Best month YTD !!

It's not often when I'm dealing with buying and selling indiviual stocks that I can sing something good is happening, but August was my best month of the year. My liitle account is not worth much at the moment, but it is growing monthly because I'm feeding it new monies. When I paid cash for that car last March, it kind of drained my trading funds. This month I made $400 to put in my pocket which is good by my standards. I know the guys who do this for a living and trade big bucks, this is chump change, but I do this now educating myself for the next phase in my life when I retire. So yearly, I'm down $849 which is a little depressing, but nothing I cannot overcome. I'm self taught via books, internet, and following the reading of some traders online. 

One more note. I may be down year to date trading individual stocks, but my retirement account is up over 13% for the year. I monitor that as close if not closer than my stock trading. Yes, I move money in an out of different funds throughout the year and this year I have made 8 moves. 

My current stock positions are DMND, FBHS, LULU, MDAS, and PLCM. I'm up on 2 out of 5 currently and the only back breaker at the moment is DMND. I'm currently down 5.8% if I was to close this position right now. My stoploss on the stock is $18.50 and current price is $19.67. Overall the current movement in the stock is sideways and still meets all my requirements, so I will continue to hold this. PLCM looks a little shakey at this time, but I still like it. All other positions look good and I will hold them all over the weekend. 

No trading Monday in the US because of Labor Day Holiday, so Tuesday we get back at it. My current watch list and holdings are below.

Bad day in the market and I'll show you mine.

What I like or love about most people that trade stocks is that they always tell you how much they are making or how great their last trade was but never show you. If you really want to cut to the chase with these hero's, ask them one simple question and that normally ends the conversation. Can I see your profit and loss statement year to date? Most will give you a deer in the headlight look to which you just smile and walk away. Without that data, it's just words. 

Today the stock market was down .8 to 1 % on most indexes. Since those indexes are made up of several stocks, it doesn't seem so bad. So when you own individual stocks, it sometimes can get brutal. The 5 stocks that I show above are all owned by me and they were all down. The range was .5 to 4.3%. Ouch! I really only had one stock get pounded into the ground and that was DMND down 4.3%. The rest were 1.5% or less. 

As you click those stocks above you will see a green dotted line which represents my entry price and then a solid red line with a flag showing my trailing stop. None were hit today and I can only hope that this is just a temporary selloff that will rebound tomorrow. I was just starting to digout of my last hole, so I would like to keep that going. The one thing that has me concerned is that the Dow30 and Transportation are starting to tank and that could be a sign of things to come in the very near future. Oh, we also have Uncle Ben speaking tomorrow. I expect that he'll do nothing and I expect that we might have another selloff because of that. 

Below is a chart of the S&P500 and it is starting to show signs a warning is warranted. I use a Count Back Line to help me take the emotion out selling stocks because my discipline is not always the best. But when it comes to my retirment money, I like to stay on top of things. You will see below that we are approaching my first warning level and that is the Count Back Line in Red. Price is stll above both the Exponential and Simple moving averages and both averages are still rising. Lastly, price is also above the current green uptrend line. I would have to see price close below the 50's and break the the uptrend line before I would pull my retirement money out of this current market uptrend. 

APKT Breakout

APKT is sqwaking buy me today breakout out of my Count Back Line, Downtrend line, and above the 50 day moving average. I'm out of funds and I do not want to sell my current positons. :(

Bought a couple more today.

Today I purchased a couple more stocks and that pretty much taps me out until I close a position. Below you will find 2 charts with all the details on the charts. Once again, I found both of these stock ideas from following the guys at IBankCoin.com. Have all intentions of joining their page so I can expand my horizons.

Took a profit and bought 2

Ok, I totally chickened out of CTRP and put it on my radar to watch for now. I made a grand total of $14, but it just look suspicious and I felt better with my capitol back in my account. If it tanks then I was right and justified and if I'm wrong, it is money I never had, so once again none of my money lost. 

Today I did as I said I would do and re-entered DMND. I also bought LULU. On the charts below you will see a green dotted line showing my entry price and it lines up with the day purchased. All the other lines have notes and are self explained. 

Last one till next week.

Ok, this one I was actually waiting for the breakout and it was on ChessNwine watch list. I do not trade for a living and like you hear some golfers say, I'm a hack. But with that said, I feel if I actually gave myself the time to do this once retired, I could do it fairly well. I manage not to lose to much money year over year and for the most part tread water. That is not my goal. My goal is to make money to entertain my self and mind. I really do not care if I'm rich, but like most things that I do, I want to be good at it. 

 

I wanted to hang around the house and see what this stock was going to do, but I had some errands, like changing the oil that just had to be done. I was 2.5 hours behind the breakout on this one and I bought near the high of the day. I guess this is better than 2 days behind, as I normally do. :) The 50 day ma's are rising and we have a prior breakout out af a long consolidation along with a breakout of current consolidation. What kills me is what I show you next.

Above is the 10 minute chart. I moved some key information from the daily chat so you could closely see breakout, purchase price and then the end of day selling. Kind of a disappointment to see that right after pulling the trigger, but my stoploss is set just below the last consolidation channel.

