Results tagged “Profit” from My Trading Diary
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.
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.
BlueBay Asset Management - price gapped down overnight and price now in mid 170's. Thought could be to do with macro-environment and indeed US and Asian stockmarkets fell - indeed plunged - and clearly this pattern is being repeated by the FTSE. Need to be mindful of this. Could take as opportunity of buy on Thursday sell on Friday? Risky strategy. Watch. Do not buy.
Mapeley - as above. Price fell into low £6's. Not many sellers at this point - buy? Buy pressure and meeting a wide spread - buying at spread realises my PR! The spread is about 5%! In such a situation I could look for this margin but also simply offer my 3% e.g. offer higher which also increases likelihood of being sold. However as I am paper trading this I cannot replicate that effect so will just watch at this lowest offer. Bought against spread - of course that has caused the price to drop but still no sellers at this level. I have purchased low based on both recent and historical. As I have made my money on the week I am prepared to keep hold of this share for a longer period as future positions allow. Price rose sharply - pattern of little activity followed by big jumps - revised trailing stop has locked in profit. Noting that all sell offers currently appear then disappear but no change in price. Price declined end of day and triggered my revised stop loss - cleared 9%! That is three days requirement in one transaction :)
Halfords - shared gapped down then need realise 3% quickly but whilst I was sleeping! Also it was brief and I might not have been able to react quickly enough even had I seen it. Price now dropped back to low £2.30's. Sell pressure in queue. These signs are saying 'Keep away'?! Kept away!
Greggs - also gapped down before recovering - my PR was in there - a case for being up at the opening bell? More buy pressure than sell but buy offers are cheeky low. All prices are below what I was prepared to ask! Price has recovered most of the gap so on a bearish day is there much extra gain left? Huge spread - most sell prices are much higher than price and close to my maximum buy. I should guard against buying any share close to my maximum on such a bearish day. Do not buy.
This will be a learning experience. Will any of these shares realise my PR's on a day like this. Is it best to si it out? Yes, better to make nothing then lose something.
An excellent and illuminating trading day for me and in the context of a free-falling FTSE.
Dragon Oil - bought and sold to a profit within a few hours. Already met minimum for the day so can be even more conservative for other two shares!
JKX Oil & Gas - price fell back today below my buy point so bought. But queue indicates sell pressure so perhaps today I should have waited for that to reverse before buying. Bought too soon. Stop loss in place. On reflection the price increase yesterday was great and not too surprising that it has ran out of steam today - though also today is back to swimming in historical lows - nevertheless we are in a critical time and further lows may yet be to come. I could have foreseen this downward pressure based on queue dynamics and should have left alone. Then I would have one positive on the day whereas now I will have a positive and a negative and end neutral.
DTZ Holdings - can buy at a number of price points - had gapped up today but still at a level when could be bought. Currently sell pressure in queue. Watch. Very little activity currently - price not picking up - not positive that the gap will be covered and bounced within the trading day.
Yamaha Gold not available - explore why that is. A Canadian stock - not indicated by Sharescope. Be careful with this.
Wednesday has seen the FTSE lose ground so would expect less pickings.
Talvivaara Mining Company - gapped overnight to £2.05 then rose to £2.20's before setting back at £2.10's. My buy level has been passed - should I wait to see if it retraces (unlikely) or buy at higher price or ignore?
Schroders - gapped up to £8.40 then continued rise up to £8.80 - so as predicted but again too late to take advantage due to overnight market. Also adds to the saying I have heard bulls at night, bears during the day.
Heritage Oil - bought at £1.79 and price climbed quickly! With trailing stop made me 6% double my requirement for all three shares for the day - nice.
Additionally Afren returned to the level I bought it at and even passed into 60's again - sold at 61 and made £200 - so a paper loss but actual profit. However this is an atypical share as I would not have bought it at the price I did - I only kept hold of it to make good my mistake for learning. In a real situation I might not get that opportunity.
Standard Chartered - again gapped overnight and passed my buy target - however all four shares I selected were correct and all met my percentage requirement - not just that but exceeded it!
