Despite this being a strong resistance level, there is a chance that prices could stall here and pullback, as seen prior. However, the market has been generally strong since mid-March, and the pullback earlier this month was relatively shallow, rallying at a strong support level. While it’s impossible to predict what the market will do, based on the current situation, looking for long positions seems to be the most comfortable option this morning.

MSFT – Long – This is the first interesting thing I’m seeing today. Looking at the daily chart’s patterns, price has been pushing up since the beginning of March, reached a peak about 4 trading days ago, and has pulled back from there. It reached some support, that was prior resistance and today, has pushed up from that level. Right now, the candle that’s showing has a long lower shadow and almost no body

On the 1h chart, price gapped up a bit and had a strong push, then pulled back during the next candle. The pullback is to a strong support level (again, on the 1h chart) and if it can break the day’s highs, there’s some gap to fill. Since I’m bullish overall right now, this pullback looks like the perfect opportunity to get in to. I’m going to set an entry on the break of the day’s highs if the R:R is there.

The market failed to hold on to any of the early gains, and failed to make another push up to/through the day’s highs. It actually, has started to drop and is down ~1/4% now (at 10:00am). So, I’m shifting my outlook because I didn’t really see any longs I liked anyway (shortly after setting my entry order in MSFT price continued to drop, taking out my would-be stop by a lot, so I cancelled the order).

While I was going through my screener earlier, I came across SCHW (Charles Schwab), but ignored it because it had been so weak for so long. Looking for Shorts, now, I came back to it. On the daily chart, this is showing a near-perfect retest of a resistance area that was prior support, and was pushing down from there. There’s a lot of room, with not a lot of chop, to the next support area, so I like this to the downside. The only wrinkle is: Since I was initially bullish, but am taking a bearish trade, I’m only taking 1/2 a position size. We’ll see how this plays out.

Update: 11:13 — Equities began to rally, and pushed up to +.24% on the day — it appeared the strength came back. I had cancelled my MSFT order because it pushed down through my stop level, but coming back now, it only wicked below that — that candle closed above. With the market rallying (and while I had another trade out there, it was largely inversely correlated with the S&P), I decided to put the order back out there. Unfortunately, though, I forgot to adjust the entry from a “Limit” to a “Stop” so it triggered immediately. Hopefully I was right and I still end up winning this trade.. If I do, I’ll have to call it luck and I don’t think I should take much from it…

While I was going through my screener earlier, I came across SCHW (Charles Schwab), but ignored it because it had been so weak for so long. Looking for Shorts, now, I came back to it. On the daily chart, this is showing a near-perfect retest of a resistance area that was prior support, and was pushing down from there. There’s a lot of room, with not a lot of chop, to the next support area, so I like this to the downside. The only wrinkle is: Since I was initially bullish, but am taking a bearish trade, I’m only taking 1/2 a position size. We’ll see how this plays out.

The post Stock Market Analysis | April 12, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

At the open, prices started off on a positive note, with some chop near the current price back in February. Despite this, things are looking strong overall, with futures also showing promise. Even if there is a slight pullback this morning, I remain optimistic that there will be further strength in the near future, potentially providing entry points for trading opportunities.

I’m going to start perusing stocks, now, and will add my individual stocks’ chart pattern analyses below as I come across them.

Stocks

NVDA – Long – This has been very strong. I had a solid trade in this last week, and today might provide another opportunity to get in. Price has made another push up since I exited my trade, reached ~$280, and stalled out around there. This morning, price opened at roughly that price, but is pulling back some. This pullback, on the 2h chart, is at a support area that was resistance last week, and I think I’m going to take another shot at the break of that level again. If the numbers are there.

I ran the numbers here, and there’s a strong resistance area going back several months, at that $280 area. R:R back to that level wasn’t there, but truthfully, I’m taking this trade with the expectation that this will push through that level. With that in mind, I looked at the next resistance area and had a decent R:R. It’s not amazing, so I took a smaller position size, but it looks very strong, so I want to take a shot.

META – Long – This has been pushing up steadily since last November, and really didn’t slow down much with the market at the beginning of this year. Price has been pushing up quite strong since the beginning of March, and made a new high this morning. From the high at the open, though, price has largely been pulling back since the open, which might be a great place to get in. I don’t see a pattern per-se on the 2h chart — and, technically, at this point, I might even consider that a reversal candle (spinning top), so, actually, I’ll hold off here.

