Here is my thought process day by day for the stocks that I traded or I was looking at. I am learning by studying other trader's thought processes, so hopefully this will help you learn as well. All traders should have a thought process going into every trade, and keeping a diary of those thoughts as well as what actually ended up happening will help you grow as a trader. Thoughts are from newest to oldest.
See my trading stats here
--Summer is really proving to be slow.. much more slower than when I first started trading in May, and much more slower than when I first started learning back in January or so. I thought there would be plays everyday and that it was just a myth.. doesn't look like it is right now.. it's boring, especially for a new trader like me that wants to be trading as much as possible. I guess this will at least teach good discipline. I hope I don't lose too much money in the process!! Time to adapt.
^^looking at technicals right now and everything looks really good. It just looks like the weekly chart is taking longer to materialize, so maybe the big move is still to come. I just hate how it barely trades during the day! Weird! This was my first test with the swing trading strategy, and I missed the first pop. I would have liked to have a better entry price.
[11:01PM]kroyrunner → Aries:sorry to hear you're struggling, trying to make back lost money is usually a good way to lose more though. try to be patient and wait for the best setups and let the trades come to you rather than forcing anything
I've been struggling a bit this past week. So has "Aries" I guess. Sometimes just hearing simple sentences like this makes it all come together. These simple things need to be reinforced. "Kroyrunner" turned $1,500 into nearly 2 million in three years. Just a simple down to earth young kid who graduated with a Finance degree, and it wasn't from Harvard. Now he is one of the several chatroom moderators. Tonight he just happened to be kind enough to chat and just answer any questions. Pretty cool.
--I've been studying more than usual tonight (because I haven't been making the best trades as of lately). I think I am too caught up on trying to catch every breakout possible and ride it for a quick 5-10 minutes for 10%. That is pretty much how my whole first month went. Those are fine, but you have to let those come to you and you can't force them. I've been forcing them lately. I need to focus on taking better trades and really anticipating the move, no matter if it is over 5 minutes or 50 minutes. So I went back and studied investorslive which is Nate's DVD. Studied the abcd pattern as he likes to call it, and then went back and related it to a bunch of plays over the past couple of weeks. I highly recommend his DVD to anyone that wants to learn how to trade.
--REDF nice chart today, also setting 52 week highs. No news though, maybe its coming. I'll keep an eye on it.
--MINE I got real excited about. I didn't catch any of the morning breakouts, I noticed it too late unfortunately. Then I started watching looking to play it. If it could broke .018 it looked free. .0182 was the high on the day, and on the level 2 there were significant sellers all the way up to .018, but after that it had nothing. I was just waiting and praying the buyers would drive it up there and eat up all those sellers because after that it would have ran and ran very quickly. Unfortunately, the buyers weren't strong enough, and it ended up just fading for the rest of the day until the very end when it showed some life and tried to make it back up to its highs.
--TBEV, saw this stock was breaking out of its sub penny range, so that means a lot morel people than usual are paying attention to it. It was breaking out of this range because of a couple days of good news, and was up big the last two days on real heavy volume, so I thought this could get a nice morning spike, and it did just that. I saw strong amounts of buy orders coming in so I decided to take a position at around .013. It then tested .016 which was its high from the previous day, and it could not break it. So I waited out the next bounce and made sure to get out at .016 when it tested it again. I got it, it failed to break past it again so I felt good. Later it had surpassed it on the next bounce and went all the way up to .0188. So I left some money on the table. I also did my math wrong when I was buying this unfortunately, and only went in with $650 instead of my usual $1,000. So I left a bit of money on the table in various ways here. But this win saved my week; it wiped away my weeks loses and gave me another $50, so I was just happy it saved me from my first down week.
--I've noticed a lot of the stocks I play usually have nice spikes on some day after I play them. I need to keep a closer eye on them, especially the ones I lost on because they didn't do what I expected right away. This could mean I have to wait for a later day for them to play out as I anticipated.
--Was mad I missed DRWI this morning. Had a plan to enter at 1.50 but within four minutes it touched 1.77 from a low of 1.39. I don't even remember seeing 1.50 on the level two, it just skyrocketed. It's absolutely amazing what a simple news catalyst can do. I need to focus much more on these types of plays. I could have earned ten hours worth of pay in two minutes if I was quicker on this one.
--In the afternoon, I was looking for an overnight hold as I usually do. I was looking at ANAD and SARA. Both were being talked about in the chatroom, and had recent news catalysts. I went to buy SARA with about thirty seconds left in the trading day, but my order was late and never got executed. My head is kind of out of the game because of my recent losses. I need to find a groove again. I will look to review all of my trades, and brush up on some studying.
--DARA, it was steadily up trending but very slowly, and had a huge gap down on bad news but I saw good price action and support so I decided to buy thinking it would fill the gap a bit. Unfortunately, I just don't have time to watch it all day in my cubicle and did not want to blindly hold or be distracted all day watching it, especially because I had my first down day yesterday and was busy at work so I locked in tiny profits that I could. If I had stayed patient I could have sold for just under 1.25 somewhere, but it was very boring trading in that range all day so I'm not too disappointed.
--in MNGA overnight 700 shares at 1.64
7/16/14
I've been taking a break from trading because I do not think I have been consistent enough. I have been reading this book, "Trading In The Zone" by Mark Douglas, which is about learning to think like a trader; the physcology of a trader pretty much. It's great. It has nothing to do with market analysis, and everything to do with how you should approach the market with your thought process as a trader, which I am learning is just as important, and probably more important, than the market analysis you use. I'm almost done with it, and I have another book after that I will read, "Trading Price Action Trends", by Al Brooks. From what I understand, Al goes into his trading strategy which involves using 5 minute price bars. This was recommended to me and I thought it would be interesting. You need to continue learning! I'm not sure when I will start trading again. Just going with the flow for now and trying to start feeling confident again.7/14/14
No trades.. just observations today.. will probably start paper trading tomorrow until I start to feel a grove coming along and feel comfortable enough to start trading for real again.
--APP double bottomed at 1.20 and I thought this was a good buy. It finally broke through resistance at 1.25 and went to 1.28 and sort of double topped but was holding that level fairly well. I was looking to mentally sell around 1.24 because it didn't look like it was really going anywhere. It eventually came crashing back down to 1.12 before up trending to 1.21 to end the day.
--CREG thought it was a good buy at 2.15 as it was consolidating. I saw high volume, decent
news, on watch list and also being talked about in chatroom. I had a risk at 2.10 and it went to 2.10
very quickly. Looking back at 5 minute bars it looked terrible at the time I wanted to buy.
--CREG hits 2.40 area with a double top.. this was also resistance on 20 day chart. It was up so big and could have been a good time to short as it downtrended after that finishing at 1.73.
--EXEL wait for it to really fade and consolidate for a bit
before trying your luck would have been best. It had good news today, which is a good indication it could run at
some point after such a bad start. Combining 5 minute bars with minute bars will help identify the bottom better.
--ACHN thought at 7.46 it could be setting up for a run, used 7.40 level as my risk. It eventually cracked that and finished around there for the day.
7/11/14
Did not trade or watch the market today.
7/10/14
--DRWI bought double bottom at 2.28 early, sold at 2.30 once the bounce looked like it was failing, which it did. Then we got a nice little double
bottom around 2.21, and there was support at 2.20 on certain time frames.. this would have been a good buy level as it started up trending from there and hit 2.39
--TXMD spiked after a red to green move on the day which coincidentally was around a nice round whole number of 5.00.
--DGLY was just absolute craziness today.. thanks to promoters. Even though it was already up so much, if you just enter a trade with the mindset of cutting losses quickly, that is okay. Buying around that 6.00 mark where it also broke out on highs of the day would have been a good thought process.
--CYNK was also more craziness today thanks to promoters.. the bounce at 14.00 would have been a good risk to reward buy.
--APP broke day highs and up trended after .90 mark.
7/9/14
--TXMD, I made a note last night to buy any dip around 5.20.. it double bottomed around 5.15 and then double topped around 5.40. I just don't trust my game plan I guess. Instead I lost $200 on this today playing it several times looking for another ridiculous afternoon spike like we got yesterday. The difference is yesterday there was news and today there wasn't.
--USU I wanted to buy once it triple bottomed around the 6.60 level but was scared.. it then double topped just over 6.90. Then once it dropped past what it closed at yesterday around 6.50, it dropped all the way down to the 5.60's. It's so simple if you just let the plays come to you. TXMD and USU are stocks everyone has been talking about this week. My problem right now is not letting the trades come to me, so in-turn I guess I am just forcing my trades and not sticking to my game plan.
--DRL finally crashed after 6.00 broke and it went down to the 5.50 level. I have been waiting for this. Obviously didn't catch it though, what else is new.
--ONE I have also been watching this one waiting for a crash after the 4.30 - 4.25 level and we got that today. I saw it late though and didn't like where my entry would have been at so I didn't take it.
