My Trading Journal for the Stock Market Today:

Is there anything worse than buying stocks near or at their all-time highs? Seriously, I hate it. The game has become a bit of a joke here, as the market has become the place where bad trading practices are rewarded. People are comfortable. They are content. They don’t worry about what the market might do tomorrow or the next day. If they make a bad trade, it is okay, the market will bring it back up – so risk management doesn’t seem necessary. 

This is the mindset you, me, and everyone who wants to sustain themselves long-term in this market has to avoid. The most annoying thing right now for traders to hear is for them to be told to manage risk. The market rewards them for putting all the chips in the middle and there is no reason they should fear this market. 

But please fear it, respect it, and above all else, stay focused on the risk of your trades. You don’t want the profits to evaporate when this fantastic run comes to an end. 

The Dow remains on a tear – up nine straight days, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 all had pullbacks yesterday. VIX likes to open higher, but gets crushed thereafter. T2108 (% of stocks trading above their 40-day moving average) is diverging (bearishly). Oil is still trading sideways of late, but United States Oil Fund (USO) is on the verge of breaking a multi-year downtrend that started in October of 2015. 

Keep the risk tight, and the stops tighter. Don’t trust this market or any market… Ever!

S&P 500 Chart

Current Stock Trading Portfolio Balance: 

• 5 long positions, all profitable, increasing the stop-losses in each. 

Recent Stock Trade Closeouts:

• Baidu (BIDU): long at $174.70, closed at $187.00 for a 7.0% profit. 
• Ollie’s Bargain Outlet: Long at 33.20, closed at $32.50 for a 2.1% loss. 
• SPXU: Long at $17.58, closed at $17.24 for a 1.9% loss.
• Gold Miners ETF (GDX): Long at $25.22, closed at $25.04 for a -0.7% loss. 
• Corning (GLW): Long at $26.98, closed at $27.45 for a 1.7% profit. 
• Illinois Tool Works (ITW): Long at $127.74, closed at $129.86 for a 1.7% profit. 
• Marriott Int’l (MAR): Long at $86.16, closed at $87.51 for a 1.6% profit. 
• Microsoft (MSFT): Long at $63.45, closed at $64.09 for a 1% profit.