ROKU – Long – This is interesting, so I want to talk about it. This hit a low at the end of last year, and pushed up strong through the first month+ of the year. There was a fairly deep pullback early-mid Feb. but then there was a HUGE spike over the next 3 days. From that spike (up to ~$76), price pulled back and through most of march stayed in a choppy range between roughly $60 and $68. This morning, price pushed up strong at the open, and took out the range highs, pushing above $68; but almost immediately has pulled back and is now sitting at the highs of that range.

Sheesh, there’s a LOT of chop here, and a lot of areas I could consider resistance where price could stall or I could put an entry order. But I don’t want to leave it alone, because it was such large break of a significant resistance area. Looking, again, at that prior spike in mid February, and it happened around earnings. There are more earnings at the end of this month, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the same thing. The only thing is, my trading style doesn’t really allow for me to hold for that long… That said, pricing in is a thing, so I want to get in early — I just don’t want to get stopped out at break even or, worse, a full exit, just before price shoots up.

I think I’m just going to take a longer-term bias on this, have a wider stop, a smaller position size, and remember that I’m thinking about earnings here and have that play in to how I manage this trade.

ABNB – Long – this is another interesting one, and I think it might be worth it — especially if the market is in fact rallying. This had been pushing up strong since the beginning of the year, but peaked shortly after earnings mid-February. It pulled back from there, but since mid-March, this has made a new swing high, a higher low, and a subsequent higher high. It’s pulled back again today, but it’s yet another higher low, and looks like a good opportunity to get in. I’ve already run the numbers and like them, and since I have 2 other orders out, too, I’m also going to take a slightly smaller position size with  this one. Cheers. I, also, think I’m going to stop here since that will put me at 3 entry orders on the day, and I don’t want to be overwhelmed if all 3+ trigger.

The post Stock Market Analysis | April 4, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Looking at the daily chart, I’m seeing more of the same. Price, it could be argued, made reversal moves back to the upsides, but there are a lot of upper wicks, which doesn’t convince me. I’m going to look for shorts today.

Side note: In my effort to dive into stocks as I see them, I’ve caught myself not doing an initial, pre-trade analysis and writeup for each stock. If I see something I like, I often just dive in. I’m going to try not to do that again today.

GOOGL – Short – I set an alert here last week to let me know when it reached a recent support level — it reached a strong resistance area, and I thought price would drop from there, and wanted to know when/if it got to ranges I wanted to trade. I got the alert yesterday, but it was right before the market closed, and I wasn’t at the computer. Looking today, and this morning, it’s already made another strong push down, and has stopped at a support area that was fairly strong resistance a few times in the past. On the daily chart, I see a small rally from that point, so I’m going to look for entries on the 2h chart.

Immediate update: I looked at the 2h chart, and even dropped down to the 15 min. chart, and this dropped too sharply, it looks extended to me. If price rebounds to around $101 – $102, I’ll look to short from there, but I don’t see a pattern here — at least not on the 2h chart. I’ll set another alert here and maybe revisit later.

Update 9:16: I got the alert that price rallied, looking to enter a small short position here.

NVDA – Long – I made a good trade on this last week, but it was in my practice trade accidentally. Looking at this today, price has been pulling back from a spike about 4 trading days ago, and today, is sitting on a support level that was resistance last week. When I “missed” this last week, it pushed too much for me to consider getting in, in my main account, but this pullback might offer a perfect retest to take another shot at. I’m going to look for entries here.

The post Market Analysis | March 28, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Since price is somewhat stalling at that resistance area, though, and I’ve been bearish, maybe I should maintain that outlook. I think I’ll take each chart at roughly face value, and use my S&P overlay to see how each stock has been correlated to it, and, as usual, try to make the best decision I can. I’m not going to force anything, either. Let’s see how stocks look.

TSLA – Long – I have a thing where if I took a trade in something within the last, say, week, I don’t want to trade it again. Especially if I lost that trade. I’m not sure why. If something is moving, I should want to get in to it, no matter what. If I’m day-trading, there’s a chance I’d only look at one stock and take multiple shots at that. It’s a psychological issue I need to move past, and here’s a step in that direction.

