Best and worst trades from Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Market continues to chop around. Been trading 'bread and butter' earnings gap plays as they mostly trade on their own mojo unless the market is really in a lather, and I don't have to hold overnight (though I do have some swings, but less and less over the last week). They are trading a bit less explosively than I have experienced (but its early in the season yet), so I am taking smaller positions and letting them work, rather that taking larger positions and scaling out. My trading has been very protective. Good trades in ACIW, SANM, and WAB, not so good in SVU and PLXT.

The bad:

So the rest of the day I went smaller and let things work. Though ACIW was my best trade (took it from the 1st minute bar, was in my top watch list even before earnings), WAB is good because I don't trade the downtrend break on earnings gap pullbacks as much as I should. I was just going through all the earnings plays and I took the simple WAB trade off a slightly bent downtrend break, but it offered such a nice flag and so much upside potential (it could have retraced the whole days pattern and broken out) that it was an easy take, and it made a dollar move in 15 minutes. No home run, but I'll take a point any time.