After a slower start to the week, Tuesday was once again abundant in opportunity. There were too many trades to document, so here’s a selection of three.
I’m aware I’m posting all tech stocks today — that’s just the way it goes sometimes. First off, here’s the least profitable of the trio — MSFT:
Like all of today’s selection, the entry came relatively late in the morning. There was little in the way of clear direction until getting on for 11. Sitting on the sidelines is, of course, a valid strategy. We cannot force good trades to come along. We wait patiently, ready to pounce if and when they turn up.
Anyway, once MSFT finally made a break for it, I had the blue line in mind as a target. It did get through, but came back quickly to test it. As momentum fell away too, I was out. I scored this as a 4 in the log book because really I had enough in the bank to hold it a bit longer, and it was obviously still weak. Holding longer would have been valid.
One that I did hold for much longer was PYPL:
There was a slightly earlier entry, but the volume wasn’t enough to convince me it would get below the line. That’s easy enough to deal with — I just waited for it to get over the line!
It was hardly a fast drop, just slow and steady. I almost got out on those two green bars, but having seen what had happened on MSFT bolstered me to stay in and see where it went. Remember, not all indicators and indications are on the chart. We have to take market conditions into account too. Stuff was heading south all over the place in this sector.
I was rewarded with a second drop on mounting volume. When that volume dried up, it was time to take the profit and run. $1,390 profit on the PayPal trade was an improvement on Microsoft, but there was yet more to be had from our old friend Facebook.
This trade was all going on at much the same time as MSFT, so when the price came up to retest the blue line, and knowing that FB is a fickle and volatile stock I took the money and ran. That made the shortest trade of these three the biggest winner.
As it happens, like MSFT, there was more mileage to be had from FB with a good second entry for anyone who wanted it.