As I have mentioned in this journal, my trading vehicle of choice is the US dollar futures and the US dollar has been very volatile this month (it is always volatile).  Even though the dollar is heavily news influenced and greatly effected by foreign currencies it trades very technically. For this reason alone I find it a rewarding vehicle. Simply buy and sell on past historic support and resistance levels. 

Also its fast dips and exploding breakouts can offer the trader a pretty good risk to reward ratio.  I often find myself capitalizing on the dollar's price swings or "inefficencies". When I see a huge pop or drop off in the dollar's price I wait for the stochastics to reach overbought or oversold levels on the 5 to 10 minute chart and get in on the opposite side of the tape. The panic buying or selling will fade and the moving averages and stochastics eventually turn over and retrace.  Don Miller presented this idea so well in his New York presentation you can find here. Don Miller's TV Channel

"Breakouts Lead to Trends
Trends lead to extremes
Extremes lead to backing and filling
Backing and filling lead to consolidation
Consolidation leads to breakouts
Wash - rinse - repeat" - Don Miller

I bought some FE shares today right at 37.00. I will be cost averaging this position with future shares and dividend reinvestments. Also, I do not go all in, but instead this is my first purchase with the intent of scaling in. I will add more shares if it gets cheaper.

-S

Click for larger view

I have not purchased any FE stock yet. I am being very patient and continue to watch this energy stock. I am now looking for a continued pull back to the 34.00 - 36.00 range. The chart I am including in this post is a 2 year weekly. When or if the stochastics push down further I will buy . I will post if anything changes regarding FE.  This stock is a slow mover and I like it for my IRA. This is for a long term hold with the intention of reinvesting dividends.

New chart April 24 - 2010

If you click on the new chart I have posted on the right you can see that the yellow verticle bar shows the price move I was expecting in ATVI (You can also see that I was bullish in ATVI and charted this exact short term move before it transpired. Older post here and the chart is at the end of this post.) 

I often times sell out of a position before the move is over to lock in gains in a swing trade. A swing trade for me is a short 1 - 3 week (or even 2 - 3 day trade) so if I see profits and I am well within the majority of the move I take the trade off and look for other stocks to put my money.

I have updated my "recent charts" section on the right to read "Mid - Long Term Charts". I will be posting updated charts here over the weekend. This section of the site has always meant to reflect the stocks I am looking at in the mid -> long term. Not on a intraday scalping basis. At times these stocks are for a swing trade basis (In and out in 1 to 3 weeks) or they will be charts I am looking at for an investment.

Somewhere in the chart or in the text of the blog I will say if a certain stock is a swing or investment. I also try to post when I purchased and when I sold the stock.  I do this as a journal of sorts. A clearing house for my thoughts and somewhere along the way perhaps I will help one or two people learn something?

-S

The market blew up today on the Goldman Sachs news. How did you handle the news and what did you decide to do? I sat back and watched the chaos. I was so relieved to see the market do something other than go up again because we need a pullback for sure. Pullbacks are healthy for the long run in the market. You want a base of support below the current price level to keep the market building a solid foundation.

However,  since I am sitting at about 75% cash I did not trade anything. Instead I managed (aka: hedged) the small amount of equity exposure I hold in my IRA. (I only have 3 stocks in my IRA right now: Verizon, Pfizer and Exxon.) The stocks I currently own in my IRA are investment type holds. 3 - 5 year outlook. If they are effected by a downturn or pullback I will buy more.

So lets see what happens next week. Earnings season is still on. The carry trade [link] is still on and the rising channel in the S&P 500 is still in tact. Should be interesting. I may actually buy something by the weeks end.

-S