Metaphysx.com

For the day: up $75, and down $1491 overall.

First, I’m likely not going to post daily on this subject anymore because, since I don’t trade daily, I’m mostly recapping the same stuff (up/down status) you can find if you follow the links in my “watchlist”. That and my little ‘vacation’ is over and I have to get back to ‘real work’ tomorrow. So I’m going to have to go back to more of a ’swing trade’ strategy that served me better than the recent pseudo-’day trading’ I’ve been trying out.

I’m also contemplating starting a new blog specifically about being a new trader, documenting lessons learned, etc. I’ll keep you updated if I go that route. I have a feeling most of my regular visitors aren’t interested in that sort of thing anyway.

With that said, today’s market activity was unpredictable, at least according to my methods, yet a good day in the end.
Continue reading ‘Confused’

I was almost dead-on in my prediction last Friday.  Look at the day’s chart.

There was a big sell-off in the morning and a modest recovery in the afternoon. However, the recovery wasn’t enough, so I opted to take a gamble and see what today might bring.

So, for Friday, I was up about $8.40, down $160 for the week and down $1375 overall.

Down $103 for the day and $1268 overall.

The good news is that I finally got out of my small CFC position. I can almost guarantee that it will go up tomorrow… but at least it’s one less thing I have to worry about.

CDS was up and down on very little volume. I think the world has forgotten about this stock. I wish I could. I’m still holding.

As I mentioned in this morning’s post, I was keeping an eye on CTDC and CSUN. I was right in my prediction and glad I stayed away from CTDC. It tanked today… until about 2:30p when it broke out into the green. In the end, it closed a smidgen higher than yesterday.

CSUN, was a roller-coaster ride. It spiked then settled, then spiked again and settled, signaling to me that the next spike was a good wave to catch. So I bought in at $18.41… which really is pretty high, but I thought a good entry point for what I was expecting to follow. I also decided on this trade that I would play it a bit less conservative and not sell at the first small-profit-taking opportunity. Instead, I was going to wait for a big end-of-the-day rally. Unfortunately, the DOW dropped big at the end of the day and the rally never came.

However, the price never dropped below my risk threshold, so I didn’t sell. I do fear that it will follow CTDC and tank in the morning, but we’ll see.

As of Friday, I’m up about $242 for the day, and down about $1210 overall.

I got really lucky. I was right in my original prediction about the solar sector and making the SOLF play. However, as I mentioned, my entry was horrible and I therefore held it overnight hoping for a continuation of the uptrend. As luck would have it, the sector tanked the next day. But on Friday… wow. Look at the chart. There was a small move up in the morning followed by a dip. Next came another move up a bit higher followed by a dip, but not as low. To me, this was the confirmation I was hoping for that the stock was about to rally. And did it! At about 12:30p, it really took off. Once it got up high enough, I went conservative and took my 3% profit, exiting at $27.40. As this was a sloppy play on my part, I was happy with that. But… hehe… the stock continued to go up throughout the afternoon, reached a high of about $29.65 and closed at $28.76. So, I could’ve really made a killing, but I didn’t deserve to.

Hopefully, with more experience, I’ll get better.

CDS barely moved and CFC was down, so I opted to hold them til next week and see how it plays out. I know I have to accept the losses here, but I’m trying to cut it down as much as I can.

As I mentioned before, I couldn’t trade anything on Tuesday, except to sell, so I was just an observer. CFC was down slightly. CDS was up slightly, but not enough to trigger my sell. So I held on to both, and was up $78 for the day.

Yesterday, though, the funds were settled, which would allow me to sell any new purchases should they tank right away. I got up early and noticed that the price of oil was up in Asia due to the U.S. crude inventories report due mid-morning. Something I’ve noticed is that solar energy companies tend to spike on news of higher oil prices. So I did some quick research on some stocks I’d been holding in my queue as possible plays someday: CSUN, SOLF and CSIQ. I also considered LDK, but it’s a bit too pricey for me.

So, knowing there would be news to boost any pre-existing turn-around, that’s what I looked for. SOLF would be the play.

But I did a bad thing. I put in a bid slightly lower than the last trade hoping to have it filled on a short pull-back that never came. Rather than accepting that I had missed my entry opportunity at $25.40, I chased the price just to get in, and finally got filled at $26.55. Yikes! Perhaps I should’ve taken a little profit on one of the spikes above $27, but I didn’t. The drop was a late-in-the-day drop likely because others were just taking profits. But the general up-trend should continue today.

CFC was again down slightly, and CDS was nearly unchanged except for a last minute spike up, putting me up about $270 for the day and down about $1190 overall.