I’ve not traded the S&P for ages now… however, I thought I would have a look and I got my entry…

In the past, I would have been tempted to short as the market was looking to top.. however, the trend is your trend as the old trading adage goes and the market was merely consolidating.

I entered near the top of the previous move upwards (not a particularly good entry) at 843 and I had my stop at 839. The price action came incredibly close to my stop (within 1 point) before it headed upwards.

I had initally earmarked a stop at 854 but the upwards momentum didn’t seem strong as it made new highs. I promptly closed out at 848 for a 5 point profit.. not bad going!

Tags: day trading, daytrade, daytrading, dow trading, s&p trading, standard and poor, trading blog, trend is your friend

I read officially that we are in bear market territory, this is where the markets have fallen 20% from their highs… the state of the economy is not looking good and the financial sector especially is taking a bashing.

However, I took a few scalp trades today… I am having some real problems holding trades which is my biggest weakness in the markets… trading psychology plays a huge part and I am letting myself down when the markets are going my way.. I feel inclined to take a profit which then of course takes me out of the trade and out of the way of opportunity.

Anyway, my first trade was a short at 11313, the stochastics looked perfect for a short setup and the market had hit a short term high. The support line as you can see in the chart was the first exit point and I took profit here. I went double my initial stake as it looked like a good trade and I made the equivalent of +28 (+14 points x2)

I then placed another short as the market bounced off the support line and headed lower.. I wasn’t sure about this trade so much at this stage as the stochastics were already very low and I went in normal stake, short at 11295 and got stopped at 11304 for -9.

The last trade was a short once again, x2 stake at 11291 and I closed out at the previous short term low for +26 (+13 points x2)

My total points weren’t that high but I leveraged my profit.. however, it still wasn’t a great result in retrospect as I could have left my short in at 11313 and the market now is at 11240, which would have been 73 points. At my x2 stakes, I could have make 146 points!! Sigh…..

Tags: bear market, day trade, daytrading, dow jones, emini, es, forex, makemesomemoney, position trading, s&p, spreadbet, Spreadbetting, standard and poor, stochastics, technical analysis, Trading, trading system

I saw a nice descending triangle form on the 5 min SP charts today as you can see… I have drawn in the descending triangle on the chart and the baseline. I shorted at the top of the triangle but as it had already made almost a triple bottom, I was expecting it to fall through netting big bucks! However, the fourth time it reach the baseline, it didn’t fall through but bounced up stronger and through the triangle, taking out my stop. I feel frustrated that it didn’t work out.. I was a nice +2 point up at one stage.

Shortly after my stop was taken out, I went long as it broke the upper end of the triangle. It was +1 up before it fell and took me out again.

Then when the price action fell back into the realms of the triangle, I went short and once again got caught out.

I have ended up with a -9 point loss today!! Ouch!

Trading the S&P is tough and I have so much better luck with Forex.. perhaps it’s time to concentrate on the Forex markets completely and forget the S&P….

Tags: day trade, daytrading, emini, es, forex, makemesomemoney, position trading, s&p, Spreadbetting, standard and poor, stochastics, technical analysis, Trading, trading system