Day 94: Caught in a Halt :(

 I learned my lesson today about many, many things:

1--When sitting at the orthodontist waiting, don't buy any stocks.  Stocks are to be purchased at home only in front of a minimum of 2 screens.

2--When you have a work meeting and stock is showing weakness, go ahead and sell then---especially when you shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

3--When Ross says don't buy amex stocks because they can get caught up in long halts, believe him.

Ticker:  UUU

Float:  2.07m

News:  No news but had good earnings last week, and it has been moving up over a few days

Price Bought:  $8.50

Price Sold:  $6.64

Loss:  $186, 21.9%

Total Balance:  $1,064.88

Got caught in a news pending halt for over an hour.  I was just going in to sell it at $7.10/share when it halted.  I kept trying to enter my sell order, and it wouldn't let me.  What was the news?  NO NEWS!  The exchange asked for the company to comment on the recent volume and stock price rise.  Do you know what the company said?  We have no news.  Grrrr....bad thing is that before I bought it Ross posted on the chat room that amex stocks have a history of being halted for no reason when they are moving up.  I was doing all of this while waiting at the orthodontist.  I took my laptop to run a work report while waiting, so I decided to go ahead and do a little day trading.  UUU was the second leading gapper, has a very low float, and did have good earnings last week.  I thought it was a winner...I was wrong.  Never, ever trade while waiting around somewhere because then I had to drop off at school, drive home, and get on a work meeting.   I didn't have time to stay on top of the price.  Lessons learned!  

Day 93: RGC for the Win

 A great trade today!  But, it wasn't perfect because I hesitated in buying and ended up chasing for a hot minute.  I could have lost big, so I don't plan on doing this setup very often. 

Ticker:  RGC

News:  No specific news.  It has been a multiday runner of giving big wins with big flushes

Float:  2.3M

Price Bought:  $31.94

Price Sold:  $35.00

Profit:  $122.40, 9.6%

Total Balance:  $1,250.88

RGC was the biggest gapper and had the  most attention. The morning was very slow with no great news overall.  I thought about buying at $24 but didn't because the volume was low. When it started moving, it moved rapidly.  Because of the large moves, I decided to jump in.  A very risky move on my part when I should have been more cautious.  I decided to set my price target as $35 as it seemed to be moving to whole dollars pretty fast.  At open, it halted and I got out with a great trade.  Now, it is halted again around $39, but I'm happy with my trade and can work on my FOMO.  Nice to be done right after bell.  Can't wait until I can build my account and trade a little more frequently.  Of course, one trade a day is definitely the safest way!

 

 

Day 92: Instincts are Kicking in!

 I am very happy with Day 92!  I didn't have a grand slam winner, but I correctly saw when I needed to bail out.  It felt so good to feel my instincts kick in and tell me what to do.  I so often ignore them and keep waiting, but this time they saved me.

Ticker:  BPTH

News:  FDA approved phase 1 trial for cancer drug

Float:  6.93M

Price Bought:  $7.82

Price Sold:  $8.21

Gain:  $49.53, 5.0%

Balance:  $1,128.48

BPTH was the leading gapper and also had a small float with news.  Winner, winner chicken dinner.  It was the obvious choice to purchase, so I got it on the first 5 minute candle to make a new high.  Ross was not going to trade it as it has a history of flushing fast.  I've also noticed that phase 1 trial approvals really aren't a super great catalyst.  I decided to jump on thinking it would get to $8.50 and set that as my price target.  As we moved towards bell, it started breaking out but wasn't pushing past $8.30.  When it seemed to be moving slowly, I decided to bail before the bell. If something has a lot of momentum it will typically start moving pretty fast around 9:28.  I am so glad I got out as it did flush.  It did make a move around 9:45 and I maybe could have sold for $8.50, but it immediately flushed from there.  If I can have consistent days like this, I'll become a very profitable trader :)

Back to Writing-Day 91

 It's been a while since I posted!  I've been bobbling around $1,000 in my trading account for a good bit of the summer.  I took about 3 weeks off from trading while I did my training with Warrior Trading.  It is very extensive and takes forever to do. I'm still not completely done because I usually watch Ross for 1-2 hours each day during his live trading, so my attention span is very low to continue watching the training.

However, I do feel like I can read charts much better now and have a little bit better intuition on which stocks to chose.  I'm still having to deal with waiting for my funds to settle, so I can only do one trade per day.  And, I still struggle with bailing out fast enough.  So, my wins are getting more consistent, but my losses are too large and offsetting my good days.  I also continue to want to swing for the fences rather than take boring base hits.  But, I have taken some boring trades and then watched the stock go absolutely parabolic without me.  But, overall, I'm getting better and very much enjoying the experience of trading.  

So, on to day 91:

I am now able to use the Warrior Trading scanners which is very helpful!  The primary strategy is still Premarket gappers.  Basically, one of the top 5 will give a good run...Just a matter of which one to pick.  The lowest stock floats always have the best movement, and news is still the best catalyst. 

Ticker:  VVOS

Float:  17.87m

Price Bought:  $6.05

Price Sold:  $6.50

News:  FDA approval of a sleep apnea treatment

Profit:  $73.80, 7.4%

Total Balance:  $1,078.95

Notes:  This ticker was really the only one interesting in premarket which gave it a lot of momentum.  I wanted to hold it to go parabolic, but it bobbled at open and I bailed out at $6.50.  That was a good move because then it did come down further, but as I write this blog, it is currently in another move up.  Dealing with FOMO is real, but I'm getting a little better at it.  7.4% is nothing to sneeze at and it lets me trade tomorrow with a little more money.  Never a bad thing!