Should I monitor the other three - may as well for learning - and my other positions are closed so I can reinvest. Have some interest in Schroders as though now at £9.00 it usually trades above this level and made £9.00 yesterday at peak. Monitor. However at 9 would need £9.27 and has not always achieved that recently. Schroders movements may be due also to the fact it has been added to the list of companies who cannot be short-selled. Note this also includes Standard Chartered! Schroder price now up to 9.10 at 1pm - there is buy pressure but my observation is that this is not a reliable indicator and the pressure is slight - I will observe towards learning. Share actually reached £9.30 but I would have been taking a punt on that. I could only purchase at levels identified and where passed share to be removed from watchlist. Only a few hours to days trade close so hardly unlikely any of these shares would drop to those level then recover to my percentage requirement!
The price dropped below the previous closing day price allowing me to buy even cheaper and needing a lower amount on the day to realize my requirement - which I did - and by 11.30! Take the rest of the day off! I suppose there will be days like this :) Reason I went out of the position rather than wait for any possible rise was though still buy pressure in the short-term there was sell pressure particularly to where the realistic price was.
Noted price subsequently went to 2.04 around lunch time - a near 6% yield - I would not have anticipated this but there may be some learning here. Price ended day down though.
My percentage requirement is definitely and unsurprisingly on reflection more achievable now I have access to Live Feed as before I was dependent on Open and Close prices only which clearly limited the pricing options open to me! Though having said that the use of Stop orders would also allow access to intra-day prices higher than day end.
Playtech - price did spike on queue but has now settled much lower - down to 4.04 before recovering to 4.13. Is current buy pressure but if discount those buying both sides more buy pressure. Quite a spread.
Legal & General - price steady but more sell pressure.
Currently favouring Playtech but will exercise option not to purchase at all. Buy Playtech. Price moves slowly - easier to read at least.
On further reflection the Stochastic did indicate share becoming over-bought and up pressure for a number of days it was likely to run out of steam and it looks like today is the day - exit this stock without profit?
Sold for just under 4% profit - nice :) At one stage it looked like I would have to take a small loss with not much movement, then later getting out even but for a period in the last hour the price rallied quickly.
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!
Anglo Pacific Group - closed yesterday at £1.585 and today opened at £1.545 - as I was prepared to buy up to £1.60 I bought here as potential for greater profit realised. However why did it open down - result of share buying yesterday after close and market-maker manipulation? And since then share has remained static for rest of today. However noted in previous two days most activity occurs in the afternoon - not sure why!
Made up to £1.58 on an Intra-day spike and would have settled out for £1.55 making about £100. The Google Financials indicated both an High and Low not available on the chart which makes it an unreliable source.
This stock today did not make my 3% so although a profit it was an incorrect prediction. Also had I not watched the share I would have had to sell up at day end of loss. Though after having bought a share I won't then watch it I do need to watch for opening making purchase around 10am and at end to get out of the share - sometimes this will help me to take some profit even if not the 3% required today - it still covered broker costs and made a reasonable profit. Until I actually do it I don't know about slippage effect. Next time I will watch Intraday to give me experience of doing this. Google Financials not reliable and 15 mins delayed - do I need to upgrade my Sharescope package?
Mondi - meets criteria and also note for last 10 or so days its high and low prices have bounced up and down hugely which means 3% is so much more achievable irrespective of its closing price. Another set of shares to look out for therefore. Would need 3.14 to achieve 3% and this price has been achieved for last 10 days or so at some point during each day. Buy up to 3.07.
Petrofac Ltd - sold for profit £75.48 - a profit I could live on but only because of the cost of the share as in percentage terms did not make 3% would have needed to have reached £6.20 where high was £6.15.
This illustrates that even not achieving 3% there is a margin I could live on - about 1.5%? - however this particular buy may have been better tested against one extra indicator which this lacked - namely decline in volume with increase in price.
Fundamentals remain uncertain awaiting US Paulson market intervention plan - feel this could favour interim move towards Gold and other commodity related stocks. I also have my doubts about US taxpayers bailing out corporate mistakes and feel this is a plaster to the Global economy that won't hold.
Dragon Oil PLC - meets my indicators other than price looks volatile. Also Oil Mining and my Fundamental nose persuades me toward Gold related stocks. Decision will buy where stock is around £2.37.
Cluff Gold plc - Sell - stock finished down on the day despite rallies elsewhere! However it rose over the day but also fell the previous night - I would have then purchased at this lowest price and would have made £365.80 a more than satisfactory amount for a day's trading. However with the overnight loss would I have gone ahead with the purchase?
