Swing Trading

I have successfully Swing Traded a couple times over the past couple of weeks. I studied tirelessly for several weeks before placing real money trades. First of all, I am not confident enough to "flap my jaws" too much about Swing Trading. 90% of my account was built based on intraday trading. I can share a few things that are helping me tremendously. First of all, my job requires me to be available most of the day, so I needed to choose a style of trading that is less active or requires minimal work during the work day.

I focus on 2 stocks and watch 4. It is just too much work and takes too much time to trade more than 4 or 5 (my opinion). My primary stock is Apple with FB running a very close 2nd. Both stocks are beasts right now. I actually bought a VERY large position- January Calls in Apple. I bought shortly after it stabilized above $100 ( a day after earnings). I am up about 60+% on my "deep in the money" position. The guy who mentored me and happens to be a multimillionaire (from trading) trades AAPL about 80% and FB the other 20% of his trades. I have mentioned before, but this guy is one of Gary's original students. He talks about the Dennys meetings, going to Gary's house for sessions, etc. My mentor borrowed $10,000 from the bank to cover Gary's costs and fund his initial basket. HIs wife was livid, but he convinced her that this was the business that was going to set them free from financial stresses. Approximately 10 years later he is a millionaire. He has mastered the art of Swing Trading, but he trades ONLY TWO STOCKS!

Swing Trading is pretty tough because it takes patience, time and a solid artistic and technical knowledge base regarding the stock(s) you are trading. I continue to practice trade 80% of the time. When Swing Trading, I only need to get it right 2 or 3 txs a month, so it is imperative that I am patient and precise with entry.

I use RTT information as a solid indicator when trading. I trade with limited confidence, if I am not in alignment with the trends that are provided by RTT. I could not imagine placing a trade that I anticipate lasting for maybe 3 weeks, but I placed the trade against a strong 4 week historical trend. I appreciate the site, but after starting to Swing Trade, I DEPEND ON IT!

As I get better at this, you will start to feel the high level of confidence, but right now, I am a rookie who has lined up some profitable trades. If I am rolling strong within the next couple of months, I will share what I KNOW and have tested -not what I think.

I am sorry, but I am definitely not bragging- just elated that I just made my best big chart trade. This trade was more art than technical, but it worked well. Although I bought Apple January Calls, I just reached 100% gains, so I am out! I simply can not control my emotions on this one. I have made more in this trade than I net in 2 months on my 9-5. After closing the trade, I sat in my office for a few minutes. I knew I was not going to give this company anymore work today. I had allowed my emotions of trading to take me over (not good). I called my boss and told him that I was going home for the remainder of the day. When I arrived at home, I opened my account again to make sure what I thought happened-really happened. I saw that huge increase in my balance. I started to close all the blinds, lock the doors, crouch in the corner of my living room, and peeped under the blades of the blinds. I was waiting to see if the cops were coming to arrest me for doing something wrong-lol! I texted my wife and asked her to call me ASAP. I said, " This is an emergency". She texted me back and said, " Let me get my students started on their assignment, and I will call you". I said, "Hurry, hurry". When she called, she said in a very nonchalant voice, "What is the emergency". I said, "I just closed a trade and made over $10,000 in profit". She said, "did you take your meds today. Wake up and stop dreaming". I said, "BS, and yes I took my meds, oops no I did not, but I am serious about this. I would love to prove it to you, but there is no way in hell I am giving you access to my trading account-lol". She laughed and said, " What difference does it make, I am getting it all when you die, you hit me, or you cheat on me". I started to laugh. She said, "You laugh, but I am dead serious".

I am more motivated to keep learning, but most importantly, I will take this trade and be humbled by what happened. It could have turned and gone against me in a matter of minutes. It will probably be pretty rare to earn 100% on a trade that I hold for a week or less. Thanks for the few big chart trading posts. I am still learning more about the technical. I am ok, but not as good as I want to become.

Uncle Sam will be coming to get me, if I do not find ways to save his part of this trade! Back to studying and on to the next.......

Congrats man! I guess this is the part where you are supposed to take your family out to a nice dinner and to let the energy settle down! Nice job!

Wife will not be cooking tonight! We are going to hit the town and find the cities finest dining!

Congratulations Rookie! I did not buy the options as my criteria for a trade were not met but I did purchase AAPL in my IRA just below 102 following earnings. I cannot provide an ABC123 technical reason for entering other than I have been following AAPL for 9 years and noted some favorable things I liked on the D/W/M. Hope you guys enjoy your dinner.

NCT

Save back for Uncle Sam about 55% of your profit.

Congrats Rookie30!!!

GW said he wanted everyone to have no emotion while IN the trade, but once you close the trade you can have a party to celebrate if you want. I think the way you handled it was just fine. You closed the trade, and then turned into a giddy little school girl, that was just asked to her first prom dance:-) I would have done likewise.

Great job, hope your dinner was awesome!!!

Thanks! We enjoyed our dinner. The wife wanted a good steak from Ruth Chris, but I did not expect the kids to order a big damn steaks as well.

My reasons for taking such a big position in APPL was the same as NC Trader. I have studied AAPL for a few years, so I know how it responds to beating earning in the F/W zone.

Darcy, it just does not seem fair to give back so much of our earnings. I am in the process of starting a business that might not directly off-set heavy tax paying, but I am sure there are things I can legally write off and itemize through the business. This past year and this current year is a wash. Uncle Sam will get at least half- if not the majority of my profits.

RichieRick, that is funny! Getting too emotional can be detrimental for some. Not for me...I can think of-and count 10,000 reasons why I love that giddy little girl inside-lol.

This is why we listen and follow rules.....
My neighbor trades for a living, but he really does not listen. He has much more invested in FB than I had in AAPL. He and I talked a few days ago. He felt strongly that FB was going to beat earnings, and he would nearly double his money. I told him to not take that chance. He held through earnings. He got blistered. I guess he does not lose anything until he sells or his account is worthless at expiration. FB might come back to a profitable trade for him before January, but that is not a chance I would have taken.

I will take a look at what might come available during a pull back that I expect really soon.

Take care and trade well.

Rookie
Even though S/O and I have 2 businesses and therefore we can write off almost everything when we add in our trading we pay about 55% for local, state and fed taxes. The more you make the higher the percentage.

What helps us from paying even more is donations. We have several things we donate to because we love their work and because we have some personal connections to their causes.