3SOF

I am a classic fixer upper!!!!

Disclaimer - - I don't suggest anyone follow me into any of my trades or my evil plans. In fact - - If I post - - with my track record, you should probably take the other side of the bet, because... I tend to break ALL of the rules that make sense to most sensible people. Like:

1) I quit my job 3 years ago, because it was way too stressful and burning me out. And for the last year at said job... I had to give myself the following pep talk as I walked in the door, "You can do anything for 16 hours... except for screw... now paste on that smile ... get in there and make me PROUD!" ... and after I realized that I had my priorities all messed up and quite... when I made my first trade, I had to run to the bathroom to hurl ... yet somehow, I still find trading less stressful.

2) They say to NEVER "gambol" (in the market) with money that you can't afford to lose or you need for your rent/mortgage ... and yet I have a $3500 mortgage to pay every month... and it comes directly out of my trading account. Yes it is an uphill battle that causes me to make bad decisions... or should I say indecisions. Do you hear the sucking sounds???

3) It's smart to diversify. I'm blond and can really only remember 3 things without having to write them all down. SO ... I'm better at putting ALL my eggs in one basket ... and then watching that basket like a hawk.

4) I must have been a crow in my past life, because I find I get WAY distracted with the new hot "shiny bright object" stocks and when I try to think about ALL the stocks on all of my watch lists ... I kind of lose my little mind trying to remember the strategy/trading pattern for each one. I need to narrow my focus. And I tend to "samanthasize" about what a stock could do. Very bad.

5) I'm still a newbie at charting and candle spotting ... please don't LOL at any of my graphs ... someday they will be art... but I would LOVE to master that skill.

6) I really love options, but haven't really figured out what to make of them just yet.

7) I like a good nap when the market closes ... at 1 my time

8 ) I'm probably WAY too emotional to be doing this ... as a job. I'd like to cut out the thrill ... a bit.

9) Money management? I never have an entry/exit/repair strategy. I get WAY too attached to the stocks I own as I get caught up in the "story" ... or the "strategy" ... and I've owned stocks that have gone to zero ... that haven't started out as penny stocks... Trust me (this once) it just doesn't feel good to have a great tax loss. Though ... I still own a couple pennies that just never seemed worth selling because of the transaction fees.

10) I'm notorious for watching a stock rally and do ... nothing. Or watch a stock I own fall and do ... nothing.

SO ... on that note. I'm going to focus on 3 things... cause that's my limit. I'll consider any rational explanation/chart from the experts; there are so many awesome people on this site, for good trades/learning etc. But once I get into something - - I'll mute the TV and focus... to the best of my abilities... and try to get in and out every day. Baby likes a good nappy nap and a good night sleep.

1 - I'm going to come up with a QQQQ day trading strategy that lets me take money out every day ... and sleep well at night. It needs to be something that is so technically driven that ALL emotion can be removed.

2 - I'm going to scan for stocks with options that have skewed volatilities... do research ... so that when they move I can hop on and know I'm not chasing the next "shiny bright object".

3 - I would like to come up with a LEAP strategy - where I can buy the future and sell the present to generate income every month.

In the process ... I'm really hoping to correct all of my many mistakes and short comings.

I promise that I will post my trades as they happen ... unless I come up with a strategy ... or 3 that work ... in which case I will just offer up the criteria and post as necessary.

COMING SOON!!!! I'll post what I have on my three strategies and beg for input.

-Samantha

hi samantha,
you are completely insane! i love it
everybody talks about taking the emotion out of trading but let me tell you, that is completely impossible.
why?
because there is no such thing as a neutral thought . all thoughts manifest themselves in form at some level. there can be nothing neutral about it.
trading , like everything else, should not be dull , should not be boring . yes , the object is to become a better trader and the money will follow. but truth be told , the reason we do it is to make money. if you didn't you would just paper trade and get good at that. why do we need so much money? well you have to pay your mortgage. i have to travel, others do what ever.  (just as long as the money is being spent). remember money is useless until it is spent. it's as much an illusion as anything else in the world.
the most important thing in trading as in anything is to find your own style.
i love this diary that you have started, and scottish trader, and terliso turning 5000 to 50000. cause i believe you can succeed at this in your own way .
good luck.
maxi

Yes sounds interesting. I do want to share one important life changing advice I had from David here at 3SoF ------->

"Have a real job b/c it extremely stressful to pay bills doing trading".

