Tricky market

Standard and Poor's cut the long-term outlook on US debt to negative. The result was lots of red on the screens. Indices went sharply lower in the morning, together with the euro and crude oil. Silver and gold however stood their ground. In the afternoon, stocks managed to cut some of the losses, but indices ended the day sharply lower.

Swingtrades
Today's action didn't help one bit and I got stopped out of most positions (SPY-calls, CT, AVL, OME) and closed the other 2 (SABA & GGC). Later in the day I opened trades in BIDU, SOHU and NTES, 3 stocks that held strong during the day.
I bought some SMH-puts in case we go lower. Nasdaq found support on the 100MA, but the semi's look very weak and might be rolling over.

Daytrades
CRUS-support buy didn't work and neither did the SCCO-short (probably too extended). I closed both trades for minor gains.
CLR was in the HCPG-newsletter as a support buy on the 100MA. I got in @63.40 with a stop 2 cents under the low. I got stopped out by 1 or 2 cents and didn't had the faith to re-enter. Too bad, cause the stock closed near 65...

Today's action was very discouraging. I need a couple of decent wins, the last week-and-a-half I lost about half the gains I made in the 4 weeks before. I feel like I'm totally out of sync with the market, (almost) nothing seems to work. I trade smaller size here, but my confidence needs a boost...

Trades from Thursday and Friday

I didn't find the time to post my trades of the last two trading days, so here is a summary.

Thursday: I got stopped out of one swingtrade, PTIE for a 3.74% loss. The IWM-swing didn't work out either, it gapped down big and I sold pre-market. The call was my insurance, which I both back cheap. It turned out I bougth IWM a day too soon.

I overtraded on my daytrades, SINA and BIDU both started well, but only went up little and reversed to stop me out. Same thing later in the day with EP and OVTI. Only one winner, DNDN. In hindsight, it was all in the volume.

Friday: I tried trades in URBN, RIG and OLN. They ended up as a loser and two breakevens. I bought WTW right at the open (nice breakout of a bullflag) which was a nice winner.

I also bought SPY-calls (May-expiration), expecting more upside next week.

Other swing-longs I got involved in on Friday: CT, OME, AVL and GGC. The SABA-trade is doing well so far.

Good and bad news

The good news first: we held support and some indices even managed to put in a tiny gain. The bad news: we're not safe yet, not by a long shot. However, support-buys seemed to work better today than they did yesterday.

Swingtrades
I tried a few swingtrades with tiny positions. NVLS didn't work (rejected by the 5EMA), but I'm still in PTIE (entry 9.35) and SABA (in 9.34). I went long IWM when it started to turn up from the low (and it's 50MA). Price rallied untill the next pivot-point and than fell back a little. I scaled out most of my position, but will swing a small size in case we get a higher open tomorrow. I also sold some April 83-calls to have more cushion, limiting my upside as well as the downside. Expiration is this Friday, so if we stay under 83, I can keep the premium and stay in the trade unless it falls under my entry (SL now near BE).

Daytrades
Only one daytrade, EXK. When I spotted the stock in my scans, it was already up from the ideal entry-point but I entered anyway. I had a good feeling about it, price bounced nicely from the 5EMA on the 15m-chart and from the intraday-high from yesterday afternoon. A nice rally followed and I took partial profits near the ORH. I hoped the stock would go to R2 (@11.89), but 11.64 was the top. Sadly, I didn't take profits there and gave the stock too much room in the hope it would turn back up. Exit of the main part was little above BE.