trading I did not make my daily goal. It happens sometimes and I am not crying about it. Losses are apart of trading and I had some today. It wasn’t bad in that I was only down about 1.50 points or so, but it didn’t have to be that way. I had a good trade working and added one more contract to it and was up about 4 points at one point, just what I was looking for. Problem was, I had to leave the room for a few moments to long. With stop in place, the market ran up and immediately ran right straight back down to my original stop for -3 ticks. To go from +4 points and see it closed out at -3 ticks is not typical for me, that is for sure, but it happened and felt a bit stressed looking for trades before the market closed on me at the end of the session, not usually a good idea.

I didn’t really have a choice but to check on something and it cost me. Of all the days to see a top like that come so quickly with a hard reverse.  I could have had a target and cancel set up, so if my target was filled, my stop gets canceled. I didn’t have it set for that and would have to have it in place at the time of entry, so I live with it. Tomorrow is a new day and new opportunities and I am sure I will find them.

Until next time, good trading.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

« Older Entries