Thanks I took that one. Trading as source of wealth creation is a different ball game then making a living. I wish you goodluck.

Samantha...U r one crazy nut...and I understand U completely

U gave me a good chuckle and I realized that I was also laughing at myself...you sound alot like me...or maybe i sound alot like u

I still never know exactly what i'm doing or should be doing..i keep changing my strategies..i feel like i have tried so many and have perfected none. Although, i do know i want to day and swing trade...would rather not hold stocks for a long period anymore, although i still manage to get stuck in many as i didnt sell them when i should have and now they are down 50% or more...so i'm still accumulating these POS stocks..yay!

Well..i wish u the best of luck and hope u find a trading plan that best suits u and allows u to pay off ur daily living expenses and afford u many luxuries as well;D

P.S...for years as a kid i fantasized that I had Samanthas powers...wow..they would really come in handy during trading

good luck and i will be looking out for your posts.

thanks

julia

I'm so glad all of these bad habits are not just mine!!! I've tried to incorporate your suggestions. I keep reading all the posts. Everyone else is so "together" they have a plan and they work the plan ... they're diversified. They get in and out when the charts tell them to... or when they say they will ...they take both gains and losses... none of this speaks to me... just yet. Julia - see below! I twitched my nose and simplified my life!!!! I think we might be on to something!!!! hahahahHAHAHAHAHHA

CHANGES I MADE TODAY:
*Sent resume to recruiter. 

*The "shiny bright object" stock I TRIED to ignore today – CNLG. 
I don't know ANYTHING about it... I'll never be gusty enough to buy it. I didn't let it mesmerize me all day ... though ... really ....only superman could have resisted checking on it ... once or twice... 

*I've deleted ALL my watch list tabs except for 1. Then cut back the list of stocks in that tab and organized them in categories (Own, Penny, Canada, 3SOF, Skew and Qs) so that I'll know why I think they're interesting. AND ... I collapsed all the tabs that I shouldn't be looking at today. That gave me a list of 5 stocks + the DIA for reference. Technically, this is 3 more than I should be looking at ... but it's a HUGE improvement over what I was looking at. Already, I feel less scattered.

*I deleted all of my alerts and made more meaningful alerts for the few stocks I'm TRULY watching. OH ... and I found some killer sound bites to hook my alerts to!!! Sorry...

*Likewise, I deleted all the stocks expect for the few in my watch list from all of my other windows (nasd up/down, strategy ticker etc). I'm no longer going to be distracted by the stock I have never bought/sold ... and will never have the guts to buy/sell.

PROJECTS:
1 - Scan for Strange SKEW options on Tuesdays and this is the list that I'm  tracking on currently:
NFLD http://www.3stocksonfire.org/trading/index.php?topic=7227.0 ... though the stock topic is better because ST is tracking on it ... and he's just smart.
ONXX http://www.3stocksonfire.org/trading/index.php?topic=7426.0
AGIX http://www.3stocksonfire.org/trading/index.php?topic=7413.0

2 - Preliminary QQQQ strategy and criteria – needs to be refined, reordered, backtested and then put into a checklist format. How "nice" that the market fell out of bed today so I could see how criteria SHOULD work. I'm assuming it will be way less obvious as to what I should do in a so/so market. The options I looked at today were the Jan07 43calls (trading range $1.65 - $2.35) and the Jan07 46 puts (trading range $1.80-$2.50) - - surely there could have been an easy dime to grab in there somewhere.... Here is the criteria I have so far:

