Picassa, sorry to hear it. But have you seen any of the charts with good entries you could have taken while you've been obsessing & agonizing and analyzing every detail of TLR? You see now why it's not usually productive to hyper-focus on 1 stock nor a story?

I'm not poking fun at you. I've been there. But you either want to trade effectively, or you want megabucks on 1 stock. Most people have to decide of those 2 tactics which they want to use, because they aren't very compatible in combination. The locking in profits tactic has proven to work over time. The megabucks story & analysis-paralysis tactic has been proven to drain a bank account with only a lucky few who make huge profits that way.

Good info, thanks. I agree, and the govt can only artificially prop up the markets by printing $ for so long, outside of natural market forces. We were overdue a correction or at least some basing and ranging for a while.

icuc, Another good find! It spiked up, retraced way down back to breakout level this morning... got my fill, and exited 1/2 position with a nice gain. Final target is 4.69, ironically, at what I see as a resistance level. I know the chart shows more potential than that, but I'm looking to nab it while it has power and be done with it.

low, re: HW, did you stopout today on it? It dipped big time. I took 1/2 off at 5% yesterday, but my 5% trailing stop triggered today... scraped about 2.3% profit on the 2nd half.

These low priced stocks have pretty wild daily ranges, even after breakout.

True. SMT gapped 1 day earlier than Cisco, but both are huge gaps tempting to watch for entry opptys!

Yes, looks like it. Maybe a double whammy win once the shock wears off, could be a nice gap play.

phrantic, Thanks. Huge gap on SMT also, same scenario.

lowtrade, General question. When evaluating a chart for a stock which is ranging... how many bounces off the same price/support level do you think is acceptable before you start viewing it as high risk and that it may break below?

I know it can break below any time, and we should enter after the bounce is confirmed, but I'm wondering if you have a general rule? After 3 bounces off the same price, over X amount of weeks or months, do you think the risk increases that support won't hold? Or does it gain strength as a support level the more touches it's experienced?

icuc, re: HW, it's breaking out nicely today. Good find on it!

Futures way down this morning, too. Market could gap down today big. I'm leaning towards wanting to start looking for bear chart formations to play for a while. Maybe ultrashort ETFs, so we don't have to reverse our views and can keep playing upwards.

Good idea, I was thinking that also. We should start scanning ultrashort ETFs for nice looking setups. That way we don't have to reverse our viewpoint or flip the chart formations upside down.

Same here. Good setups, but a bad overall market is making the low priced stocks act wacky. If I see a good setup I'll post it.

Phoenix, you stopout of RUTH too? Another formation fizzled. Could just be the market topping or correcting (very weak last few days), so it's no surprise some of these bull formations won't succeed in the near term.

Thanks! I'd seen you draw it before but had forgotten about the line between the bottoms and was just using the bottom :) This probably shaves a couple cents off the target.

Gotcha, thanks again. I figured as much, too many other variables with individual stocks. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something that you might be factoring in.

JRM, what was your entry based on? Downtrend line breakout? I like to hear about the viewpoint re: entries & exits. TIA!

Recog, CFW what do you think, falling wedge breakout buy around .40 area? Edit, I take that back! More like .45 area looks like a more likely entry to me.

Yep, that's why it's on WATCH! lol Right now, looks like the chart formation called "hope" because the double bottom is too premature at this point. haha But the mini downtrend line was definitely broken, nice move the last few days.

If it ends up bouncing off the .75 area, then it might turn into an ascending triangle. Need another touch or two first.

Lowest trough candle body on 10/6 at .44 to peak of the apex candle body at .75 = .31 Add that diff to the entry/breakout level for target calculation, .75 + .31 = 1.06

lowtrade, Do you use your 6-8% above 50MA guideline on stocks or just the indexes such as S&P to determine overall market conditions? Or do you also use that to know when to shy away from interest in a stock on its chart also?

ESPH, on watch for double bottom breakout, buy at .75, target 1.05

CLNE, Ascending triangle failed. Nice breakout, was green 5% which per trade plan moved stoploss to breakeven... and stopped out this morning.

GMR, similar behavior... was up initially, stopped out 5% loss. May have entered early prior to confirmation of falling wedge reversal as lowtrade pointed out.

Picassa, That story stuff isn't for this board. No offense, but you're obsessing over 1 stock. That stuff is for the TLR board.

No big deal, this board and trading methods aren't about "DD" or stories. It's about odds & probabilities of outcomes. Hope you're making $ on the stories if that's your gig.

low, Yes, me too! lol But I find it easier and easier now to just let my stop orders, or max trade duration per trading plan, handle that for me. That way there are never any negative surprises that cause distraction. Out with the old, capital turnover and in with the new.

low, Agreed completely. The catch is, it ends up a mental thing for most traders... they simply cannot allow themselves to stick to a method or be consistent in their view & approach, or they can't resist the temptation to get lured by razzle dazzle get rich story-stocks. Most make too many decisions based on negatives, instead of just allowing that any method will have losing trades.

Anyone can try a method, and convince him/herself that such method SUCKS and rinse & repeat on that note to lose most of their money. lol! But it's only the few who can stick to a view & method consistently so they have a chance at consistently successful trading. Like you said, it's not as difficult as people make it out to be, but the difficult part is the mentality involved. The mental part of the trading plan is just as important, if not moreso, as the chart aspect.

Another good thing about lowtrade's teachings, and this board, is it helps a person learn to have more of a steady mind with trading.

Profitable consistent trading isn't about more and more studying, nor more and more analysis. It's not rocket science. It takes a steady mind, a trading plan, a basis of understanding, and working the plan instead of idea-hopping and being inconsistent in approach or constantly changing views. Most people have a very difficult time sticking to the same approach over and over during a long timeframe... therefore, they are always sampling various ways to "lose money".

