Many traders would call today a trend day since it started at one end of the range and closed in the other. From the sound of it you would think that you can make a lot of money on these days, yet usually I do worse on those days. Probably because I keep feeling I don’t want to buy the top. 

While today might be considered a trend day, it was hard to trade because it was very choppy. 

I was late becuase of other business then had a hard time finding something I liked until I spottend HUN, right before it started its final move. 

My entry was at 11.90, with a stop at 11.65 and I closed all at 12.50, a nice reward, but more importantly the number resistance area (12.5) and dialy sma 50 resistance. Not much but it was the best I could do today and it was a nice setup.

I could not find a lot in the gainers/losers list, but there was a gapper that made it to my list because of the great daily. 

Though I did expect the market to bounce strongly and I was not really looking for short this one was too good to pass up, but I did not expect this result. 

Covered 2/3 on first target and the rest just above the the green 15 min bar, fourth before market close.  In hindsight I should have kept all until the close, but I try to make it a habit in this market to take most (2/3) off at around 2R.

It was hard to find decent setups again, but this one was nice. 

A great pattern, the avalanche, took the price for a nice ride. 2R seems almost ridiculous to cover most of the short… but usually it works very well!

I don’t like downtrending markets, but I might was well get used to it since it looks it is going to stay like that for a while to come.

Did one trade yesterday, and could not find a lot today. Must be because I kept looking for longs, and missed most of the nice short setups that were presented all day.

Oh well, I will try and do better tomorrow!

The 30 min dummy setup caught my eye. I zoomed in on the 1 min chart and found a 2 min base with a double bottom with a slightly lower second low.

This slightly lower low can often trigger the up move. At the same time the market (QQQQ’s in this case) bounced from a sort of D-pattern. I entered CHL at the break of the 2 min range. I got a bit of positive slippage and was in at 87.48. First target was 88.50 but I entered a limit order for half at 88.45.

I put the stop on the remaining half at breakeven, and after a new high the stop was set pretty wide below the reaction low, 87.87. Over dinner it just got hit (87.85 was the low) .

The worst part however was not the stop getting hit but not getting in again when again it made a sort of reverse H&S on 2 min chart and started another up leg…

I did notice it in time but – wanting to protect the nice profit I already had – skipped it for no good reason. Good reasons being reasons you could explain to another trader without feeling stupid…

That is what I should do in a market like this. It is a bear market, but I am still in bull market mode… looking for long trades. I should more often take a shot at a short.

At least I made some money today.