Ma And Pa Go It Alone
Battling a head cold
here, so I’ll be taking it easy on the personal trading front as
trading with less than peak focus is analogous to operating heavy machinery on
medication. Thankfully, we had a few nice pullbacks on an early morning uptrend
that provided decent-probability entry opportunities to align oneself with and
profit from trend support bounces.
With respect to the initial gap up as the result of Merrill’s chip drum-beating,
my personal rules include certainly never joining ma and pa retail investor on
the initial momentum (usually doing nothing and sometimes positioning on a quick
fade) and either going long on pullbacks near supports if we drop or waiting to
fade the emotional extremes should we head immediately higher, either for a
quick scalp until the market settles down a bit. In this morning’s case, we had
a nice pullback toward 13-minute 15-MA support and the one-minute microscope
provided at least some indication that buyers were interested in the context of
a MA cross, providing a nice trigger.
Wednesday
August 1, 2001 11:40 AM EDT
Yesterday provided
some nice tradable opportunities off the 13-minute chart, both on the way up and
on the way down. I noted in TW shortly after 2:00 p.m. EDT yesterday that I’d be
looking to the 15-MA as likely strong support on the short side on any
breakdown, and the market cooperated nicely with a few low-risk pullback entries
along with the initial cross itself. An additional factor skewing probability
further on the break itself was the fact that the market broke both three- and
13-minute 15-MA support within a minute or two.
Tuesday July
31, 2001
Thanks for the use
of the mug Dave. :-)
Good Trading.
P.S. I’m pleased to announce that I’ll
be hosting a daylong
QQQ trading learning forum immediately following TM2001 at the Venetian
Hotel and Resort on October 8, 2001. It seems like we’ve struck a pleasant
nerve with the Q column, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts and views in
a live forum highly conducive to learning and interaction, as well as simply
meeting many of you in person. So whether you trade the Qs or watermelon
seeds, consider extending your stay just a bit and we’ll combine some very
intensive trading discussions and some fun!
For
a more in-depth look at how Don trades the QQQs, click here.