Results tagged “Loss” from My Trading Diary
Global Industries Ltd - meets criteria - 30.10.8 an historical low - price does not always range. 30.10 was also the result of a price plummet so there could now be a process of retracing that. Buy up to $3.10 but look for opportunities to buy lower. Bought and stop lossed out. Lost £100. Price subsequently rose and made my PR within the hour! Did I enter my SL based on support? I also bought above my PR - this occurred due to unreliable blog connection. Will look for alternative ways of logging my trades. Price rose all day but because started above my PR I did not participate. Pleased at least I predicted two out of three the issue is entry and exits.
Kendle International - meets criteria - trading at all time lows. Buy up to $21.40. Bit trap-door currently with spread. Bought twice and lost twice - my losing trend continues - one which relates to the NASDAQ. It may have certain advantages over LSE but if I cannot read it I will not prevail with it.
Canadian Solar - appeared to be trading before the bell - to do with time-zone?! Gapped up. All of my PR gone - ignore.
Super Micro Computers - meets most criteria - recent all time price low - and crossing of stochastic. Underbought and undervlaued. Can range on the day. One reservation is that yesterday's high was above the high of the previous three days high. Also gapped up overnight and not retrace so due a reversal?...Buy up to $6.40 - could this be like yesterday where I missed the boat and price continues to rise? Watch and learn! Bought and lost - again stop loss triggered - I think too tight and will vary now based on recent volatility.
ParkerVision - share tends to move more sedately but PR's are there. Buy up to $4. Ended at $5 - 25% - I would have made £1750! At least I can pick them :)
Security Bank - meets criteria - can range - volatile too Buy up to $2.45. This share plunged to $1.80 - had I chosen this my stop loss might not have been filled at the level stated and I could have been left holding a share that lost 25% of its value and cost me on a £7K trade £1.75K. Should I trade smaller amounts. Would generate more commission costs though not more PR as it would be shared around - in fact smaller PR requirement. Will add this to my Task list for further thought. Bought at £2.07 but took no account of wide spread which is likely to trigger my stop-loss. Third loss of the day. Very poor.
Kforce - meets criteria. Buy up to $7.70 above yesterdays closing as feel this share as legs. First choice. Bought at 7.71 and almost immediately triggered stop loss - admittedly very tight.
Three of my four shares have risen which vindicates my predictions but I did not capitalize on any due to all having more sellers than buyers in the order book. This gives me serious reservations about the usefulness of access to the order book. Suggests some orders may be spoof to put off buyers and other way about. If price continues to rise in face of sell pressure then ignore it? But then how to know when to get out? End up just following the price! Less likely to be spoof nearer the touching price as would get hit. I may test this out.
Stop losses though I want to reduce them this does increase incidence of them - I think they should be tight but flexible - a share that is more volatile should have a wider stop loss, less volatile can have tighter. Will implement this.
My worst ever day trading - lost about £370. Nevertheless due to misleading Feed - had I gone by price I could have made over £1000. Need to revisit use of Feeds - it could be this particular feed or feeds in general.
Perhaps I will work without feeds too - in terms of entry can always make that based on price - stop losses will be in place - and in terms of profitable exits mental trailing stops.
Insight Enterprises - meets criteria, trading at historical lows. Price has tended to rise recently rather than undulate. Would buy up to $9.10 - close to end of day price but price was trending through it. 3Q earnings due 6.11. Bought at $9.10. Stop loss triggered. Bought again at $8.67 and made good the loss plus a small profit.
DSP Group - another share trading close to historical lows. Usually scopes across the day. Buy up to $5.50. Not much action in the queue - is this due to the feed I am now using? Q3 report released today which beats estimates. Should make this bullish but might need to be in at the bell for that? Learning! Another forecaster expressed negative sentiment towards their future. Price has currently gone beyond my price range. Vindication but means I have missed the boat? Could reverse. Price continued on towards 25% increase! Though I missed out on this I could still have made my PR at any time subsequent - but was that the benefit of hindsight or should I have paid more attention to the buy sell dynamics? Just because I missed a buy level does not mean the price may not go even higher - does not mean it will either but can watch buy sell pressure to gauge this.
