Swing trade turned into day trade: AXP

AXP (American Express Company)


I have started looking a little into short-term (5-7 days max.) swing trade recently. I started to paper trade in my simulated account but did not follow through how they performed. So I decided to trade with real money and see how it goes. My risk is less to avoid emotions play into the trades while I am learning. Right now my plan is to time the entries as day trade. SL will be like day trade stops (other end of the trigger candle).

I entered AXP as a swing trade when price took out the high of the 6th candle high with PDH as first target and $24.50 as the final target on the remaining. AXP hit both it's target today turning it into a day trade. Honestly, I was expecting price to hit the PDH today but not the final target. I will post the charts on my swing trading blog (http://swingtradr.blogspot.com) to track how it did after my entry and exit.

QLD - Hammer on PDL


QQQQ gapped down in the morning and formed a very bullish green hammer on PDL. I went long QLD instead of QQQQ which is 2X of QQQQ's. Entered long on the break of the hammer (2nd candle). Since the candle was very wide, I used $36 as SL and not the low of the candle. My reasoning was that price should take off after that bullish hammer. 3rd bar was strong, followed by a red bar. I moved SL to BE wondering if the 2-4 bars were just attempt to fill the morning gap before moving down. Price moved up smoothly reaching PDH where I partialled and exited the remaining at 38% FE of PDL - PDH. I was not expecting such a smooth ride.

SOHU - Cup & Handle


SOHU had a big move yesterday and retraced in the afternoon after hitting a previous resistance. Today SOHU formed a NRB below the PDH. Entered a little above PDH and set my sell order at 50% FE of the C&H pattern (PDL to PDH). Price missed my target of $66.40 by 2 cents and I exited when price formed a bearish candle on 15 min. chart.

I also had a short in AGU which initially moved in my favor but then took me out at BE.