Made some dough

It's a good thing that I didn't go out to lunch today because the best trade of the day came right at lunch time. It's also a trade that saved my buttocks because I was in the hole $1500 bucks until I took it.

I got into the hole early by trying to fade the opening gap. I was a bit over-anxious and got in right after the open hoping that the market would go down and fill the gap. I refused to take a stop loss as the market climbed higher and I nearly doubled the loss that I would have had if I had kept a solid stop-loss in place.

As price continued to climb, I started thinking that we were heading for a trend day and I started buying. I bought on three pullbacks and had made up my loss and more several times as I stubbornly held on. Price eventually crossed the 50 period moving average and bounced along the bottom. I had a chance to get out, but I was so biased to the upside, that again I held on past my stop and ended up losing more.

I was ready to throw in the towel, but thanks to my mentor-ship with Corey Rosenbloom, I saw a nice setup forming (the cradle trade as Corey calls it) as the moving averages crossed. I sold short and held on for dear life as the bottom fell out and the market went down in nearly a straight line.

I exited when price seemed to slow down forming a doji as the move lost momentum. Another pattern that I've learned from Corey is the "three push pattern" where price makes new lows or highs three times in a row, but the price moves are not confirmed by momentum. Often a reversal follows this pattern. I'd say we got one of those reversals today. Holy cow.