--MEET was a good buy around 2.50 with about only 10 cents of risk and close to 20 cents of upside. This is a stock that has been in play and people have been talking about. But it wasn't very liquid today, it just happened to get a quick pop. I'm finding a lot of stocks that were in play a week or two ago that are trading near support and not trading very much could be good buys because you aren't risking much and you can wait for a pop like the one MEET had today going up to 2.70.
--CBMX broke out over several charts because of a outperform rating issued on the company. It finished near its highs; def a watch for tomorrow.
--Thinking I'm going to take some time off of trading for real this time. I'm happy with the experience I have had these first 7 weeks of trading. But I was learning in the best 6 months the stock market has seen in over a decade. Now with the summer months and things slowing down a bit, the same plays I was learning from everyday just aren't there anymore. I am going to start paper trading for a few weeks give or take, and if I find a groove with that I will go back to trading with real money again. Hopefully it is sooner rather than later, but I need to get my head back in the game.
7/8/14
-NURO, made a dumb dip buy 2.70. That wasn't the best risk vs. reward set-up, 2.60 would have been better. Then I sold and hesitated to get back in at 2.60 when I should have. I could have
scaled in with $1000 and then added on the dip if I was scared it was going to bounce early.
--NEWL bought failed break out, I need to stop doing this. Low priced stocks breaking out are poison to me. I got lucky on a couple of these when I first started trading. I wish they had just burned me because I clearly haven't learned my lesson yet.
--DRWI, I bought the double bottom at 2.10 and sold around the double top at 2.23. Could not have played this much better. This is exactly what I have been trying to do. Very safe bet. I love the excitement, but I need to make safe bets pretty much all of my strategy for right now. I need to look out for more of these.
--TXMD had a pretty decent "abcd" set-up and being long from 4.80 using that as your risk level would have been a great trade. I need to do a better job keeping an eye on stocks everyone is talking about. Instead I was late to watching, and I rode the small breakout at 5.10 to 5.20, and then on the first sign of panic
everyone sold and I got out at 5.10 . It went down to 5 and I should have bought the dip. This was given a $34 price target by some analysts. Will watch this closely tomorrow.
--USU even though I missed the breakout, the 6.70's would have been a great buy and risk to reward because 6.70 was the prior day's resistance. EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT THESE STOCKS WHY AM I NOT LOOKING MORE CLOSELY! Well.. there's plenty of reasons, but there still shouldn't be any excuses!
--LIQD I tried to buy on a bounce at 1.89 but sold 1.86 which ended up being the real bottom. There was still support there though so I should have gave it some time. Really have to be careful buying around a support level and make sure you are willing to risk it dropping that much. It finished at 1.94 so I didn't miss out on anything huge, but these are good risk vs. reward plays that will help me become a better trader.
--STEM had a nice 11 cent bounce from 2.00 which was clear support.
--DRL had a morning wash out and then spiked big. Wish I payed more attention to this. I don't know what I'm doing. My fault.
--VAPE would have been nice short at 2.40 when it broke that support level. This was being pumped last week or something.
--HEMP broke out this morning after a big day yesterday. Not sure why I wasn't paying more attention to this either.
--I think my problem is I see a stock at one time during the day and I am not interested so I just completely brush it to the side for the rest of the day whenever it is mentioned in the chatroom. I need to do a better job of cycling through all these stocks and be able to spot a good set-up whenever it presents itself.
7/7/14
--FOLD, I shorted this based on it opening weak and not being able to break 4, but then I saw so many 3.90 buyers I just
decided to get out because I thought it would be tough to drop through that. I tried this short twice.. pretty much broke even.. I could have been scalping for 5 cents each time as it bounced in a 5 cent trading range back and forth all day.
--RVLT, I said this could mentally bounce on the dip at 2.40 and I just wasn't watching when it happened and I missed it.. it was too late to get in when I saw it.. it ended up bouncing up to 2.60 then dipped and retested that level a couple times and finished at around its high of 2.60 for the day. Missed 20 cents of profit here :/ .. glad the thought process was there at least.
--EVRY I missed the 3.50 short I wanted to do. It eventually went up to about 3.60 and I could have tried to short there and it would have paid off. It double topped there and I could have used 3.60 as my risk level. There was +30 cents of downside after that. I
--ACTC missed a dip buy at previous days breakout level. I don't know why I wasn't watching this more closely as was my plan. The joys of trading while working.
--DRL had a weak open after a strong last week. I wanted to keep an eye on this too but just forgot about it. Could have shorted once it double topped at 6.80.. it went down to 5.94.. The plays are out there you just have to pay attention to the stocks in play and wait for the chart to tell you what it is going to do!
--CAMT, I really dropped the ball not looking at this to start
the day.. beautiful breakout over 3.50, this was up nearly 57% today.. This stock burned me last week when I was trading stupid so I think that is why I didn't even bother looking at it. I would have been trading with emotion.
--HEMP I bought this breakout at around .0667 and sold at around .073 near the top. Nice $189 gain in about 30 minutes.
--I missed a few plays today, plays that were easy to see in my opinion. Either because I wasn't paying attention to that ticker at the time or because I wasn't even watching the market at that time. I feel like I'm looking at things much differently now though. I needed the huge losses I took the past 2 weeks to really slap me in the face and bring me back to reality. I'll take today; it wasn't bad. I'm excited to see how I end the next couple of weeks here.
7/3/14
--DRL, I didn't buy the breakout at 9. This was where it was flirting with in the pre-market so I said if it broke that I would buy and use it as my risk level. It just went way too fast, I should have known that it would. It ended up touching 9.93. It eventually broke its 8.20 support level and headed down to 7.54.
--LIQD missed bounce at 1.94, but this could only get to about 2.05 a couple of times today. Still nice to buy at a support level because you can use it as your risk, even that 10 cents is a fine win if you can buy at on the dip right at support level.
--EVRY made decent dip buy call at 2.75 but didn't stick
with it because it broke 2.70 quickly which was the support level I was using. There was further support around 2.60 so 2.70 would have been a much better buy and I could have risked that 10 cents because it only got down to about 2.66 before the uptrend to the 3.40's started. I came out with a loss on this when it should have been a $400 win. I'm at least happy that my thought process was on point, I just need to execute better. Also a good example of why you should really let it test
the support level, but then again these things move fast so you need to be even faster. TRUST the plan. For the cherry on top I could have had a few easy bucks when it broke out at 3 (WHOLE NUMBER, and key level from yesterday), then it went up 45 cents. Dam so easy to see in hindsight. Then I tried to buy the dip at 3 because it was holding. It only went up about 15 cents but I was looking for more so I never sold. Then I sold once it cracked 3 and it ended up finishing at the 2.80 level. I should
have been quicker to sell though, when it trades above 3 for so long and then
cracks it that screams panic to traders.. I need to realize that.
--STEM would have been good entry point at 2.35 with only a few
cents risk, on the dip after the morning spike. It only got up to 2.40 and never really touched support at 2.30. It finished at 2.34. That is a GOOD loss if I had took it. Buying at support and selling to practically break-even give-or-take if it doesn't spike like it could. Much better and safer than gambling on every potential breakout, as those things can collapse in a heartbeat.
--FOLD nice chart all day as it was holding its highs. 4.10 would have been a safe entry point with only 10 cents of risk but pretty much unlimited upside as this is a breakout holding its highs. I thought about taking this today, shoulda coulda woulda made a nice 15-20 cents. Education fee.
--CBAK was a classic "abcd" set-up and I was looking for a 4.30 break upwards, with a mental stop at
4.25. We couldn't get a break at 4.30 so I got out at my stop. It finished the day at 4.05. This is a good loss here. Not like the $200+ loss I took on this stock yesterday. THAT was stupid.
--SMSI bought 1.30 break out and decided to sell when it got
shaky around 1.35. Just wanted to cut my losses a bit for the day which was nice. It ended up dropping down to 1.28 after I sold before finishing at its highs at 1.37.
--ACTC, I was tempted to buy this at the end of day but just going to try
and trade it on monday. There was a lot of chatter around it because of the news that came out and the bullish daily chart. Probably going to gap-up and I will miss out on some money but buying overnight/over the weekend is just nowhere in my strategy right now. I'm really trying to stick to my rules and my plan. I then saw Nate from InvestorsLive held this over the weekend. He knows what he is doing. Good chance this gaps up. If I had known he was in I probably would have bought it.
7/2/14
--Today I was a degenerate gambler and lost $400. I'm going to write out a plan and some rules and stick to them for now on.
--LIQD bounce at key level from yesterday.
--STEM rode the small break out and then sold when it failed.. broke even. Could have tried buying the dip and see where that got me because it was a break out chart.. what it would have gotten me is a nice 13 cents before it double topped at the days high.. small risk big reward.
--FOLD, missed the bounce contemplating too much, then
bought as it was trying to break 4 which was about its high on the day..
thought it could run.. shoulda' stuck to dip buying, would be up about 15 cents
right now. It bounced right at the break out level from yesterday. Trust what the bars are telling you about buyers and sellers.
