Posts

Showing posts from October, 2014

Words of Wisdom

Image
I thought I'd share some important words of wisdom from the professionals. These quotes help keep me focused, motivated, and determined to succeed. I hope you find them useful too. Take care, Jory

Trade Recap - IBIO

Image
On Friday, I saw a tweet from @BlinkX90 regarding IBIO: $IBIO EXCLUSIVE-US GOVERNMENT ASKS EMERGENCY DRUG LABS TO PLAN FOR PRODUCTION OF EXPERIMENTAL EBOLA DRUG ZMAPP Reuters — Blink (@BlinkX90) October 17, 2014 So I pulled up the daily chart and noticed IBIO had recently ran from about 70 cents to ~$2.70 in three days! Then it pulled back hard, then started a dead-cat bounce: The daily chart told me shorts were (and probably still were) interested in this stock. Moreover, IB didn't have any shares to short IBIO--proof shorts were already pilled into IBIO. Therefore, I was long biased and the news that the US Government was warning makers of IBIO's Ebola drug ZMAPP to plan for production further supported a long bias. I pulled up the intraday chart and noticed traders had already began reacting to the news and were bidding up the stock around 2:30 pm:

The Best Brokers for Traders

Interactive Brokers Cheap fees/commissions--$.005 per share--but requires $10k to open an account.  Great for live trading practice using tiny position size (10 to 100 shares etc.) without risking a lot of capital.  This is vital because the trader learning curve is steep and littered with drawdowns. Therefore, if you refuse to paper trade to learn, IB is a great choice for live trading to increase the amount of trading practice while keeping risk minimal/small. Great borrows for shorting stocks. Think or Swim by TD Ameritrade Pricey at $9.99 a trade. Paper trade feature great for practicing.  Excellent charting program used by many pros. Easy to customize platform with plenty of YouTube how-to videos. OnDemand feature lets you simulate a trading day for any stock going back about 5 years. This feature is invaluable for developing traders. SpeedTrader Pro Excellent commissions--$.0025 per share--but requires $25k to open an account. Great for live trading practice us

The Best Blog Posts for Traders

In no particular order: Why Most Traders Lose Money and Why the Market Requires It How Goal Setting Helps Performance Cultivating Self-Control by Enhancing Working Memory What Makes an Expert? Three Surprising Research Conclusions The Greatest Mistake Traders Make This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things Why 90% of the Mental Game is Your Trading Self-Efficacy, Physical Exercise, and Goal Attainment How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others (and Start Empowering Yourself) 11 Important Hedge Fund Terms To Know The Best Investments In 2014 (Investor flows) 94 Lessons On How To Trade Penny Stocks From The #1 Trader Out Of 60,000+ How To Make $200,000 In One Day With Penny Stocks: A 3,000 Word Detailed Lesson Traders & Investors: YOU NEED THIS NOW (Pre-Promo) Technical Analysis Of Your Own Patterns Cramer's Twenty-five Rules for Investing The world’s greatest stock picker? 10 commandments for  teachers  everyone with a brain Mapping Investor Behavior Is Inside

The Best Books for Traders

The Best Books for Traders: The Daily Trading Coach: 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist by Dr. Brett Steenbarger The PlayBook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader by Mike Bellafiore Any of Trading Price Action books by Al Brooks Any of the Market Wizards books by Jack D. Schwager Trade Like a Casino by Richard L. Weissman Critical thinking, problem solving, and human behavior: Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking by M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley The Thinker's Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving by former CIA Analyst Morgan D. Jones The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan. Persuasion and Influence For Dummies by Elizabeth Kuhnke

The Best Videos for Traders

The best trading related videos: Improving Trader Performance Al Brooks - Best Price Action Al Brooks - Trading Channels Position Sizing Strategies. Control Your Risk When Trading Trading Mistakes Trading Coach Shares Views on Three Common Problems for Traders The best process improvement videos: How to Live Before You Die The Key to Success? Grit. The surprising science of willpower How smart can we get? (Journaling emotions around 41:00) On Being Wrong How to Make Stress Your Friend Forget big change, start with a tiny habit The Psychology of Human Misjudgment How Great Leaders Inspire Action Why Leaders Eat Last Five Tips for Graduates Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are THUNK - 41. How Emotions Make You *More* Rational Hans Rosling and Ola Rosling: How not to be ignorant about the world The best scientific explanations of human/trading behavior videos: The Human Brain Documentary Limbic System Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and Physiologic Marker

The Best Blogs for Traders

Trade the Ticker (@kroyrunner89) TraderFeed (@steendbab) Personal History, Inspiration, Humor, Trading Lessons and Food for Thought (@EpicaCapital) Nate's Blog (@InvestorsLive) Al's Blog (@AlBrooksPA) Abnormal Returns Nikkos' Trading Blog (@Nikkorico_) Dash of Insight

The Best Traders to Follow on Twitter

  In no particular order: Traderstewie - @traderstewie Brian Shannon - @alphatrends Modern Rock - @modern_rock and @mrockrulez Scott Redler - @RedDogT3 Urban Carmel - @ukarlewitz Irrelevant Investor - @michaelbatnick Jack Damn - @JackDamn Steven Spencer - @sspencer_smb Peter Brandt - @PeterLBrandt Helene Meisler - @hmeisler Tim Parker - @autumnalcity87 Brett Steenbarger - @steenbab The Daytrade™ - @d4ytrad3 Dan Zanger - @danzanger Sunrise Trader - @SunriseTrader Greg - @lx21 Chris Carey - @sharesleuth Lakai - @_lakai_ Phil Goedeker - @OzarkTrades Nikkorico - @Nikkorico_ D K1 - @canuck2usa Tim Grittani - @kroyrunner89 Brandon Garretson - @crawfish_poboy Eric Wood - @elkwood66 Al Brooks - @AlBrooksPA Veritas - @VeritasGreen Mile High Trader - @Mile_HighTrades Notable Calls - @thenotablecalls Shane Blackmon - @shaneblackmon Blink - @BlinkX90 Marc Lehman - @markflowchatter Adamn Feuerstein - @adamfeuerstein TradeHawk - @TradeHawk MuddyWatersResearch - @m

