tradersams blog

Thats a lot of closures.

So, like everyone, I have interests outside that which I primarily write about here.  Without wanting to digress too much, I have been out sparring tonight.  I copped a slight knock to the jaw, and saw the followup hook coming in for the 1-2.  Despite the knock, I kept the guard up and avoided the big punch.  That’s what we train – keep your guard up, and try to read the opponent – sometimes you will get it right, and sometimes you will get hit. When you get hit – keep the guard up, feel for the next one!!

I’ve taken a few shots this month, as the portfolio update next weekend will attest.  So – back to training – keep the guards up, take a shot when you can and accept you can’t catch everything.  But never get hit so hard you can’t continue.  After a few losses in a row, all bar one below 10%, I feel like its the end of a round.  Splash water in the face, take a breather on the weekend and get back in there.

On with the show…

amp - taking a dive

AMP:  Closed my position in AMP at $5.96 for an 8% loss.  Now looking at the entry when I opened this trade, it was such a good looking trigger.  The setup was linked to financials doing well, and then a nice breakout.  I held on through the retracement.. and passed on my trendline stop loss waiting for … what?  The support I expected did not exist.   Stop triggered last night, and exit taken in early trade today.  Now I have a more bearish outlook than a few weeks ago, taking the earlier exit looks like a no-brainer.  hmmmm 20-20 hindsight.  Of note is a flattening of the longer term MA (in orange).  Lets step back from this a bit.  Not a bad trade, but could have been better.

reh - small gain

REH:  Exited this today at $24 for a 4% gain.  This trade was always on a bit of a knife edge.  I found to be a bit illiquid for my liking… and I knew that sentiment was not strong once I had a position.  A couple of times in the last two weeks I have been the only seller of Reece – and no one has wanted to take my shares off my hands.  Now things are grim, I thought I should close this out rather than get caught out – so I did, and it looks from the chart that others followed me out the door.

I really should remember to keep an eye on liquidity – this has happened to me twice this year now (note to self).

WAN - reading the papers

WAN:  Closed my position in West Australian News today at $7.57 for an 8% gain.  Now this is a better trade – I’m happier with this.

I was confident in my entry, as it was ‘text book’, departure from a steady uptrend to the high side, with good liquidity.

My ATR based stop loss tracked nicely and has kept me in a nice profit.  Whilst I could have exited on the departure from the steeper trendline, this would translate to a futile attempt at top picking – not a winning approach as I have learnt over the years.  In this case I definitely stuck to the plan, and no second guessing.

Aquila Resources

AQA:  And finally AQA.  I closed my position at $7.09 for a monster 14% loss just prior to close of trade today.  This is a 2R loss.  Even with a small position that I entered with, the loss was too big.

Look at those black candles – great at a birthday party – but not great for my bank balance!  It is actually this trade that has told me I need to review everything on the weekend, and hunt some good shorts – I’m sure they’re out there.  Looking through whats left of my positions, I may be taking more positions out tomorrow – but we shall see what the overnight US markets whisper to me.

And finally, a comment on a position I haven’t closed.  And I still need to work out if it oughtta be.  This is what a capital raising can do to my capital in the short term.  But I love noticing things.  Like the fall to the height of a recent peak, coinciding with the same price point as the capital raising… hmmm…

bugger - a capital raising

In closing – although I mentioned a contact sport above, I do not think of the market as an aggressor opponent – I think of it as a sparring partner.  It does what it does, I do what I do, and through it all I get fitter.

So keep your guards up!