However I realised I moved into the purchase of this stock too quickly and on consideration would not have purchased this stock due to its current price volatility - I profited today but that was as much my good fortune and I cannot of course rely on that.
Do I think Financials will continue to rally or enthusiasm will dampen over the weekend?
Petrofac Ltd - price stable, under-bought and trending upwards - reservation is fundamentals reaction to Oil in the short-term could pull this share back. Monitor over weekend commodities situation.
SDL PLC - meets sufficient criteria to justify a buy. This share finished down on the day by 10p - clearly my assessment or indicators were at fault here and need to be analysed - though not dismissed as some losses are to be expected as there can never be guarantees. However on the day I would have realised a very small profit - £17.27 - again not enough to live on but okay for part-time - would make an extra £480 p/m - good extra capital but not a way to sustain a living. However the stock level I am using is based on paper trading full-time - if part-time I would have less capital to play with and these tiny percentages would be more succeptable to being wiped out my commission and other fee costs. Additionally despite losing 10 points I would not have triggered a stop loss - but would I have trigged a sell unless I had been watching the price movement occur. This share purchase needs to be as said analysed further.
Steppe Cement - this did make a profit but £31.34 so I am pleased it was another successful stock pick but the profit level on this could not sustain my livelihood. Though for part-time trading it would be okay! Nevertheless as this is toward full-time trading I need to explore further - trade as if my livelihood whether in fact I am doing so part-time or paper-trading.
I need therefore not just to be able to pick stocks with upward movement potential but of at least 3% - need to study whether this 1.06% increase could have been predicted.
Toledo Mining - meets all criteria, in bullish sector in a part of the world, the Philippines, that could attract new Chinese money.
Steppe Cement - this did make a profit but £31.34 so I am pleased it was another successful stock pick but the profit level on this could not sustain my livelihood. Though for part-time trading it would be okay! Nevertheless as this is toward full-time trading I need to explore further - trade as if my livelihood whether in fact I am doing so part-time or paper-trading.
I need therefore not just to be able to pick stocks with upward movement potential but of at least 3% - need to study whether this 1.06% increase could have been predicted.
Toledo Mining - meets all criteria, in bullish sector in a part of the world, the Philippines, that could attract new Chinese money.
This share finished down on the day though it did reach a high above the previous day's closing price and would have realised a profit for me of £40.58 - but this is not even 1% take on the day.
Indeed with Stop loss active I may have triggered a sale for a lower price and made a loss.
This also establishes that one of the indicators I was referring to is not entirely reliable - though it is not to be dismissed at such an early stage - it is 50/50 after two and needs to be tested over 20 days.
This is particularly galling because the other shortlisted share EcoSecurities Group PLC would have made me a profit of £423.73 finishing the day 7.63% up on the previous trading day. This though does mean that this indicator has a 2/3 success rate. Is it golden? Time as ever will tell!
Indeed with Stop loss active I may have triggered a sale for a lower price and made a loss.
This also establishes that one of the indicators I was referring to is not entirely reliable - though it is not to be dismissed at such an early stage - it is 50/50 after two and needs to be tested over 20 days.
This is particularly galling because the other shortlisted share EcoSecurities Group PLC would have made me a profit of £423.73 finishing the day 7.63% up on the previous trading day. This though does mean that this indicator has a 2/3 success rate. Is it golden? Time as ever will tell!
Despite there being a number of indicators contra to my requirements I also noted recent price increases despite decreased volumes. Coupled with director buy and selling I decided to buy.
The overall sector was trending up too.
I would have bought at £1.51 and sold at £1.60 giving me a profit of £361.57 - my first stock profit and in excess of my 3% requirement - nearer 5%.
A good day :)
This trend of volume decrease price increase was repeated so I decided to re-purchase the stock at £1.54. In retrospect this might have been hasty because I also noted another share with buy potential which may realise a greater profit.
The overall sector was trending up too.
I would have bought at £1.51 and sold at £1.60 giving me a profit of £361.57 - my first stock profit and in excess of my 3% requirement - nearer 5%.
A good day :)
This trend of volume decrease price increase was repeated so I decided to re-purchase the stock at £1.54. In retrospect this might have been hasty because I also noted another share with buy potential which may realise a greater profit.