One of my current postions

On the 23rd of August and also via Ibankcoin, I purchased CTRP. Once again, they are in and out and I'm still holding the bag. I do have rules, I just do not always follow them and sometimes my emotion override common sense based on all that I have read in books and on the Internet. On this transaction the only mistake that I feel that I made was being late into the trade. The second mistake I might make and based on the stock movment Friday, is moving that stoploss in pretty tight. I guess I would be more tolerant this time if I had entered on the breakout day between $14.92 and $15.43. I on the otherhand got in at $16.31, really small position and then again same day, at $16.71. So my stoploss is tight. Currently in the money with a 3% gain. 

 

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If your reading this for the first time and are even thinking about getting in, I would wait. I would wait for another pivot low and I would not purchase above $17.48 until we have that lower pivot. Right now it looks like there is more of a chance of profit taking, than another surge up.

Deck, successful trade and watch

Deck was another stock that I found through Ibankcoin and this turned out well for me. I do not remember their entry or exit, but once again I was behind them. As you can see on the chart, I entered after my first green count back line was broken and even though not shown, the downtrend was barely broken. I set my intial stoploss @ $44.33. Once Deck hit it's current high of $51.65, I moved my stoploss to $46.20. That put me in the money unless it opened prior to the markets opening below my entry point. For some reason that I do not completley remember, I moved that stoploss extremly close and took a profit at $49.75. I'm pretty sure it had to do with the markts sounding and looking negative and the second fact that the Fly had already closed his position. I'm happy with the profit. 

Now to me, it looks like Deck is creating a Bullflag, so it is in my watch list to re-purchase. I would like to see it fall a day or two further so my count back line for re-entry would move down below the current high. Right now, by my rules, I would need a breakout through $51.65 before I could buy. 

Diamond - DMND

Now to explain my entry / Exit and now why I want to re-enter.

Once again, I found this lead from Ibankcoin and it was selected by the Fly. I cannot take any credit in finding this stock, nor did I follow his entry and exit. I have my own rules, but he and his team are trained professionals and I'm still a dweeb learning the craft / discpline. If I read everthing correctly, Fly and his group purchased while the last consolidation started to break uphill, prior to my Count back line GREEN line that is one of my signals to buy. The second thing thing I would need to see is the downtrend line broken. Lastly is the price closing above the 50 day moving average in light blue. 

The Fly and Ibankcoin traders were selling their positions where I marked it, " I read about it here", and this is where I finally felt comfortable buying. So I was way behind their entrys and exits. The next day I purchased DMND at $20.36 and set a stoploss order @ $19.49 just in case I was terribly wrong. My position lasted just 24 hours and I was bounced out for a 6% loss. I think my stoploss was a little tight, but my tolerance, so my stoploss. I have enough problems with discipline now, to start worrying about stoploss being to tight. Now to part 2.

So seeing that DMND is now making higher highs and higher lows, I should have never set my stoploss so close and I should still own this stock. So come Monday as long as the markets are not tanking, I will likely re-purchase DMND and set my stop loss per the chart above. The last two trades that I used information from IBankCoin made me $132. Just another $227 to go in profit and I will join their membership. I feel if I'm reading and learning from their site then I should at least pay them for the services they provide. I guess you could say why not ride it for free? Well, I want to learn more so I can do this for me when I retire. I'm a big fan of ChessNwine on the same page, so I recommend reading. 

Took some profits.

I held my long position in the S&P500 for 78 days but I just got the feeling that things this week were doing more than just consolidating so I decided to go ahead and take my little profit. As with the S&P, I also held a position in the Small Cap for 53 days and even though I made just .30cents, I just wanted my capital back. I had watched these funds go in and out of profit so many times, I was exhuasted. 

To give credit where credit is due, I found this stock and or the timing to get in via www.ibankcoin.com. As they were buying and selling, I was just getting in and holding based on my entry signals that are required for me. That position was DECK. I also bought DMND based on that same observation and then my rules to get in, but did not make any money on the second. My timing was bad on DMND. 

Long time No Post.

Ok, my stock picking and playing skills have been a long hard road of success and some dreadful defeats. Those defeats can really put your total psyche into a tail spin. I have been so focused on my Retirement Account that in my opinion was affecting my stock picking and handling skills. So in July I basically put myself in a holding pattern. I decided that I spent so much time watching the S&P 500 and Small Cap that I might as well trade them. Well my first two plays worked out so bad that I put that on hold to. I think the downtime on watching any stocks at all and just watch my Retirement did me some good. So below you will see my damaged returnd for the year. It looks worse than it is, because if you see what I currently own and where they are, I'm working myself back to zero once again. One of these days I will iron this out.

I had no sales in July but I held UPRO for 72 days so far and I'm up $382.00. I am also still holding TNA for 47 days and I'm up $164.00. I made my first stock purchase in almost two months and I've own it 2 days and I'm up $253.00 and that is DECK. So I'm not that bad off but I also know that I can't count profit until I sell it. So this is a work in progress and I will never say never. I just have to find my sweet spot. I need to teach myself that taking a $50 profit is not a bad thing and sometimes I will do that waiting on that stock to run and it never does only to reverse to my stoploss.

Just remember folks, this is my play money that I will not cry over if I lose it but it would hurt my feelings. I'm still convinced that I can turn a profit on a regular bases in up and down markets, I just have to keep practicing. Below are my current holding as they show in my account at TD Ameritrade.