I was pretty much apprehensive about April, as I my confidence had taken a hit, due to the losses that I had to face in the March month. The markets started trending, but unfortunately the trend in most of the stocks died down prematurely due to a poor earnings season. A slew of bad results meant that a lot of good strong wave patterns died down prematurely and led to the start of new selling waves.
As a result, my fortunes in the month of April remained mixed. So here are some of my trades in April.
IOB
This usually turns out to be a very lucky stock for me to trade in. And sure it didn't disappoint. I got a slightly later entry, but I'm going to complain as I had to wait a while to ensure that a good reversal had taken place. From the chart, it looked like a Side Trap Pattern in which I took an entry.
I closed my trade on seeing a hanging man reversal on the charts. Though I like to use trailing stop method, in this case the decision to exit seemed to be a good one. A decent trade with decent profits.
Bajaj Auto
To be honest, I'm very much embarrassed to talk about this trade. There was no pattern, no reversal yet. I just saw the stock pulling back into the TAZ, and took an entry in a hurry. It turned out that the stock pulled back even more after I took an entry, and took my protective SLO with it. I had to take a slightly bigger loss in this trade, as I moved my SLO lower than what I had initially planned. Bad Money management and bad discipline.
SBI
This was a stock that I had a mixed trade. I took an entry when I saw the stock pullback into the TAZ and form a bullish haraami pattern. There was a small rally and then again a minor selloff. As a result, my SLO got hit, but I didn't make a loss in this (except for brokerage), as the whole process took place over a week, by which time my trailing stop had moved to my buying price.
The above sequence resulted in a kind of a Swing Trap Pattern.This time the reversal looked a lot more convincing, and I somehow mustered the courage to consider a re-entry. It was a good decision, as I was able to close the trade with decent profits, just in the nick of time. As the markets were very volatile and F&O expiry day was nearing, I just abandoned the trailing stop method and just locked into decent profits.
Canara Bank
In this case, though the stock had not pulled back into the TAZ perfectly, I still took up the trade as it showed a strong reversal exactly at the 50% Fibonacci retracement point. Though it was a very short duration trade, I was able to make a decent profit out of it.
Tata Motors, Tata Steel
This is one of the trades where good patterns go bad. Both these stocks had pulled back decently into the TAZ and showed very strong reversal. I was a bit apprehensive to take up this trade in futures, as Infosys was expected to announce its quarterly earnings. The moment Infosys announced a below par result, it tanked 10% and took a lot of these index heavyweights down with it. So I ended up losing on this trade, but since my trade was in Options, my losses were limited. I was worried that my SLOs would not get hit if the stocks went down quickly, and hence this strategy.
Eventually Tata Motors also showed the Swing Trap Pattern, in which I took a re-entry. The trade moved pretty well in my favor on the day of my entry. But since quite a few index heavyweights came out with disappointing earnings, the pattern broke down(so did the overall market) and I ended up with a very small loss.
ICICI Bank
I took an entry into this on the same day as that of the Swing trap in Tata Motors. But since ICICI bank was announcing the results on the day of F&O expiry, I didn't want to take a big chance trading it in futures. I got stopped out as ICICI came out with just decent results, resulting in a knee jerk selloff. On seeing a heavy volume recovery an hour or so after the results, I decided to take a re-entry in Futures. Though it moved well initially, lack of supporting buying meant that I got stopped out of it today, of course at a small loss.
Though the month was a pretty good one, it could have been even better, had I been more selective in choosing the right stock to trade in.
I also learnt this important mantra,
In other words, its important to let the trade come to you. Every time I missed saying this mantra, I have lost money.
A very powerful mantra indeed.
As a result, my fortunes in the month of April remained mixed. So here are some of my trades in April.
IOB
This usually turns out to be a very lucky stock for me to trade in. And sure it didn't disappoint. I got a slightly later entry, but I'm going to complain as I had to wait a while to ensure that a good reversal had taken place. From the chart, it looked like a Side Trap Pattern in which I took an entry.
I closed my trade on seeing a hanging man reversal on the charts. Though I like to use trailing stop method, in this case the decision to exit seemed to be a good one. A decent trade with decent profits.
Bajaj Auto
To be honest, I'm very much embarrassed to talk about this trade. There was no pattern, no reversal yet. I just saw the stock pulling back into the TAZ, and took an entry in a hurry. It turned out that the stock pulled back even more after I took an entry, and took my protective SLO with it. I had to take a slightly bigger loss in this trade, as I moved my SLO lower than what I had initially planned. Bad Money management and bad discipline.
SBI
This was a stock that I had a mixed trade. I took an entry when I saw the stock pullback into the TAZ and form a bullish haraami pattern. There was a small rally and then again a minor selloff. As a result, my SLO got hit, but I didn't make a loss in this (except for brokerage), as the whole process took place over a week, by which time my trailing stop had moved to my buying price.
The above sequence resulted in a kind of a Swing Trap Pattern.This time the reversal looked a lot more convincing, and I somehow mustered the courage to consider a re-entry. It was a good decision, as I was able to close the trade with decent profits, just in the nick of time. As the markets were very volatile and F&O expiry day was nearing, I just abandoned the trailing stop method and just locked into decent profits.
Canara Bank
In this case, though the stock had not pulled back into the TAZ perfectly, I still took up the trade as it showed a strong reversal exactly at the 50% Fibonacci retracement point. Though it was a very short duration trade, I was able to make a decent profit out of it.
Tata Motors, Tata Steel
This is one of the trades where good patterns go bad. Both these stocks had pulled back decently into the TAZ and showed very strong reversal. I was a bit apprehensive to take up this trade in futures, as Infosys was expected to announce its quarterly earnings. The moment Infosys announced a below par result, it tanked 10% and took a lot of these index heavyweights down with it. So I ended up losing on this trade, but since my trade was in Options, my losses were limited. I was worried that my SLOs would not get hit if the stocks went down quickly, and hence this strategy.
Eventually Tata Motors also showed the Swing Trap Pattern, in which I took a re-entry. The trade moved pretty well in my favor on the day of my entry. But since quite a few index heavyweights came out with disappointing earnings, the pattern broke down(so did the overall market) and I ended up with a very small loss.
ICICI Bank
I took an entry into this on the same day as that of the Swing trap in Tata Motors. But since ICICI bank was announcing the results on the day of F&O expiry, I didn't want to take a big chance trading it in futures. I got stopped out as ICICI came out with just decent results, resulting in a knee jerk selloff. On seeing a heavy volume recovery an hour or so after the results, I decided to take a re-entry in Futures. Though it moved well initially, lack of supporting buying meant that I got stopped out of it today, of course at a small loss.
Though the month was a pretty good one, it could have been even better, had I been more selective in choosing the right stock to trade in.
I also learnt this important mantra,
"Wait...Wait...Wait...Relax...
Let the stock come into TAZ....
Let the reversal occur.....
Now take an entry"In other words, its important to let the trade come to you. Every time I missed saying this mantra, I have lost money.
A very powerful mantra indeed.