The Best Trading Gurus

The Best Trading Gurus Lakai - www.tradeitdontdateit.com ( @_lakai_ on Twitter) The best futures trader I follow. The best price action trader I follow. Cuts out all the BS indicators and focuses on pure support and resistance to make loads of dough in the markets. Al Brooks - www.brookspriceaction.com  ( @AlBrooksPA on Twitter) Exceptional trader with almost 30 years of experience trading several markets.  Al cuts out all the BS technical indicators and fundamentals and focuses on pure price action. After all, HFT algorithms control the markets these days and they trade mathematically, which leaves discernible patterns in the price action. Check out his books, chat room, and YouTube channel . Dan Zanger -  www.chartpattern.com  ( @DanZanger on Twitter) Dan is the world record holder for the largest percent change for a personal portfolio for a 12-month period of time and an 18-month period of time in the history of the stock market. Specializes in swing trading st

Trade Recap - APT

Image
Here was the daily chart for APT on Oct. 9th: In the last two months alone, APT had gone from about $2 to $5! Very impressive price appreciation there. So this popped up on my FinViz scan and compelled me to pull up the intraday chart. I was short biased because the stock had been on a tear and the odds were in favor of at least a short-term pullback. I drew trendlines and decided to wait for the stock to tell me to short--i.e., break an up-trendline and subsequent lower highs or a double top. I got my chance fairly quickly at ~$4.60, but I hesitated. Instead, I shorted after the major up-trendline failed and began acting as a top at ~$4.45. I set my stop at previous resistance and set two price targets (one short term and one long term).

Trade Recap - LAKE

Image
Here was the daily chart for LAKE on Oct. 2nd: So I pulled up this daily chart after seeing my twitter traffic as well as having watching this stock the day before on its first massive volume day. LAKE was overextended and trading in the red all day so I was short biased because the first red day can be deathly for an overextended stock, but I also wanted to wait to short until it broke any major up-trendline. So I pulled up the intraday chart, drew my trendlines, and waited for the best opportunity to strike. I got my chances within minutes of getting home from work--around 2:45 pm. I shorted after the up-trendline was broken AND after the first bounce/retest of that trendline at $8.64. I also felt conviction because TKMR started pulling too. I set my stop at -18 cents and two price targets: +42 cents and +62 cents: So LAKE acted as predicted and began to fade. I got a really nice washout at $8.50 and $8.40, but my first price target at $8.22 wasn't hit. I started to

Trade Recap - GPRO

Image
If you haven't heard about GPRO, you've probably been living under a rock lately lol. GPRO has been on a complete tear since its IPO back in June. Here is a daily chart from Sept. 25th: So this puppy had gone from ~$30 to ~$80--almost a triple in just a few months! I wasn't trying to short this at any point until I saw the parabolic move from $65 to $80--most likely a result of over-zealous/uncompromising shorts. On the 25th, GPRO had a shake out over/under $80, and I thought I would enter short here after most of the shorts were panicked out, and no sane investor would buy at these levels--or would they? I thought it unlikely. I shorted a tiny 10 shares in the afternoon at $80.50 after it broke its uptrend line. I told myself to use tiny shares and a wide stop because I "knew" this stock would have to correct/retrace, so I would add in more shares short if it moved higher. I set my stop at an asinine level, $92.10:

How To Overcome the Most Stressful Trading Situations

As a newb trader analyzing his past trades, I've noticed that I struggle with sticking to my trading plans/rules and overcoming stressful trading situations. I realize that I'm not alone with this problem, and so I decided to do some research that might help me and other traders identify ways to improve upon these weaknesses. This post is about what I've discovered. First, I wanted to turn to professionals for insights on overcoming these problems. This is where I discovered what the Navy SEALs do to overcome stressful situations : “Information from our senses [visual, auditory, etc.] reach the amygdala almost twice as fast as the frontal lobes." The amygdala is the main culprit for our fight or flight response and the frontal lobes are responsible for rational thought and problem solving. "The speed of the different brain signals means that, unless we instinctively know how to react to a potential threat, we may freeze in fear waiting for the frontal lob

Trade Recap - LAKE

Image
Here is a daily chart of LAKE on Oct. 1st. As you can see, this puppy was up big time and on serious volume. Apparently this company makes HAZMAT suits--and with Ebola being diagnosed in the US--the market felt this company may benefit because there is no tested vaccine and the one that supposedly works has run out. Anyway, I could care less; I'm a technical trader. So I pulled up the intraday chart after coming home from work and noticed LAKE started a small re-tracement towards its uptrend line.

Trade Recap - RADA

Image
Here was the daily chart for RADA on September 29th: RADA had huge range and volume that day and this was the first decent green candle after a huge sell-off from the $6s. This is one of my preferred setups on a daily chart--a beat chart ( check out my trading rules here ). So I pulled up the intraday chart and noticed RADA had been selling off since its failure to break above $4 around noon. Here was my thought process: