'Trading is a process of observing the market's action until such a time you can find and form trading ideas and get involved.'**

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Futures market is on a downtrend as shown from this Globex trading.

Partly due to the recent news coming from Asia and from the North Korean leader's demise.

Another reason that a Santa Claus rally this week is already nil?

Let's see by tomorrow's regular open if there will be a miracle.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Best and Worst Stocks of 2011



Friday, December 16, 2011

Christmas rally for the market looks dim.

Only a few trading days left before Christmas and there is/are no signs the market is bouncing from its grave.

Santa has run out of money to buy the market, instead he sold the market and the bears are on clouds.

Unless Tim Geithner prints money for Santa to buy the market, the market is in jeopardy.

Today's market turn positive in the open but run out of gas after an hour or so and buried itself into the mud.

It turn sideways till the close.

An ugly trading week for the market!


Exited the trade at 11874 for a break even, price action is not convincing...
Trade is gaining ground, moving the stop to 11864...
Bought YM at 11874 with stop at 11855...

A Few Trading Lessons

This past weekend, I wrote that we could see a potential market rally over the near-term. Since then, the market has dropped 3 straight days and none of the stocks on my watch list triggered upside buy alerts. As I mentioned in my post, I have no ego when it comes to the stock market. It doesn’t bother me when I’m wrong because no one can expect to be right all the time. Being wrong is just part of the game.

Here a few lessons from this week’s market action:

1) When you find a great number of trading setups (as I did this past weekend), let the market prove itself first before getting in aggressively.

2) Wait for a Follow-Through Day (FTD) to confirm that the market is in a new uptrend. A FTD is when the market has a convincing up day (approximately +1.5% or greater) on strong volume. This usually occurs on days 4-10 of an attempted rally. There is nothing wrong with trying to anticipate such a day (as I did over the weekend), however, you still need to wait for the day to occur.

3) It is ok to be wrong, but it is not ok to STAY wrong!

4) Even when we get confirmation of a new uptrend, don’t be in such a rush. If it’s a true rally, the market will give you plenty of time to make money. Remember, the fear of missing out is the downfall of most traders.

5) Cash is still king right now, especially because we are below both the 50-day and 200-day moving averages on the NASDAQ Composite. Keep in mind that 4 out of 5 stocks move in the general direction of the market, and right now we are still in a downtrend.

Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with forming a market opinion based on the information it gives us. The key is to wait for the market to confirm your opinion before getting aggressively involved. And finally, if you are wrong, it’s no big deal because it won’t be the first or last time it happens.