Trade Journal 2/26/10

It was a wild morning of trading. At 6:30 there was an announcement on GDP. The numbers came in mixed, but I thought overall it was pretty good and I went long. The market didn't agree with me and it dropped. I got stopped out with a 3 point loss. I made back 1 point on the correction.

At 7:42 was Chicago PMI. I won 1.25 points on initial movement and another .75 points on the correction. At 7:55 was a consumer confidence announcement. I made a point on this trade. At 8:00 was the Existing Home Sales announcement. I made 2.5 points on the initial movement and another .5 points on the correction.

Overall, I won 3.25 points (32.5%) on the day, but it was tough to start out down 3 points. I was up 11.75 (117.5%) points for the week, which means I would have made $2,937.50 on the 5 contracts I was trading. Commissions on those trades would have been about $275.00. Defintely my best week, so far.

I'm planning to start trading live next week. We'll see how it goes!

Trade Journal 2/25/10

Another good day of trading. There were announcements at 6:30 on Durable Goods and Unemployment Claims. Both announcements came in worse than expected. The market dropped 2-3 points in about 2 seconds...before I even had a chance to react. I decided to wait and see if the market would come back a bit, which it did. I went short and made .75 points. I made another .75 points on the correction and .5 points on the similar movement for a total of 2 points (20%).

Trade Journal 2/24/10

This morning there was an announcement on New Home Sales. The news came in worse than expected and the market dropped. I made 2 points (20%) on the initial movement. There was a correction after about three minutes and the market came back close to where it started. The housing news was pretty bad, so I anticipated another drop. I placed an order short and the market dropped. I made another 2 points on this movement. In all, I made 4 points (40%) in about 5 minutes. This movement was a classic movement-correction-movement as Market Mover Trading teaches. It's a beautiful thing when the market moves just like it's supposed to.

Trade Journal 2/23/10

There were no announcements yesterday, but this morning there was an announcement on Consumer Confidence at 8:00. The numbers came in worse than expected and the market reacted. This announcement typically has pretty good movement, and this one did not disappoint. The market dropped significantly, and I made 2.5 points (25%) in about three minutes. That's $625 on the 5 contracts I was trading. This was my best single trade to date.

Trade Journal 2/19/10

Another good trading day. There was an announcement on Consumer Price Index. The results were better than expected, and the market moved up, although not quite as much as I expected. I was able to win 0.5 points (5%). That win put me at 6.75 points (67.5%) for the week. That's a $1,687.50 profit on the 5 contracts that I am trading.

Last night there was a social gathering of Market Mover Traders in South Jordan. It was great to meet other people who are on this same journey. It was a mixture of people who have been trading live for months, weeks, or even just a few days. Others are still paper trading like me. It was very educational to talk with other traders about their strategies and successes. Every person I talked to is having a very positive experience. There were even a couple of people who have been day traders for years. They have been amazed at the success that Market Mover Traders are having in such a short time. It was very motivational and got me really excited to go live in a couple of weeks.

Trade Journal 2/18/10

Today was a very good trading day. There were a couple of announcement times. At 6:30 was Unemployment Claims and Producer Productivity Index. I made 2 points (20%) on that one. At 8:00 was Economic Indicator Index and Manufacturing Index. I made 1 point (10%) on this one.

This has been a good week. I am up 6.25 points (62.5%). That translates to $1,560 profit on the $2,500 (5 contracts) that I am trading. Since I began three weeks ago, I have made 28 trades. I have won 24 and lost 4 for a winning percentage of 86%.

There is another announcement tomorrow morning that traditionally has good movement. Hopefully, I can finish the week with another win.

Trade Journal 2/17/10

There were a couple of announcement times this morning, each with multiple announcements. At 6:30 was Housing Starts, Building Permits, and Import Prices. The news was mixed and there was not a lot of movement. I was able to squeeze out 0.25 points (2.5%). At 7:15 was Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization. The news was very close to the consesus, and again there was very little movement. I decided not to trade this announcement due to the lack of movement.

There are some good announcements coming up Thursday and Friday. Hopefully, there will be more movement with these announcements.

The week is off to a good start

This morning there was a low impact announcement on long-term purchases. The news was better than expected, and the market moved accordingly. I made 1 point (10%) on the initial movement and another 0.5 points (5%) on the correction, for a total of 1.5 points (15%).

The movement on this announcement was exactly as expected, based on the Market Mover Trading training. It was relatively slow, which gave me plenty of time to think through things before placing my trades. It's nice to be off to a winning start to the week.