Both these shares finished the day about 5% up.
Rent-A-Center - another share trading at historical lows. Ended up 10% yesterday. Seems seriously undervalued. If retraces many dollars to be made! Price doesn't always scope but due to huge scope down it may continue to scope until returned to usual trading levels. Disappointing Q4 forecasts have contributed to this fall. Buy up to $14. Directionless most of the day but did trend up in the afternoon - could have realized my PR. Lesson is not to dismiss a directionless share in the morning - if it continues like this in the afternoon then remove from watchlist.
Currently experimenting with a tighter stop loss to increase risk-reward ratio - at current settings 1 profit would equal 3 stop losses which is very good but obviously not if they keep getting triggered reducing the amount of profit stocks. Noise for example could impact at this level. Will test it though. Can adjust accordingly. Another option is a 1:2. First one got hit quickly!
Future will look to additional shares if shortlisted ones move against me. May also assess whilst market in place to target shares that meet my requirements and continuing it into the trading day.
Two shares I chose realized my PR requirement - one though in a way I was not able to capitalise on, another I need to pay more sustained attention to into the afternoon yet the one that did not was the one I bought. I need to think further about my final trigger decisions. The buy and sell pressure itself is not entirely reliable - or is it?! - do I need to read it better or is it more about working with pre-identified buy levels and only making the final decision when the buy pressure is significantly ahead of the sell pressure? But I have just indicated that is unreliable - is it unreliable though? - I need to assess this more critically.
Stop lossed out of this trade as gapped down overnight and then dropped further to stop-loss. Lost about £210. One lesson is not to hold positions overnight - I thought I would be safe with this stock because of its low liquidity - however enough trades can come in during this time to create unfavourable liquidity. Additionally this was the weekend so a far longer period. As it transpires my stop loss was the bottom and the price recovered a little. More importantly for me is the fact of picking another losing stock. This though will happen. It might suggest I should paper trade longer to note such patterns? I certainly need to think about my loss-reward ratio. I will enter all my trades from Money to iBank as it keeps a clearer record of profit and losses, and running account. Having done this I can see that in the main I have been successful - reached £2000 profit in three weeks so assuming last week would be equivalent to tax I would have made what I am currently earning and based on my first month - an impressive start. Beginners luck or am I a natural? Also in the context of difficult volatile bearish markets. Let's see whether the pattern continues with US stocks.
Legal & General - early morning auction fascinating. Also gone on beyond 8.00am and I thought that was market-start...noted many bids over yesterdays end of day price and many offers under it! See how that plays out! Noted on Intraday feeds for each of last 4 days for L&G the first 30 minutes seen huge price movements yet don't appear to be able to participate in this...now open at 8.05am. Bought. Took a loss of £170 on this share. Perhaps I should have stuck to my original rather than revised price point - had I done that I would not have bought this share today and avoided the loss - but that is also the benefit of hindsight. Need to analyse why.
Bellway - bought and sold- made my 6% requirement in about 30 minutes! Can take smaller profits in other stocks now.
Bovis - made the PR but I missed the boat - needed to have bought before 9.00am - however I did not see a buy signal. Price did return below my buy level but decided due to lack of time in trading day may not make good - though could make 1.5% PR. Will watch end prices for learning though.
The Restaurant Group - bought at £1.15 above my buy price but only because I had thought that was too cautious and also because not requiring full PR. Sold at profit! Nearly the full PR too but a quick spate of sellers caused me to hit the sell button at the highest ask. £440 profit including Bellway. Still have L&G to close off which looks like a loss - wait or cut the loss. Might even purchase Bovis late as price as dropped into my buy range.
