New Rules for February and Beyond

After the debarcle that occurred in January with the MA trade (one trade in one month essentially) and the significant losses made last year on holding stocks overnight, my new, very firm rule is not to hold positions overnight - except options. This will prevent me from using the "I'll hold overnight" to justify a losing trade.

In general I have NEVER lost money scalping my basket stocks. I have only ever lost money by trading something I've never traded before out of boredom or spontaneity OR by holding overnight.

Rules:

1) No holding Equity Positions overnight (Options are for overnight swing trades ONLY)
2) Don't momentum scalp oversold/overbought situations and don't "double down" those positions
3) Only buy options on down days (preferably consecutively down) when the stock is overbought/sold in multiple timeframes and only in the last hours of trading (sell options into a rally if possible)
4) Don't hold losers for more than a few minutes
5) Hold winners longer in the right climate
6) Don't trade against reversals! (reaffirming (2))
7) Take a break after a big loser/multiple winners
8) ONLY trade my basket stocks EXCEPT on earnings breakouts or breakdowns

I will add more when I think of them!

Thursday 7th February 2008

Had a fairly risky/rough day. Got lucky in the pre-market with a short on BSC that just made it to the target before reversing for the rest of the day. Sold the ICE Call for a $210 profit at around 10am. Missed a good deal of further upside, but at that stage it looked like the market was going lower and ICE was already up over $10. Made some dumb/risky plays on AAPL late in the day, which is true to my usual bad timing in the afternoon. Lost half of what i'd made and then made it all back with Longs on ATVI on good earnings. I'm taking a break tomorrow (unless something really good sets up), this week has been steller in a Profit sense.

+$970

Wednesday 6th February 2008

Did well in the morning, but started messing around in the afternoon. It really could have been alot worse than it was - I took way too much risk for no reward... my usual "boredom" problem. Went long on CSCO into earnings... earnings came out flat thus i got out for no gain/loss. Went short following the growth negativity and made a couple of bucks off that play.

+$960

Bought 1 ICE March 140 Call

Bought at $4.50, ICE is tanking today. I'm looking for it to reverse around the 120 support.

I'm also starting to fiddle around with not much going on. I need to quit!! It is my big problem, getting ahead in the morning and killing the whole thing in the afternoon. I'm up $500 right now. I should quit for the day.

Sold 1 AAPL April 150 Call

Sold for $5.00... only wanted to keep one long-term

Tuesday 5th February 2008

Today I scalped short on everything. GS, BSC, AAPL were the main ones. Maybe a little in the A/H going long DIS and JDSU.

I also went long 2 AAPL $150 April calls for $4.65 each.

+$980

Thursday 31st January 2008

Sold 100 MA in Pre-market for 195.45. I just couldn't wait the extra 4 hours it took to get back to even. Bah!

-$2080