SPY 12 Jan 2012

Before market open,

1. SPY TA - Channel Support and Strong Support/Resistance line at 128.50 ; ascending triangle breakout ; Next S/R level at 130
2. Marketwatch - Major headline news of revise unemployment claims hitting close to 400,000
3. Forexfactory - Bearish Economic data - retail sales : below expectation ; unemployment claims above expectation. 

Sentiment : Pretty 'jing' aka swelling. Standby for bearish reaction

TOS : 

1. Open SPY option chain to look for 2 Put contract
2. Set stop loss
3. Drew additional support/resistance lines on 1min candles chart
4. Added previous trading day, open, high, low, close
5. Remind myself on the 2 rules

• Never buy the high, never short the low
• Wait for confirm trend

Indeed the market reacted to the economic data, within the first 15min a trend was form and thought it could be entry for me (first blue circle). Held my click, why ? I was wary to trade the first 15 min when the market opened. While I was wary and thinking, I was too late, notice the huge red candle. [The bull climb up the stairs and Bear jump of the window]. Remind myself that there will be another opportunity.

Waited for the second opportunity (second blue circle) , once it break out the support line, I was ready to make an entry but did not get a fill. It was a clear overrun by the bears as the buyers for the PUT options does a big leap. Up my ASK price once , damn when it move down, it move real fast. [It was a psychology battle once again when the direction become so clear and you don't want to miss the opportunity - the temptation to chase the price again was challenging ] Decided to stick to the plan of chasing only once plus it's reaching the strong support of 128.50. Man I m glad that I stick to the plan as it went sideway for a period.

Somewhere around the 3rd blue circle, I thought it could be a start of a uptrend so standby my CALL option. But it just doesn't want to break above the S/R zone. Shortly after that constipation, bearish candles come into play and I switched back to PUT option. Made an entry again on the (2nd orange circle) but did not get a fill. [Everything happen for a reason - that's it for the day and closed my platform]

Ratio : 4/4

SPY 11 Jan 2012

Attended WAT Coaches briefing yesterday and did not trade. Manage to keep the discipline today and do it =)

Before market open

1. TA on SPY - strong support at 128.50 back tracing from Aug 2011 breakout to the south; still on channel support ; ascending triangle breakout ; previous trading day isn't a real bull, got pushed up went sideway.
2. Marketwatch headlines - nothing major
3. Forexfactory - No major economic data 

Sentiment : A little bearish correction to the downside

TOS : 

1. Open SPY option chain to look for 2 Put contract
2. Set stop lost 
3. Drew additional support/resistance lines on 1min candles chart
4. Added previous trading day, open, high, low, close
5. Remind myself on the 2 rules

• Never buy the high, never short the low
• Wait for confirm trend

Saw an opportunity for an entry at the orange circle - bearish engulfing. Buyers sudden rush. Waited for next candle to confirm. Clicked Buy and didn't get a fill. Thought of chasing the price once but it just went too fast before I can react. So chill myself and told myself that there's always another opportunity. At the same time that kind of psychology I have to manage -you know you are got the right direction and didn't get a fill and the price just went nicely along your direction.

Invited my friend [Patience]

SPY finding it's support at 128.50 zone. Prepare myself for bullish entry.


I was presented with another opportunity -  blue circle. Both rules fulfilled, waited for the next candle and bang a pretty bullish one. Clicked Buy. Filled.


Checked on MACD,
On 1 min chart - MACD blue line above red (probably take a while for MACD traders to come in)
On 3 min chart - MACD start to form crossover

It climb slowly as I waited. Smaller wave make bigger wave. 

Next, prepare to sell

• Hit $5 profit sell 1, trail 1 for $0.05
• Profit : $18 | Net P/L : Profit - Commission = $18 - ($1.25 X 2 ) X 2 contracts) = $13

Retrospect

Orange - BTO 2 contracts
Blue - STC 1 contract and trail stop 1 contract
Red - Got trail stopped

Ratio :  4/4

SPY 9 Jan 2012

Before Market Open

1. Check Marketwatch for Headline news
2. TA for SPY - pretty constipated movement from Fri, support at 127 and resistance at 128.50. Diagonal Support and potential breakout of ascending triangle
3. Forexfactory - CAD building permit lesser than forecast

Sentiment : sideway to the upside 

TOS

1. Open SPY option chain to look for 2 Call contract
2. Set stop lost 
3. Drew additional support/resistance lines on 1min candles chart
4. Added previous trading day, open, high, low, close
5. Remind myself on the 2 rules

• Never buy the high, never short the low
• Wait for confirm trend

Once again another test of waiting, noticed that the shadow were pretty long on the bottom and top of candles as if telling me that there was no direction in the market. 

After around 10 am (US time), if it break below the support line then lets go for a Put option, opened up the option chain and standby the put option. A few seconds later, a potential double bottom showed up. Waited for it to breakout. And yes! Saw the bullish piercing candle and clicked ! buy (orange circle).

