BPA trading room Q&A: June 1, 2015
Can you comment more about why you were not willing to short during 68 to 74?
Video duration: 1min 50sec
Video transcript
Taking those enticing end of day trades
I did end up taking one short. In general, at the end of the day, I don’t like to trade much at all. In general, I like to trade using wide stops and scaling in — or at least I like that option, and at the end of the day, I cannot do that. Can I buy below 69 and use a wide stop and scale in? No, I’d lose too much money. Can I sell 74 using a wide stop and scaling in? No. Can I sell a 76, 75? I cannot, right?
So a lot of the trades that I would take at other times earlier in the day I cannot take this late in the day. Also, I’m tired, and I just know, that I’m slower to make up my mind, I’m slower to place my orders; I’m more prone to making mistakes when I place my orders; I tend to forget that I have trades on. So if I take a trade and I start talking, I forget that I have the trade on, so I don’t manage it well.
So, all of those things make it more difficult for me to make money in the final 30 minutes. Usually, the only trades I’ll take are stop entries or occasionally, if the market is breaking out strongly, I’ll take a quick scalp. Sometimes, I’ll pop up the one-minute chart, and if I start to see this series of bear bars closing near the lows, I just sell at the market. I just the “Sell Market” button and try to get out with one or two points. Sometimes, if I don’t sell that, I’ll place a limit order to sell the high of that bar, stop above here. That’s more than I’d like to risk this late in the day, especially selling above a bull bar.
But a lot of times, that’s what I do. When I see the market falling quickly, saying, “Huh, that should not be happening,” — it is happening, and therefore, I can make some money. So usually I just do it at the market.
Al Brooks
Information on Al’s Online day trading room