--DRWI sold for break-even, if I had just used a better support level a bit lower and risked ONLY 4 CENTS, it had unlimited upside because it was breaking 6 months highs and filling a gap up about 30+ cents. Terrible trading by me. Example of why you need rules, and need to write them down and stick to them.
--NQ tried to capitalize on an uptrend, I buy it and it goes
down.. I have that effect on stocks lately. Looking back now I don't know what I was thinking.. buying in the 7.50's and not selling until the 7.30's. I mean the candlesticks look so bad, clearly trading with emotion here.
--CBAK just looking to trade here.. in around 4.50's out around 4.16's. I almost feel like my account is wrong because looking back now I have no idea why I would have stayed in that trade. Wow. Glad I have this blog to keep track of this stuff.
--EVRY, missed this all day.. ending up buying at 3.20 and selling at 3. It should be the other way around, WHOLE NUMBERS ARE MAGNETS YOU SHOULD KNOW THISSS!!
--DRL didn't buy the breakout at 5.40 because of everything going on in my head right now.. this thing touched 7.87 today and I still managed to lose $56. I'm just making bad trades, and losing forces you to think so much
differently. Kept playing this pretty stupidly.
--I need to work on a lot of things. multiple time frames like 5 min bars
etc, dip buys, trusting the charts, not forcing break out buys, a real strategy that can be consistent, shorting... Just because I don't see the light yet doesn't mean its not right around the corner! I will get better!
7/1/14
--LIQD just couldn't break out quickly enough for me. I tried scalping this several times, always getting out quickly when it did not fully break out. I just let the price action guide me. Looking back now, buying the dip at 1.95, which was about where it tested several times yesterday, would have been the best idea as it hit 2.20 by the end of the day. I keep writing these hindsight dip coulda woulda shoulda buys in here.. maybe one of these days I'll actually swing for once... -_-
--VAPE has been being pumped by promoters and I haven't had an eye out for it which is just bad
playing by me. I caught it late today and was trying to scalp it several times after it was already up 50%. It was fun to
get some trading in like that but also stressful because selling was difficult.. it was tough to get filled for some reason despite how liquid it was. The price was
jumping around way too much.. I remember a two second period where it went from 3.35 to 3.12. Then I missed "abcd pattern" materialize. I saw this
setting up and knew it was going to break 3 eventually and unfortunately I did not have time to watch it. It eventually broke 3 and went to 3.20, I just wasn't at my
computer to try and take advantage.
--FOLD was a decent risk to reward set up I didn't take advantage of because I
did not want to watch it for long.. unfortunately these are the plays I need to take advantage of. This was at year highs, heavy volume, sustaining its breakout.. I mean the list goes on and on.
--SGLB I chased a stock that Tim alerted in the chat room. Lost like $150. This is a 3d printing company and the sector has been hot so Tim was looking for a sympathy play and I chased his alert because it sounded like a good idea, it was low priced, and it was breaking out. This play right here just made me realize why I have been trading so bad. I'm strictly interested in only buying breakouts. Now is also the worse time to trade like that because summer trading is proving to be slow.. the plays and crazy breakouts just aren't there.
--I need to start taking advantage of these dip buys, and let the breakouts come to me. The say blogging is good because it helps you keep track of your trades and thoughts, and helps you realize what could be going wrong. Plus, who wants to keep blogging about failures. Time to adapt.
6/30/14
--Made two trades today.. said I was not going to trade but I just couldn't resist the urge. Not paying commissions was probably also a factor in my judgement. Those days will be coming to an end any day now.
--DRWI, I got in once it started breaking out past 2.05 and I got out quick once it showed it could fail. I'm glad I recognized the failed break out and got
out early with puny profits. Then it bounced at 2.00 which was support and and went up 10 cents. I'm trying to pay more attention to those dip buying opportunities as opposed to just buying breakouts.
-APP, I was too slow to buy it when it started breaking through 80 cents I believe it was, and then I got out as soon
as price action started going the other way.. loosing twice of what I made on DRWI
--Summer is really proving to be slow.. much more slower than when I first started trading in May, and much more slower than when I first started learning back in January or so. I thought there would be plays everyday and that it was just a myth.. doesn't look like it is right now.. it's boring, especially for a new trader like me that wants to be trading as much as possible. I guess this will at least teach good discipline. I hope I don't lose too much money in the process!! Time to adapt.
6/27/14
--CRDS, I put a sell order in at 3.61 to short it but it got rejected because no shares were available to borrow. It dropped to 3.51 the next minute, and eventually hit 3.32. I hear my broker is not good with having shares to borrow, so I am in process or looking to switch brokers.
--WSTI, I was looking to short it at 2 break but just got caught up and wasn't watching when it went to that level. I don't think my broker had shares to borrow anyways, but I guess I could have tried putting in a limit sell order for when it does hit 2. Just thought of that now, I'm still learning too! It closed the day at 1.32. I've been mentally calling some good shorts but can't take advantage.
--DRWI, I was too slow to grab the first small breakout. Looking back, it showed two dojis in a row and then started up trending. I've seen that all too often to not take advantage of that set up.
--LITB had breakouts all day. I was too scared to play it because every little breakout looked real shaky. It is also a bit high priced for me.
--APP has had several good days in a row. Crazy news, bad news involving litigation and releasing of the CEO, has been out for a few days now but afters its first hard initial drop it just kept up trending for days. As soon as I tried to buy a breakout it had two really ugly red candlesticks and I got out with a loss of just under $100. Later on, I was thinking about playing it at around .85 but chickened out, and it shoots up to 1.00 within minutes. That was tough to watch. I should have known that given the news and the run up there were most likely a lot of people short waiting for this to crash and that when it did not happen everyone got squeezed and bought back their shares because they did not want to hold over the weekend which caused a massive spike from .88 to 1.00 in ONE MINUTE!!!
--I think I will be taking a small break from trading and just look to monitor the market for a bit. I was up $600 in a month and I've lost close to $800 in the past two weeks. Losing profits is one thing but once you go negative on your principle it's bad. I also want to put more time into learning how to short because I need to be able to go both ways. Just like in basketball you need to have a good right hand and left hand, or tennis you need a good forehand and backhand.. point is the better players have several things in their arsenal they can use. Right now I'm limiting myself and playing like crap. Time to review, time to study, time to monitor, adapt, get better. Stay enthusiastic and hard working.
6/26/14
--MEET I held overnight, didn't look like it was going anywhere and saw ugly price action so I sold it. Lost 3 cents on 700 shares which is better than losing 10 cents like I could have done if I sold before the close yesterday. Bought a failed breakout here yesterday and decided to hold because it never really broke support. Been horrible at buying breakouts lately.
--APP. So weird, news of the CEO being released due to inappropriate photographs involving another employee, yada yada yada, it drops the price to the 50 cent level and then here we are today, two days later and it's back up to 75 cents on an almost steady uptrend. Huge volume today, and it broke out as soon as it passed yesterdays high. It's important to keep these stocks on radar, not sure why I didn't notice this yesterday.
--WRES, I have been monitoring a strategy to short stocks I think is working. Called this short around 5.64. Also called a cover at 5.50.. it showed a doji and the price action was bottoming out, and it also was clear support on the 20 day chart. It then bounced slowly all the way up to 5.90. Interested to watch it tomorrow, its at year highs but I think it may be short-able again. Maybe I just got lucky today with my calls on this, who knows.
--CRDS is a potential short tomorrow in my opinion. I'm trying to incorporating shorting into my strategy now. If you want to learn how to trade successfully you need to know how to go both ways, you never know which one you will be better at until you try!
--ISR had a beautiful break out to 3.25 after it passed yesterday's highs around 3.05. Potential short tomorrow in my opinion. Will watch the price action.
--ROYL, I missed the red to green breakout at the 3.20 level. This was a stock I was watching too because of its news, but was just too slow to react.. terrible. It was downtrending but still showing green bars while downtrending, and then a doji hit and it was all uphill from there. So many good signs looking back in hindsight now. =/
--WSTI looks overextended to me and I will be watching the price action looking to short it. Maybe I'll try my first short here!
--PRKR, I made a nice dip buy but it just never bounced. The bids
were much more stacked than the asks but no one was buying the ask. I got out
with small profits the first instance I saw momentum shift from the buy to the ask. My day trade was gone but I am practicing for what I will be doing when I have
unlimited trades sometime next week.
--EDMC, have held this for weeks due to a swing trading strategy I was trying. Sold because it hit a new low, it was a huge loss. You never know until you bet though.
--BEBE another stock bought and held for a week due to a swing trading strategy, another big loss, only half as big as EDMC though. I will stay away from this strategy for a little while.
--PLUG had a nice breakout over multi-day resistance. Volume came in quick.. you would of had to be at the right place at the right time to catch this. But this stock has been in play for weeks
--OHRP is notable because it went from 7.50 to 10.15 on word of a $30+ price target some big shot analysts gave them.
