The new guy

[LemonButt]

premature exitation new guy. lots of gas left in the tank. insiders are buying rampantly. you surprised me on this exit.

I sold at $9.95 and it closed at $9.90. I put the proceeds into STAR at $18.11 and sold at $18.90 before the close for decent gains on both positions. I'm 100% cash right now and I expect most stocks to retreat tomorrow since the only news pushing the market today was India's elections and Lowe's raising it's outlook--should be some good bargains tomorrow and I should be able to buy my PSEC back for less than I sold it for.

[yoyomama]

and I expect most stocks to retreat tomorrow since the only news pushing the market today was India's elections and Lowe's raising it's outlook

I know this is crazy & you guys certainly know your stuff, no denying that & I appreciate the knowledge for sure...that said - you might be right but I'm still not convinced that at least half the time there is no reason why stocks go up & down. The rationalizations by the talking heads are made afterwards to fit.

[LemonButt]

I know this is crazy & you guys certainly know your stuff, no denying that & I appreciate the knowledge for sure...that said - you might be right but I'm still not convinced that at least half the time there is no reason why stocks go up & down. The rationalizations by the talking heads are made afterwards to fit.

I sold PSEC when I did because it was up on low volume. Low volume means that there isn't powerful news to drive it either way and the lows/highs experienced are just short term for now. When I sold, PSEC was on pace to have daily volume of less than half it's average. If you look at the volume with the chart, the bulk of the volume didn't come until after 3pm to end the day with average volume. If a stock goes up because 5 people are buying, it's usually only a temporary gain. If a stock goes up because 500 people are buying, odds are it's going to stay up.

Stock prices are only the result of supply/demand for the moment. PSEC as a company for instance is worth the same amount it was yesterday but had a gain of a few percent when it was all said and done.

[stockman09]

Nice stock to trade that PSEC.

[yoyomama]

Nice stock to trade that PSEC.

Just as long as you didn't buy it yesterday & hold overnight.

[LemonButt]

I figured I should probably use this thread to post my trades since everyone else seems to have one. Hopefully this helps some of the newbies also since I'm not trading 10 at a time due to my relatively small account balance (I've got about $12.6k in buying power with margin). I put $6k in the market about 2 weeks ago for the first time since 2005 and I'm up about 5% now. Not bad considering I put my entire savings account into the stock market (my wife trusts me more than you can imagine) and instead of getting 0.5% APR in our savings account, I'm at 711% annualized right now. Here is what I've done recently:

5/18 - bought 200 STAR @ $18.12 (in the morning)
5/18 - sold 200 STAR @ $18.90 (in the afternoon)
quick 78 cent gain * 200 shares = $156 - commissions

5/19 - sold short 200 LG @ $30.70, 175 LG @ $30.80 ($30.75 avg)
I sold short all the shares Scottrade had available at the time. LG was pointed out in another thread and has a beautiful chart and has been pushed down consistently. It has been the only stock on the NYSE to hit 12 month lows for several days in a row. It's currently at $30.32 as I type this for a 1 day gain of $198 (not including commissions). I had a trailing stop in for 2 points to cover my ass if anything happened. I've since lowered that to 0.30 which is set to trigger at $30.62 right now. My plan is to unload it tomorrow and buy TNK for the dividend on Friday (59 cents). I'm hoping to get a full 1000 shares if the price stays down (it's getting hit today) and will subsequently sell it early next week for even more gains hopefully. If I buy TNK for 12.50 and sell it for 11.91, I'll break even when the dividend is calculated in. 59 cents * 1000 shares = $590 which will be dispersed next Friday for shareholders on record this Friday.

If any newbies want to ask questions etc, please do so. I'm no expert, but I've lost enough money in the market in the past to know what not to do I work full time and do the stocks on the side (I'm at work as I write this) and my goal is to grow my wealth as quickly as possible with the least amount of risk. I'm still a young guy and can afford to take big risks and lose a lot, but I am playing with my savings account here, so my trades are going to be relatively conservative

[LemonButt]

5/19 bought to cover 200 LG @ 30.00

Put in an order to sell on a dip (been hovering at $30.20-30 all day) and it got filled. LG went down to 12.95 and popped back up to $30.15 as I write this. $30.75 - $30.00 = $0.75 * 375 = $295 - commissions

I'm putting in an order for TNK to buy low (at $12.04 right now, will see if 1000 shares @ $11.85 gets filled before day's end) and hold through Monday for that dividend. Currently have $12.8k buying power.

