MOS Def is a very good actor. MOS is not the easiest stock to trade. But into the close Friday MOS was very strong. MOS traded from 38-43.40ish intraday on Friday. The market opened decidely negative and MOS was down almost 3 points. I decided to trade it today. I am glad that I did. Let’s discuss.

This is a stock specific market. The past two weeks I have traded some very easy stocks: KSS, MFE, CAT, PCLN. All of these stocks had fresh news the day that I traded them. When trading these easy stocks I have been positive. And frankly, there was very little chance that I wasn’t gonna end up positive. There was nothing difficult about these stocks. And I picked another easy stock to trade today in MOS.

MOS traded in a range from 39.75-40.50 for the first hour of trading. MOS could not trade below 39.75 and MOS could not hold above 40.50. I made some money trading this range on the open and then MOS offered an excellent trading opportunity. MOS traded down near 39.75 again. I got very long in front of this support level. Finally 39.75 dropped. I flipped MOS and caught a sharp downmove. More importantly than this sharp downmove, MOS has started a clean downtrend. And I traded MOS from the short side for most of the trading day. As you can see from the chart below, there was nothing difficult about trading MOS below 39.75.

Trading is about skill development and discipline and not understanding dark matter. For this trade you must have the discipline to wait for MOS to offer an excellent trading opportunity. You must have the discipline to wait for MOS to trade below 39.75, and then pounce.

Admittedly there were some difficult moves in MOS at times between 39.75 and 40.50. Once MOS traded above 40.50 and looked like it was gonna break out. It didn’t. And I recognized the lack of strength above the 40.50 level and exited. I recognized this fake breakout. I was not stubborn. I was not hoping that MOS would break out. I recognized that MOS was not strong. And that the tape was indicating that next move was most likely lower. So I exited with a small loss. This could have been a rip. But the short below 39.75 was simple. And it was just a matter of recognizing this level and being patient. I was and I made a chop.

Make sure your stock selection is spot on in this market. If you are trading a market stock and it is not acting well consider a Stock in Play. Consider a stock with fresh news for that trading day. Consider an easy trading stock. I MOS definitely enjoyed my trading day. And this was because I was in the right stock.

Best of luck with your trading!