TD29: Decent Trade

 So happy to only trade one stock today and be done by 9:35am.  Of course, I could have been done at 8:40am if I had not revised my sell limit to higher.  Still can't learn the lesson of not getting a big gain.

Ticker:  CSCW

Bought because it was the biggest gainer on the morning screener, and it had news that they were going to start doing NFTs.  Those kinds of stocks have been moving fast and furious with the NFT craze. 

Price Bought:  $2.19/share

Price Sold:  $2.50/share (originally I set my sell limit at $2.40)

Gain: 14.2%

Balance of $100:  $128.50, a 1.0% average daily gain

TD 26-28 Back at the Grind

 I'm back!!

I found trading to be very difficult at my mother's house last week.  I wasn't able to properly analyze and stay close to my computer to check prices.

I did trade Monday and Tuesday before I gave up, at a net 25% loss.  Back to formula again.

Day 28 has been much better.  I'm back at my usual routine and getting to spend time with the numbers again.

I made 3 trades today.  I'm using a terrible strategy of picking 3 of the big premarket movers and seeing which one pays off.  This really isn't technical or good, and it ends today.  If I want to be a successful day trader, I need to know the indicators and use only them.  I'm still always so hopeful for the "runner."  It is amazingly satisfying when you get one, but that's not the point of day trading.  I keep telling myself Small wins.  If I just average a 3% gain per day, my $100 will turn into $40k by the end of the year.  That's not bad.  It is much better than going for a big hit and ending up with a big loss.

Of course, I've written all of this before and after 28 trading days I still haven't learned it.  There's always tomorrow....

Tickers purchased today:

UPC, 7.1% gain

HGEN, 5.4% gain

SEAC, 7.1% gain.

All in all my $94.73 I started with today ended at $112.69, a 19% gain.  

My $100 is now $112.69, a 12.7% gain, a 0.5% daily average gain.

TD 25: Got some Runners

 I wasn't planning on trading today since I did a lot of stressful trading yesterday.

But, I decided to jump in on a couple that were quickly moving.  Today, it paid off.

I made 1.8% on EYES, just a quick in and out.

Then, I purchased the top 2 morning gainers to see which one would take off. I'm finding that usually one of the top premarket gainers usually takes off, and the other fizzle to a slow death.  To diversify risk, I bought the top 2 to see what would happen.

Fortunately, they both took off running after the bell, and I was able to make quick profits on both.

ZKIN:  a 9.3% gain and CLVS: a 8.3% gain.

I'm slowly digging out of my bad trading hole.  I'm still finding myself being very emotional when a stock starts to go down and wanting to keep hanging on for the reversal.  I'm going to have to start using stop losses to keep emotions out of it.  

I did fund a new account with TD Ameritrade.  I'll take some time to learn their software.  It does look pretty cook but also quite complicated.  It might take me a hot minute to figure out.

Balance of $100:  $126.96, a 1.1% average daily gain

TD 23 and 24: Digging back out

 I failed to post yesterday as I had to actually physically go in to work which threw off my whole day.  

I was able to make one trade yesterday, TNXP for a 2.7% gain.

Today, I made 3 round trip trades, and I got lucky.  I also determined that I really can't trade multiple tickers until I get a better software.  It's too complicated to be watching all 3 charts for entrances and exits on the set up I have now.

NEOS:  I started with NEOS.  It was the big premarket gainer, and it had news of a merger.  I bought too high and decided to jump out at a 5.6% loss when the chart looked bad.  I hated the loss but glad I actually took a loss.  Too often I hang on for too long.

UONE:  On morning screener, and it had the technical set up I was looking for.  My setup isn't great, though, and I started really sweating it out thinking the whole day would be at a loss.  Fortunately, it turned around a bit at market open, and I was able to get out with a 0.7% gain.

OCG:  My big winner.  It was on the morning screener and chosen by my favorite morning trader.  Again, I thought I was able to have to sell at a loss, but the buyers showed up in a big way, halted the stock, and I sold for a 15% gain when the halt was over.  

I have determined that I need better software to do my analysis.  The free version of tradingview I use was a great starting point.  Etrade has terrible software, so I think I will move over to TD Ameritrade.  They have free software called sinkorswim, and it is the industry leader as far as free goes.  TD Ameritrade is basically the same thing as Etrade, so I might as well take advantage of the free tools.  I'll start working on a transition to Ameritrade today.

Glad to be back on the winning side again.

Balance of $100:  $109.05, a 0.4% average daily gain.