That's more than a year old - IL efficiency project by architects.

low, thanks. I agree, but your opinion his valued highly around here. It's always a good benchmark for us to weigh our own analysis against since you've been doing this a lot longer, and more successfully, than us. Thanks again for the reminders.

low, I actually said upper trendline break at 4.25/4.30 was the entry point. But I was using the 4.00 resistance break as supporting info as a sign that the pattern might be setting up regarding the falling wedge reversal. I was seeing 4.50 area as a level to add more (sounds like that was a mistake by me), if the price breaks it, as in making it past that stall point as you said.

I'm still wondering if I played it the right way, maybe I didn't. Sounds like 5.00 is the safest entry for that formation. My trade plan on this one is to exit at 5 since it's 16% gains. Hmmm, I may not have made the highest odds entry, after reading your thoughts.

Gasper, How has the company grabbed you & every sales agent or distributor by the balls? Please explain. Free speech allows giving opinions, so if you give opinions then nobody has you by the balls. And, if you state FACTS then you are also safe as far as I know. That about sums it up, so go ahead and share. Enough of the vague stuff.

My opinions of the company, nor yours, don't matter. Just facts, you should share them if you have any.

Picassa, Not sure. Depends on whether you prefer capital turnover and potential to make nice % gains on other trades, or if you are willing to let TLR just sit there tying up your $$ in hopes that it'll do what you want it to do.

I know it could jump up without notice, but sometimes a trade just doesn't work out. Nobody says you have to make most of your gains on 1 stock. I stopped out of ERES today, it was behaving very wacky... but it's out of my mind already, instead of trying to figure it out. 5% loss on that one. My other trades have offset that and given some profit this week.

Picassa, Wonder how many good trades you might've been able to make by now if you weren't so fixated on "figuring out" TLR? I'm on your side, but you really have to stop torturing yourself. Just learn what you can and learn from mistakes. Markets and stocks don't have to do what we expect them to do. That's why lowtrade encourages us so firmly to make a "trading plan" and to stick to it.

I'm in RUTH too with $6 target, it's strong today which is a good sign. Good find, icuc!

low, re: GMR, it seems to have gotten its feet again today - I had a concern yesterday b/c it was strong in the morning and then volume died big time & it retraced a lot and I wasn't sure how to interpret that or if I should just leave my stop in place and let it play out.

Regarding GMR entry, I saw it break resistance at 4 and then it broke the falling wedge top line at about 4.25 so that's when I entered. Wedge formation breakout. I was thinking of adding if it broke 4.50 resistance, not having that as my first entry. Did I misread it? I'd try to figure out how to post the chart, but I know you can spot all that in a jiffy anyway yourself. Any feedback please?

Nice going on changing your trading plan back to 15%! You got an extra 10% bonus today on DGIT!

CLNE is playing out well so far on ascending triangle breakout with 16.30ish target. I also got into ERES today, but I chased it a bit to get in (shame on me) and got spooked by that huge selling crash in the afternoon after my entry. But they posted great revs & earnings AH (hope the market thinks so anyway since I'm in already, lol). http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ERT-Reports-Third-Quarter-prnews-4267100005.html?x=0&.v=1

Gasper, Obviously you're being too vague. If you want anyone to listen, or to believe what you say, then you'll have to discuss things a little more and a little bit less of the vague stuff or claims which can be seen as baseless by others.

And to be clear, I'm not a fan of this company/management either. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be objective. I say, at this point, most pinksheets end up the same way and act the same way... so the onus is on this company to step it up and prove to everyone that they are different. They've switched lawyers many times, and I believe now have switched accountants also (see otcmarkets.com) but they did become "Current Information" recently which means they finally found a lawyer to provide the Attorney Letter which is what was always missing before. And they say they will do audits again - last time they did it was 2006 and then nothing since.

I like the product, not the management, or what I've seen of the product anyway. But you just aren't offering anything worth discussion or any facts or anything believable beyond your personal rants.

conestoga, STLD: Target = breakout price + (breakout price - formation low candle body)

14.91 + (14.91 - 13.34) = 16.48 which is only 10.5% gain.

Looks like there's resistance just prior to 16, so I'd probably take half off there. But that's just me.

lowtrade, When you're in a play, how often if ever do you exit a trade if it's waffling around but hasn't hit your 2 week max time limit yet? For lack of performance reasons.

And, do you ever simply exit a trade early just due to the overall market looking weak or going down? Thereby throwing out your TA analysis and/or targets or chart price specs? Or do you stick to plan no matter what the overall market is doing?

GMR is one example of part of my question: it brokeout of a descending wedge recently but is now waffling around. Do you see this as a retail fizzle and would you exit, or do you see it as a breather/consolidation and it could be worth holding onto? My intra-trade decisions about when to change course could use a little improvement for sure.

I assume part of your intra-trade decision is based on indicator activity, but is there also an apathy indicator in your head that you use... such as cut GMR loose because volume has decreased and it's not going up or down either way much the last day or so?

low, Sounds like a good plan. I do remember your QE2 post :)

I agree with the anticipated result of QE2 and how the parties in power handle things. I don't like this dollar dilution, makes our monetary policy seem worse than a penny stock (it probably is). But, if things go as hoped then the corps will be fat and happy again and will offer joe schmoe a job again.

I guess, pick your poison... greedy corps & bankers fleecing everyone, or unfunded social programs and less incentive for people to work hard or for corps to hire and less incentive for corporate greed which sometimes = jobs. Both angles by either party sound questionable to me. Common sense went the way of the doe-doe bird a long long time ago.

icuc, ERES looked good, but has run away already. IMO the resistance break was confirmed at yesterday's close but I don't want to chase it up on the big gap today. Maybe it'll dip back down for an entry, who knows! :)