[LemonButt]

5/19 bought 1000 TNK @ 12.05

Looks like it's not going to get pushed down to much further today, so I raised my order. I expect oil prices to jump (which should help a tanker company) for Memorial Day and buyers to snatch TNK up for the dividend Friday as well. Should see decent gains by Tuesday.

[steelman]

5/19 bought 1000 TNK @ 12.05

Looks like it's not going to get pushed down to much further today, so I raised my order. I expect oil prices to jump (which should help a tanker company) for Memorial Day and buyers to snatch TNK up for the dividend Friday as well. Should see decent gains by Tuesday.

Lemon,
For your style of trading which time frame do you use when looking at charts?

Thanks, Steelman

[LemonButt]

I guess I was wrong about TNK. It went below 11.85 before it closed and there was some decent selling action in the last hour. I am familiar with almost all the technical indicators, but take them with a grain of salt. Stockta.com is a good site that uses a combination of a bunch of technical indicators on a stock that I cross reference my picks with after screening etc. When I look at charts, I'm looking at volume and price movement. I'm knowledgable of most of the patterns like flags, head & shoulders, etc. I also check fundamentals and make sure a stock isn't fundamentally too high, which strengthens the pick. As far as timeframe, when things went the market "crashed" a few months ago, that is a starting point. I acknowledge what a stock was trading prior to the collapse as well. TNK for instance was over $20/share and now it's ~$12, and operations are relatively status quo over the past few years. I'm a lot more comfortable seeing losses on a position when I have strong convictions with a stock pick through technical analysis and fundamentals. I'm down almost $200 on TNK right now for instance, but I have no worries because I know the company's fundamentals are strong and the technical indicators all point up, plus the dividends are strong. Win-win-win

[LemonButt]

I had a fed margin call this morning on my account and called the broker. Apparently I flubbed the whole dividend issue with TNK and I need to add some funds to my account. Will be looking to unload the TNK since the dividend is a non-factor now. I've got an order in to sell 1000 at $12.25 and see if I can get rid of it on a high. Looks to be moving upwards right now.

[GulfCoast]

Lemon .. Thanks for your posts. I am a relative newbie. I have had a brokerage account for a while, but have never "traded". I have had a few lucrative positions over the last several years, and I am up...but I could have been up alot more if I had not continued to hold my biggest position through all of 2008. My portfolio size, wife's trust, and my motivation all seem to be similar to what you said about yourself. IBD is my main source of info. With a full time job, I am leaning more towards swing trading ...holding stocks from a few days up to a few months. I did buy a small position in GMCR 2 days before it's last earnings were released and after about 3 weeks, I am up about 40%. I don't want to end up holding that until it dips down below my buy point, but I can't bring myself to sell right now, because I think it is going to continue to climb.
Anyway, I like your posts, and I appreciate that you are sharing information about your trades.

GC

[LemonButt]

The biggest downfall for new traders is looking back in hindsight and saying coulda shoulda woulda. If you sold your position and beat the market in your gains, there is nothing to regret. If you're up 40%, you should feel comfortable selling knowing you beat the market with a 40% gain. Alternatively, you could simply sell the principle you have in the stock and hang on to the "free" shares and no matter what happens you'll be in the green. I took a beating today with TNK. I moved my buy order up to $13.00 and will be looking to unload it in the next week or two since it didn't trigger today. 90% of stocks were down today, but oil stockpiles have been shrinking and OPEC is falling apart which will mean more oil production and more oil needing transport. TNK was a $20 stock before the collapse and may even bump my limit order up to $14-15 if there is a rally on the horizon.

[IIC]

Here is some sage advice...Never...Ever...Answer a margin call...Best, Doug

[LemonButt]

I've got a limit order for $12.49 good until the end of the day today which will give me a solid $400 gain. If the trading is similar to what we've seen the rest of the week, it should trigger to sell at a high point for today. I'm keeping my eye on ANAT if I can get it below $75 and sell it at $77 or better and cash in on the dividend on June 3rd. WRI also has a dividend ex-date for June 4th and I wouldn't mind cashing in on both dividends for a quick $400+ gain and hopefully get some gains on the actual shares in the process.

Beyond that, I'm going to be keeping my eye on TNK as well for short/long positions. I analyzed the historical prices and the average daily loss or gain is -4.15% and 4.38% respectively. The Bollinger Bands seem to be a good indicator of when to buy and when to sell TNK.

Looks like today should be a good day for the bulls