I am talking the talk in this post, but please understand that if I would have read this earlier than a month or two after getting into Market Mover Trading, I would have wondered if it was written in some kind of “Traderese” dialect from h-e-double hockey sticks.  However, once you start learning, this stuff is NOT rocket science.  You, too, can learn to understand the talk and be empowered to take control of your financial future!

So, today was a great day to trade, but it emphasized for me that my new favorite exit (the trailing stop) has a very narrow definition of successful use.  If I had left my usual simple bracket with the trades I made, I would have tripled my profit – at least!  The trailing stop can maximize your profit and minimize your losses on huge movers, but if the movement is at all wicky, then you can really lose profit as well.  If I use a regular bracket and put my profit target as far out as the forecast, then I can manually move my stop loss to protect profits and minimize my losses.  Hey…I don’t put in a trade and leave, so I am here anyway, right?

So, here are my trades:

New Home Sales; 8-25-10

I used MMT Tools to put a stop order in short at 1041.5 and but I got filled at 1039.25.  I have mostly been using stop limits set to zero ticks of slippage, but I haven’t been getting filled on fast movers.  I may go back to stop limits and put in ticks of slippage tailored to how quickly I think the announcement will move the market.  So, once I was filled and my stop loss reached 6 ticks, the trailing stop jumped in and trailed at 5 ticks.  The market got all the way down to 1037.25, but then it wicked back up and got me out at my trailing stop 5 ticks back at 1038.50.  That’s a profit of +.75 point, or $37.50, on a $500 contract.  I skipped the correction because I missed the beginning and then it went above baseline.  However, I was hoping to catch the similar move.  I placed a short order at a Prediction Point at 1043.  That ended up being a good call and I was filled short.  HOWEVER, dumb me hadn’t changed back to a simple bracket for my exit strategy…I was still on the trailing stop!  LOL!  But hey, I snagged another point by buying out at 1042 and ended the day up 1.75 points, or $87.50 on my $500 contract – all in 4.5 seconds!

Every day is a learning experience.  I did skip the first announcement because, well, I was sleeping.  See y’all tomorrow for unemployment claims!

Popularity: 19% [?]

This market is desperate.  Desperate for a glimmer of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, politicians with brains.  Whoops!  Did I just say that last part out loud?

So, New Home Sales went up today all of 0.01 – told in millions, that’s 10,000 homes.  The teeniest of moves up.  Barely a drop in a very tired, sad, empty bucket.  But the way the markets reacted, you would have thought we had a return to, IDK, 2001!  LOL!  Okay, I love volatile news announcements, so I’ll take it, but it’s just plain weird.

New Home Sales; 7-26-2010

5 points on the initial move, 1.25 on the correction, 3 points on the similar move.  Okey-dokey, we’ll take it!!

Popularity: 26% [?]