TD 19-22 Dog Days! Learning how to lose

 I have made some truly bad trades the past few days.  My knowledge on when to exit was terrible.  I kept being emotional and holding in for a reversal when no reversal came.  I thought that stocks with news would always rebound.  #fakenews

It started with AVEO.  A great little pharmaceutical company that just got FDA approval for a drug to treat kidney cancer.  It was up and up and looked to continue to go up.  It did not.  I held it as the company kept putting out good news after good news, but the market didn't respond.  

I finally let it go today at a 36% loss.  I wanted to jump back in and bought SGLB, but I didn't follow my governing rules.  I wasn't able to trade in premarket, so I bought it around lunchtime.  Bad idea.  It did pop up from where I bought it, but then it went down the toilet.  I sold it this morning for a 34.8% loss.

Then, I turned on the live stream of my favorite trader and decided to invest in the biggest premarket mover with news. Listening to him confused me, and I didn't sell when I meant to.  Blek.  That gave me a 9% loss. 

I bounced back a little with ENZ.  Got a respectable 3.5% gain on a quick trade, but it wasn't pretty.

Unfortunately, my quick gain on ENZ made me think I could get my money back.  Bad idea.  I bought ANCN, and it sank like a rock, a 12.7% loss.

But, as everyone says, the failures are what you need to learn.  I have learned a lot today.  I have changed my chart indicators and realized that I have to trade on a 5 minute chart, not a 1 minute.  The 1 minute moves to fast, and I can't keep up and get emotional with the trades. I learned about bull flags and VWAP and MACD.

I'm looking forward to trading tomorrow with my new tools and see if they make a difference.

Total of my $100:  $96.60

  

TD 18: Halted! 14.6% gain

 I had a very nice trade today.  

Came up on premarket screener with news.  A company that was just awarded a big government contract.  

Thought I got a good entry....could have gotten a much better entry.  Kept me a little bit worried, but I figured with the stimulus passed the market would be wild today, so I held through premarket.  I increased my limit sale when the stock was halted about 5 minutes into market open.  I increased but not too much, so after halt, I sold and got the gain.  

Lesson learned today is to not start my trade until 7:45-8.  I'm finding earlier than that is a little choppy, and I'm buying too high.  The premarket starts out hot and then settles down, so it's best to do my analysis beginning at 7:45.  So instead of mediating after placing my trade, I'll meditate first.

I don't even care one bit about the gains I missed out on because it is always such a relief to get a good gain and get out.  

Ticker:  XELA

Price bought:  $6.11/share

Price sold:  $7.00/share

Gain:  14.6% 

Total of my $100:  $271.35, a 9.5% average daily gain.

TD 16 and 17: Did not get a grand slam

 I'm trying not to kick myself right now.  I bought this morning a biomedical stock with news.  Great pick!  I bought it and it went down.  Made me feel iffy.  I figured it would pump at open, so I set a 6% gain for a sell, and it sold.  Now it's trading at a 65% gain.  Oh, well.  My goal is to not have a grand slam and to get consistent gains which I am.  So, I shouldn't cry over spilled milk.

In good news, my strategy appears to be working well, so I'll stick with it for now.

Yesterday, I did not follow my strategy.  I had stuff to do in the morning, so I wasn't able to trade premarket.  When I got home around 10:30, I decided to do a trade anyway.  I picked a bit of a dog, but it has reddit support.  I would have lost 10% had I sold it at end of market.  I decided to keep it into after hours as I have found these meme stocks to rise in the extended hours with lower volume.  Fortunately, I was able to get out of it first thing this morning at a 1.1% gain.  Lesson learned to follow strategy.

TICKER:  SOS

Price Paid:  $6.17/share

Price Sold:  $6.24/share

Gain:  1.1%

TICKER:  INVO

Price Paid:  $5.90/share

Price Sold:  $6.30/share

Gain:  6.8%

Total of my $100:  $237.53, a 8.1% daily gain

TD 15: 8.3% gain but my butt hurts from sitting for 2 hours

 Got my loss back from yesterday. Thank goodness!  

The premarket screener looked much better today than yesterday.  I had my eye on ticker WTRH which announced it was going to become the Amazon of weed delivery.  I thought that would really take off, but while it had good volume, it really slowed down and wasn't moving.

The other big movement was a Chinese company, but I have found them to be very fickle. There was also an Israel drug company that was up, but it had no news which scared me.  

So, I sat and sat and my butt began to hurt.  I knew I could find something, and I really thought my weed stock was going to start moving.  

