EQR

All posts tagged EQR

Swing Trades

I framed no trades for possible execution today. Eight positions hit their stops: FNV, EQR, USO PVG, BMY, MRK, XME(2).

Knowing XME was to be closed today and seeing gold down at the open, I probably could have cut PVG earlier in the day:

XME had met the criteria to be closed at the end of yesterday, but I missed closing it. I tightened up the stop on FNV and got cut out on the second test of the bottom for the day.

Moved the stop up and exited the second half of EQR today on general market weakness:

Could have cut BMY after the PSAR flipped, but I was willing to be patient for the huge upside back to the RL270. In a market with no clear direction though, it’s better not to hold on to the weak candidates.

Was playing MRK for a bounce off the Bollinger band mean, but all it seemed to do after I entered was go down.

I had entered the stop as a trailing stop instead of a hard stop on USO, so got taken out on the spike down today. Not what I was expecting for a 2ATR stop from my entry point just a day after entry, but oil can be volatile.

Total restults for today’s closed trades: +.61R (but that includes the full value of the EQR trade. Without it, -.4R.) There are 15 current open positions showing +2.39R.

Long: AEM, BMY, CAT, GLD, INTC, IR, KR, OXY, PFE, PYPL, RIO, TPR, TWTR.
Short: JPM.

Day Trades

I had no time today to sit and watch the market, so I was not able to make any day trades. I may be able to catch the last hour of the market tomorrow, but from the looks of my schedule this week, I don’t believe I will be able to place any more day trades this week. Perhaps I will load up the replay in a simulator to keep my game in shape as I do have some time outside of regular trading hours that I can devote to trading.

Reflections

The market seems indecisive. For yesterday and today, the major indexes closed very close to where they opened. With no clear direction from the market, it’s hard for individual stocks to move very far. My general observation is that when the market moves into a sideways quiet channel, I get chopped up and take losses looking for directional moves, whether continuations or reversals. These periods create my drawdowns. I’m still taking the trades as paper trades so that I can track where my equity turns around and learn more about what to look for when I will be trading real money. I want documented proof to back up my intuition of what happens to the systems I currently trade.

Swing Trades

Today, I closed nine and a half swing trade positions. Some hit their stop loss. Some (including the half) were strikes to bank some profits.

First up is INTC. While I was writing my report Thursday evening, I noticed there was a major move up. Intel had reported earnings after the close. Since I had two positions on, I chose to exit one then and there. As you can see from the chart, the fill was well outside any reasonable range of normal. I kept the other position open on the chance that it might be a “gap and go” sort of move. Once it became clear that it was moving down from the opening gap, I closed the other half.

AEM, TSLA, and MO all hit their stop losses.

The next exits were more discretionary. The NYT short has been open 10 days, and while it is at the lower end of the range, I feel like it is money that might be better used in another trade. I also was not a fan of the fact that the stock only trades in .05 increments. Because of this, it will no longer be one of the targets on my radar.

The other trade that was both opened and closed today that will be removed from my radar screens is ESPR. It made it to +1R today, but the bid-ask spread was so wide that I couldn’t get a fill on my limit order. I finally got a fill for an exit at +.71R.

The long position in O moved +1R in my favor today. It touched the upper bollinger band, so while there might be more left on the upside, it felt wiser to take the money off the table.

EQR also moved more than 1R in my favor today. Rather than exit the entire position, I chose to exit half. EQR seems more bullish to me that O, so I’m waiting to see what happens next here.

I think that just leaves RL as the final trade I closed today. With two positions on and some indecisive back and forth sorts of move, I felt better reducing exposure here.

Five swing trades were framed for possible starts today, and four of them filled. As mentioned above, I closed out ESPR already. Net results for all closed trades today: +4.93R plus the half of EQR (+1R). There are 19 current open positions showing +3.44R.

Long: AA(2), AAPL, BMY, EEM(2), EQR(1/2), EWG, FNV, GLD, ILF(2), KR, LRCX(2), RL, WPM, XLF.
Short: PG.

Day Trades

I was much more selective in my day trade entries today and only took 9 trades in the morning. Friday afternoon can be a slow grind or have crazy swings, so I chose to stay out after lunch. The nine trades generated +2.5R and had only one small loser. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Be more patient and more picky about when to enter and make sure there is a reasonable reward target available for the risk. Current commission costs are such that I pay 1R for every 25 trades. Keeping my number of trades down will reduce my commission costs and increase what I get to keep.

Thoughts

All the trades I chose to close arbitrarily today were winners. What about the positions showing losses? Would there have been benefit to reducing my exposure there instead or as well? What about the saying to cut your losses short and let your winners run? I closed out the winners, not the losers today. Was that wise?