6/25/14
--MEET, I bought in at 2.84 thinking the breakout was going to continue. I was late. I need to get better with anticipating a stocks direction quicker when news/rumors are released. I didn't sell because I liked how it was holding 2.80 level but then it dropped. I then justified that with its holding the 2.73-2.75 level which was its days breakout level; and its also forming cup and handle on the daily chart so its tough to sell this one. Not wanting to use a day trade also came into play. Excited that day trades won't be a problem soon, but not excited about this summer as it is proving to be slow. I have some serious re-strategizing to do. I will also start paying commissions any day now as my 60 days free trading is coming to an end. Time to get more meticulous.
--DRL, its 3rd candle which was its highest of the day 3 minutes in, had completely
engulfed the previous red candle. This is a bullish clue. It then went up 40 cents almost immediately. No news and not a great daily chart, just kind of something you would've had to be looking at the right place at the right time type of thing. I usually like to prepare which stocks I'm watching in the morning, keeping my eye closely on three and having another 4 or so seen with a distant eye, along with checking the chatroom for people alerting anything.
--CREG was a stock a lot of people were talking about and playing today. It had a few breakouts, there were a couple opportunities to make some money.
--SLOW BORING DAY.. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
6/24/14
--XGTI is an example of how I'm so scared of missing a break out that I get in way
too early before its confirmed.. terrible .. this one has for sure taught me a
lesson .. things will change from now on. Moral of the story is, I lost $300. I haven't even made $300 in one trade yet. This is bad. I just gave up 50% of my last months profit. Granted, my position sizes are twice as big this month. Needless to say, the market has humbled me again. I will adapt as all great traders do. All great traders have had tremendous losses which they say are necessary. Those losses were for more than $300, but that was a tremendous loss for me. Time to adapt. Time to study.
--MEET had
--WSTI, it was mentioned in the chatroom that mail promotions for this stock were being delivered to houses. This thing up trended until about 1:00pm when it started leveling out. Almost too easy.
--LIQD had a nice bullish daily chart yesterday and gaped up nearly 20 cents. It was holding its breakout nicely, bouncing off of support around 1.80 a few times. Then support cracked and it fell to yesterdays closing price and settled there.
--ISR had a nice gap up and I thought an "abcd" pattern was materializing at around 12:50pm, but that ended up failing and it down trended and settled at the days support level.
--I'm so caught up in being excited because I have a day
trade available that I just force a trade because I think I can make
some quick money. I am
excited because I will soon have unlimited day trades and I won't have to worry
about when I can make a trade and when I can't. I will stop forcing
trades and allow the trades to come to me from now. The PDT rule is great
for beginners, but it gets old quick. It soon becomes a hassle, so I
suggest all must be aware of pro's and con's of this rule and how it will
effect you before you start trading. Then figure out a way to get around it!
6/23/14
--Slow day today, I hope the rest of the summer is not like this.
--ARTX, saw SA navy contract news and what looked like decent price action
for a second so I decided to hop in at 4.53. I only got 100 out of my 450 share buy order
filled, annoying.. sold at 4.55 for a profit of $2 when it wasn't really moving, though it did hit 4.61 for a second. I can
buy a hot dog at my nephews next baseball game now. Good thing I sold when I
did because the price dropped to 4.42 right after I got out. That's what
happens when you have no liquidity, the stocks fall, and rise, very quickly.
--ACHN, this stock has been in play all last week and had a dip to 20day chart support level. There were a a couple of
dojis (candlesticks that signal trend reversals) and then it was all uphill from there for the rest of the day for a good 30 cents. Excited to pursue more opportunities like this once I have unlimited day trades.
--ERBB, I will be watching this one in the morning because of a strong
close on high volume and the news released today. No chance I would hold overnight though.. marijuana stocks love to get halted by the SEC.
--LIQD, was a stock I was watching and looking for a 1.74 high of the day break. Never got it though. But the daily chart looks real bullish.. it closed strong on high volume. I will be watching this in the morning as well.
6/20/14
--STEM had news yesterday along with a huge volume spike and a huge gap up which put it over its 52 week highs, and also had news this morning. If you don't focus on these plays first then you are already setting yourself up for failure. I was looking for a morning panic because I expected some overnight holders to take their profits in the morning. So I was predicting a bounce around the 2.10 level which acted as resistance yesterday at the end of the day, and it was also where it broke out premarket. It never panicked but if you got in during the morning you could have made a quick and predicable 20 cents give or take within the first 20 minutes.
--JRJC was an earnings winner because they announced their earnings and the stock reacted positively. It gaped up in the morning and I was predicting a small panic again and a bounce at the 4.80 level which was previous day resistance and premarket support. It only got down to about 4.86 before bouncing up to 5.10 within a couple of minutes. It then pretty much downtrended for the rest of the day. Although, it had a real nice doji candle right around 4.70 and then a nice bullish green candle. This is a sign the trend is reversing and you could have made a quick 20+ cents in 15 minutes here.
--PLUG had news in the morning. A lot of traders play this stock. It broke out as soon as it passed the previous end of day
resistance where it double topped. If you bought this break out it would have been a quick 20 cents within a half hour.
--BLDP had news in the morning and a nice break out right at the previous days break down point, which is where support crack and then acts as resistance. This would have been an easy 15 cents within a half hour.
--ACHN, after a nice gap up in the morning I decided to use 8.20 as my mental stop. 8.20 was the premarket breakout level and also acted as a bit of resistance on the previous day. It was very choppy and looking weak but I have been in this stock since 6/16 and it has looked like this all week so I was not too worried because the 8.20 level was holding up well. Eventually it started trading right at that 8.20 level give or take and price action was just looking weak. You could tell buyers were getting exhausted. I got out at this point. I gave this a chance for the home run, but got a single instead, maybe I should have taken the double
when I had a chance. But I had been down so much on this stock that I was pretty much chalking it up as a loss, but it never gave me a real reason to sell so I stuck with it and was looking for some crazy parabolic move. After I sold at 8.20 it ended up rebounding to the 8.30's, but on the lowest
volume all day. I thought that this could break out eventually just as it has every single day
now, but I was just getting bored and caught up watching it. Later on in the day after small rebounds to the 8.35 level, as soon as it cracked 8.17 it dropped down to the low 8's. That is
exactly why I sold around that 8.20 level because it was trading just below it
and the price action looked ugly so I was scared of something like that
happening. That could have easily happened earlier in the day when I was selling. Then it looks like all those who were short ended up covering (buying back shares) at 8
which caused a massive spike back up to the 8.25 level again. Just amazing. I have learned so much from watching this stock alone in the past week.
6/19/14
-- No day trades today =[
--STEM, had news in the morning and I watched and called the break out after 1.81, and then I called the top
at 2.00 when a huge seller came in as soon as 2 touched. Probably would have had some slippage playing this but 10-15 cents on a stock under $2 is not bad at
all, especially for 2 minutes! Also, who knows if my emotions would have gotten greedy and if I would have held after it topped at 2 and then downtrended. Good lesson for me though. Just because you can't trade doesn't mean you can't learn! If I did sell I would have looked for it to break 2 later on before I bought again. It did that a bit later but could only make it to 2.05, I wasn't really watching it at this time though. Later towards the end of the day it crossed 2 and made it to the 2.10 area. Shows how trading only in the morning and the afternoon is probably your best shot at catching the strongest moves. Although, it is nice to watch a chart set up intraday and then call what is going to happen later. That can also be very profitable.
--BLDP has been in play and had news today along with a beautiful gap up It had a morning
panic, probably just because those holding overnight are taking profits, and
then it bounced right above previous days resistance. You could have bought the dip and made a quick 20 cent scalp. I am learning to pay more attention to stocks in play. Stocks being talked about by traders in chatrooms, twitter, investing websites, etc. Stocks that have been moving as of recently. Using basic support and resistance levels with these stocks increases your odds dramatically in my opinion.
--PLUG has been in play and had news, it gaped up, morning panicked, and then bounced right at previous day break out level which then acted as support also. Had a nice 25 cents of upside from there. SO SIMPLE!
--STEM, called to watch out for "abcd" setup
(something Nate teaches in investorslive DVD).. I thought it was materializing
around the 1.93 level and the whole point of this setup is that you predict the price will push through the days high, or key resistance, in this case the days high. It
did just that and went to 2.05 before looking toppy. This would been a nice 15 cent
gain give or take, very quickly and very predicable.
--AUMN was a beautiful multi month break out. I saw this after the fact. Wish I could have caught it as it happened. Just because you can't trade doesn't mean you can't learn!
--ACHN, finally. My stock that I have held since 6/16. Look back at previous days comments to see the story line. This ended up spiking parabolically after not looking too hot all day, going from 7.80 to 8.30 very very quickly. I was tempted to exit once I was up over $100 because I have been down over $150 at times. But the way it played out this would be a stock that I would look to buy because of how it broke out, and maybe even hold overnight. I practically already chalked this one down as a loss so I'm being greedy and deciding to continue to hold and may even hold over the weekend, who knows. Depends on how it trades tomorrow. It is holding its 52-week breakout beautifully. Hot sector, hot news, hot rumors. Very happy I decided to hold this one. Also happy I was right with how it's playing out. Being lucky is always nice too! I hope I stay lucky! They say luck favors the prepared man.
