Friday, March 27, 2009
Net Paper P&L: $770 (Good day, near objective) Caught 35% of $2210 Week performance: -$500, 0% of $29,560
Activity Log
09:22:47 Ready to trade.
09:25:43 Alright, let's try to forget about Wednesday and Thursday...
09:28:14 Significant gap down across the board.
09:31:08 Gap seems to be continuing across the board.
09:32:35 Sell 2 of AMZN at 7163
09:34:55 Buy 2 of AMZN at 7146 net $340
09:35:21 (AAPL) Just broke post-gap HOD.
09:36:02 Sell 1 of AAPL at 10795
09:36:44 (AMZN) Second wave.
09:37:27 (AAPL) 10717
09:37:55 Buy 1 of AAPL at 10752 net $430
09:38:21 Second wave taking a breather.
09:39:01 (AAPL) Very wide 107.81, 108 is a strong pivot.
09:41:07 (MS) Did nothing so far.
09:41:29 (AMZN) Third wave now.
09:44:51 (AMZN) 7057
09:45:03 (AMZN) Would set limit to 70.10 here, hard stop at 71.10.
09:45:19 (AMZN) 7049
09:47:20 (AMZN) 7097
09:47:33 (AMZN) Now we find out if 71.00 holds. Notice we bottomed at 9:45 sharp.
09:48:31 (AMZN) 7064
09:48:53 (AMZN) Well well... Come on, surprise me!
09:50:22 (AAPL) Finally moving a bit off 108.
09:51:28 (AMZN) Breaking LOD at 70.47.
09:53:25 (AMZN) Slllllooooowwwww
09:54:25 (AMZN) Trendline high about 70.65, getting tight with this stagnation.
09:54:59 (AMZN) 7065
09:55:18 (AMZN) Crossing trendline, definite exit 70.74 (net), left .72 on table.
10:04:40 (AMZN) 1min trend line is definitively broken. That'll be all for today. I'm not interested (for now) in longer winded, higher-risk day trades.
10:04:42 Stop trading.
Commentary
The MS continuation after 9:32 was a 1-minute thing. Easy to steer clear of.
AAPL broke 108 eventually, and I dumped at first sign of weakness given Wednesday and yesterday's poor action. To truly follow my system though, I should've tolerated that setback and exit at break-even, or possibly stayed short as we never broke 108.40 HOD up, and as of 10:06 we're about to break LOD which could have decent momentum given the wait it took.
AMZN continued its gap down nice and early, and that was my first trade, so I was as anxious as with AAPL. My system though should've allowed for retracing to 71.80 which it never did. Then at 9:47 a trendline on the 1-minute chart could be drawn, and was finally broken at 9:55.
Overall, after two days of utter crap, we see that the Earth is still round, the world is still right-side up, which puts a reassuring end to this first week back on the saddle. The worst I could've done is skip today based on the previous two.
Post-Market Addendum
When AMZN broke the 1-minute trend line, it broke for the day. It then moved over 72.00 before trending back down to 70.50. The short at the open was indeed over at 9:55.
Shorting AAPL at 107.12 at 10:06 would not have yielded anything. It continued sideways from there and closed at 106.71. However, it never went above 108.00-108.40 (depending on which market maker you ask) so on the 15-minute chart, it's in a down trend. That said, holding throughout the weekend in something this volatile isn't my style. I'm therefore not amending my day, but I am taking note for the future: if there's no break in the opposite direction, there's no reason to exit a call very quickly.