Friday Review

Today was a pretty choppy, low volume day. There wasn't any major news out or anything in particular to move the market. There was some capitulation once the 1325 support level was breached. We then entered a downward channel. You can see throughout the day how the S&P was "taking the stairs up and the elevator down". I'm looking for volume and volatility to pick up as we put the 50 day MA in the rear view mirror.

Outlook for Friday

The bulls were doing a pretty good job of defending the 50 day MA. But today we closed very near the lows of the day at 1325.76. 1325 is a pretty strong support level, but if we get much below it, 1300 is the next logical support level. The VIX never exceeded 26 today, showing a lot of complacency, so we could be in for more choppiness. Notice how we were oscillating around the 50 day MA area, about 1340 for the last couple of days. This finally broke down this afternoon, which makes me short term bearish.

Taxes

I'm meeting with a CPA tomorrow who is supposed to have experience with traders. I want to get started on the right foot. In the future though, I'm wondering if there is one piece of software that works best for traders and allows easy importing from Excel or a comma delimited file.

First Post!

How exciting, my first post in this medium they call blogging! I've been reading other traders blogs for the last year and they have been a great help in my own development, so I've decided to give back something to the community (or more likely steal all your good ideas). I'm not sure if I will post every single trade I make, comment on the overall market using technical analysis, focus on the psychology or what. After all, this is my first post, so I promise nothing. I only ask that you wipe your shoes on the mat on the way out. The two biggest influences in my style of trading are Trader Mike and Trader Jamie. I learned the importance of position sizing and expectancy from Trader Mike and entries and exits from Trader Jamie. Jamie really has a knack for choosing good exits. Before trading I was a Network Administrator. It was a pretty cushy job--I think a lot of people think I'm crazy for quitting, but it just wasn't challenging any more. For those who think trading is the easy life, think again. Showing up to a 9 to 5 job and getting paid to sit in your cubicle whether or not you are on the top of your game each day is the easy path. I am working on improving my consistency, but with trading your income is not guaranteed and there are markets in which it will be difficult to make money, that is the life of a trader and one has to accept that.