--BEBE, swing trading strategy stock.. looks like it's bouncing upwards, I'm happy with my entry point and being in the green from the start.
--EDMC, another swing trading stock.. getting angry with its lack of liquidity. Indicators are telling me it still has upside but this stock barely trades. I'm either down $90 or $40 over and over again. Next time I'm down $40 I may just take the loss and move on. I don't like how illiquid it is.
6/18/14
--ACHN I am still holding. Bought this failed break out at 8.00 two days ago and did not want to cut losses as I thought it could still spike given all the hype around it. I am using 7.20 7.25 level as my mental stop loss because that's where it broke out pre-market on the day that I bought it, and it never went lower that 7.25 once the market opened. It hasn't really given me a reason to sell. It starts up trending at some point during the day just when things look like they are getting ugly. It almost makes me think "smart money" is buying shares slowly given all the hype and high price targets around it. It is also a biotech stock and that whole sector is hot right now. Big companies are buying out these smaller ones and the rumors are swirling like crazy. I'm taking my chances with this one as it is just under year highs, has gaped up over 100% recently, and has news all over the place. I'm surprised at how well it has been holding up.
--Still own EDMC and BEBE from my swing trading strategy.
--GIGA missed the 3.80 break out because I put my order in
wrong. Added an extra 0 to my buy order or something, I don't even remember, I was in a fanatic panic trying to catch it but that ended up costing me missing the breakout. I called this one specifically before it happened too, very frustrating. Then I chased it at 4, but on the way down thinking it was a dip and it could have a 2nd spike just as it did yesterday because the charts looked similar. I got nothing though, it just faded for the rest of the day and I turned what could have been a 20 cent gain into a 20 cent loss. Just terrible. Not having the best of luck this week. I need to get back to being meticulous instead of
stupid.
--LIVE has been in play for weeks and it had news out today. It was a beautiful breakout right after it went from red to green on the day. It did this pretty much at the same time I was chasing GIGA. It also had a quick pullback before it really broke out. I need more day trades in my life.
--BNGLF was an earnings winner someone mentioned in chatroom last
night. It continued up steadily for a good 25 minutes or so to start the day. It isn't very liquid though. I just like to keep an eye on these stocks under a dollar as some spikes could be crazy.. this stock is in the 60 cent range.
--MEET has been in play for about a week now. It had news of an upgrade by those smart analysts. It broke out nicely right after the red to green move in the morning.
--PLUG is a stock talk about constantly in the chat room. It's always doing something. Today it up trended all day, finishing up about 18%. There were plenty of opportunities to make 10% give or take here today. Not even any real news though.
--YGE is a stock that has been coming up in the chatroom often. It had a nice red to green break out for the second straight
day. This one was in the afternoon rather than the morning like yesterday. Today it also had a morning bounce just above yesterdays break out level before the steady uptrend started.
--LESSON OF THE DAY: Focus On Stock That Have Been In Play For Weeks.. and KISS.. Keep It Simple Stupid. It turns out these trading guru's actually know what the hell they're talking about. Who would've thought????? =]
[11:01PM]kroyrunner → Aries:sorry to hear you're struggling, trying to make back lost money is usually a good way to lose more though. try to be patient and wait for the best setups and let the trades come to you rather than forcing anything
I've been struggling a bit this past week. So has "Aries" I guess. Sometimes just hearing simple sentences like this makes it all come together. These simple things need to be reinforced. "Kroyrunner" turned $1,500 into nearly 2 million in three years. Just a simple down to earth young kid who graduated with a Finance degree, and it wasn't from Harvard. Now he is one of the several chatroom moderators. Tonight he just happened to be kind enough to chat and just answer any questions. Pretty cool.
--I've been studying more than usual tonight (because I haven't been making the best trades as of lately). I think I am too caught up on trying to catch every breakout possible and ride it for a quick 5-10 minutes for 10%. That is pretty much how my whole first month went. Those are fine, but you have to let those come to you and you can't force them. I've been forcing them lately. I need to focus on taking better trades and really anticipating the move, no matter if it is over 5 minutes or 50 minutes. So I went back and studied investorslive which is Nate's DVD. Studied the abcd pattern as he likes to call it, and then went back and related it to a bunch of plays over the past couple of weeks. I highly recommend his DVD to anyone that wants to learn how to trade.
6/17/14
--Really wish I had day trades today to try and play
GIGA. Had some contract news with the Navy and gaped up to a 52 week high and then broke out. When I saw the news in the morning I knew it had potential. Contract winner, and the Navy involved; that's big
--I was caught up watching ACHN today as I bought a failed breakout yesterday and couldn't sell because I had no day trades left. Thought it had potential to run given all its news so I didn't want to cut my losses yet. I used the 7.20 7.25 support area from yesterday as my guide. It bounced right at 7.25 today and up-trended all the way to 7.72. Once I saw it making higher lows after that 7.25 bounce, 3, 4, 5 times in a row I knew it was going to run to the 7.65 area and test the days resistance. It did just that but could't get much higher. I decided to hold overnight again because it finished near its day highs. I'm interested to see how it trades pre-market tomorrow.
--BEBE met my characteristics for a falling knife pattern. I wanted to
be early on this because I was a bit late the first time I tried this strategy. I may even just try and scalp it and sell once I make a couple hundred bucks even if the technical indicators tell me it still has more upside to go. Looks like I made a good call, I'm up a bit already. I hope I don't have to hold this too long though, I hate having my money tied up too long.
--YGE was an earnings gap up and had a beautiful bounce right at premarket/previous day support levels. It really is amazing how dead on simple technical analysis can be.
--CHGG also had a beautiful bounce at the previous day's break out price around 7.00 and up-trended for the rest of the day until 7.40. No recent news on this one though. It was talked about in the chatroom that's why it caught my eye.
--TRTC, it's amazing what a twitter rumor can do. Broke out from .50 and set new highs all the way into the close to .63. Amazing. No way I was buying this to hold overnight though. Marijuana stocks are very risky because of the many SEC halts that have been happening.
--GERN had news and has been in play for a week or two now. It bounced today right around previous day support levels, not bad.
--Always keep stocks that have been in play on your radar.
6/16/14
--I had 2 day trades available today, that was nice.. haven't had that in a while.
--ACHN I was looking to buy because it was given a$22
price target. Thought it had a shot at running in the morning and did not want to miss out so I got in a bit early. I never broke out. but I held it because it was consolidating and I like to see that. I was thinking
it could go either way, but there were huge sellers at 7.50 every time it tested it. Annoying. Decided to cut my loses once it got too boring to watch and I also saw DARA potentially
breaking out. But, had a feeling ACHN would break out eventually, just didn't have time to watch it.. then what do ya know, it broke out to 7.73, and I bought it at 7.45. Its high was 8.05 as it just kept up-trending pretty much all day. My original plan was to hold
anything over 7.20 which was where the premarket break out level was.. obviously pretty mad I did not
stick to this plan now. Good lesson for me to really respect technical analysis, think logically and make sure to stick with your thesis. If a stock breaks out, and hold its highs, I need to
stick with those. Should have just put my stop loss at 7.20 and not even bother
looking at it.
--DARA, bought the breakout at 1.40, it got to 1.52 but then dropped and
had major resistance at 1.49 area so I decided to get out when I could at 1.47
and move on. It ended up being a great call selling when I did because it fading for the rest of the day after my sell call and closed at 1.29. I just wanted to lock in profits and make
sure I was green on the day because of my loss on ACHN right before that. I've played this stock a few times already in this last month. Not by plan, just because it comes up intraday somehow. I'll go back to these trades and check them all out to study, I think I've been successful every time. Sweet!
--Now comes ACHN at the end of the day AGAIN. Very mad I didn't hold this stock and stick to my plan in the morning. Just terrible execution on my part. So I bought looking for another 25 cent breakout from 8.00 at 1:50pm. No
day trades left so I'm holding this overnight. Very risky move, I'm interested to see what type of lesson I'm going to learn from this. I'm anticipating it to hold its strength and
gap up in the morning, or at least uptrend. It was giving a $12 price target last week, and $22 today. I hope I didn't miss all the meat, but I feel like there is some meat on the upside left. We'll see!
--REDF nice chart today, also setting 52 week highs. No news though, maybe its coming. I'll keep an eye on it.
6/13/14
--No plays that I could really take advantage of today; pretty slow and boring day. Sometimes the best play is making no trade at all. I didn't feel like I missed many opportunities today.
--PVCT had a nice bounce from a dip, but no real indicators and or key support levels you could have used as a guide to guess where it could bottom.
--GSAT had a nice dip in the first minute right at a key support level from the previous trading day. It would have been risky, but very meticulous buying in at that 4.25 area, but you would have been rewarded with about 17 cents a share within 10 minutes. Probably went that low because some of the people who bought the breakout the day before probably held over night looking for a gap up, and when that didn't happen they took their profits quickly; this gives buyers the opportunity to come in and push the price back up.
