Hey Guys,
The market is up some to start the day, although it's still clearly in a volatile state. Most of my positions have gone up in value since yesterday, which might add to my probability of ending up with a profit, but until the trades are closed anything can happen.
My MU stock position reached its profit target this morning. It was an earnings day trade and the volatility spiked the price upward. Over the course of 20 years, when my trading strategy overlaps an earnings announcement, more often than not it may have resulted in a profit according to the research I did. In fact the average profit may have been twice that of non-earnings day trades according to back tests. That said, they also exhibit much more volatile results. So even though in the long run it might pay off to take those trades, in the short run on any given trade there can at times be very tough losses. This one went my way and I'll take it.
My SBLK stock position from the low-priced account reached its time limit so I closed that one. It came in just under breakeven, and I feel like celebrating it even though it was technically a loss. That one got close to a stoploss and then turned around and almost fully recovered. Sometimes stocks get near the profit target and reverse course, and it can be painful to watch. So I like to notice when the opposite happens, and let it sink in that it can go both ways. It helps me maintain a better grasp of the big picture.
I bought GIS in the main account today. It is one of the rare trades where the ticker did not come off the watch list. It was on the scan, but it wasn't close to its potential entry price as of the end of the day yesterday so I didn't put it on the watch list. It had earnings announced before the market opened today and its price came way down and triggered an entry.
Although the scan helps pick up every possible trade setup out there before I post it, the reality is that more than 90% of my trades come from the watch list. So if you use the watch list each day and set up buy limit orders for the tickers on there before the market opens, then you'll be able to get into the large majority of trades I make at the same time as me. You are definitely welcome to do the scan too, but there might be a diminishing return on your time since it takes effort to process the scan and it it doesn't add that many more new trade opportunities. But it does give you full visibility on every possible trade setup.
And to be clear, for those of you who simply follow my trades, you don't have to worry about the scan or the watch list. You can just keep following the trades I post like normal.
One last note: I originally posted the wrong closing date for DHI somehow. I revised it to be December 27.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.