1)   In the first half hour of trading – I'll look for an agreement between DIA and QQQQ as to direction of the market for the day. Using the fast 6EMA and the slow 13EMA on the 2min chart, if the cross over is agreed upon, I'll consider buying puts or calls depending on the direction of the cross over.
2)   I'll consider the long term support and resistance – If I'm too close to either, I'll expect a reversal. If I get a cross I'll take that as the new direction. I'll also keep my eye out for intraday patterns that may be helpful. So ... I'm going to be drawing a lot of lines...
3)   Since I want this to be an intraday strategy, if I don't get a signal in the first half hour (ya ... amateur hour ...) I'm going to bag it. Initially, I think I need the whole day to make decisions about entry/exit/adjustments.
4)   I'll only consider options that are at least one month out. So, currently only looking at Jan07 options with a Delta close to .7. The current month options are half the price and have great moves ... but mentally I need the time to be right or wrong so I don't get panicky.
5)   If I get in on the Qs, I'll monitor the 1/2/3/5 min charts (of both the DIA and QQQQQ) for direction consensus and sell confirmations. Keeping in mind that the 1 min chart throws way too many signals to really be helpful.
6)   I'm also going to keep my eye on the top 10 NASDAQ volume stocks to make sure they are confirming the direction – it always seems that when one of those gets on a tear the Qs tend to pause or reverse.
7)   It looks like StochRSI(14) crosses over RSI predict buy and sell points... not sure why... cause I don't really know what they are or what they do.
8 )   MACD and Sell Line crosses also seem to predict good buy sell points ... again ... not sure why.
9)   I'm not going to get sucked into a late day rally with this strategy. There always seems to be a reversal (or 2) of sorts in the last half hour. I will try to close my positions by 3pm ... no later than 3:30.
10)   My goal will be to take out a dime on the options. I haven't decided if that needs to be a matter of buying and immediately putting in a sell order ... or if it should be a trailing stop ... or a mental stop. Knowing me ... probably shouldn't be the later.
11)   I would like to incorporate those three magic lines somehow they seem ... pretty magical... hahahaHAHAHHAHA
12)   I need to refine this list ... there's so much in here that I'm sure it will give me a good case of analysis paralysis.


3 – Leap strategy for monthly income. True confession time!!! Before I joined 3SOF, I purchased AVNR Jan09 $5 leaps calls (for $5) and sold the Nov06 $7.50 calls (for $2.75), because the SKEW volatility was HUGE on the Nov calls compared to history and also the Jan09 calls. Hind sight, it was probably too much volatility to be dealing with ... and if that hadn't discouraged me, I really should have sold the $5 calls (for $4.50) instead. Note - the $2.50 Jan calls weren't available until after the fall. So ... I woke up the morning of the big fall and bought back the Nov call for $.05 and now I'm in the hole on the Jan09 calls. I'm hoping for a bit of a rally on that over the next couple years so I can sell calls. I'm tempted to see if I can sell/buy the Jan09 $7.5 calls and eek out a dime here and there to start working myself out of the hole on my cost basis – currently I'm down ($2.30) $2,300. Note – had I sold the $5, I would have been down only $500 or so and that would be way easier to reverse. Hind sight is 20/20.

OK – that's all the stuff I'm currently working on! Let me know if I'm on or off track!
-Samantha

Samantha, it was a big pleasure to read your diary. I know exactly how you feel and what you're looking for.

I was a day trader myself for 8 years or so. I didn't trade stocks, or options, or forex, what a waste of time if you ask me, with all those spreads and commissions. I day traded futures, more specifically, the DAX futures. For 8 years I saw almost every tick of that market and made thousands of trades. I've also met and talked with hundreds if not thousands of traders over these years. Read more than 100 books on the subject.

Believe me, I know about day trading, and I don't do it anymore.

I worry about time. The more I worry about time the more I get long term oriented. Seems like a paradox, doesn't it?

Anyway, this diary isn't about me (what a boring individual), it's about you and your trading. You're fighting, and that's a good thing, because you really have to fight a lot to beat this game over the long term.

I'll be watching you fight and will try to help in everything I can.

Thanks for this very interesting diary, keep up

Totally not trying to be a spammer ... but it is MY DIARY...
DAVID... do you ever get mistaken for Matthew Goode??
http://imdb.com/name/nm0328828/
There I go Samanthasizing ... again... 
-Sam

That made me dizzy Samantha..lol.

