Posted 16 June 2007 - 08:20 PM
Nac-nice post, and answer. I have been trading pretty short term here, and the last month or so has been nice for me, as well. I like to post my trades, as well. The market prior to volatility coming in, was imy opinion a different animal. I was swing trading through a steady 6 month rise. There came a point where I did not trade for about two weeks-trying to look out to market direction, get some knowledge, and make some nice money. What I learned in that time was that my approach had to change to match the market-both in the quickness of my trades, and an open mind to short term direction. I had a couple bonehead trades this week, one small-8 oih puts-the other a little more interesting. I had decided a solid approach to my usual raft of Q puts would be best served by "playing in the box" on expiration week. I bought 100 qqqfu calls for 19 cents, as a precursor to buying my latest 200 qqqst puts, figuiring that if they pushed the Q's into the end of the week Friday the qqqfu calls would accelerate fast enough to not only cover any put drop, but cause a profit, still leaving me in my puts for Monday. If the Q's tanked, jumping out of the qqqfu would cause me a small loss-against what I percieved could be a large gain on the puts. Long story short, I got out of the qqqfu calls with a nice profit-WAY tooo early- had I held them to the peak, they would have bought me about 3/4 of my puts-crap! I posted my QQQST entry here when I bought at 41 cents, and I am still holding them, down 8 cents-I'll post when I exit. I'm a trader, really, not a technician. I of course use, and study TA, but realize there are better than me in every area ie-I am not the best ewaver, but I'm good enough(although, watching Teaparty chart is causing me to buckle down and get better-awesome work!). I trade in a big picture sense,looking at the market as a piece of art-then taking ques from what I see, which has worked for me for a long time. I also agree there are some great technicians here, great traders, and some are both. This is a great place of idea flow, and I love stopping in. I also agree with your point about "talking TA" vs reading it. I do, like to wax poetic about the market, short medium and long term-I think we have to have some sense of where the market is going, to be comfortable trading it, BUT, that said, I'll trade Monday-for what Monday brings.
Spooky
