Confessions of a Day Trader: What the Trading Lord giveth...

Each week, Stockhead’s resident day trader gives us a peek at the highs and lows of his trading diary and hints at what might be coming this week.

Platform used: Marketech

Round Trip: A round trip is $10 up to $25,000 and then above $25,000, commission is at 0.02% in and at 0.02% out.

Rules of engagement: Never hold any positions overnight (unless forced) and try to avoid any suspensions (if possible). No shorting.

Tuesday January 2

Happy New Year and to the markets as well, as a few stocks have a cracker of a day.

Have a go at CBA.

Open at $111.85. Have a low of $111.79 and close at their day’s high of $113.61 on 1.63m shares.

What is a poor little day trader meant to do when volumes are low to start out and then pick up as stocks go up?

Managed a trade in BHP and that was it my friends.

As my teacher would say to me, if you had studied a bit more, you would have got higher than just a pass. I would say, I will do as little as I can to pass. So if you want me to get higher grades, lift the limit then.

What I am saying is today I was being lazy and scraped through with one trade. Tried to sell them at $50.60 (after they had reached there once) but reduced it down to $50.55 as not trying too hard.

And if you are out there Mr Driver, I am still making more than you!

‘Pass C+ but could try harder’.

Ha!

Recap
Bought 2,000 BHP @ 50.40
Sold 2,000 BHP @ 50.55 ($300 profit)

Today leaves me up $60 for the week so far.

The market had a downward dog kinda day, though the only thing stretching for me today was my patience.

I managed to yoga myself into a few positions, some of which I was only able to unwind at the end of the day as I was in the hands of the trading God’s and had got myself a bit stuck.

Basically, everything fell but never really recovered, as you will see from the charts.

Down $240 and today nothing really lined up for me, as higher limits never got touched and day’s end rotation only made things worse.

Recap
Bought 1,000 RIO @ 135.02
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 112.28
Bought 1,000 WTC @ 73.96
Sold 1,000 WTC @ 74.17 ($210 profit)
Sold 1,000 CBA @ 112.13 ($150 loss)
Sold 1,000 RIO @ 134.72 ($300 loss)

Thursday January 4

So, CBA who were over $113 the other day, have a bit of a tumble pre 11.00am and then blow me down, they fall below $111.00 and keep heading south. In for a penny, in for a pound and I reckon a bit of margin call coming into play.

Up the size to 1500 and in I go. Doesn’t take long before they are back nudging $111.00. See chart for the picture.

The other one of note was my manic child CSL.

Get set below $284.40 and put them on a limit 1c below $285.

They go through it and just keep on going like a firework on NYE on the Harbour Bridge. They touch $287.14 before having a breather.

Manic stock!

End the day plus $1,185, so it makes up for the other day’s efforts plus twice today I managed to buy something at their day’s low.

That is something which only happens about two times a year.

Recap
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 111.63
Bought 20,000 RRL @ 2.11
Sold 20,000 RRL @ 2.12 ($200 profit)
Bought 1,500 CBA @ 110.94
Sold 2,500 CBA @ 111.40 ($460 profit)
Bought 1,000 WTC @ 73.34
Bought 500 CSL @ 284.40
Sold 1,000 WTC @ 73.51 ($170 profit)
Sold 500 CSL @ 284.99 ($295 profit)
Bought 2,000 WBT @ 4.09
Sold 2,000 WBT @ 4.12 ($60.00 profit)

Friday January 5

Today, the trading lord, he giveth and he taketh, as I have a couple of goes in RRL.

The market is in a let-down phase and you need to look at the WTC chart as a good example.

I was running around today, so I didn’t have much time to really get stuck into things, so I just stuck with RRL and still managed to get caught in the market downdraft.

Being a Friday didn’t help me either.

Down $200 today, which takes me to a plus $1045 gross or $647 net, as had a few bigger bets to get here, so just kept my head above water!