I've read some great trading books and they've been more influential in my work as a screen trader than experience I've gathered from trading floors or dealing rooms. The best of the trading books will acknowledge the mental and emotional side of trading and give you techniques for working through problems but there's an underlying assumption that the road ahead is straightforward.
I'm sure that's true for many people but I'm a roundabout sort of person and I can find myself repeating errors for a long time before I can develop my own solution! Despite that tendency, I'm still a reasonably successful trader but I want to become a very profitable one.
I hope this blog shows that you can competently trade without being a superstar with iron will, nerves of steel and rock solid abs. I hope it also shows that you can keep exploring your trading and working towards a real professionalism.
10.48 It's an indecisive start to the day with two days of trading to factor in after our public holiday yesterday. The two days pretty much cancelled each other out so it's not surprising that we haven't moved much.
Merrills initiated coverage of Lynas with a sell recommendation and it possibly explains the wall of selling that the stock ran into on Tuesday. I've got out at 196, I don't think the selling is going away quickly and it's liquid enough to try again if and when it stabilises. Aru doesn't have much support either so I've lopped that one for 140 (v 141 entry price). The other portfolio reduction has been in Karoon. It's still recovering from the sell off the other day and I no longer have a clear view. Out on some initial strength at 780 (v 735).
I've added a new long position in gold stock Intrepid. The spot gold chart is weak but this has been quite resilient. There's a close stop at 175 and a good chance of a pop up to the recent high around 212. Long at 183.5.
1.49 I'm getting cold feet about the Intrepid trade already. I'm assuming that the bull run is over so this was an attempt to grab a few dollars out of a retracement. The stock is very much in its development stage and has had a huge run so there's plenty of downside if it can't hold.
The context of the overall market is that the index is struggling to break out of the range and major indices world wide look very stretched. Given that background, I should be avoiding marginal trades so I've stopped out at 181 (v 183.5). I only put on a small position but it's slightly galling to have been so trigger happy.
2.08 Ausenco has slipped 7 to 341. Got out of most of my balance at 345 and 344 as it dropped below the lows of the last 2 days.
Murchison has released a quarterly activities report which confirms that they are drawing down on their ore reserves and cash holdings while they work on development of their new projects. The stock has slipped 3 cents on the news but it's not a great surprise and so far the reaction has been restrained. I've got a half position here and will hold for the time being.
On a brighter note, I've re-entered One Steel as the sector is strong and the pullback was short. I'm long at 278 and 279. If it runs up but can't get through 290 then I'll assume the correction is going to be more elaborate and exit.
3.21 Out of Mmx at 131.5 as the selling builds up.
Awe has held today and I've bought back in at 179 and 180. I've been culling the marginal ones but this is a clearly bullish chart. That doesn't mean I can't get chopped out (as with Lynas, which I still like) but there's good upside potential if the correction of the December move is over and the next phase is to push beyond the November high.
4.10 Once again, the top twenty is stronger than the mid caps that I trade. The Asx 200 fell 2 points while the top 20 rose by 0.2% with 13 gainers. My list of 27 has 8 gainers.
Out of Aax, the rest went at 344.5. Aristocrat, my only short position, is down 6 at 307. Awe finished strongly at 181.5 with Awc and Ost up on the day. I've got one more position, which is a long in Bsl. I got back in on Tuesday at 213 and bought a few extra today at 217.
It was an option expiry day today.
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