I don’t need to explain everything I’ve done in this trade here, so I’ll just talk about the immediate movement. I’m looking at the 3 day chart right now, and over he last roughly 3 sessions, price has shown strength. The current 3-day session is down a bit, but sitting at the highs of the last one, which is also has served as a key level here. This has been pushing up since the beginning of the year, had a pullback during the first half of march, but has pushed up since then. It reached some resistance, where it’s pulling back, and that looks like a great point to get a long trade in. I’m going to drop down to the 2h chart, look for entries and run the numbers here.

COIN – Long – This has been pushing down since the crypto bubble popped last year, but since the beginning of the year, there’s been some strength. Price pushed up from there until it peaked early February. From there, price pulled back to about 1/2 it’s gains from the beginning of the year, and hovered there for a few weeks. Over the last 4 or so days, price has pushed back up, nearing the highs from early Feb. There was a huge spike yesterday, which might have been an extended move, and today, price is on a little bit of a pullback. It would be the second bull-pullback on the 2h chart, and it looks pretty clean, so I think I’ll take a shot here, given the numbers work.

End of Day

I- Let me start over. Let’s look at this from a positive perspective. All day today, I was looking for longs, I kept my eye on the charts, no longer liked the movement — rather, they didn’t trigger in time. And, instead of leaving the orders open, as I probably would have in the past, I closed them.

Looking at the charts now, it’s a good thing I did. Equities, TSLA and COIN all dropped starting around noon, and the TSLA trade would have triggered, and quickly lost, had I left it open. In that sense, I made 1R today. If I could only trust myself more, this would have been an actual 1R+ day. I called out the market dropping off of the resistance area, and it did so today, if I had stuck to my bearish outlook that I had JUST YESTERDAY, I would have made money.

On one hand, I’m a bit upset that I didn’t trust myself, but on the other hand, I’m a bit more confident now as I didn’t cling to an initial outlook when the market showed me something different. I want to pat myself on the back for my initial outlook, saying I was ultimately right, but really, if the market had pushed up, I’d be congratulating myself on being right now, and, sometimes, you can’t have it both ways.

I don’t want to over-inflate my confidence and take unnecessary risks, so what I’m actually taking away from this is: I’m becoming more flexible, and starting to understand instead of know that there are opportunities abound in the market, so it’s okay to cut my losses and find something that’s actually doing what I want it to do elsewhere.

The post Market Analysis | March 22, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Looking at chart patterns on the weekly chart, I’m leaning bearish. While an argument can be made that this has been pushing up since October of last year, the pullback over the last roughly 6 weeks is a bit too deep, in my opinion, to be a continuation of that. I think price will drop off of either the next key level, or maybe the next one (at ~$4,100). Dropping down to the daily chart, and there’s actually a key level right where price closed today. Originally, I thought there might be more upside before this dropped, but I’m not so sure.

Price could push through this level tomorrow and make another rally. Definitely. It also could be recovering and make a strong push up for the foreseeable future. The pattern, to my eye, though, suggests further weakness, so that’s my bias for this week. Of course, I’m not going to force anything, and if the market shows me something different, I’ll update my outlook.

For now, though, I’m going to look for shorts. I’ll come back and see how the futures are moving pre-market tomorrow, and a bit after the open, and potentially fade the opening move. Especially if there’s a gap-up. And, as I’ve been doing, look at the stocks on my screener and dive in — looking for a trade — as soon as I see a chart I like. Without forcing anything, but also, without A) forgetting why I pulled the chart our or B) missing the move that I see.

3/21/2023

Equities did make a gap up this morning, and as of right now (8:50) looks to be stalling at that resistance area around $4,000. I still like shorts for today, we’ll see what individual charts look like, and I’ll keep an eye on this to see if it pushes through that level.

AMZN – Short – This is the first chart that’s jumping out at me this morning. Looking at the 3 day chart, this has been pushing down since mid 2021, with a bit of a rally last August, but has largely been pushing down since then. Price looked like it may have made reversal moves earlier this year, making a huge spike at one point, but didn’t hold on to any of those gains. There’s been another small rally over the last roughly 3 weeks, but price reached a resistance area, and looks like it’s failing at that level.

Dropping down to the daily chart, price spiked last Thursday, dropped a bit over Friday and yesterday (reaching a support area that was prior resistance, and rallying a bit), and is up again today. This made a new swing high and a new swing low, so it appears to be making reversal moves to my eye; though at the same time, price is at a resistance area right now and doesn’t seem to want to break it. The market gapped up and I’m overall bearish, so it might not be the worst thing to maintain that outlook and look for a short position here — fade the opening move. I think I might, let me run the numbers and see. I’ll risk a smaller position size, too.

