Clear Trades

Bought SLV

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:18:14 +0000

I bought the SLV (iShares Silver Trust ETF) at $28.08 per share. I think this is a good level to be a buyer. I like the roughly 28 – 34 trading range as an exit target.

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Bought SLV

Stopped Out of Barrick Gold (ABX)

edenj — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:30:45 +0000

My stop loss was triggered on Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) on May 3rd, at $38.28 per share. This was a loss of -4.97%. Another bad trade. I think I’m too eager to make trades and I need to wait for more obvious trade signals.

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Stopped Out of Barrick Gold (ABX)

Bought XLF

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:37:51 +0000

I bought the XLF (Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF) on May 4th at $15.09 per share. I think the trend is still up, and I’m hoping I bought at a discount before another move up. Of course, it’s not looking that way right now.

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Bought XLF

Losing Trade in Akamai (AKAM)

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:52:51 +0000

I didn’t write about this one when I bought it, so here’s the recap:

On April 26th, I placed an order to buy Akamai Technologies (AKAM) at $35.50 (limit). My order was filled at that price. I thought I was in at a good spot…but I was quickly proven wrong.

I also failed to enter a stop loss order after my buy was filled so I ended up holding this even longer than I should have. Fortunately, there was a little bounce the next morning (April 27th) and I was able to sell near the level I would have set my stop loss had I used one in the first place.

My exit price was $33.50, for a loss of 5.6%. I don’t feel bad about my entry point, at least I thought it was a good price when I placed the order. However, my failure to enter a stop loss order was a mistake that cost me a little bit of money. At least I’m glad I got out when I did, as it’s trading even lower as I write this.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Losing Trade in Akamai (AKAM)

Bought Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX)

edenj — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:27:43 +0000

Before the market opened today, I entered a limit order to buy Barrick Gold (ABX) at $40.50 per share. My order was filled at $40.28. It’s a little scary buying down at this level as there is a lack of recent support levels — so I have a relatively tight stop set on this one. I think I’m getting in at the start of a little upswing. However, I’m a bit concerned about holding this through the earnings report coming up on May 2nd, so I may get out before that happens — depending how things develop over the next couple of days.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Bought Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX)

Bought Apple (AAPL)

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:27:19 +0000

Apple weekly chart 4-23-12

Looking at the weekly chart, I wanted to get in under 560 if I could, that would be just under the 13 week EMA, which I consider a value trade buying opportunity, since the trend on this weekly chart is still up.

I put in a limit order this morning to buy at 559.99. The order was filled at that price a couple of hours later.

The fact that earnings were being announced today almost made me wait to make the trade. However, I liked what the chart was telling me and I didn’t really believe the rumor that the numbers would disappoint. People have lost a lot of money expecting Apple to disappoint — that’s not going to be me.

We have a nice after-hour’s gain as I write this, but I don’t care much about that. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I didn’t set a target price before I placed my order so I still need to figure that part out.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Bought Apple (AAPL)

Performance and Transactions Update

edenj — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:00:58 +0000

I fell behind on the blog again and failed to post my last few trades until yesterday. I thought this would be a good time to refresh the site, look at my performance so far for the year, and get ready for more timely posts going forward.

Performance through March 15, 2012:

SLV +14.71%
ERX +12.67%
NOK -9.5%
FAZ -12.63%
Overall portfolio performance -2.04%

It’s been a mixed bag so far. My NOK position was a bit too large and dragged down my overall performance into negative territory. I probably need to be more consistent with position sizes. I thought Nokia was going to be a winner and I added to it while it was moving up. But I was too slow to get out when things changed. And I probably didn’t treat the earnings announcement seriously enough. But that’s how you learn.

I went through a similar problem with FAZ, but it happened much faster. I think it turned against me the day after I bought it and I should have bailed out a lot sooner. I think I was too worried about being right. I know that’s dumb, especially after reading Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. I think I would have been quicker to sell if I had finished the book before I made that trade.

But I haven’t been wrong about everything. ERX and SLV went my way. I didn’t get the most I could out of either one, but they’re both trading for less than I sold them as of the time of this writing, so no complaints.

Unfortunately I also had some life issues affect my portfolio. The timing of the Nokia trade in particular was determined by my need to pull some money out of my brokerage account. That’s obviously not the way I’m going to become a successful trader. The good news is I expect to have more funds available to trade with very soon and I’ll be getting back in the game. Until then, I’ll be reading the next book on my list — Diary of a Professional Commodity Trader: Lessons from 21 Weeks of Real Trading.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Performance and Transactions Update

Sold SLV

edenj — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:21:22 +0000

I sold all of my SLV — iShares Silver Trust ETF at $34.42 per share. Nice to have another winner, this trade was good for a gain of 14.71% (my best trade so far this year).

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold SLV

Sold ERX

edenj — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:16:43 +0000

I sold all my ERX — Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3X ETF at $56.82 per share. Finally found a winner, this trade was good for a gain of 12.67%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold ERX

Sold all NOK

edenj — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:13:30 +0000

I cleared out all my NOK — Nokia Corporation (ADR) position at 5.151 per share. I should have cut the cord sooner, but at least I escaped with less than a 10% loss (-9.5% to be exact).

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold all NOK