Then, around 8:45 an FDA announcement was made for ticker EYES.  They just got approval for something that will help with blindness.  Exactly the catalyst I needed.  

I watched the chart and found a decent entry.  Unfortunately, in premarket it didn't go up to my exit which was slightly below the premarket high.  I felt good about the news catalyst and thought the market open would help.  

I had my order in for $2.36 but had hope that it would break through and go higher.  What do I know about hope??? Don't have any!!  The stock got some movement right when the market opened, and I got excited that it was going to break.  I hurried over to Etrade to change my sell limit to higher.  God bless Etrade.  It had already initiated my sell order.  Which is awesome because the stock immediately fell to below the level I purchased it at.  Why do I have to keep learning my own lesson of stick with the plan???  

At this moment, 9:45 it is trading higher than my sell, but I'm glad I'm out of it and can move forward with my life.  An 8% gain is amazing.  If I got 8% everyday, I would have $100k in 100 trading days.  I can live with that.  Glad Etrade has my back. Now I can close down my computer and go for a walk on this beautiful day.  My butt will thank me.

Ticker:  EYES

Bought:  $2.18/share

Sold:  $2.36/share

Gain:  8.3%

Total of $100:  $220.28, an 8.0% daily average gain

TD 14: 6.2% loss

This morning my trusty screener showed me nothing.  So. much. nothing.

I kept looking and looking and decided today was not a day to trade.  There were a few tickers that stood out, but their charts were yucky and not obvious.  The only drug approval that came through was for another covid vaccine that frankly no one is interested in anymore.

I pulled up the morning stream of a trader I like, Warrior Trading.  He does his trades live in the morning.  I thought he would show me a way.

To my delight in how much I have learned about day trading, he also decided to sit out premarket.  That gave me confidence in what I have learned...mostly only trade on the clear winners.

I kept watching his stream as the market opened.  He decided to initiate a trade on SLGG.  It was one of the few that came up on the morning screener, so I decided to follow suit.  Unfortunately, I haven't watched him enough to understand how he does his trades.  He is a true day trader and once he finds a stock he will add and get out a million times as it changes.  I jumped in and bought on market just to watch it fall.  So sad.  I exited the trade as quickly as I could for a 10.2% loss.  Warrior Trading also lost his shirt, so that gave me a little sense of karma.

I kept watching him to see how he would recover.  Another ticker started having great movement.  He decided to buy, so I watched the chart for my own entry instead of trying to jump in right away.  The ticker did have good movement, and I was able to jump in and out for a 4.3% gain.  

After that, I decided to shut down my trading for the day.  Lesson learned today is that when the premarket has nothing going on, don't wait around for the regular market to show anything. It is in fact best to sit out rather than to force a trade.

Summary:

Ticker:  SLGG

Bought:  $7.03

Sold:  $6.31

Loss:  10.2%

Ticker:  RETO

Bought:  $2.30

Sold:  $2.40

Gain:  4.3%

Total of my $100:  $202.10, 7.3% average daily gain

TD 13: 9.4% gain with a lot of sweat

 I found an amazing ticker today.  It was a drug company that had just gotten FDA approval on a new best in class ADHD drug.  I had watched it a bit yesterday because the approval was supposed to come out during market hours, but the FDA announcement was delayed until after hours.

It was the biggest premarket mover with the most volume.  It had a news catalyst.  Perfect pick!

I bought at a price that had good resistance and set a sell a little lower than the previous high.  

Then, I got pulled into the hype.  The company was having a conference call regarding their results that I listened to...what in the world?  Why am I listening to conference calls?  The call was nothing but good news.  Wow!  

The price continued to bump around the support, so I felt confident that I wouldn't lose money.  I increased my sell limit to higher as this seemed like a sure thing.  And, then it took off!  It felt so good to finally have a good runner on one of my picks.  I increased my sell to even higher.  

Then it all petered out.  I got very sad.  I did not follow what I had learned and got greedy.  I really thought this would be a grand slam.  I revised my sell limit down again to the previous high and decided to sit tight until market open.  I saw my gains slip before my eyes.  I was contemplating what my move should be.  I do think this company is a great long game based on their fundamentals, but I'm not supposed to be playing a long game.  

Fortunately, I lucked out and the market did respond to the news in a big way before falling.  Because I had set a sell limit, my trade hit automatically.  I was actually on my way to change my limit to higher again which would have ruined everything.  Thank goodness I had the limit set and it executed before I could get in the way.  Now, the price has fallen again, so it worked out in my favor.  