Update – 11:08am

This pushed up above my initial stop level, but I still like this to the downside. I moved my entry and stop 50¢ higher, to adjust for that move higher, and to get in, still, at the first break of support.

Update – 1:32pm

This has continued to push up, but isn’t breaking out, and I’m still overall bearish. I adjusted my entry/stop higher, again, to catch more of  this move when/if it drops. Typically, I’d look to cancel this order with this type of movement (as I did with SQ already today), but at this point, it’s also looking like a double-top is forming. I’m still willing to take this if it drops, so my order’s still out there.

GOOGL – Short – This is very interesting. Looking at the 3D chart, price has been pushing down since early 2022, with some sideways movement from mid-April to mid-July. Then came a large drop through September that pushed through the lows of the prior sideways movement, and since October of last year has been moving sideways again — staying within a (fairly wide) range between $85 and $105. Today, price has reached the highs of the range, and given it’s current overall weakness, and the fact that I think the market will drop soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were to push down off of this key level. Dropping down to the 2H chart, I’m not seeing and discernable patterns to trade, so I’ll hold off for right now, but I’ll set an alert to let me know if it starts to drop.

SQ – Short – This dropped hard just before 2022, had a bit of a rally at the beginning, but pushed down hard again through the rest of the year. At the beginning of this year, there appeared to maybe be some strength, but since the beginning of February, this has made a new lower low, a lower high, another lower low, and, today, appears to be making yet another lower high. If this is another lower high, then this should drop right around the key level it’s currently hovering at. I’m going to take a stab here, too, given the numbers; with, also, a lesser position size.

The post Stock Market Analysis | March 20, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m looking for shorts today. So now, I’m going to look through the stocks in my stock screener and their charts, and look for candlestick patterns that suggest the stock’s price will go down in the near future. I’ll talk about each stock I like, and think I’ll trade, as I come across them.

TSLA – Short – I lost a trade here earlier this week, but I’m still bearish. That said, though, I’m going to take another limit order practice trade in this. It’s been pushing up over the last day, and has hit some resistance. If it reached the top of that resistance area, I’m going to try to short in to that with my stop being the next level above. I’m less interested in R:R for this, since I’m practicing the strategy and entry order more than anything, but I’ll still run the numbers.

NVDA – Long – I know, I’m only taking shorts today. So I shouldn’t even be looking at this. But I am, and here’s why: 1) While equities don’t seem to be holding on to the gains from this morning, price also isn’t pushing down as aggressively as I thought it would — and thus I’m not coming across a lot of opportunities and 2) over the past month, this has been mostly inversely correlated with the S&P. With that inverse correlation in mind, looking at the 3D chart right now, price is right at a strong key level, with a good amount of room above to run. This would be a breakout play, which I don’t love, but it’s not a base, so that’s better. I can actually argue a cup-and-handle here, on the 2h chart. I’m going to run numbers here and I think pull the trigger.

End of Day Thoughts

Slowly but surely, I think I’m getting back into the cadence of how I worked when I first started trading with Maverick. Getting to the charts a little after the open, so I’m not making decisions based on the opening move, Looking through the charts and putting in 1 or 2 entry order; maybe they’ll trigger, maybe they won’t.

Additionally, I’ve been using a 3day -> 2hour top-down analysis, which I think A) is better timing for the length of time I’m comfortable holding something and B) is long enough to allow me to hold through the close and not lose a DT. At this point, I only want to keep them for emergencies, but still, I don’t want to lose them if I don’t have to.

Lastly, I’ve really been liking taking a deep dive into charts as I see them. If I get 1 or 2 trades in, I feel good about that, and can often just take the time to monitor from there, instead of continually hunting because a stock is on my screener. Sorting by volume, I think I’ll find good opportunities and not waste time searching for the next thing. If it doesn’t work out, I move on, but I don’t want to miss something I see looking for something else; I’d rather miss something I never got to initially.

The post Stock Market Analysis | March 16, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

I’m once again at a crossroads. Do I look at stocks to day-trade tomorrow morning? Or do I simply wait, look at stocks throughout the day tomorrow and look for a swing trade. I guess, a swing trade will potentially not close within the same day, allowing me to possibly hold on to my DTs rather than day-trading where I’d definitely lose my DTs. I guess from that perspective, I’m going to just look through stocks starting at the open tomorrow, starting at the day chart (is there a chart timeframe between day and week? Of course TradingView can do that!). Actually, starting on the 3 day chart, looking at the day, and ultimately looking for entries on the 4h chart — worst case scenario will be the 2h chart.