The Straddle is Killing Me

This morning at 6:30 was an announcement on Unemployment Claims. I was very anxious as this has been a very slow week for announcements. I used a straddle, but it was too tight. The market spiked down and then up and got me into the trade in the wrong direction. I lost 2 points (20%) in a matter of seconds. I played a correction and made back 1 point (10%). It's frustrating, because it's a trade where I should have easily won 2 or 3 of points.

Tomorrow there are a couple more announcements. I need to re-think my strategies and get a couple of wins.

Today there were two low impact announcements at 8:00: Wholesale Inventories, and Economic Optimism. There wasn't much movement after the announcements, but I was able to squeeze out 0.5 points (5%). Tomorrow there is just one low impact announcement, but Thursday and Friday there are some good, high impact announcements. I'm looking forward to finishing the week strong.

A Rough Day

There were two announcements at 6:30 am: Unemployment Rate and Non-Farm Payrolls. The unemployment rate was lower than expected and payrolls were down. This mixed information caused the market to spike up, then drop, and then rise again in a matter of seconds. I used a straddle technique, which I have been warned not to use in this type of announcement as movement is fast and volatile. Since I am paper trading, I decided to straddle and see what would happen. Wow! In a matter of 3 seconds I was entered into two separate trades in the wrong direction. I lost 2.5 points on the first trade and another 2.5 points on the second trade. There was a bit of a correction after about 7 minutes where I made back 1 point. Overall, I was down 4 points (40%) for the day. That wiped out most of my profits for the week and I ended up 2.5 points (25%) for the week.

There are no announcements on Monday, but I can't wait to get back at it on Tuesday.

My Best Day Yet

Today was a great day trading. There was an unemployment announcement at 6:30 am that came in worse than expected. The market reacted as I expected and took a big drop. I used a straddle strategy and got in and out of the trade in about 20 seconds for a 2 point (20%) profit.

At 8:00 there was an announcement on factory productivity. This is a low impact announcement, but I decided to trade it anyway for practice. The announcement was better than expected and the market moved up. I used a straddle again and made 0.5 points (5%) on the initial movement. There was a small correction after about six minutes where I made another 0.5 points (5%). That's 3 points (30%) for the day.

Back in the Win Column

There were two announcements this morning. I won both trades and made a total of 1.5 points (15%). The first announcement was at 6:15 am on Employment Change. The news came in a bit better than expected and the market moved upward. I used a straddle strategy and made 1.0 points (10%). The second announcement was at 8:00 am and was a Purchasing Managers Index (which I always like as I am a purchasing manager in my day job). This announcement came in a bit worse than expected and the market moved downward. I made 0.5 points (5%) on this trade, also using a straddle. There was very little correction on either of these trades, so I only traded on the initial movement. I guess I'm a little gun-shy on correction trades after my loss yesterday.

After six days of trading, I've already doubled my money (on paper). I am up 10.25 points (102.5%) and that's even with a loss yesterday. I have won on 12 out of 13 trades. I know it's going to be a different ballgame when I start trading with real money in a few weeks, but this is pretty exciting.

My First Loss

Today was a decent morning of trading for me. There was an announcement on Pending Existing Home Sales. The numbers came in a bit lower than expected. There was a bit of a sell-off before the announcement, so perhaps the information was leaked early. I went in short and made 1.5 points (15%) on the initial movement. After about two minutes it looked like the price was bottoming out, so I bought long on what I thought was the correction. Turned out this wasn't the bottom. The market continued downward af couple more points and I was stopped out with a 1.75 point loss (17.5%). That is my first loss in 10 trades. My stop loss was set at 2 points. Had I set it a little lower (I normally set it at 3 to 4 points) I would have been fine. The market turned right after I was stopped out. I bought in again near the bottom of this movement and made 1 point back. So overall, I was up 0.75 points (7.5%) for the day. Not bad, but I really hated losing.

This morning there were three announcements at 8:00am: Construction spending, and two announcements on manufacturing. One of the manufacturing announcements was high impact and the other announcements were low impact. I placed my trade based on the high impact announcement using the straddle technique. There was movement immediately after the announcement and I made 1.25 points (12.5%) in 47 seconds. There was a correction after about three minutes where I could have picked up another point or two, but I hesitated and missed the opportunity. I need to learn to trust the prediction points that MMT provides and to go with my gut instincts.