Lesson learned again.  Stop trying for the grand slam...again.

  Summary:

Ticker:  KMPH

Bought:  $16/share

Sold:  $17.50/share

Gain:  9.4%

In another update, I did a swing trade on RKT yesterday and got a big win which is probably why I kept holding on for a big win today.  RKT continued to go up from where I sold it, but I was glad for my gain.  Keep focusing on small gains.  They add up fast and are somewhat safe.

Ticker:  RKT

Bought:  $23.84/share

Sold:  $30/share

Gain:  25.8%

Total of my $100:  $216.64, 9.0% average daily gain

Feeling good about where I'm at now.  I have some room to take some losses and still stay in the game.  

TD 12: 8.3% gain by 7:56am

 I think I've found a decent pattern--as long as drug companies make announcements every day at 6:30am.

Checked my tracker around 7:30am.  NNVC was #3 on the list for premarket change and #2 for volume traded.  Checked the news, and they announced they had positive results on some coronavirus drug.  

Watched the chart to find an entry.  Made my entry at the 20 period MA.  The price kept going up from that, and I was getting worried I wouldn't be able to purchase it.  However, instead of rushing in to buy, I just kept changing to the 20 period MA for entry.  The 5 minute chart was highly bullish, but the 1 minute chart showed what I hoped was a bearish retracement and not a bearish trend.

It came down to my 20 period MA, and my trade was executed.  Of course, it went slightly lower as soon as I purchased it.  I kept the faith that the news would continue to percolate as the morning continued and set my sell point at the premarket high at that time.  My plan was to check on it again at 9:05 when the market really starts heating up and see what was going on.  Because I had a decent entry point, I wasn't worried about losing too much money on it if I had to sell.  I've noticed that drug stocks shoot up on the news and then consolidate around the 20 period MA with brief breakouts from that.  They don't tend to fall below the 20 period MA until the market opens at 9:30.

Here's the chart:  I put the pointing fingers where I bought and sold.  The top chart is the 1 minute and the bottom is the 5 minute.  

I would almost call this the perfect technical trade as far as momentum trades go.  If I can find this everyday, I would be very lucky indeed.  But, I know this won't happen very often, so I'll feel good about it for now.  

Glad to be developing a pattern...just need it to work more than 50% of the time.

Final Stats:

Ticker:  NNVC

Bought:  $8.68/share

Sold:  $9.40/share

Gain:  8.3%

Total of my $100:  $167.84.  

Daily Average Gain:  5.7% 

TD 11: Done for the Day at 8am 5.3% gain

 I'm finally figuring out a strategy that is working for me.  

I find a bigger premarket change, watch the chart for a bit, look for the news, confirm hight volume, and try to buy on a good entry.

It worked for me on Friday, 2/26.  Made 6% off of LIXT. And today, 3/1, made 5.3% on ASLN.

I am having a problem finding a really good entry.  I see where I should buy--usually off the 20 period moving average, but I get scared that it might go up.  So far, in all instances, it has come down to the 20 period MA.  Note to self to try that tomorrow as I'm losing gains, and I'm spending a little too much time sweating out the trade.

The best thing about premarket is that prices move fast, and so far, in my limited experience, the more a stock has changed premarket the more interest it gets as it gets closer to market open.  The additional volume will cause the stock to spike rapidly.  I'm trying to be conservative with my exits and just go in for a decent gain and not the grand slam.  I'm trying to enter lower than the premarket high and set my sell as the premarket high at that point.

Of course, a news catalyst is key to good, consistent movement.  So, I've learned to pass on stocks that just have good charts without news.  I'm also trying to stay away from the under $5.  I still have to pay a minimal trading fee per share, and I'm trying to keep down that added cost.

Here are my financial stats:

2/26:  LIXT, bought at $6.96/share, sold at $7.38/share, a 6.0% gain.

3/1:  ASLN, bought at $7.50/share, sold at $7.90/share, a 5.3% gain.

Total of my $100: $145.86.  I've traded 11 days, so that's 4% gain a day.  If I can keep this up my hundred will turn to $1,000 by trading day 61.  However, I seriously doubt that I will achieve that as everyday will not be a winner.  

In good news, I was able to sell half of my GME holdings at $175/share...got that price with a premarket spike.  I kept the other half of my holdings (3 shares) as a stick it to the man move, and I will keep those shares forever...or until it goes back to $480/share. With that sale, I now won't have to keep taking trading days off.  I will keep enough cash in my account to float the settling period of T+2.  

Happy Trading!