I had my paper account finally $100 in profits and then just said goodbye to all that by the end of the day. I ended up -$172 in the hole when factoring in my commissions. This method works, especially on days like this. It is just about execution and consistency.
- Shorted C ($60) – decent AM play, didn’t get spooked out by uptick, didn’t maximize profit
- Shorted EBHI ($70) – lucky shorting HOD runner
- Longed DDR X 2 ($160) – bad timing got whipsawed out missing $.40 run and then I emotionally chased buying at a peak when it was stalling
- Shorted ANAD ($50) – bought a spiker HOD, market was not strong enough red for this
- Shorted AAI ($20) – entered at a resistance level but too close to end of day for such a play
Basically, in the middle of the day, I was working. I heard on the radio that the market was moving up. I opened up my charting software and saw that it looked like the DOW was reversing, I entered DDR on a pullback of a $5 cross, and got stopped out with a 1:30pm sharp dip. Like a half an hour later the market jumped big time. So I had this “missed the boat” feeling the rest of the day that led to all my loses – caused by making emotional choices. Better just to be on the sidelines.
Here’s a chart on STEM from today. I was monitoring premarket very closely and saw that it peaked at $3.15. These movers that drift down by the end of PM will often test their pre-market highs out of the gate and if there is volume, it can be a good buy at open. This one would of worked too on buying at first pull back as well.
I’m going to take tomorrow off from trading and hit the ground refreshed on Monday.
