Harvey’s Day Trading Blog

A quick trade to finish up the first week back at the grindstone. Here’s a little short on ZM:

Continue reading “A Mistake To Avoid”

It was the best of times it was the worst of times. Nope, who am I kidding, this isn’t going to work. I’m posting two trades today, and neither represent either the best or the worst of times. But they do show something else quite interesting. They handily illustrate that whether we have a large or small trading account, there are similar opportunities out there.

Continue reading “A Tale Of Two Trades”

The first day back is the easiest when you’ve only been averaging one day’s work a week. It’s no different to the rest of the summer. As my niece said to me after her first day back at school this week, “The real work starts tomorrow.” The second consecutive day in front to the screen is when you know you’re properly back to work.

Continue reading “The Real Work Starts Tomorrow”

Just to prove that it’s not only about the core stocks when trading through the summer downturn, Friday produced a couple of winners that were most definitely not from the core list.

First up (though only by a matter of minutes), was this little beauty from NKTR:

All standard stuff, and over in a quarter of an hour, netting a four-figure profit in supposedly one of the quietest months of the year. Summer doldrums? What summer doldrums?

Next, YELP:

This trade lasted a third of the time of the previous one, and made about a third of the profit, which seems fair enough. About $500 in five minutes is not to be sniffed at.

Both of these trades were absolutely textbook — literally. Anyone who’s read the book will recognise the patterns and the reasons for entry and exit.

So there you have it. A ‘quiet’ Friday in a ‘quiet’ summer week, and a couple of trades that between them netted more than two thousand dollars profit in about fifteen minutes. Of course, it’s never quite that simple — there was some pre-market work involved in finding those trades. Not much, less than an hour, but it’s often overlooked. Still, my working day was done by half ten Eastern Time, just in time for Mrs W to drag me off for the next item on her summer agenda.

While working in summer mode, I’m keeping things ticking over with the odd trade here and there when time, motivation, and Mrs W’s calendar permit. Sometimes that means a few trades in a week, sometimes it means none. Monday offered a chance to grab an hour in front of the screen, but no time for pre-market homework. So it was core stocks only. Fortunately Tesla came up with a nice quick winner, as it is prone to do most days:

Nothing groundbreaking or Earth-shattering or any other metaphor involving destruction. Just a regular pattern trade on a core stock. The exit was quick and at the first target and first sign of hesitation. It made a quick $720 profit, which keeps the old trading account ticking over and takes the pressure off for the rest of the week.

Summer or no summer, vacation or no vacation, whatever the day, whatever the weather, whenever the market is open, there’s always something to trade. Something, somewhere, is always making a nice simple, predictable, low-risk, high-probability, tradeable move. Sometimes that’s a core stock, sometimes it’s one from the daily watchlist.

Last time we looked at a core stock that was putting reliable dollars into the bank despite the start of the summer doldrums, so now let’s take a look at one that came off the daily watchlist.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect much from CSX at the start. It all went rather sideways, giving nothing away. But when it did go, it went far and fast, just how we like it. In under half an hour it generated nigh on two grand profit. The exit was clearly signaled by the momentum dropping away and a small bounce. All straightforward stuff.

That’s it for today. I’m in holiday mode, so fewer trading days and shorter blog posts are the order of the day!