Stock Duel!

Within the next week, Razvan and I are going to reorganize stockduel. The new plan is to pick a small set of stocks and form something like a virtual ETF. We will be long and short stocks. Performance will be regularly tracked and this duel will be against the broad market indices. We would hold stocks for at least two weeks and stock/market coverage will be regular and consistent. More details will following within the next day or two.

I had a day-trade on thursday last week on GG for an exhaustive selling model (ESM) play. Basically, I bought the stock after panic selling for a quick scalp. The trade lasted only about 15 minutes, which was a good, efficient trade. I didn’t feel the need to hold on longer for the larger profit.
BOT 200 @ $27.03
SLD 100 @ $27.29 (+26)
SLD 100 @ $27.50 (+47)
FEES: $3.00
NET: +$70

Total: $81.00

It was relatively easy for me day-trading today until mid-day when things started to turn around. Thus, I took the rest of the day off. My first day trade lasted on 7 minutes (3 trades) with a decent profit off the bat. I also had other trades outside of this project in which I made better profits (FMCN). Anyhow, it’s not bad for me as I shake out some rust and start day trading.

BOT 100 @ $26.68
BOT 100 @ $26.81
SLD 200 @ $26.88 (+26.00)
BOT 100 @ $27.02
SLD 100 @ $26.92 (-10.00)

Fees: $5.00
Net: $11.00

Overall: $11 .00

After the long-weekend, crude prices went up. I knew that if crude doesn’t go any higher when the american markets begin trading, all the oil stocks will close the gap. For that reason, I wanted to day trade 100 shares of PBR at $93 and short it. The reason I wanted to do that was to exploit the overbought situation and play off a sell signal as PBR failed to make a new high (94.35). However, Interactive Brokers prevented me from entering that trade because they forced me to upgrade their software and then it failed to load. After 2 hours of technical assistance, I got it working and the stock was already under $90/sh. As of today’s close, the stock went even lower, currently at $88.70. I would have made about 3-4 points off the 100 shares which would equate to $300-400 off an easy play. Razvan, one day I will take the lead for good…just watch.

Let me justify why I picked these 7 stocks for my watchlist for this challenge:

SPY - Potential options play or quick market sentiment day-trading stock. I can also buy put options to hedge myself in case i’m loaded with longs with the other stocks and an unexpected market turnaround happens.
GOOG - A big mover–up or down. I am ready to play this one both sides at any moment. I like the liquidity of this stock and I’ve been watching it for a while so I know where all the resistances and support levels are at.
CELL - Major uptrender. I am planning to play the strength on this one. It’s always great to have a nice upwards moving stock that is consistent and predictable.
IIIN - I’m new to this one, but it runs around fast and I would like to day trade or swing trade this one from time to time.
GG - I added this one because playing gold is important especially with the geopolitical issues.
PRB - Don’t forget about an oil play! It’s always handy to have this one in case oil decides to tank or shoot past $70/barrel.
CAT - A long-term winner that never quits even when the market is doing bad. A dependable stock to trade long when the market is gloomy.

My strategy is to include stocks from different sectors so I would be able to catch the major market moves. Whether technology, metals, materials, construction, or oil is moving, I have the choice to jump into the action. I think this will be a key advantage to be able to trade a wide variety of stocks.

Hello. I am Frank C. from Technicator.NET.

This stock duel challenge is a personal one in which I hope to grow and learn from the experience. I have picked 7 stocks and these are the ones that Razvan and I will be trading for the next month or so. We cannot trade anything else. Real money will be used. Please note that our trades are NOT public recommendations and we are not professional investment advisors. Let’s start.