Having made my 6% PR perhaps I should not have bothered making smaller PR's on the remaining shares. My thinking is that the share I chose was the one most likely too and the others despite the same averaging effects as waiting for the next day is perhaps less likely to achieve PR because a second or third choice - better to wait for the next day's first choice? Something to monitor. Certain would reduce commission and stamp duty costs.
Are the market-makers price positions akin to a support and resistance? They have more information than we and presumably will take realistic buy and sell positions?
Holding positions overnight - would a stop-loss protect a gap down? Google. Thinking about this for L&G - particularly as I am likely to close out the other two positions for a profit. A stop-loss does not protect against a price being marked-down overnight or a free-fall situation where there are no buyers only sellers. How often does that happen though? More likely for smaller companies. L&G are not going to be short of buyers! But L&G could suffer from a price mark-down overnight.
Still made £260 overall - due to three profits covering one loss.
Prudential - did not gap overnight and price remains within my range - currently sell pressure though. Bought and rose quickly but then equally fell again quickly - decided to pocket my profits as not taken any so far this week! I was only about .5% off my PR. Price actually turned around slightly but think it is better to take some profit then wait for such a chance and risk losing more/all profits.
John Wood Group - gapped overnight realizing my PR. Passed my buy-point. Buy was up to £2.20 and now £2.40. Still possible - watch. Currently sell pressure.
Charter - made 10% in first hour. An argument for being up at the bell? Now at £4.10 above my buy price of £3.80. MIssed the boat? Still buy pressure though. Still following its upward trend though but may have it its ceiling at this price level more attractive to sellers. Even here though it is below historical lows. Continue to watch. Also in terms of my minimum requirements only now need one third PR. Price slumped and stopped out. Had I bought at the opening I could have made up to 14%! I need to give myself the first few hours of the trading day to give myself more opportunities. For the first time I re-bought a share the same day and made the reduced make-good PR! Meant that I am £18 up on the day - better than being down!
This is my first loss on the day since 1.10 which is pretty excellent if I say so myself and should not give myself too much cause for alarm at this stage. Because of a subsequent re-buy and re-sell of Charter I have changed a loss into a neutral :)
Nevertheless I paid the price literally for buying over my set level. And I had an opportunity to buy under my set level early in the morning which had I taken I would have paid myself for the week. Live and learn :)
Xstrata - price so far today has either declined or recovered only to closing price of 2.10. I also breached my stop loss limit but then I bought too high based on not reading the sell sign - take the loss (fortunately a paper one!), learn the lesson and move forward.
HBOS - price rising - bought at 1.80. Sell out at 1.85 + determined by buy/sell pressure. To take 6% and make good Xstrata loss would require 1.91. Sold at 1.97! Making 9% and £527.25 which also made good the loss from Xstrata. A good day!
Dragon Oil PLC - closed down a penny. Opened £2.35 but after opening fun and games bought in at £2.25 but closed out at £2.24 - did reach £2.30 briefly. Even had I realised that I would not have realised my percentage requirement. This share satisfied all my criteria but my prediction was wrong - this could be the 30% that tend to be anyway or it could mean I need to further refine my criteria. I will continue with my current criteria but make use too of Chaikin. Clearly at this stage I cannot give up on a criteria based on one loss. Nevertheless when I have made a profit they have not been great and further refinement is needed.
Clarkson PLC - watch for learning as meets criteria but several days on trot and a day or two past stochastic may mean running out of steam. Same for Alfren PLC.
Melrose PLC - price dropped today but testing solely one criteria which is that Chaikin moved up against this fall.
International Ferro Metals Ltd - looked like a buy with undersold, undervalued stock - with full year results due showing good growth yet the price fell another 0.25p and I would have been stop lossed out with another day of no profit.
Does this show skepticism about the forecast good results - if results are as good as predicted will there then be an upward trend?
