Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Net Paper P&L: $-2110 (Horrible, market jumped or execution errors?) Caught 0% of $500
Activity Log
09:02:12 Ready to trade.
09:29:45 Futures slightly positive.
09:30:38 AMZN, AAPL, MS big gaps up
09:32:02 Buy 1 of AAPL at 10805
09:33:11 Buy 2 of AMZN at 7353
09:34:13 Well, this is definitely not like yesterday.
09:34:51 Both LOD? Waiting for break to dump, possibly reverse.
09:35:14 (AAPL) HOD now, wtf?
09:35:31 Sell 2 of AMZN at 7311 net $-840
09:35:39 Sell 1 of AAPL at 10758 net $-470
09:35:51 Sell 1 of AAPL at 10741
09:38:30 Sell 2 of AMZN at 7302
09:39:48 Waiting for direction.
09:40:28 (AAPL) Down.
09:41:23 (AMZN) Ugly.
09:44:28 Buy 1 of AAPL at 10725 net $160
09:44:58 Turning back up.
09:45:10 Buy 2 of AMZN at 7350 net $-960
09:46:59 (MS) Was a buy at 25.85 at 9:42, 26.15 now.
09:47:08 (AAPL) LOD
09:47:20 (AMZN) Bullish if anything, but within range.
09:47:40 (AAPL) Looks like I was had by a typical 2-minute scare.
09:49:22 (MS) Testing 26.00. Doesn't look like it'll hold.
09:50:51 (MS) Held. Breaking HOD.
09:51:18 (AAPL) Holding 107.50 but less and less down.
09:52:39 SP500, AMZN surprise move up, pushing HOD.
09:52:49 (AAPL) 107.50 broken, officially sideways
09:54:36 (MS) Possible exit 26.27
09:56:08 Alright I've had enough, it was as messy as I feared.
09:56:11 Stop trading.
Commentary
The losses in AMZN and AAPL's first long trades made me wary of MS. Obviously that was irrational. The clear entry in MS was 25.85. A first exit was somewhat 26.25 but it was merely a slow-down and did not come back under 26.20. New home sales news then helped it up in a second wave to 26.60-26.70. Say spread-adjusted exit at 26.50, that's $2600 on 4000 shares. Would've overshot the losses by a net $500.
MS was actually at its HOD at 10:10 when I closed my charting software. It broke its trend on the 15-minute chart in the next bar. The sell at 26.50 was thus judicious. Off the trend, I probably would've had to exit closer to 26.15.
This was a mixed day, worth break-even at best. No need to obsess over it; I just don't see how I could've caught much in the first two hours. Everything broke short around noon but I don't day trade afternoons and it wasn't big enough to trigger swing trading calls.