--ACHN had a beautiful bounce off of a dip at the same exact level it bounced at the day before (6.30). Would have been a nice 33 cents in about 45 minutes or so. It bounced even higher the day before from that level though. This stock is too expensive for me right now to make significant profits, but I still have to keep stocks like this on my radar so I can learn from them and be ready as my account grows.
--I will be watching GERN and GSAT on Monday for any potential dip buy opportunities.
--I will be watching GERN and GSAT on Monday for any potential dip buy opportunities.
6/12/14
--Tough having no day trades, or even just a few day trades! It's a blessing and a curse though, a love hate thing. It's a good rule for when you're first starting out, but becomes a hassle once you start gaining experience. So learn a way to grow that account! You can't go broke taking profits!
--GERN, mentally called the dip buy at 3.17 on the second minute, not very
confidently though but this is something new I am trying to do, and then mentally called the top in the 3.30's a minute later with more confidence. That would have been a nice 13 cent gain in about a
minute. Who knows if I would have gotten executed though. This is a biotech stock, had a good article on Seeking Alpha, had good news this morning, gaped up in the morning.. these are the stocks you need to pay attention to because.. every else is!! I'm trying to pay attention to more morning dip buying opportunities for when I increase my position sizes next week. Bigger position sizes give me a chance to buy $3, $4, and $5 stocks with more confidence. You could have also bought a breakout at around that magical 3.30 number I stated earlier (I love simple technical analysis), and rode it up to the 3.45's, and then run for the hills once you see the price action topping out.
--LIVE, had a real nice morning dip buy opportunity. This stock has been in play for weeks now, being pumped by promoters, press releases, the whole chatroom was talking about it and I'm sure the other several dozens of chatrooms out there were also talking about it. These are stocks I need to do a better job of paying attention to and thinking logically. They came out with news in the morning, the stock gaped 60 cents or so, people took profits in the morning for a couple of minutes, and then it bottomed out.. now everyone else and their mother who didn't own the stock was watching it because of its volatility, they bought it, and drove the stock up about 55 cents. Keep calm, think logically, put the odds on your side, take the bet, play the trade, and live with the results.
--CDTI, mentally called small break out at 3.35, it went to
3.48 a couple minutes later but couldn't really identify the top.. then it faded slowly; probably would have only made a few cents.
-ARTX, may look for some type of dip opportunity tomorrow because of its breakout today and SA article. It depends on where it opens and how it trades premarket to determine where support could be. I'm guessing maybe around the 4.75 - 4.85 area. I won't play it though because I'm still only taking $1,000 positions to finish out my month.. last day tomorrow, and I'm going to have one day trade given back to me.. I'm up 50% here on my first month of trading, so tomorrow will dictate if I am over or under 50% for the month! Wish me luck!
6/11/14
--END, thought I was buying the breakout at 1.80 but ended
up buying the top; sucks being wrong. I said I would buy once it hit 1.80
thinking it could run up near the 2's, so I was trigger happy. It only
traded at 1.80 very briefly, so maybe I should have waited to see if it could
break it and get a couple ticks at 1.81 before buying. It ended up
dropping 5 cents, got a small bounce, and then dropped another 10 cents.
I should have gotten out mid way through that 2nd drop, instead I waited for a
bounce and got out. Good thing because after that bounce it dropped hard
again and took out intraday support. Winning streak broke =/. Oh
well, cut losses quick and live to fight another day. Maybe I should only
be that trigger happy with stocks that have news out that same day, rather than
on previous days.
--DRL had a nice morning bounce right around support from
yesterday. This is a stock that was in play yesterday. I need to
keep a better eye on these.
--GALE also had a very nice morning bounce at previous day
support. It's amazing how real technical analysis really is. I'm
going to look at more of these plays once I started increasing my position
sizes next week.
--I could have bought END on a dip around previous day
support also instead of trying to buy a break out. I need to save the
breakout trigger for stocks that have no resistance anywhere close, and start
taking advantage of these morning bounces.
--I was real tempted to by VAPE with about 10 minutes left
in the day as it had a real nice 10 cent dip quickly after a break out
--GERN was tweeted about yesterday by someone important,
saying it could be the next big short squeeze. What do ya know, the stock
spiked up pretty darn good today. Gotta love the manipulation of dumb
money.
6/10/14
--DNAX, I was up $240 going into the close yesterday, but
couldn't sell because I had no day trades left. Today, I sold within the first
minute at about the middle of that first red candle, and could only capture
$100 worth of the $240 I was up; and that was practically best case scenario.
If I waited another minute I would have lost more than $100. That's how fast
these stocks panic so its important to have a strategy in place and
execute accordingly This was a stupid bet placed by me
yesterday. I had no day trades left and knew I wouldn't have any today. It
worked out for me this time. It ran into the close as I thought it could
yesterday, not without a pullback that scared me though. I knew it was up
over 500% and actually thought it could spike quickly in the morning. But
once I saw ugly price action immediately, I ran for the hills and took as much
as I could get. Good thing I was up so much. These dumb trades have
failed on me before. I need to stop these bets. I am going to
double my position sizes next week so my trades need to get smarter.
--INOH, mentally called breakout from .008 to .009. It
sucks I have no day trades to play it. Would have been quick easy money.
I like parabolic sub-penny stocks that are up on some type
of news and trying to break 1 cent. I feel like it is much easier to
predict a breakout by watching the level 2 action; the buyers on the bid are
HUGE and the sellers get eaten up quickly. The only con of sub-pennies are
that they can panic just as fast as they can spike. So having day trades
is a MUST in my opinion. Holding overnight is VERY RISKY. Ride a
meat of the move and then RUN FOR THE HILLS after. I kept watching this
one break out, shame I couldn't capitalize. Within the past 7 days we
have had TBEV, then DNAX, and now INOH, sub-penny plays making
HUGE moves because of some type of news. Truly amazing.
--Speaking of amazing. ACHN over the past few
days, check out the chart. The chatroom has been all over this one.
These are the stocks that can get me out of the cubicle!!! And boy do I
want out more than ever these days.
--GERN had a nice red to green break out today too.
GALE was also similar. Just a couple stocks alerted in the
chatroom by people.
6/9/14
--DNAX, missed a couple breakouts, then caught the dip at 1:23pm. It was playing around too much, jumping around between a support and resistance lines that it could not break, so I got scared and sold it. You can't play around with these stocks up over 200%. It didn't make the move I wanted right away and you can't go broke taking profits so I did just that.
I later ended up buying it again just before 3:30pm after it went up over ANOTHER 200% thinking it could run into the close. I had no day trades left and don't believe I have any tomorrow either. This seemed like the best chance for a gap-up, but this trade was EXTREMELY speculative because of the fact that I had no day trades left so after I bought I could not sell, and because I bought it with so much time left until the close. 30 minutes is a VERY long time for a stock to completely change directions on you. Needless to say, I was sweating all the way up until the close and I will hopefully never do something like that again. I ended up getting lucky, and I am up $200 already on the stock, unrealized. I will look to sell this very quickly tomorrow. I hope I do not get too greedy with it.
--I missed a lot of morning spikes today. LNREF had a Seeking Alpha article saying some great things. I need to be more aggressive with these. Other tickers I was looking at were GBLX, TBEV, ACHN, which all had opportunities that I watched from the sidelines. There were actually plenty of opportunities today. I also missed SYN breaking out quick at 1.68. I was looking to buy it but just did not catch the break out because I was busy. ACHN had a lot of hype around it and was consolidating since it opened. I figured it could really break out if it could just break through the consolidation resistance, so I was trying to watch it. It broke out of consolidation, started making higher lows, and I ended up missing a huge break out shortly after it went red to green and broke out of that consolidation range with higher lows. It sucks missing plays, but it is better than losing on a play!
--EDMC is a stock I bought last week based on a swing trading strategy I learned. I use a combination of technical indicators to help give me a clue as to when a stock that is down over 40% off of its recent highs may stop trending downwards and start trending upwards. Since the day I bought it, the stock has since started to trend upwards so it looks like it is working. I did not get in at the best price, but the indicators are telling me this still has more upside to go. While I was down about $150, I am only down $3 now, so the proof is in the numbers. Hopefully this can gain some more momentum sooner rather than later. Swing trading is not ideal for me because I don't like being down $150, I'd rather cut my losses much quicker than that. I also do not like my money tied up for too long; 15 - 30 minutes is long enough for me! But I am trying to have a mix of both strategies and then look at the stats to determine how I want to keep trading.