March 14, 2023

The S&P made a significant gap up this morning, reaching a key area that it broke last Friday. This initial move looks like there’s some strength today, but until it’s able to break that level meaningfully, I’m still bearish. I’m going to look through stocks now, and I think I’m going to do things a little differently today. I’m going to look through my screener, and as soon as I see something I like, I’m going to analyze it here, all the way to entry. If at any point, I decide against it, I’ll move on, but instead of pulling out a few that look okay, then diving deeper, I’m going to do a deep dive into the chart patterns as soon as I see something that’s close.

TSLA – Short – Starting at the 3D chart, this has been pushing down all year, though there’s been a small pop over the last couple of days. Like the overall market, though, I’m bearish, and this is retesting a key level, and on the 2h chart, it’s testing the 20MA. It looks to me that if this drops below $180, it could make a strong push down, and on the 2h chart, my stop is at a nice resistance level at ~$184. I’m not sure if the R:R is there yet, I haven’t picked a target yet, but if it is, I’m going to add an entry order

MU – Short – This has been pushing down for a month-and-a-half, with a strong down push over the last couple of trading days. Today, price gapped up, but gapped right to a key area that’s been both support and resistance. Looking at the 2h chart, it’s failing to hold on to those gains of the gap-up, and appears to have a lot of room to run if it breaks this level back to the down side. I’m going to run numbers here, too, and potentially enter an order.

I looked at 20 stocks this morning, set entry orders in 2, and one has already triggered. I don’t want to over-extend myself, so I’m just going to manage these trades for the rest of the day

The post Market Analysis | March 13 – 14, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

I’m still (always) struggling a bit with my watch-list and the best parameters and how to sort through them, so this is what I’m going to do today. My usual day-trade watch-list, and since I’m day-trading, I’m going to start my top-down on the 2h chart, working to the 15 min. and then ultimately taking trades on the 5min. or, worst-case-scenario, the 3 min. chart. I’m going to sort my screener by volume and pull out my favorite 8 charts. 8 was the number of baskets I analyzed in Forex, so I like that as a number to focus on. That way, I also don’t overwhelm myself too much. If, while trading, any of those 8 don’t move how I’d like them to, I’ll go back to my screener and look at stocks one at a time.

It’s now Tuesday morning, I got up a little later than I hoped (but, technically, got to the computer a little earlier), I’ve taken care of some other things already — coffee, protein shake etc. — and started looking through charts again, and I’m at 6, including the one I want to take a stab at at/before the open. I know I wanted to get to 8, but since it’s so close, I’ll stick with these 6. I’ll re-run the screener if I don’t end up pulling the trigger anywhere

RVMD – Short – looks like it’s going to gap-up about $3 at the open. Thinking about running some numbers and putting in an order to short this, like, right at the open — but I’ll do so in my practice account. I’d be doing it not on a specific pattern, but on the huge volatility swing, and the fact that I don’t thing stocks are going to hold on to their gains today

SJM – Short – This has been largely weak this year so far, but the downward movement flattened out a bit over the last month. I’m on a 2 hr. chart and looking at the most recent activity, price pushed up at the beginning of last week, but pushed down to a support level by the end of the week. At the end of the day yesterday, price broke that support level and had a bit of a rally. That rally is what I’m going to look to short in to today. I like the retest on the 2h chart, so I’m going to look for entries on the 5 min. I’ll put more detail on this in the “trade” post if I end up pulling the trigger

LSXMK – Short – This is Serius XM’s stock, which I didn’t know. There was a lot of sideways movement here prior to February, but price dropped pretty sharply at the beginning of this month, and has been pushing down since. Last week, looking at the 2h chart, price had a short base, which it broke near the end of the week, and then Friday and Monday has rallied back up to. {re-write that if it doesn’t make sense}. The lows of that prior base is where I’m looking for entries and patterns, so we’ll see what happens at the open. This didn’t move, to my eye, for a few minutes at the open. Looking now, though and price has gapped down a little bit this morning. Looking down at the 5 min. chart, there was a decent base that formed that the gap-down broke, that will also be the bases for my entry and exit. It’s pushing down now, so I’ll set an alert to let me know if it gets close to retesting, and I’ll set a limit-order trade in my practice account since it didn’t work out in BN

