Last night one our traders Senor Social Media fired off a question about the blog I wrote.

“Bella I thought you mentioned that CEPH was a long at 54.50 on the trading floor?”

It was.  The trade I outlined in my blog was an A trade.  There were many other trades that I did not discuss in last night’s blog that I made and needed to make.  Some worked, some did not, which is typical.  Let’s discuss them all.

1) Trade One: Short CEPH at 55 because there was an Unusual Hold on the Offer.  Do not cover unless there is a Reason2Cover.  This was a Trade2Hold.

2) Trade Two: Cover CEPH at 54.50 because there was an Unusual Hold on the Bid at 54.50.

3) Trade Three: Long at CEPH 54.60 after BATS bought way more than I expected at 54.55 on the bid AND THEN stepped up and held the 54.60 bid.

4) Trade Four: Exit CEPH at 54.49 when the BATS buyer disappeared and the important intraday 50c level dropped.

5) Trade Five: Short CEPH (I flipped my position) since it violated this important intraday level.  CEPH traded down to 33c where I covered half.  CEPH traded back above 50c, the important intraday level, and started holding the bid again.  I got flat.

6) Trade Six: Short CEPH below 50c again.  43c held the bid and I covered half.  CEPH came back and held the 50c bid again, the important intraday level, so I got flat.

7) Trade Seven: Short CEPH below 50c as the offers were holding below this important intraday resistance level.  This was a Trade2Hold.  CEPH traded down a point from this level.  Chop!

Trading is not about being right.  Your job is to do the right thing, to make trades that work when considering a similar trade made a thousand times based on your time frame.  The first two shorts below 50c did not work.  The third did and a point downmove was about to visit.  Hitting CEPH below the important intraday level is a profitable trade.  It was not if you only judged this trade on the first two attempts.  If you included all three trades you needed to make then you would correctly conclude that this is another must trade for your intraday playbook.

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