The Q’s opened the day with a small gap up @ 83.05 and immediately set the high for the day @ 83.07 within the first 5 minutes of trading. Price sold off hard into 10 am reversal time setting the low of the day @ 82.64. Price then rallied into 10:30 am but coming up short of the high before rolling over to retest the lows again by 11:15 am reversal time. Price bounced to make a second lower high by 12:00 noon and again, price sold off lower but came up short of the low of the day by 1:15 pm. Price then rallied again making the first equal high of the day @ 82.87 by 2:45 pm before pulling back into 3:25 pm, our last reversal time of the day, making a higher low of the day @ 82.70 and rallying into the end of the day to close @ 82.94, just slightly off the open for the day.
QQQ 11042013
My play of the day came in MOS which I found as a beautiful 9:45 wide range bar to the upside. Almost like text book, price went up 3 bars and pulled back 4 bars with the last one a COG with a narrow range, bottoming type bar at reversal time. Since it was early in the day I placed my stop on the last low pivot area from Friday. I had longer targets in mind and I did not want to get stopped out. If the play is going to work out, you will get the opportunity to add and reduce the stop along the way and that is exactly what happened as MOS triggered another 15 minute buy an hour and 15 minutes later creating a higher low. As the second buy triggered I was able to safely increase my shares size over 4X,s, with a nice tight stop of .07 cents, but I used .10 cents. Price flurried up quickly where I offered out shares at the prior pivot high of .66 cents. As we headed into the afternoon, I again offered shares out @ .71, .74, and .77 as price was bouncing wildly. I was hopping for the high of the day but I ran out of time having to sell in the final minute of trading, my last shares @ .73.
I’ve come to realize that my job as a trader is to not get stopped out, and since I’ve been using larger stops, adding and reducing, and holding on to more of my shares for larger targets, my trading is really starting to pay off nicely. This is hard to do in the beginning for most traders because it takes awhile before you figure out how to come up with a quality list of stocks to trade with. Once you’re seasoned and 80% of your picks are winners, your job is to find a way to stay in the trade to target! Here is a big hint on finding the winners, find the “Elephant in the Room”. Look for the biggest, baddest wide range bars and play it in the direction of the bar. I do this using my 9:45 am wide range bar strategy, but you could use the same strategy on the first 5 minute bar or 30 minute bar. You could also use the strategy on the daily chart for swing trading. Here is a quick strategy that may help you if you are struggling:
- Find the Elephant in the Room (wide range bar).
- Risk size for the prior pivot low on the 15 minute chart.
- Look to add to your share size and reduce your stop on a higher low on the 15 minute chart.
- Targets are the high of the day or prior pivots, put up daily pivot lines to find longer targets or use the high, low, opens and closes on bars as targets from the daily chart.
- Adjust your targets if necessary as you head into the last hour of trading.
This works, but it takes practice, patience, and discipline. Keep Trading!
MOS 11042013