6/6/14
--TBEV, saw this stock was breaking out of its sub penny range, so that means a lot morel people than usual are paying attention to it. It was breaking out of this range because of a couple days of good news, and was up big the last two days on real heavy volume, so I thought this could get a nice morning spike, and it did just that. I saw strong amounts of buy orders coming in so I decided to take a position at around .013. It then tested .016 which was its high from the previous day, and it could not break it. So I waited out the next bounce and made sure to get out at .016 when it tested it again. I got it, it failed to break past it again so I felt good. Later it had surpassed it on the next bounce and went all the way up to .0188. So I left some money on the table. I also did my math wrong when I was buying this unfortunately, and only went in with $650 instead of my usual $1,000. So I left a bit of money on the table in various ways here. But this win saved my week; it wiped away my weeks loses and gave me another $50, so I was just happy it saved me from my first down week.
--There were a few potential plays all over the place if you were meticulous enough. I wasn't forcing anything and really trying not to tempt myself. I saw plenty of failed breakouts and I was glad I did not try to play any. Like I said, I was just happy I was given a couple day trades back so I could try to wipe away my weeks loses, and I got just that. That was good enough for me. I got my computer back now which was being fixed for about 2 weeks so it's time to put in some real work in and get back to trading better like I was my first trading week. Up 40% in three weeks now using this day trading strategy. I'll take that!
6/5/14
--NEWL was up premarket on some BS news, but pretty much dumped the rest of the day after the open.
--EDMC formed a "falling knife" patten. I learned this pattern from the book I was reading. Basically when a stock is down over 40% off recent highs, there is a combination of technical indicators you can use to predict when the downtrend may be over and the rend will reverse. Well, all the indicators were there by the close yesterday and I did not initiate a position because this would have been my first one. What do you know, it gapped up 25 cents today. I thought because it does not trade much it may not work out, but I guess not. I ended up buying because it should have more upside to go, but didn't get a price I was happy with, and then I added to position mid day as it was lower and stagnant. This was stupid, if I thought it was going to be stagnant all day I should have just waited until the end of day to buy. Obviously it drop another 10 cents at the end of the day and I was not about to add more to my position, I'm in it with like $1,500. That's a bit more than I would like, especially not getting a great entry.
--ISR had a perfect r/g run today. It opened, dropped, and then slowly started moving its way back up to go green on the day, and as soon as it did it ran up 20 cents. I have been trying to keep a better eye out for these set-ups. They are tough to find though.
6/4/14
--WAVX, I got in at 2.24 as it looked like it was breaking out. There was not really any resistance until the 2.50 area from over a year ago, so it was setting new 52 week highs. There was no news catalyst, but the chart showed a beautiful steady up-trend all day and I thought if it could get through 2.25 it could really run. It got up to 2.28 but couldn't break that. The trend then broke the support line I drew on the graph, but I decided to hold because the market was pulling back temporarily also. I had to step away from computer for a bit so I put a stop loss in at 2.12 while it was trading at around 2.20. I did this just to protect myself from some crazy panic selling that can happen at anytime with the type of stocks I like to trade. Ten minutes later I got back to my computer and found my stop order executed because it hit 2.12 for a quick tick or two; I thought there was not much of a shot of this happening. This is another tough loss. My last few trades haven't been great. I need to get my head back in the game and get my confidence back up. I was just up $350, and now only $250. But hey, that means up I'm 25% in just almost 3 weeks of part time trading. That's pretty darn solid, so I just need to get back to trading better to keep growing that percentage. It doesn't feel good to give away about 33% of my profits so far this week. This may be my first down week in the making. That's the world of trading though so if you can't handle it then stick to buying those mutual funds and Blue Chip stocks with their 10% return a year.--Was mad I missed DRWI this morning. Had a plan to enter at 1.50 but within four minutes it touched 1.77 from a low of 1.39. I don't even remember seeing 1.50 on the level two, it just skyrocketed. It's absolutely amazing what a simple news catalyst can do. I need to focus much more on these types of plays. I could have earned ten hours worth of pay in two minutes if I was quicker on this one.
--In the afternoon, I was looking for an overnight hold as I usually do. I was looking at ANAD and SARA. Both were being talked about in the chatroom, and had recent news catalysts. I went to buy SARA with about thirty seconds left in the trading day, but my order was late and never got executed. My head is kind of out of the game because of my recent losses. I need to find a groove again. I will look to review all of my trades, and brush up on some studying.
6/3/14
--GIGA, had overnight position because I was stupid. It gaped down, I watched the price action for 5 minutes as it headed up toward the high 2.80's. Chart then showed a large red candle forming and it looked like the buyers were struggling, it had also already gaped down so I decided to take quick loss and move on. I played this overnight because I wanted to give myself a chance to make some money today since I was out of day trades. Even though it had decent news it was already up over 100%. This was just a poorly executed trade by me. Going to stick to the basics and not try anything funky for a few more trades. I want to get a few wins under my belt again and get my confidence back. Hope is not a strategy, and that was mine while going into this trade. A few minutes after I closed my position at 2.80 , the price had touched 2.60 and then started to trend upwards, eventually breaking out past 3.00 and up to 3.20. In hindsight, I could have used pre-market support levels, which was at 2.60, and stayed in the trade. Unfortunately, that was not my plan going into the trade, I was looking for a gap-up; which was terrible strategy. I'll watch a few more of these play out before I do something like that again.
--Don't think I have any day trades tomorrow either. I'm working on getting a second account opened up because the PDT rule is hurting me more than I thought it would. I looked quickly for something to hold but didn't want to force it. ZBB had a nice chart but started bleeding (several red candles) going into the close. GHIL did not have much of a catalyst, nor was it trading much at the end of the day. FNMA didn't look great for an overnight hold either. These are all stocks that were being talked about at the end of the day in a trading chatroom that you can join here. At this point, I'm probably just going to wait it out until my day trades are back, and then look to catch a couple intraday breakouts to get a few more wins under my belt, and of course increase my confidence which is so important to have when you are playing a trade.
6/2/14
--BODY, was in this over the weekend at .90. I bought on Friday just before the close because it showed a bullish daily chart in my opinion, and was really only looking for a few cents maybe around the .95 area as it showed minor resistance there on a 20 day chart. No catalyst, very speculative bet on my part. I don't like holding overnight, never mind over the weekend. In the morning, I waited the first red candle out (1 minute). Not many trades, it looked very illiquid, so got out as soon as possible on the 2nd candle tick at .88. The stock then dropped down to .75 within a few seconds after my order was executed. This is the perfect example of why you need to cut your losses when the chart does not do what you anticipated. Do not hope for it to go up. When you hope, you are gambling. I expected a gap up or a morning spike, very speculatively, based on a bullish daily chart on Friday. When I did not get either, and saw its illiquidity, I was running for the fences. In hindsight I should have just got out on the first candle, it would have saved me one cent a share too. =] Keep learning!
--I was looking to hold something overnight because I had no day trades today and won't have any tomorrow either that I'm aware of. So wanted to give myself a chance to make some money. I'm also still trading commission free so I'm taking more chances. Probably not the best strategy, but hey they say the average millionaire goes bankrupt 3.5 times, and I'm only risking about 25% of my account on each trade right now. So let's get ready to rumble baby, why not. Anyway, MNGA had a decent bullish graph for a while but then fell apart. Also, no catalyst and couldn't get above 1.75 for the last hour. Really trying my best to avoid no-catalyst-overnighters. CBIS also had a very bullish daily graph today in my opinion but it's a marijuana company and I just don't trust these companies with the SEC halting trading in more companies than usual lately. It also did not have a catalyst. I ended up buying GIGA because it had a decent but somewhat interesting catalyst for me. They signed a multi year agreement with a "large aerospace company" but they could not name it. They then went on to say they have an order for 6.9 million in the works, and another for 10 million later on in the year. This stock was already up over 100% for the day, the whole chatroom was going nuts talking about it, and it wasn't doing too hot in the last 45 minutes of trading as it couldn't really break 2.90. Just as I was telling people in the chatroom I don't like that, it starts flirting with the low 2.90's and I decided to take an overnight position as it looked like a trend change was in place. I am hoping this news catches on overnight, and maybe even some more news is released in the morning to give it a boost. This is not typically a daily chart pattern I would overnight, hence why I said "I am hoping." Hope is not a strategy, remember that. But, I'm not being charged commissions yet and I'm still learning. No matter what happens tomorrow, I know that I will learn something new for sure. Gotta keep learning!
5/30/14
--DRL, this trade was pretty exhilarating for me. I got in at 3.82 on a real nice dip, not even really a dip I just had a limit order at 3.82 while it was trading at 3.90 and it just happened to get a few ticks down in the low 3.80's for a few seconds and my order executed. I was mad I missed the breakout earlier so I was looking for a good entry on a dip and I got just that. It hit 4.16 then traded in the mid 3.70s for a while and was mad I wasn’t METICULOUS and got out when I had a chance as it hit 20 day resistance in the low 4.00's, but I thought it could run more because its been so crazy. After it traded that low I thought it could run again back up to the 4.00's giving its parabolic day it had been having. It ended up getting another run past 4 very quickly and to 4.10 and 4.20 within SECONDS and hit a tick at 4.25 and by this time I already had my oder ready to be placed, just adjusting my limit price as it up trended. I decided to be meticulous this time and make sure I got out in the 4.00's and ended up getting out at 4.20. The stock was distracting me from my work plus the move was parabolic on no news so decided to get out and take profits to wipe away yesterdays loses plus some and move on. A few minutes later it looks like it was the right move. I didn’t want to get caught sweating again in the 3.70's, this stocks moves 10 cents in just a few seconds, and it ended up moving below 4 again very quickly and closing at 3.86.
