Bears and Bulls tug-o-war

The market for the past few days has been the battlegrounds for deciding the future direction of the S&P 500.  The upward trendline since the middle of July is currently intact, however may be on its last legs.  Technically, the formation of today's price action in the SPY was bullish, and formed a bit of a bullish hammer candlestick...although candles are not my strong spot so I may be wrong.  Point is the market tried to fall lower, and was soundly rejected shortly thereafter.  Carl Futia wrote in his blog today that the reversal was a very bullish move, and I definitely respect that decision.  I still think the market will correct a degree in the near future, however I am not sure when this will happen. 

This leaves me to wonder what will be in store for the resulting price action as the 3 day triangle comes to a close.  There are a few scenarios that I can think of: 

Bearish breakdown
Bullish breakout
Bear/bull trap in either direction then continue in the opposite direction. 

For a trade play, I think the conclusion of this triangle, because of such violent price action within the trendlines, will continue for a few days after the market chooses a direction.  I may end up trading after the breakout in either direction on BGU or BGZ, with a stop under the trendline, plus a trigger to flip the position to the opposite side in case of a trap.  The reason I am so concerned about a trap is that the triangle is so damn obvious, that I think its pretty likely.  I will update this with a chart, and my intentions for this order tomorrow am.

Tuition paid $45.52 9.29

Yesterday did not work out so well for me.  I was eyeballing a sweet setup on the 10 day 15 min chart for YRCW, which was about to break a multi day trend line.  My thought on the trade was to enter into the a bit above where I would be chopped out on a false breakout, and to ensure I wasn't ripped off in price with a market order, I placed a buy stop limit, both at 4.54.

The set up was good, and sure enough the short squeeze caught fire, however I was left in the dust as my stop was hit, but I was left with an open limit order for 1000 shares at 4.54, and no execution as the stock ripped past my target price.  This really frustrated me that I took the time, found an awesome setup, and because I wasn't willing to dive into the melee I missed out on some awesome gains.

The second half of my mistakes today added inslult to injury, as I, even against my better judgement (I tried hard not to look at the chart again since the train had already left the building on the set-up I was watching) I traded YRCW hoping that a bull flag was emerging, and not at a breakout point, within the consollidation range.

Lo and behold I was stopped out shortly thereafter as the price could not hold those levels after such a wild run-up...WTF was I thinking???  Chalk this one up to the first tuition paid to the market for this trader.  Lesson learned, when buying into a short squeeze make damn sure I am ready to place a market order and hold on for the ride.  And do NOT trade a chart again after the set-up I was waiting for has come and gone.

Trade Recap

Stock - YRCW
9.29  Buy 500 shares @ 4.81
9.29  Sell 500 shares @ 4.75

Stock - PCYC
9.29 Buy 500 shares  @ 2.01