Swing Trading System Day 1: Beginning with 28 Stocks

I have begun experimenting with swing trading using my demo account in Interactive Brokers and I added 28 stocks in my portfolio yesterday. I’m long on 22 of those stocks but my biggest winner before today’s open is a stock I am short, PNR. I have set my maximum risk per trade at $100, thus I’m risking $2,800 in my first day of swing trading, although I have used $43K to buy and sell these US stocks. My trading system relies mostly on price action, but occasionally I will make use of other indicators of technical analysis, especially when I’ll be closing my positions. Let’s start with the stocks I shorted yesterday.

I was quite lucky to short PNR stock on day’s high (44.74). I decided on shorting PNR because of the trading range and stock price approaching the resistance level. My stop loss is set a couple of ticks above that level and obviously my profit target is close to the support level. I’m planning on exiting my whole position, should my prediction is proven correct.

Another short trade at a key resistance level was made on TSM stock. The 6-month resistance level at the daily chart isn’t expected to be broken soon hopefully, given the doji candlestick that was formed on Tuesday. It seems I shorted TSM in a hammer candlestick now that Wednesday’s candlestick is printed on the chart, further improving the odds of successful stock trading! I’m risking 25c per share in this stock; therefore hitting the stop loss at 16.16 will cost me $100. At the same time my profit target is one dollar away for a possible 4-1 reward-to-risk trade. TSM at Wednesday’s close is the worst performing stock of my portfolio, losing about $62 at this point.

Bank of America stock is the best stock I went long yesterday at the moment. I bought 400 BAC shares for 8.925 and the stock advanced up to 9.11 when the market closed. Although I executed this trade somewhat late due to the continuation candlestick pattern being completed last week, I figured the signals were still there for a long trade. Stop loss is set at the last support level and the profit target at the resistance level. Pretty basic stuff, huh? Again I’m risking 25c per share for almost a dollar profit.

I am delighted to have been long HOV, since I bought HOV shares right in the middle of a filled climbing candlestick! Volume also picked up and I am being quite optimistic here, saying that I will be very surprised if HOV share price doesn’t explode above $4.00. However I’m risking 70c per share on this one, therefore I need this pullback to boost the HOV stock price considerably higher in order to consider this a good swing trade. Still, I’m already up $80!

Of course I’m long BAS as I picked Basic Energy Services stock for swing trading yesterday! Yet, buying power was just enough to hold the price at the support level and I’ll be holding on this one for a couple of days. I haven’t yet set an inactivity period when I’ll be abandoning the trades, but I don’t expect to be holding stocks for more than a week if they don’t react.

I decided to publish the profit and loss statement of my stock trading system along with some commentary on the trades, as I needed to update this trading blog more regularly and commit myself to posting. Hopefully I will keep you updated on a daily basis and discuss about swing trading in general.