TradeForGain.com

Archive for November, 2007

This stock has been moving smoothly to the upside. It was mentioned in my blog here. Looking at the daily and intraday charts it has been recovering quite well.

I have been trading actively since 1997 and have traded stocks, futures and forex, recently I have been mostly focused on trading stocks on the TSX, NY and Nasdaq (in order).

I am considered a technical analyst therefore I rely heavily on charts for my analysis.

• I use fundamental analysis to select and score stocks for my trading list.
• I use a top down view approach, making trading decisions in the following sequence:
  • Major indices analysis (daily,weekly,monthly)
  • Sector analysis (daily, weekly, monthly)
  • Individual stocks analysis (30 minutes, 60 minutes, daily and weekly)
• I normally focus on high quality stocks on the New York Exchange, Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange
• You will see a lot of focus on TSX Stocks
• I tend to focus on fundamentally sound stocks, trading above $10 and with volume average of at least 100k per day. I am not a bottom picker
• I have traded Forex, not interested at this point
• I have traded Futures (eMinis and Currencies) - good but does not fit my personality and time constraints at this point (maybe in the future)

Purpose of this blog

• Keep track of my trades, learning experiences, mistakes…
• Share some of my trading knowledge
• Discuss topics
• Have fun!

Information you should expect to see posted here

• Overall Market Analysis
• Stock analysis and picks
• Money management, discipline
• My fitness progress
• Tech tips
• Productivity tips
• Miscellaneous thoughts on trading

Tools and Services I use in my trading

• Charting : QuoteTracker for real-time watching, My proprietary charting tool (built in Excel) retrieves charts from web sites, mostly from BigCharts, StockCharts and Prophet.net, Amibroker for signal scanning and charting as well, Metastock from time to time.
• Data Feeds: TDWaterhouse, have used eSignal, DTN IQ, Quote.com and many others in the past, didn’t improve my trading… I’m cheap!
• Trade Tracking: My own trading tracking tool built in Excel
• Risk Management Calculation: My own trading tool built in Excel

How I analyze my charts

• I like the KISS approach, clean charts
• Mostly use a 50ma and 200ma with price and volume
• I like to view multiple time frames at once

Here’s what my charting tools look like

QuotetTracker

my custom-developed charting tool

My strengths as trader

• I am well versed in technology
• I like trading and what I do
• I am persistent

My weaknesses as trader

• I take too much risk - have to work on it
• Consistency in trading - this is an art for every trader out there, I am aware of my demons and have been working on developing a method that will help me to achieve consistency by establishing a daily/weekly activity sequence and also some tools.

What else do I do?

• I have a job!

Disclaimer:
The contents of this blog are NOT to be considered investment advice, and you should know that I may or may not have positions in the securities mentioned here.

A couple of the stocks in my Hot Watch list are moving quite nicely today. Here are some of the highlights:

Toronto Stock Exchange (X.TO) - I wrote about this stock here on November 13, when was trading at C$ 48.94, it’s now trading at C$ 53.20, up 8% in 13 days. The stock is up 6% at the moment and it’s attacking the 10 months high.

Vivo Participacoes (VIV) - A quick candlestick analysis of the weekly chart shows strong buyers presence.

The Major Indices

Holly molly! Nice movement on the Dow Jones. It spiked above the 200ma and stayed right there, shooting from 12,750 to 13,300… Nice! Will it hold? 

Sectors

Most of the sectors got a nice jump today but the Utilities and Health Care are the only ones showing strenght so far.

My Open Positions

Today was a good day for some of my positions and I hope for some of yours as well. I have been holding the same stocks for over 20+ days now and don’t foresee any closings in the near future. I am comfortable with most of them and have stops in place.

Tim Hortons (THI.TO) - breaks out but closes at the day’s low. Not very good candle but we need some firm confirmation before taking any action. Stop is in place and pattern still looks good

CVRD (RIO) - Pulls back from 50ema and closes above it.

Laboratory Holdings (LH) - I love the action on this stocks, recovering quite nicely over the elast 3 days. Could squeeze more shorts if runs above $ 74. This is a fundamentally strong stock and has been recently upgraded by Wachovia.

Vivo Participacoes (VIV) - Another Brazilian stock in the Wireless space. Pulled back quite nicely above the 50ema as well on increasing volume.

Darling International (DAR) - Another fundamentally strong stock that has been in a congestion trying to break the round $10 barrier. Could move quickly if breaks above that level — or, could trap some longs (me), shorts if zig zags some more along the congestion. Overtime I think the direction is up.

Now let’s move to my dogs:

Petro-Canda (PCA.TO) - Fundamentally very strong but broke down a bearish flag on increasing volume - it’s now close to my stop.

Cameco (CCO.TO) - This uranium player has been nothing but radioactive to my portfolio … I will hold it. Lesson learned: don’t pick falling knifes.