CNQ – Short – Shoot, I didn’t make this before the market opened. It just did. And I didn’t get my RVMD trade in. oh well, next time. This appeared to have bottomed out a week or so ago and was rallying, but that came off of a fairly sharp drop. Over the last couple trading days, price has rallied up to a pretty major area that’s been both support and resistance, which is where I wanted to look to short. Looking now, though, and there’s still a little upward room before the “main” part of that key area. This is a lower priority for now

BN – Short – This isn’t a great candidate for my “new” re-test strategy, as it seems to have already tested the area and pushed down off of that, on the 2h chart. I’d just look for a straight up pattern to short in to here on the 5 min. chart, which I might be missing as I type this. I’ll see in a couple minutes when I revisit. On the 5 min. chart, this had a sharp drop at the open, taking out a nice support area. I’m going to keep my eye here and try to enter at a retest of $33.60. I want to put in a limit order, but I’m still struggling with those. I’ll monitor for an actual order in my real account, but I will enter a limit order in my practice account to see how that works again. — I tried to pull the trigger here in my practice account and it was reject. I checked the stock in my live account and It’s listed as “Not available to borrow” so I couldn’t short this if I wanted to…

The post Stock Analysis | February 27, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

I think the move is to day-trade. I talked about it a bit this weekend, and if I’m swing trading, I seemingly have to take the trades on a, minimum, 4h chart — and I SHOULD do them near the end of the trading day so that there’s less likelihood of exiting them within the same day — From there, I’m more prone to slippage, so I just need to be super disciplined about not taking those trades on time frames lower than 4h.

In the S&P, last week price never really made a push through the highs they made the week prior, and thus formed a short-term lower high. And yesterday, price reached another low, that made a lower one than the previous one. That said, yesterday price closed near the highs, forming a hammer — and closing at the highs of that key area — but overall through February, there’s been a sideways-down-trend. I think I don’t want the markets to drop, so a part of me is looking for reasons that things will push up again, but frankly, other than pushing back to the highs of support/resistance, I don’t see it. So, I’ll be looking largely for Shorts today, but I’m not going to ignore any Longs that look promising.

Alright, I went through my day-trading screener, and pulled out 8 that I liked initially — I also decided to look at them on the 2h chart this morning, rather than day, so that I can get a better idea of the short-term movement rather than longer-term. I think that’s messed me up in the past a bit when day-trading.

Also, I accidentally sorted by least volume instead of most (my min. was 500K, so it’s not no volume, just less) so some of these are lower-volume stocks I’ve never really looked at. Let’s dive in.

SOFI – Short – This gapped down this morning to some lows that it reached a couple weeks ago, and that also held up back at the end of January, but rallied from there to a resistance area from last week. Below the lows of the day, there’s a decent gap to the next key level, so this looks like a great retest opportunity. I dropped down to some lower time frames to see if I could find any entries, but couldn’t, and got frustrated that this was starting to move even though I hadn’t run numbers yet. It looks like something I could/will miss and it’s frustrating, but at the same time the push back down might be really fast and that’s also scaring me.

A few things here already. 1) Instead of doing a full analysis of all the stocks I pulled out. I decided to look for entries here because it looked tradable. It was a clean pattern and started to move already and I didn’t want to miss it, so I found entries and entered an order and set alerts. 2) I need to rely more on my instincts and trusting myself that I understand what I’m looking at, and this is one of those scenarios where I’m trusting a gut feeling and honing my instincts as a trader and 3) This is complicated but I need to find more of a routine.

Already this morning I wasn’t sure if I was going to day-trade or swing trade — and in the future when I have more money in my account my options are just going to expand to Forex and Options etc. — and because of that, I think, I’m starting out the day on the wrong foot. I need to know EXACTLY what I’m going to look at and look for each day. I need to take as much “figuring out” out of the equation as possible, so all the “figuring” I do is pure analysis and (hopefully thus) better/faster/more apt analysis.

At the very least, I need something I look for each day that will steer my direction for the day. I can’t just choose what I’m going to do each morning arbitrarily, especially when I’m not up and at the charts at the same time each day.

