Athena Trader

There was once whereby ACCICB was saved by a penny as he placed a trade in the last few minutes but didn't get it because he was a penny short. The next day, the stock crashed which would have be disastrous as he was going to buy long.  Both of us were looking at the same stock but that night about twenty minutes before market was going to close, I told him that I'm tired from the morning's market and am going to call it a day. I decided to not buy anything although there were 3 stocks I was interested to long, one of which was the same one he was looking at.  Naturally the market crashed that day and the stocks I wanted to short was spot on although I didn't pull the trigger since that time I was still new to shorting. It was more like a blanket market crash with very few bright spots in the market so it was not skill but more like the gravity of the market is just overpowering the fundamentals of the company. Whether now is the right time to go in, I think ...

During earnings season, I often have to ask myself whether I want to play the earnings game. There are times whereby earnings is good but the stock price crashed although it could also go up. Basically there is a 50% chance of either one happening and sometimes it can completely reverse the prevailing trend as well as the overall market sentiment to be one of the few bright sparks in the market. There are times whereby I refrained myself and times where I go in with guns blazing. So far, I've had it both ways which means I'm neither a genius nor an idiot thus earnings day is an important consideration for me. Especially if today's the day to go in and tomorrow is earnings day. If it's a week later, it could be a maybe and if it's a month away, that's pretty far away so it's a go for me. There was once a stock that I own which reported its earnings and somehow Google Finance didn't pick up the date so it was my mistake as I should have checked it t...

When ACCICB and I plan to go away on a holiday, we have to try to time it such that at least one of the markets are closed on some days or such that we have to close or reduce our open positions before we leave. This means that we may have to either hope and pray nothing goes wrong or slow down our buying activities in the days leading to the holiday or simply work while on holiday. So far, we've done all 3 in its various combinations but my preference is to close all or reduce open positions since I do want to enjoy my holiday. Then when we are back, we can start again which sometimes takes time due to jet lag, lack of opportunities etc so going on holiday takes on a whole new meaning. In the past, when we are on holiday I take note of companies that could be worth investing in and I've made some $$$ that way so I call it a win win situation! It's like a scouting trip of some sort. Now I tend to look at the time and try to find a place with free Wifi so that I can...

I've gone off the grid for a while as I can't think of anything to write about. I've a couple of unwritten posts here and there but nothing compelling for me to publish. I also thought of changing my blog name since I'm morphing into more of a trader than an investor due to the change in my circumstances whereby cash flow takes precedence over profits. But somehow Googirl Trader does not sound catchy at all...so I'll just leave it be I guess. Building my Watchlist has been an interesting, tiring and seemingly endless task since I cover multiple markets plus having a switch from investing to trading style means a change in parameters as well. When I was investing, low volume is ok with me since I don't need much liquidity plus I'm holding on for a long period of time. But when I started trading I had to gun for stocks that are liquid so that my orders will get filled and the charts are more reflective of the prices. This became a filter for me when I lit...

Ever since I started investing + trading, I've adopted a few practices which I feel improved my performance. Here's a summary of what works for me: 1. Have a notebook to write your FA and TA notes. It can be digital if you prefer but for me I like to have it on paper and I wrote it down on my previous company's notebook as if to tell myself that this is a path of no return and I had indeed left for greener pastures.  2. Have a notebook to take down notes of your trades/investments, predictions etc. I write down the date and time of my purchase, include charts, pricing, reason for buying, stop loss and the emotions as I make the purchase or sale regardless of whether it is a paper trade or not. I review this notebook when my day is over to serve as a reminder of how the day went and what I should look out for in the days to come. I keep notebook 1 seperate from notebook 2 for easy reference.  3. Have an Excel file with a built in fees calculator for quick ch...

Besides the 'Hai'rami that I wrote about in my last post, ACCICB also came up with the Bollinger Bandit which has caused him much pain when he first started trading. I'm not trivializing TA by giving them such catchy names although it does seem to stick in the head much better it seems. The Bollinger Band is wonderful when your candlesticks are touching them when it's on the uptrend as it often mean that there's a possibility that the next day/days' candlestick would continue to rise given that the other oscillators are in agreement. The thing about oscillators is that by right you are supposed to have the majority of them in agreement before you pull the trigger. However when there's no clear majority, it becomes murky as to whether to pull the trigger or not. Sometimes we can take a small punt or we can just forgo it. There's no right or wrong with any decision you take, just have to make sure that you are right more often that you are wrong.  ...

ACCICB bought many stocks on a harami candlestick only to discover that it is actually a 'hai'rami when the stock went down further. Hai in mandarin means to inflict woe onto others thus you can see why I renamed the harami to 'hai'rami for ACCICB. Harami is a two Japanese candlestick pattern and it is a reversal pattern thus you can imagine ACCICB's reaction when he bought it on the downtrend but it went southwards or sideways instead of going up up and away. I won't go into the details of the harami pattern because there's much information out there so I shouldn't be singing the same tune. The best way to get better at TA is through practice I would say although some people I know may have a gift for TA. Its like they can see things that we can't! Especially with variations of harami patterns occurring in charts, it becomes an art to differentiate your harami from your 'hai'rami.  When I first started out on TA, I realised that if ...