I traded corn live today for the first time with a nice 9 tick profit. I've been testing the JoBracket breakout system using Ninja Trader with great success trading the news. I traded 1 contact of ZC just after the World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates were released today at 1:01 EST. If you interested in checking the system out just follow the link on my blog roll that say's "learn to trade the News automatically".
I was able to capture a nice move on WAG on Friday. On Thursday WAG had closed with a first higher low after a gap down over two weeks ago. WAG finished Thursday with a nice wide range green bar and I thought price action would see some follow through on Friday, so I had it on my daily list. Again price just exploded to the upside during the first 10 minute of trading. Lucky for me, price action pulled back and since the first rallie looked a little climatic, I chose to take the 2nd setup in WAG. My entry was at 63.41 as price started to rally again. Price moved up nicely just chugging along allowing me to hit my target one @ 64.07. My second target did not hit but I was so far up in price I decided to take the rest off @ 64.48 as the first major violation of a 5 minute bar had just happened. Huge positive play in price action and a great way to end the week of trading...
My two trades today gives you a really good look on how important the daily chart is to the success of your day trading. My first trade in XLNX I found on my list because of a red bar ignored on the daily chart. Some use the RBI's for an entry pattern, I don't but these are excellent plays if they happen on the daily chart and you zoom down to the 5 minute chart to find your entry. This is exactly what I did on my play in XLNX. Price action broke out and rallied hard at the open only to pull back hard. I avoided the first buy that triggered but when price started to form a bullish base I waited for the breakout. From the chart it looks like I was a bit early but in the end I was greatly rewarded as I sold my position into the close...
My next trade was in CREE which closed the prior day with a nice solid red bar after days of spinner type bars displaying traders indecision. The red bar gave me a clue that price should be heading lower. I entered my play short during lunch, and like many lunch time plays, I had to wait until the afternoon for a late day break down in price.
My first trade today came in the market (QQQ) this morning as the first 5 minute buy setup failed in the QQQ. I was all over it shorting the breakdown. Price attempted to recover but finally the Bears took over as the market started to sell off. Price then set up the first sell which allowed me to bring my stop down to a break even. Soon after I hit my first target @ .83 cents covering almost 1/2 of my shares. The Q's then sold off hard forcing me to cover 1/2 of what I had left @ .65. I still had two lower targets both were finally hit @ .53 cents and my final OMG target hit @ .38 cents covering shares at both prices. This is what you trade for!
Another crazy day of trading as the market finally sold off hard only to recover later in the day. My play of the day came in AAPL which made my early morning list as a Tier III gap up. AAPL gapped over the last two days of sideways price action and I was lucky to catch the first 5 minute buy that triggered above .07. Price action never looked back as apple exploded .47 cents in 15 minutes hitting my only target where I sold. Price actually hit .74 cents which was the high for the day in AAPL as price faded lower the rest of the day. Here is the chart for my play in AAPL...
I had a very small list to start the day with but I was lucky to spot WFC while doing my 9:45 am wide range bar scan. As the market sold off hard WFC pulled back into mS triggering a 5 minute buy near 10:30 reversal time. My entry was above .24 cents and as were were heading into lunch time price action rallied within .04 cents of my target so I decided to sell my shares at .37 cents. Not a huge play but with the narrow range days we have been having of late, I felt it best to take the money and run...
I was not exactly excited today to see the market gapping up this morning after 11 days up. After scanning my list of 100 stocks I had nothing on my list. Even after taking a 2nd look at all the 60 minute charts, I still had found nothing of interest. I thought about taking the QQQ short if it rallied for the first 5 minutes then have price proceed to take out the 5 minute bar low, this did not happen. Price action in the Q's just drifted sideways and moved upward after 10:30 am. Finally @ 12:05 pm reversal time my eyes spotted a wide range red bar forming in the QQQ. This was my entry to get short the market as I entered below .46 cents. With a full share size I started to take profits every .05 cents below. After 15 minutes I got the flurry low that I was looking for taking profits at .40, .35 and .30 cents. 10 minute later I covered more shares @ .25 cents and decided to cover on the first break of the 5 minute bar which took place at .33 cents 5 minutes later. A classic igniting bar play that worked out nicely on a day that I had few options...
My play of the day came in EBAY which I found on my 9:45 wide range bar list. Price action closed with a huge topping tail on the 15 minute bar but since ebay was consolidating since early Wednesday morning, I felt that Ebay was still good for a rally on a possible 5 minute buy setup. Ebay almost triggered the 5 minute buy on three 5 minute bars but finally triggered after 20 minutes of price going sideways. I did drill down to the 1 minute chart to confirm trend change before entering my long play in Ebay. Waiting for a confirmed trend change on the 1 minute chart will cost you a little and in this case it was about .05 cents, but the play worked out nicely as I entered the long trade @ .90 cents. I soon took profits at .95 cents and .00 and finally tailed out of the play after 4 bars up with a topping tail selling at .05 cents and closing the trade @ .02 cents. A nice 1 risk unit trade on this very tricky morning of trading...
I'm testing out some new software that will allow me to trade the news using futures contracts. I've taken about 6 trades already and have not had a loser, 3 winners and 3 no triggers, meaning the trade did not tigger. Below is a link to this mornings news trade in Unemployment announced this morning at 8:30am EST. $550.00 profit made in just a few minutes using a simulator account. Not bad! I guess I'll have to go live sooner than later 🙂
I still have a few post from last week that I'll get posted when I get a chance but today I just had a knockout day in WFM short. I found WFM on my Tier III gap down list but once you look at the chart, WFM rallied all day long until the end of lunch. As the Q's could not make up its mind on what direction it wanted to go after lunch, I felt that the Q's were still very weak and that a rally in the market would be short lived. I saw the first break down in WFM near its high of day but I still needed a pull back to perfect my entry. I soon got a small pull back near 2:15 pm reversal time. After a series of green bar, red bars, I noticed a solid red bar had formed almost taking out the lows of a sold green bar. As the next bar began to trade below I hopped on short @ .57 cents. Price moved down so rapidly that I started offering shares at every .05 cents lower and finally trailed out of the play @ .15 cents. I had decided that if WFM set up again within 3 bars, I'd short again, well my wish came through so went full share size a 2nd time and shorted at .19 cents and road price down to .06 cents taking my last few shares off the table. Huge play for me and one of the best scoring plays that I've made since I started to score my plays... Wow, what a great day of trading...
