Trades: Long ABT loser... and Short CTXS

21-OCT-10:
OK so ABT did not work out as a winner. Despite some technical breakdowns, I hadn't hit my risk tolerance level in this so I wanted to see the earnings reaction.

The day of earnings announcement it opened down really big and so I held. This turned out to be the right thing to do because it was an overreaction to a decent report. In any case, this is one position where I didn't have autostops on and I actually have ceased to have those in place since I am on top of things most of the time anyway.

Then again my account access also prevented me from panicking on this position. Never transfer brokers with open positions on and not having the usernames and passwords to all the accounts you manages...that's the lesson of the day.

Anyway, I couldn't get into most the accounts to even get rid of this if I wanted to. I spent most of the day recovering passwords and having a shared office is really starting to fuck things up with me...as I can't just pick up the phone and yell at TD Ameritrade when this type of shit hits the fan.

In any case I got rid of the ABT in most of the accounts (still holding in the taxable as this is the one that is being transfered at this juncture).

Sold 16 contracts today for about $1.00. Sold 12 yesterday for 0.90.
$2,200 loss...SHIZEN

And I still haven't got rid of the ones in the taxable account.

13-OCT-10:
So as part of my scans and needing a short I decided to work on CTXS as a short today. And ABT retested early this morning from yesterday's breakout...so I decided that was a good long to put on.

Unfortunately, I was a bit overzealous on both these plays. I chased ABT and was early on CTXS.

Across all accounts I have the following:

CTXS
8 contracts of Nov $65 Puts for $9 each.

This is twice the normal position size but it is the only short I have on vs the other longs...and I am quite confident in CTXS going down down down...In the daily chart there is a gap back in July post earnings that should get filled on this fresh new downtrend. I see it going to $49 but I don't know if that happens tomorrow or the next day (or at all really).

These are 70 delta, plenty of time for that to go higher. I also chose these due to the high open interest.

ABT
38 contracts of Nov $52.50 Calls for $1.75 each...

I chased these a bit as I tried to get filled at 1.60 then at 1.65 and it kept going...until of course a little pull back happened...but nonetheless I see ABT going to $55ish and we should get a good 60% gain on these calls if that happens.
These are a 60 delta but we have lots of time so I decided it was worth the risk. I also chose these due to the high open interest.

Charts:
CTXS

Daily:

HR:

ABT
Daily:

HR:

CTXS Long

Date entry: 19-MAR-10

Trade: Long CTXS Jun 2010 $45 Calls - 2 contracts at $4.90 each

Set-up:  16-Mar-10 %R retest...NOT A TRUE RETEST...since %R was only 79.81

Conditions: Efficiency Ratio, Stochastics, ADX/DMI are all very bullish..

Re-Entry: none.

Exit strategy: 46.97 is violated on daily chart.

Target for profit taking: Sell entire position at 75% profit.

Time Frame: Prepared holding 3 weeks.

Where found: Stocks on the move

Emotions:

After watching a webcast with Price Headley, he said that he likes to get in ONLY on %R retests and mostly those that occur outside of the accel bands. In this case, the stock closed inside the bands, but only barely...and it rebounded nicely the day I got in.

However, this was not a true %R retest...but because it was close enough and it happened nearly outside the accel bands, I decided to take the trade. CTXS is also very solid fundamentally.

This so far is working out realy well as it bounced right away. The stock is in a very strong group and has solid fundamentals...the uptrend has been in place and is also strong.

Daily and Hourly Chart below.