Rio Tinto - another trading day, another loss! This time stop-lossed out for approx £200 loss. Still think this share is on the verge of upward movement just not sure which day. Would not re-purchase though as think supply is still outstripping demand as it were.
I need to re-examine my stock-selection criteria.
I need to re-examine my stock-selection criteria.
Commercial Group Properties - a bad day has had to stop loss out of the trade due to a 6.11% drop on the day.
Compounded by the fact that the other trade Aquarius Platinum made 8.22% on the day and would have realised me about £500.
One option in future is to purchase both stocks but divide by day capital - however had I done that here I would have then profited by £250 which would have been reduced to £50 due to stop loss of other stock. Better to select the correct stock to begin with.
Aquarius Platinum is in a more bullish sector and perhaps I should have considered that instead.
Rio Tinto- buy as meets all criteria bar one and due to post big profits. In a bullish sector, Mining. One different criteria is that activity and cost both went up together but cost ahead of activity and a gap. Suggests non-UK interest too.
Compounded by the fact that the other trade Aquarius Platinum made 8.22% on the day and would have realised me about £500.
One option in future is to purchase both stocks but divide by day capital - however had I done that here I would have then profited by £250 which would have been reduced to £50 due to stop loss of other stock. Better to select the correct stock to begin with.
Aquarius Platinum is in a more bullish sector and perhaps I should have considered that instead.
Rio Tinto- buy as meets all criteria bar one and due to post big profits. In a bullish sector, Mining. One different criteria is that activity and cost both went up together but cost ahead of activity and a gap. Suggests non-UK interest too.
Toledo Mining - price closed as opened with only a ha'penny rise. A day with no profit and indeed slight loss due to commission.
Though my share picks aren't proving to be disasters in respect of price drops they are all netting very little income. I need to either apply my selections more rigorously and/or refine my parameters.
I am wondering if commencing searching via highest daily price rise is the best option? If not though, what?
Aquarius Platinum - meets criteria other than quite volatile. Mining is a bullish sector though. Concerns about Zimbabwe's political rather than economic involvement in companies investing and mining in their country. UBS raised assessment from Neutral to Buy. Watch.
Commercial Group Properties PLC - meets a lot of criteria - no News items though so not sure about driver. Buy due to volume change in relation to price rise.
Though my share picks aren't proving to be disasters in respect of price drops they are all netting very little income. I need to either apply my selections more rigorously and/or refine my parameters.
I am wondering if commencing searching via highest daily price rise is the best option? If not though, what?
Aquarius Platinum - meets criteria other than quite volatile. Mining is a bullish sector though. Concerns about Zimbabwe's political rather than economic involvement in companies investing and mining in their country. UBS raised assessment from Neutral to Buy. Watch.
Commercial Group Properties PLC - meets a lot of criteria - no News items though so not sure about driver. Buy due to volume change in relation to price rise.
An Oil and Gas producer and thus in a bullish sector.
I noted increased buying interest so decided to buy in spite of recent price volatility.
The company had recently developed new wells and a higher price target had been set. Markets can be contrarian to such announcements initially and in future I should perhaps allow a few days to pass.
I would have bough this at £1.12 and had to sell out at £1.09 so would have recorded a loss of £194 based on my trading stake. Not a good day :(
I noted increased buying interest so decided to buy in spite of recent price volatility.
The company had recently developed new wells and a higher price target had been set. Markets can be contrarian to such announcements initially and in future I should perhaps allow a few days to pass.
I would have bough this at £1.12 and had to sell out at £1.09 so would have recorded a loss of £194 based on my trading stake. Not a good day :(
Sector quite bullish and met a number of my criteria and I decided to buy. However I am not quite sure why as I had also noted quite flat price movement recently for this stock.
Subsequent movement was either very volatile or flat!
I would have sold this share the end of the trading day losing just the commission and fees but it would have been a day without profit.
Subsequent movement was either very volatile or flat!
I would have sold this share the end of the trading day losing just the commission and fees but it would have been a day without profit.