Checked on MACD, 

On 1 min chart - MACD red line enter bullish half

On 3 min chart - MACD blue line enter bullish half

Next, prepare to sell

• Hit $5 profit sell 1, trail 1 for $0.05
• Profit : $10 | Net P/L : Profit - Commission = $10 - ($1.25 X 2 ) X 2 contracts) = $5

Retrospect

Ratio : 3/3

SPY trade 6 Jan 2012

Before Market Open

1. TA check on SPY, bullish candle, 127 support, resistance at 128.5 
2. Market watch headlines - good node (payroll add 200,000)
3. Forexfactory - economic data good on unemployment rate  + some FOMC members speak

Sentiment : Bullish

TOS 

1. Look at option chain for 2 SPY call options
2. Set stop lost
3. Draw additional support and resistance lines on charts
4. Added the lines for previous day Open, High, low, Close
5. Prepare to buy 

Almost buy after about 15 minutes, black circle, remind myself on the rules

a) Never buy the high, never short the low

b) Wait for confirm trend

After the black circle, notice that man I should have standby a put option too as it's showing a pretty good confirm down trend. [Trend is your friend Trend is your BEST FRIEND =) from Con and GMT] On second thought it break rule (a) it's breaking day's low but still above previous day open.

Stick to the plan, Call option with a confirm up trend. Then SPY went constipated around the blue circle man waiting probably one of the hardest part in trading so true ! The candles just don't want to break above that resistance line at the same time the buyers and sellers are just reluctant to come closer. There were several moments that I wanted to buy earlier since it's near the resistance in order to be ahead of others and I manage to stick to the plan. =)

Finally the opportunity start to show, noticed the bullish candle 

• break above the resistance
• form uptrend
• jump in buyers

Clicked ! Buy - 

Watched for MACD, 

On 1 min chart, blue line moving into bullish half

On 3 min chart, crossover 

Next, prepare to sell

•  Hit $5 profit sell 1, trail 1 for $0.05
• Profit : $10 | Net P/L : Profit - Commission = $10 - ($1.25 X 2 ) X 2 contracts) = $5

Retrospect 

• How nice right ? Blue circle buy, Red circle sell.

Ratio : 2/2

SPY Scalp - 26 Aug 2011

Budget : $1000
No. of Contract : 2
Profit Target : $20 or $0.10 per option (profit take half when option hit $0.10;  trail stop $0.10)
Stop Loss : $20 or $0.20 per option

Trade #1
Profit : $25
Comm : $5
Net Profit/Loss : $20


Trade #2
Profit : $40
Comm : $5
Net Profit/Loss : -($45)


Trade #3
Profit : $39
Comm : $5
Net Profit/Loss : $34


Total Net Profit/Loss : $9

Scalp on SPY - 18 Aug 2011

As mentioned in the previous DMA, I m bearish. After checking out the unemployment claim data

8:30am	USD		Core CPI m/m		0.2%	0.2%	0.3%
8:30am	USD		Unemployment Claims		408K	402K	399K

the index future start to tank. Even before that Dow mini future was already down by 80 points before market open. Plus marketwatch news on Gold breaking record high again to 1819. All these lead to me getting ready for a bearish entry.


15 minutes after market open, spotted an entry

A few minutes later suddenly there's a sudden surge in volume forming a big bearish candle and my trailstop triggered shortly after. Nice profit of $390 in 14 minutes =D

SPY Trade - 23 Jun 2011

I decided to have my virgin entry on SPDR S&P 500 (ETF) (AMEX)‎ aka SPY. I plan for day trade meaning by end of the day I would have close my position no matter what happen.

Why this trade? Based on today's DMA - http://shulouto.blogspot.com/2011/06/daily-market-analysis.html
Market direction for 23 Jun (Wed) - down

1. Probably the New home Sales data will be probably bad base on 21 Jun existing home sales
2. Drop in GDP and increase in unemployment rates
3. Candle stick pattern short dusk / bearish engulfing (correction it should be shooting star pattern "man i need more practice on identifying the candlesticks pattern")

Plus Economic Data on Unemployment claims (up) and I think the new home sales will be bad too

8:30am

USD

Unemployment Claims

429K

414K

420K

10:00am

USD

New Home Sales

319K

311K

326K

Trading Plan
I was waiting for the market to open around 9:25pm and ding ding ding, market open and damn SPY gap down from $128.67 to $127.16 (-$1.51) Man couldn't take my entry as I m still paper trading and with the 20 minutes delayed quote, the option chain open only abt 15minutes later.

Profit Target : $0.40
Option price : $2.40
# of option contract : 10 "Due to my other position i can only afford to buy 6 contracts =\"
Stop Loss : $0.40

Bought the Jul 11 127 PUT option. Took half off the table when it hit $0.40 profit target and trail stop the remaining 3 contracts @ $0.20. (51 minutes)

Profit : $183
Commission : $35.4
Net Profit : $147.60

What's Scalping ? (From investopedia)
Scalping is a trading style specializing in taking profits on small price changes, generally soon after a trade has been entered and has become profitable. It requires a trader to have a strict exit strategy because one large loss could eliminate the many small gains that the trader has worked to obtain.