Greener pastures

After a couple weeks of ecstasy in January, the PSE has been in stuck in a rut for the most part of the 1st quarter of 2019.

Since I missed most of those plays in the early part of the year, due to either my schedule, not my setup or just plain missing them altogether, my port has hardly made a dent for now. Uptrends have been scarce and sometimes it feels like it's not worth the time to check the charts. 

Personally, I do not subscribe to the idea that good traders should be able to trade in any market condition. Especially since we always tell people to be specialists. If your specialty is on uptrends and there aren't any, then why force yourself to trade downtrends? The effort or ROI just isn't worth it.

Maybe the problem isn't you. It's the MARKET. So what can uptrend or breakout traders do?

SWITCH MARKETS.

This is exactly what I have been doing the past couple of months. The US market has beckoned and who am I to say no? The tricky part has been in finding the right balance of spending too much or not enough time in charting the US stocks. Lately though, it looks like I've been able to crack that puzzle and find that happy balance. 

Trading the US market takes a pretty big leap of faith. But they have more options for people who aren't in front of the screen the whole time. A wide variety of orders not found in the PSE. To cater for every one. Currently, my system consists of waking up 30 minutes before the end of the US trading day to look for positions to trade. So essentially buying EOD. Then just a matter of setting stops during the evening of that day (market open in the US). That's it. It takes me about an hour at most from scanning to executing trades. 

Here is my port performance since the start of the year. Not bad for a couple minutes of trading a day. Let's see if I can hit all my milestones this year. 

Time to get to work. 

* I use interactive brokers. If you want a referral send me a PM.
I could make an FAQ about the US market and my broker in the future. If I don't feel lazy.