1 min reverse head and shoulder and a 30 min dummy

• In a choppy market it helps to pick a stock with a great daily chart
• FRO had a clean breakout on the daily chart after a consolidation area
• The breakout was on big volume
• The stock ran from the open for three 30 min bars
• It pulled back gently during the next three bars
• Switch to 1 min chart and watch for momentum change
• Just before the breakout at 13:00 it had formed a 1 min reverse head and shoulders
• Entry @ 29.82, SL @ 29.72 (based on the pivot on the 1 min chart)
• Equal move was target but seemed a bit out of reach so trailed the first half on 1 min chart
• Exit half @ 30.15
• Exit rest 5 minutes before the close: @30.33
• Result 33 ct + 51 ct / 2 = 42 ct
• RW/R: 4.2R

Skipped HLX because it was not the first day of the move and lost 1R on HRBN, that was too extended already.

I have a love and hate relationship with PCLN. Once in a while it offers great profit, only to take it back, r by r. Today again I had a losing trade  in PCLN. But I was able to compensate for it with a nice 30 min dummy setup, that worked out great.

There was not a lot of movement in the market all day. After the gap up it stayed pretty much in range.

The 30 min dummy setup was a reverse head and shoulder on the 1 min chart

• PCX gapped up slightly on high volume and made a 20 day high
• Daily chart looks like it has room to move up
• PCX had a great run in the morning but pulled back gently for about an hour
• The 6th 30 min candlestick was a hammer
• The dummy bar was in fact a nice 1 min head and shoulder pattern
• Entry at 19.30 with a 10 ct stop
• Exit 1 at 19.50 =2R
• Exit 2 after an avalanche on the 1 min chart @ 20.30
• Result: 2R + 10R=12R/2=6R on the trade
• There was also the 1.1 R loss on PCLN
• 4.9R for the day
• No other trades

I had a hard time finding nice setups today. There were a few good daily charts with intraday momentum, but I did not trust most of them so I passed.

One of them was PCLN, from my watchlist. It had a tiny 1 min bull flag after the first 10 minutes of trading but it was not ideal. Despite my doubts it ran all day.

Another one was APKT, nice 1 min base at 10:50. Passed on it too. The one I did take was PLL, a fresh gap up after a daily consolidation.

1 min base after a gap up

• Market tone was positive for most of the day
• PLL had a nice daily consolidation before today’s gap up
• After the gap up, PLL stayed in range until after 10:00
• Just before the breakout to a new daily high it formed a tiny bull flag
• Entered on the break of that flag, just before price made a new high
• Entry was at 40.87
• Closed half the position at 2R (41.28)
• Was planning to trail the second half on the 5 min swings, but momentum slowed
• The second leg on the 5 min chart went further but at a slower pace, so I thought it might correct more than I’d like
• Decided to trail behind 5 min bars, got stopped out below the tiny inside bar just after 11:40: exit @ 41.67
• Result: 2R + 4R/2=3R.