Shorts of HIG, RF and KEY at 2pmish were all stopped out my my rule of placing initial stop of .10 cents. If I had placed these at HOD or recent resistance levels (keeping my rules simple now), they would of been great trades. I reshorted RF but left way too soon (it was a scalping set up rather than my traditional entry so there wasn’t clear exit rule); the long of BAC off of $4 was also a scalp set up.
| HIG | .09 | S | Stopped out – but went down nicely to EOD |
| RF | .10 | S | Stopped out – but went down nicely to EOD |
| KEY | .09 | S | Stopped out – but went down nicely to EOD |
| RF | .08 | S | Reshorted at resistance but exited too soon |
| BAC | .05 | L | Longed on bounce off $4 but exited too soon |
| Fees | .06 | COMMISSIONS | |
| TOTAL | -.21 |
Lesson today – stop orders, especially on choppy days need to give room for your trades to breath and should be based on resistance / support levels, price thresholds, and other technical indicators, and not on a hard and fast round number like .10 cents price movement – this was my plan so starting next week I am going to give myself the discretion to make wider stops since I am getting better already at staying in trades.
I wasn’t able to trade the morning like I wanted but did knock out some work projects during the first half of the day. I really hope Monday I can do prep and trade the pre-market movers at open.
I’m also going to at least for one day – try to trade non-financial stocks. I keep going back to the same movers but want to diversify the types of stocks I trade.