5/29/14
--MNGA, cant really regret buying this because it had several catalysts including very bullish article and good end of day volume with a bullish chart and setting new highs into the close. It just didnt do what i hoped in the morning. Despite me having a decent entry point at 1.64 and it closing around 1.70 and in aftermarket hours trading at 1.73, it had a terrible morning. It gapped down and then I practically crapped my pants when it hit 1.45 quickly in the first minute and decided to sell on first bounce which was the next minute candle. If I was more patient I could have sold for 1.62 and had a smaller loss but when it gapped down like that it was completely opposite of what I thought could happen so I got out as quickly as possible because I wasn't going to sit around and hope it could go higher. HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY! This was my first down day and loss over 40$, down $91 for the day. Sucks but its part of the game. This trade also put my win percentage under 50%. I'm trying to stay above 50, the better trades win around 60-70% of their trades. That mixed with cutting your losses quickly can build up your account quite nicely!
--ASTC up premarket on patent news, AND close to 52 week high, but I didn’t stick it to a close eye and soon as it went red to green on the day it freaking skyrocketed over 1$ a share. Pretty mad about that, trading at work is tough but I just need to suck it up and be better prepared No excuses, the plays are out there to take advantage of. I'm disappointed I couldn’t find something to hold overnight. URG had a nice chart and right in my price range but doesn’t move much, barely 10 cents a day and very slowly and also no catalyst so I decided to stay away. I need to focus on the best risk/reward set ups. Like I said, had a down day but losses are OKAY, it's important to remember that while trading, just cut your losses quick! I would take that MNGA trade any day of the week.
5/28/14
--IGC had catalyst in the morning with an acquisition they made and gapped up nicely, said I would watch for a bounce around premarket support level, got it and price action looked strong so I got in at 1.78. It went up to 1.92 and then 3 red candles (1 min) looking real bearish then got a small bounce and I had saw resistance on 20 day chart around the same level so I got out at 1.87. It was the right call because it downtrended all day after that and ended up at 1.50. This is a real good example of why you should get out when the trade is not going your way, immediately!
--ZBB was going from red to green at the end of the day and momentum carried over to next morning. No catalyst but was being talked about in the chatroom and could have considered.
--SPEX had beautiful bounce right at premarket support levels mid day and had catalyst about some Patent Reform Bill being removed. Could have played the bounce getting in around 3.40 and getting out around 3.80's, 3.90's. This is a great example of using pre-market trading prices to guide you for the day
--DARA was up crazy, over 100% for the day on no news so I didn’t want to buy and hold overnight. That ended up being a good decision because it gapped down the next day and downtrended all day.
5/27/17
--I didn't focus on too many plays today, work was busy. SUMR seemed like easy money especially to scalp but I don't have any day trades back yet so I didn't want to risk it. I also didn't like overnight hold idea either. I was looking at ZBB overnight too, nice chart but no catalyst so I didn't force that one either. I also haven't had my computer since Thursday. My IT buddy is taking a look at it, so my home research is limited. Sucks. But the beauty of trading is you don't need to do as much research as you think. The research is the easy part. Being able to react, anticipate, and adapt to the price action is the hard part. Although, once you have learned it there's not much more you need to learn. Sure, there are hundreds upon hundreds of strategies out there, but most traders find a strategy that is profitable and that they feel comfortable with and simply stick with it. Why fix something that isn't broken?
5/22/14
--ROYL had a decent catalyst in finding a large area to drill (energy industry), gapped up nicely, bought around 10:00am when it looked like it was breaking out for another run, but ended up only getting a few extra cents and then downtrended so I sold before loss got too large. Hindsight looks like I could have played 3.60 as my support level but that would have been too scary as I would have been down 3 times as much $ as I sold for .. -45$ isn’t that much though so I guess I could have tried it, if I did I could have sold for a gain as it touched 4.16 later on in the day. On the other hand I don’t really have that type of time to sit there and watch all day. I like to anticipate the move, react to the price action, and make my moves in and out quick like a chew and screw at a family dinner you don’t really want to be at. =]
5/21/14
--NIHD showed all the characteristics of a breakout with a double top earlier intraday and then approached that same level again, had a few minutes of consolidation and strong price action and then finally the broke out. I had a great entry .. problem is I thought it could break .70 .71 level because price action looked real strong as the buyers were just eating up all the sellers at .70 .. but if you look at 20 day chart you can see resistance around the low .70’s so I should have known once it couldn’t break that it would fail, especially with double top earlier .. should/could have gotten out much quicker and at least broke even instead of taking this loss. You live and you learn!--RTK had a break out on every chart all the way back to one year, no catalyst though but still decided to hold overnight given its highs. Just sold in the morning when it wasn’t spiking like I thought it might, probably needed a catalyst . Price action, volume, everything looking real weak in the morning. Selling early when I did ended up being the best bet because it pretty much downtrending for the rest of the day.
5/20/14
--LIQD, 20 day chart showed no resistance until near 2.00's. I saw strong price action around 1.50 mark after it had already broke out a bit so I decided to enter. I held through 2 red candles (1 minutes) and then it kept going up to 1.80's and then it showed a large red candle (signified the tug of war between buyers and sellers) and I got out right around the middle of it at 1.73. Decided to take my profits here and move on. Buyers ended up winning and drove the price up to 1.95 before the downtrend started. Cant get every penny, I was pretty happy with this trade.--IGC had a bullish chart going into the close and was breaking out during the day on some BS news I barely understood. The best part about trading is you just wait for the reaction to the news and then you trade the price action from there, so you barely even need to care about what the news is. Obviously anything is helpful to put the odds on your side so at least skimming the news is a good idea and then make your own assumptions and see if the chart agrees with what you thought. So I bought this going into the close and looked to sell into a morning spike. It has a nice bullish green candle right away followed by a large red candle so I decided to get out on that candle and take my 17 cents on a $1 stock. I'm happy with this one even thought if I would have held through the funny business in the 1.35's I would have been rewarded with a breakout around 10:00am all the way up to the 1.90's. Although, it is important to have a plan going into that trade and stick to that plan. Mine was to sell into a morning spike, I didn't really get one, so I took my profits and walked away with a smile on my face. You never know what can happen with these stocks.
5/19/14
--IDN, boy, don't really know what I was really thinking buying this one overnight. Daily chart today looks good but volume is horrendous, and no catalysts, so maybe I thought it could spike a bit given recent history in its chart. I did think it could at least run into the 0.83's because not much resistance showing until there; coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidently because technical analysis WORKS, even SIMPLE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS, the pre-market high's were also right in the 0.83's. This one was tough. Probably wouldn't take a trade like this again and this is exactly why you need a blog/trading diary if you are a trader!!
--NEWL was a shoulda coulda woulda today. They announced that they just bought a new vessel (dry bulking industry) and it gapped up nicely in the morning. Price action looked real strong as I watched from the sideline. I could have tried riding it to 1+ in the morning and probably would have sold as it consolidated around the 1.10 area. Even better would have been to keep a closer eye on it because it had a catalyst and buy the breakout that happened at 1.20, strong price action, volume, and catalyst were the signs, as well as no resistance in sight until around 2.50 according to the 20 day chart. After 1.20 it ended up spiking to the 2.15 area before a bit of downtrending, followed by another breakout from the 2.15 area all the way to 3.00. Multitude of opportunity to profit on this one, really shows how important a news catalyst can be. Mad I missed it but you live and you learn!
--NEWL was a shoulda coulda woulda today. They announced that they just bought a new vessel (dry bulking industry) and it gapped up nicely in the morning. Price action looked real strong as I watched from the sideline. I could have tried riding it to 1+ in the morning and probably would have sold as it consolidated around the 1.10 area. Even better would have been to keep a closer eye on it because it had a catalyst and buy the breakout that happened at 1.20, strong price action, volume, and catalyst were the signs, as well as no resistance in sight until around 2.50 according to the 20 day chart. After 1.20 it ended up spiking to the 2.15 area before a bit of downtrending, followed by another breakout from the 2.15 area all the way to 3.00. Multitude of opportunity to profit on this one, really shows how important a news catalyst can be. Mad I missed it but you live and you learn!
--IMI was also a shoulda coulda woulda. Learning to take chances when u have the
right catalysts!!! and volume!!! Had news of Sandisk and Toshiba taking license to intellectual property in IMI. Toshiba and Sandisk are good names to be associated with. Could have waited for morning spike, then had a lot of consolidation until a breakout on higher volume right around 3.00 which was where the day highs were, went up to 3.20 area before short consolidation and then up to 3.45 before downtrend started. After 3.00 there was no resistance in sight until possibly 3.25 but more like 3.80's. You live and you learn!
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