Momentum Trader Report: 03/10/10

10 Mar

Posted by Momentum-Trader as Momentum-Trader Report

What a market to be holding longs. The market just keeps pushing higher every day. How long can it continue? The S&P 500 like it wants to touch January highs. It could form a bearish double top. If so, there will be plenty of time to get short the S&P on the way down. For now, this market is just too bullish.

The NASDAQ hesitated briefly at it’s January high, but now above it and now hitting 18 month highs. What an amazing run; I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. This is a gift from the market.

I had 2 triggers today. There was a nice breakout in MBI.

REXX also triggered, but didn’t move much. However, the chart is still good.

If you have read this blog in the past, you may know that tight stops have often stopped me out of big movers. But in this rally, I’ve been hanging nearly all of these runners. Here’s some of those runners that did well today.

I mentoned in yestrdays post that I closed some positions yesterday. This was one of them. A little too early.

Trade Ideas for 03/11/10:

I feel a bit silly for considering buying stocks with the indexes so extended. Yes, there are still some charts out there setting up, but not many. I will watch these, but likely going to take profits early. I will wait to see how these act.

I haven’t heard of any of these stocks until yesterday and today. Could be a sign.

Good luck and good trading!

3 Responses

Tom T.

March 10th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
1

Hi - enjoy your blog. I am experimenting with placing fib lines and have watched HAR in the past and my indicators say its next target is $51 but I know your style of trading would not be to wait that long.

I had a question though about how you filter the stocks - can you tell us how you go about deciding what stocks to look at to find those patterns. There are thousands of stocks - I assume you look for stocks that trade high volume but can you be specific on the criteria on how you scan for stocks? - Thanks - Tom.
chris

March 11th, 2010 at 7:48 am
2

greetings:)

i always enjoy the charts you share, thank you very much!

my question regards position size. do you trade a certain % of your portfolio or a fixed amount for each trade?

have a good one, chris
Momentum-Trader

March 11th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
3

Tom T: HAR to 51, I hope to see that. It looks like it needs to rest a bit before breaking out.

I have a few different screens that I use, and I use a few different sites to screen for stocks. I am also tweaking the screens as the market changes, trying to find good charts. The one thing they all have in common is they trade an average of 400K shares per day. Most of them are CANSLIM type stocks. I look at about 300 charts a night. The best charts jump out right away, then I start looking at technical indicators and try find a handful that I like best. In markets like this one, I usually pass over some good ones.

Chris: I normally use a fixed dollar amount for each trade, and usually use half that for stocks that are under $5 per share. I have recently realized that position sizing is an area I need to study more. I have put little thought into this, but now think this is one of the most important parts of trading.