At point (a) we have the base and break under the number (usually a clean number but in the case of GS was around 165.5 - 166). Note the volume spike. We were long in size at 164.60 av. The stock pulled back on light volume and then rallied straight up to R1, which is a great day-trader exit --we took off 20% at point (b). So far so good for the stock but the problem was that the S&P started failing and hit low of day, not good as GS can't run by itself. We sold most of our position at point (c) and held some at break-even stop (164.6), which was hit shortly after (d). We still made some money on it due to our size but we of course would have preferred a successful break-out -- if that had been the case we would have sold a good portion by end of day but kept at least 20% for swing.
Over the years we have normally day-traded 80% and swing-traded 20%. We've been increasing the swing position lately and plan to do so for as long as the market volatility remains low and the bull uptrend remains intact.
