Scalping In Volatile Times
When the market is crazy and volatile with no clear direction, the best way to make money is to go scalping. Scalping invokes trying to achieve quick 20-30 cents gains and getting out.
To begin the day I shorted PCX @14.47, hoping for a breakdown. However after multiple attempts it would not break below 14.40. Not willing to risk a squeeze I covered @14.43. Turns out that was the right move. After that PCX spiked all the way to 15.20s. Later on in the afternoon I took a short position again @14.95. Once the 15$ mark was taken out, I was confident to go short with stop loss above 15. Turns out it was a good trade and I covered @14.74, gaining 21cents profit. Quick and nimble.
I found Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (DO) while scanning for oversold stocks that were reversing back. I bought DO @86.65, hoping for a 1$ gain with stop loss at 85.90. After some initial back and forth, DO jumped to 87.30. I immediately raised my stop to 86.99 hoping for bigger gain. Unfortunately my stop was taken out. My execution was @87.03, giving me 38cents profit. I was aiming for 87.85 as selling point, below 88$ resistance which it eventually reached. However I got stopped out earlier. No regrets though
MEE is one trade I wanted to go long, but never did. It is notorious for crazy swings and I decided to play safe. I was aiming for going long on 39$ break. Had I entered the trade, I would have got a nice 50-60cent profit. MEE did fall back to 39 level. However I wasn’t interested the second time around since, it was trending down, unlike earlier when it was trending up.