I have no clue about options and putting that call and calling that put ...i just trade the shiny bright objects that decorate my monitor from the otc and pink world

well..unlike David, I just want to daytrade..im not good holding anything long term, seems that i just end up holding them and watch them slowly disappear into the abyss. But, i have to still learn how to daytrade and end up with a profit...harder then it looks . I have to learn to sit on my hands at times instead of chasing anything that moves...and be able to recognize real momentum stocks, nots ones that just do fake breakouts. My entry and exit points are still bad, got to stop hesitating.

Well...does look like ur trying to focus and define ur strategy and i'm sure u will keep honing and refining it to make it your perfected method of trading.

good luck Sam...keep it up

julia

hi julia,
do you have a method for day trading? what intraday program do you use?
i have medved quotetracker and i use just two indicators . volume and cci.
5 minute chart with heiken sen candlesticks. with pivot suport and resistance indicators.
thanks
maxi

Quote from: SamanthaStephens on November 27, 2006, 08:39:51 PM
Totally not trying to be a spammer ... but it is MY DIARY...
DAVID... do you ever get mistaken for Matthew Goode??
http://imdb.com/name/nm0328828/
There I go Samanthasizing ... again... 
-Sam

Lol, no, never heard of him.

You should try futures, I think you have a better chance of winning at day trading there than day trading options. Check out my broker, www.velocityfutures.com (I think you'll find X-Trader so cool)

Good luck

OK David - your secret is safe with me... I'll check out the link. Thanks for sending it!

OK ... I CAN'T HACK IT ANYMORE!! Instead of ignoring the shiny bright object stock of the day ... today that was CSUR.  Yesterday is was CNLG ... the day before that it was PNTR ... and of course there was ZVUE. Can someone PLEASE explain how you trade these quick running stocks? It closed yesterday at $3.34 ... there has never been any volume ... it opened up 14% @ $3.80 ... no news on my screen...that was the low tick on the day and it just ran from there. SO my questions are ... what is the setup... do you know about these kinds of stocks before they move by doing some kind of obscure stock ... twisted type of research?? What flagged you that 14% would turn into 300+%? And when after just a couple minutes it had a 100-200% increase ... how did you know it would go higher? How do you know when to get in and get out? When you place an order do you include a stop ... so it's up or out? I keep thinking that if I buy it will turn right around and go back down. What do you look at??!! How do you do this?!! Please help ...

**Awesome help that I got from KSLIFKA on shiny bright object stock spotting and catching (applaud):**
I watch the pre-market most active list.  Most of these stocks will be low float stocks and ones that have been beaten down.  I look to make sure that it is at least above the 50dma before I buy.  Better yet to have the 3 magic lines below. Watch on Level 2 to see the bid and ask race widly early.  Because of its low float, CSLR this morning had a .50 spread between the bid and ask and it was going nuts.  I try to find a support level on the daily chart to enter. Eventually the volume kicks in and the bid and ask get closer. Hope this helps...even though it's not very technical.  Just takes experience seeing it happen.

PROJECT UPDATES:
QQQQ Strategy:
RickJust - I've added CCI w/volume & pivot points with support and resistance to a 5min chart that has all my other criteria... I still need to figure out what CCI is telling me. J Thanks for the suggestions! Now if I just knew what all these lines are telling me!!! hahahahaha

When the stock market is flat on the day ... so is my QQQQ strategy. If the goal is to take at least a dime, it could have been done today, but I didn't feel like there was a good market direction signal in the first half hour. So, I guess to the criteria, I need to add that Becky Quick needs to scream 'IT'S BURNING DOWN!!" ... OR "THIS MARKET'S GOING TO THE MOON!!" Some sort of pre-market pump would be helpful. hahahHAHAHAHA
     The options I watched:
     Jan07 43 call – range from $1.50 to $1.80
     Jan07 45 put – range from $1.60 to $2.00

Strange Skew Stocks:
NFLD, ONXX & AGIX ... all seem to be falling, but the IVs are still high. My NFLD spread is back in the profit zone ... but with the swings it keeps making, I'm not sure it will be able to stay between 10 & 15 by January expiration... or right around 12.50 by December expiration...