In the time it took me to type the paragraph above, my trade has already triggered. I think I’m just going to manage this one, since it’s a 5 min. chart, then either come back here to find some candidates to swing trade later — though if I’m going to  pull the trigger later, I should do the analysis later — or just work on my blog some more. Knowing me, It’ll be the latter. I’ll do a full write-up for this trade in a bit when I exit it.

EOD

(I had to double-check to be sure the actual numbers) So far I’ve taken 4 practice trades with the new retest strategy. Two losses and two wins. The wins have both come day-trading on 5 min. charts and both losses have come from longer-term 4h chart trading that lasted for several days. I feel like I already have more faith in this strategy because when I’m wrong, I’ll be wrong the same amount as the prior one, but when I’m right, I’m going to be a lot more right.

I just have to make sure to be patient in finding the setups and quick with the execution. Don’t force the trade, but when I see it, I have to be sure I’m on it. I feel confident I’ll be able to pull it off. I might be more prone to missing trades with this strategy, but I have to continue to remember that there are going to be endless opportunities to make money in the markets and a missed trade here and there will happen. It won’t feel great in the moment, but I’ll try to continue to remember that.

To put a bow on it: Looking for a stock whose 2h chart matches the direction of the S&P, and the direction of the 5 min. chart/retest. The retest will consist of a move in my intended direction, a short break, creating a future resistance area to retest, another short break, then a return to the lows of that base. From there, I’ll enter an order at those lows with a stop at the highs of the base. All of this will be dependent on a target that offers a 2.5+ R:R.

The post Stock Analysis | February 21, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Equities are down on the day, but had a lot of downward pressure earlier and is now sitting near the day’s highs/the open. The low’s it reached today was a solid support/prior-resistance area, so I could see more strength for the next few hours. I’m going to look for longs, primarily, but I’m not opposed to taking anything short. I’m just doing my best to remain open to what the market shows/provides

F – Long – I don’t like this, after all. It gapped down this morning but is on a strong up-day and is sitting near some resistance with a clear target area, which is why I looked at it initially. Looking now, though, this has been in a downtrend since earlier this month, with large gaps down. I’m not sure how much more strength this will actually have, so I’ll leave it alone

MARA – Long – In a lot of ways, this has been trending down since late January, but it reached a bottom a week or so ago and has been pushing up from there. That move up took out prior swing highs, and is now stalling at a resistance area that was created during that drop. It looks like a good area to break, with a clear target area, so I think I’ll definitely look for entries here

Update after analysis: I was looking through a few charts, putting some orders out in both regular and practice accounts, when I looked at this on the 3 min. chart and saw it was a in a bit of a high base and threatening to break. A) I’m not really trading bases now, and B) it was so close to breaking it I was pretty sure I wouldn’t catch the moves, so I just ran the numbers and set an alert at 1R. It hit. Would’ve been a great trade if I could’ve caught it, but that comes with timing — Another update. Not long after hitting 1R, price reversed back to the prior highs. If properly managed, that’s where my stop would’ve been and it would’ve been a break-even trade, ultimately.

LCID – Long – Another one that’s been pulling back for a little over a month, but has made moves suggesting it’s recovering. Price is, again, at a good resistance area, and there’s a clear target if it can break this key level — which it’s already threatening to do. I’ll look to put some money here, too. The only thing giving me pause is back in January, there was a MASSIVE move for some unknown reason, and price pulled back off of that and an argument can be made that price is headed back down toward more “normal” levels, but I’d be willing to take a short-term shot here

RIOT – Long – This looks so good that in the time I added it to my screener it’s gone from +3% to over +6%. Wish I had gotten here earlier, because I almost definitely missed the move here.

DKNG – Long-  this has been pushing up since the beginning of the year, quite strongly, save for a fairly sizable pullback in the last week of January. Since then, though price has been pushing back up and has taken out the highs it made prior to that drop. When I first added this to my list, it appeared to be retesting those highs, so I liked it, but looking now and it’s already pushing back up. I’ll come back here if I don’t see any entries anywhere else, but I think I missed this

UBER – Long – This has had a lot of wild moves over the last few weeks spiking over $3.50 and then returning over the course of less than 2 weeks. Today, price is back somewhat near those highs, and has recently taken out a slight resistance area that was created during those couple of weeks, so it looks promising. I like a couple others more, but I’ll revisit this if I don’t end up taking a shot anywhere else

The post Stock Analysis | February 16, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.