August 23
Stock charts provided by Tradingview.com
Entries charts provided by IBKR.com
Trades:
Trades Taken: 0
SPY
Plan: With a nice red day in the markets yesterday, and Fed Powell speaking at 10:00 am this morning, I will be sitting on the sidelines today. I will make plans, but it’s not worth trading on a Friday with a catalyst looming 30 minutes after market open. So for my trading week, that’s a wrap and it was another solid week. Part of being a professional in this space is knowing when to step on the gas, and when to let off. I don’t trade catalysts, I trade technicals.
For SPY, I like calls into the previous close and the 5 ema on the daily chart. A reset trade on the 9 ema if that fails. The short is where things get interesting. I do like yesterday’s open for a short, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the daily mini-trend (marked) is right at the gap fill near all time highs. Is a bit wide on risk.
Result: No trading, just watched today. Clean levels as usual!
QQQ
Plan: For QQQ moving averages and the previous close for support are very interesting. This all depends on where exactly these moving averages open up, but the 9 ema should be within risk of the previous close.
Result:
August 22
Trades:
Trades Taken: 1
SPY
Plan: With 10 minutes to go before market open, markets are gapping up slightly over yesterday’s highs.
For SPY, I like a straight move up into all time high for a short, and a dip into previous close for a long.
Result: Not much movement of price action in the first 30 minutes. No true trigger out of the gate prior to 10:00, but I did work natural price action on QQQ as seen below.
QQQ
Plan: For QQQ, I like a move up into 486.90 area for a short, previous close for a long.
Result: No true trigger by 10:00 am, which is what I normally aim for. I did work QQQ 482 calls on what I call natural price action. Once we broke yesterday’s highs on QQQ (dipping below it) I aimed to start averaging on calls to work it into the previous close. I “played” the chart a bit with multiple entries to specifically work on paying out into the 9 ema on intraday chart.
Check out the entries chart to see how I play peaks and valleys. With time and experience, one can learn how to read natural movement of markets.
August 21
Trades:
Trades Taken: 1
SPY
Plan: Straight forward for SPY today, long into previous close, short into 561 gap, with a reset short at ATH gap.
Result: SPY moved with QQQ, but I liked the protection on the long better on QQQ. It takes time and practice to understand which trade to take when they both line up.
Lesson: Notice on the daily chart for SPY that the low of day came in to the 554.31 area that was marked. Now go look at the intraday chart at SPY for the low of day. Notice anything? This is a glitch, something I called a phantom tick. SPY daily chart shows a much lower low of day than the ACTUAL data which is shown on the intraday. It doesn’t happen very often, but I watch the market quite closely and feel I catch most of them on my nightly review.
QQQ
Plan: Similar to SPY, for QQQ I like a long into previous close, short into high of day.
Result: Today was about as easy as it gets. Took QQQ 479 calls on the first dip towards previous close. Nice entries as I peppered buys into the level, again paying out on the first push and into morning highs. May only have been a 76 cent move on the stock chart from lows to morning highs, but again, I go for FIRST REACTIONS to get my consistency. Another base hit locked in, and done with my day in 7 minutes.
August 20
Trades Taken: 3
SPY
Plan: And just like that, all time highs are back in conversation for the markets.
For SPY, might get a test of previous close for a short if we pop at the open, but I need distance. With no distance, there are two gap fills above that should prove as solid resistance. May get an opportunity for a remount trade if it pushes past the previous close. For a long, I like end of day vwap and 556.70 area.
Result: Not much distance, but I did start small on SPY 561 Puts. This trade was great practice on averaging. Check out the distance between the 559.61 and 561.53 levels. Taking a trade that close to the open, I knew I would have to be patient. I did not get the average I wanted, but first round of major sells came in to my average price (thanks to averaging) and paid out the last bit it to profit. Overall, this trade was actually red. While it was good practice at averaging, I didn’t do my best. It happens. I take mistakes and turn them into learning opportunities.
Second trade came on averaging into calls and playing the first bounce as you will see. Not quite into level with the SPY 557 calls, but very happy with how I worked that range for a nice profit (canceling out the red from this morning’s trade.
Third trade came with another stab of puts. I took SPY 560 calls on the major retest for a nice scalp.
QQQ
Plan: Quite similar set up to SPY. Morning action may be around previous close either direction, so something to pay attention to.
Result: QQQ traded identical to SPY per usual. No trades on QQQ today.
August 19
Trades:
Trades Taken: 1
SPY
Plan: As of 9 am, a pretty flat premarket. The previous close on both markets have within a 1 point risk to Thursday’s close. This is interesting for longs out of the gate if we dip. Shorts are much farther away, for SPY looking at 559 area, but 556.50 could provide proper resistance.
Result: SPY traded very similar to QQQ, but notice the first few minutes are different. Focused on working the QQQ long trade this morning.
QQQ
Plan: Previous close for a long on QQQ, for a short I like the gap all the way at 480.62, but we need to clear Friday’s highs first.
Result: Knowing how close we were to the long I liked, I did start with QQQ 474 calls. I worked this trade as we had level (previous close), Thursday’s close, and the 50 MA all within risk. I nailed morning lows at the 50 MA with a nice reaction and first target into 9 ema and 50 ema on the intraday.
Lesson: Averaging and size is all about correcting your average. When in a losing trade (or one that is moving to the next support level), one doesn’t add to hope and get a big win, it’s about correcting the average and getting the size out almost immediately. If done right, that first round of selling to get size out is also in profit. Check where the average was on the main round of selling. Again, SIZE in a trade to CORRECT the average price! While the entries chart doesn’t show quantity, I need you to trust that my largest buy was the last buy. Each purchase (for me) needs to get bigger in order to correct the size appropriately. Also understand how well executed the first exits were (early part of trade) and how much opportunity was there in just the opening range.