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!

TD 45-51: Steady Gains, Learning lots!

 I must admit that I really enjoy momentum trading.  I'm very happy that gamestop opened my eyes to this wonderful world of candlesticks.

I got sidetracked on my blogging again, but I have been making steady gains.  I'm still fighting with the psychology of wanting to hold out for the giant gains.  That has led to extreme frustration when I don't close out trades until the afternoon.  That's the main reason I haven't blogged.  I hate closing out trades in the afternoon after watching it go sideways all morning.  I know the solution to this is to just cash out after a nice 3% gain.  There is no reason to wait for more.

Here is my summary with more detail on today's trade:

Day 45:  NMRD, 3.4% gain

Day 46:  LEDS, 10% gain

Day 47:  PLTR, 2% gain, SQBG, 3.2% gain

Day 48:  EYES, 4.8% gain

Day 49:  AMC, 4.7% gain (a great trade on a red day)

Day 50:  PLUG, 0.2% gain....that's when I really learned about getting out early.  But, at least I didn't lose!

Day 51:

Ticker:  DBGI

Price Bought:  $4.45

Price Sold:  $4.60

Example of I could have been in and out in about 15-20 minutes.  Instead I held on hoping it would start running.  I watched and watched.  It didn't make any huge moves, so I went ahead and sold for 3.4% gain.  It seemed to be slowing down which doesn't bode well for market open. It might still run, but I'm glad to not be watching it all day.  It was a new IPO from Friday, so it was hard to tell what it was going to do.  

Balance of my $100:  $552.15, 8.9% average daily gain

TD 40-44: Ho Hum finally became EXCITING!

 I haven't been blogging lately as I've been trading sort of late into the day which is a very bad decision for me.  I do much better when I trade early and get done.  If I pick a stinker and have to follow it all day to see when to get out, it makes me very frustrated--even if I end up with a gain.

I'll give a summary of Days 40-43 and then share my excitement of a big win on day 44.

Day 40:  

    Traded:  OCGN, 5.2% gain and BNGO, a 9.9% gain

    Notes:  OCGN went sideways on me--I have traded it a few times, it's a covid vaccine play.  I was finally able to get out at a decent gain, but it skyrocketed right after I sold.  I don't even remember trading BNGO at all...ha!

Day 41:  

    Traded:  ALDX, 5.6% gain

    Notes:  Easy momentum trade from premarket

Day 42:  

    Traded:  METX, 5.8% gain  

    Notes:  A Good trade all around.  Found momentum and took it for a swing up in about 15 minutes.

Day 43:

    Traded:  VXRT, 5.8% gain and BTX, 8.8% loss 

    Notes:  VXRT was a great premarket trade.  It and out before 8:30am.  Got cocky and decided to do BTX which had a huge run the day before.  It went sideways and I had to watch it all day.  I finally decided to take the loss because I had to take H to voice lessons. The very moment I sold it, it went way up and I could have sold for a huge gain.  Lesson learned?  Get one good trade for the day and stop.  Don't get greedy

Day 44:

My best trading day yet!!  I started premarket and picked the one stock that had volume, was above VWAP, and had good news. It took a hot minute for that choice to become obvious.  I have learned that the sure things are most likely to be trading above VWAP.  Every now and again, you can find a stock on its way back to VWAP but waiting until it is above is more of a sure thing. By waiting, I did leave some gains on the table, but I have been burned by not making sure that the VWAP will be honored on the 5 minute candles.  I have also noticed that when there is going to be a red market day the herd will really latch on to the best premarket mover because they want their gains one way or another.

I made 2 different trades because of the issue with cash settlement.  I had to buy some on etrade and some on Ameritrade.  Because of the timing, I got to average down my cost per shares.  I felt very good that I would be able to get out at least a 5% gain based on the sentiment on my stocktwits app. People are hot and heavy on this stock, so I knew the volume would continue when the market opened.  The company is a healthcare company that has a covid self test going live on Amazon.  

Because I had 2 different trades, I set my limit at different.  With my bigger lot, I decided to get out at a lower price.  I took more of a risk with the smaller lot.  The market opened, and it was hot, hot, hot.  It halted twice!  That hasn't happened with one of my picks before.  Halts can be dangerous so I got out after the 2nd halt.  The stock is now going sideways, but I think it is still a viable trade and will rally back in the afternoon.  But, I'm glad to be out and not having to watch it all day long!

I am happy to report that I do feel like I am learning viable stock trading skills.  I'm glad to be learning in a really choppy market instead of the bull market of the past year.  I'm still learning how to exit a bad position which I believe is the most critical part of success.  Minimizing losses is key.  I get into the most trouble when I get greedy--that has been true since day one.  

Summary of Day 44:

Ticker:  PRPO

Price bought:  $6.80 and $6.35

Price sold:  $7.95 and $8.95

Gains:  16.9% and 40.9%

Total of my $100:  $448.16, a 7.9% daily average gain

TD39: Love to be a Winner

 2 good trades today.  Well, one good one and one lucky one.

Decided to jump in on 2 trending stocks, OCGN and MVIS.  I knew I had a winner with MVIS based on the chart.  OCGN was a little more iffy but fortunately had a pop.

OCGN:  6.8% gain

MVIS:  9.0% gain

Total of my $100 is $276.14, a 4.5% average daily gain.

I'll take it. I need to get back to more thoughtful blog posts.  That's my goal for next week.  I also need to watch videos on how to use Thinkorswim on TD Ameritrade.  I used my TDA account to trade this week, but I didn't use thinkorswim.  I'm still using trading view for my main analysis tools.  It's time to get more savvy.  I need more charts pulled up at the same time.  That's the key to being a pro trader...lots and lots of screens.