The new stocks with strange skews that came out on my screen ... Kind of a long list. I'll narrow down the list and post only the pertinent movers in the option folder:
TELK
NLY
TE
MAS
MLS
OVTI
DG
VCI
SKS
PLAB
DG ... this one has rumors flying
LPX
C

-Samantha

Quote from: rickjust on November 28, 2006, 01:50:29 AM
hi julia,
do you have a method for day trading? what intraday program do you use?
i have medved quotetracker and i use just two indicators . volume and cci.
5 minute chart with heiken sen candlesticks. with pivot suport and resistance indicators.
thanks
maxi

Hi Maxi,

I use microcaptrade to find moving stocks. It only tracks otc and pinks, but good for spotting moving stocks. I have huge watchlists and one of them is of  gpattern stocks (basically stocks that had large movements recently) and keep them on watch to see if they break their gspots. Also, my filters are very basic, so i literally see pretty much everything moving in the otc and pink penny world...nothing much gets past me I have tons of alerts i set to get notified of price movements, pullbacks,  breaks and breakdowns. I also watch for intraday price breaks of stocks that are moving well with good volume and try to buy their breakouts. I watch for news to see if it has any positive effects on stocks (or negative..which could help me bail out of a stock im in, or possibly buy a bounce, although dont really like those too much). Pretty basic and simple methods i use, but still need alot of work on my entries and exists...mess those up alot..lol.

I'm also watching for Terliso's famous 3 magic lines . But, i also do like when i see the stock break a 50ma...often they seem to continue from there on its break. I also like to watch for channel breakouts.

I dont really do any DD at all on a stock, so no fundamentals whatsoever...i usually dont even know the companys name. Basically, I just look for momentum stocks.

I sometimes play those strange low float, low vol. stocks that move out of the blue,..u know stocks obviously being pushed by a group...sometimes i do ok...sometimes i dont..but i never put to much in those, becasue u can literally lose all of it asap. I think i will stop playing those unless they have decent vol, some of those run crazy..but they are pretty dangerous.

glta

julia

RickJust – I pulled in CCI/Volume & intraday PPs and I think it's REALLY helpful. I had taken out Volume because the Qs just have a lot ... but there ARE variations, so I put it back in. Couple questions for you. When do you start taking buy/sell action based on the CCI? The CCI scale on my computer is -100, 0, +100. Let's say the stock is heading down. The CCI is below -100. Volume is picking up. The CCI turns the downward trend corner and starts heading north. Do you buy the stock as the CCI turns around and starts heading north, or as it crosses above the -100 ... a cross above 0 ... or do you wait till it pushes through +100? I'll assume the reverse is true ... so if you do something different on the way down, let me know! OH and are heiken sen candlesticks different than normal candlesticks? I can't find anything on the web about them.

Julia – I'm convinced you're my fearless evil twin! I'm learning a ton from you!

David – OK ... futures ... Oil/Gas/Wheat/Gold/Metals?? Zzzzzzzzz hahahahaha Please don't make me trade futures ... nothing brings me more suspense than holding my breath for the EIA and gas inventory reports... hahahahahaha!!!! 

The options I watched today - Still could have taken out a dime in either direction ... lining up my criteria and indicators will be critical:
     Jan07 43 call – range from $1.60 to $2.00
     Jan07 45 put – range from $1.40 to $1.70

-Samantha

hi sammy,
love your diary.!!
i was using the macd for day with slow stoch but i changed to the cci after reading this web site . http://www.woodiescciclub.com/start.htm

i use the support and resistance lines a lot in my day chart, more than the cci . the cci gives me an indication of wether the move is strong or not over 100 or under 100 in conjuction with the mood of the day. is the day feeling bearish or bullish.  i like volume it is a good indication of a move . volume is really important to me . you couldn't find hieken sen cause there isn't one .
i meant , heikin - ashi. this is different to the normal candle stick cause it indicates the trend,
here is the same chart using normal candle stick and heikin ashi. you can see the first chart gives a good indication of the trend where as the second is a little choppy.
maxi

here is a chart of the bright and shiny thing for the day and how i woulda coulda shoulda traded it . ( or in the words of o.j. " if i did it this is how i would do it" )

maxi