6/17/15

Should have had a $200+ day today, but I made some rookie mistakes. I started out trying to short $SGYP and I was too early. I should of been more patient with it and let it break the 6.05 low and then make a new lower high from there, which didnt happen. So the setup wasnt there and I should have stayed away completely since Im only trying to focus on short plays for now. 

Had a nice little gain on $AMCN. I kind of chased this, but lucked out and exited with a decent profit.

$JUNO should have been the only ticker I played. Its "lockup" period ended today which means company insiders were no longer restricted from selling their shares so a sell off was expected, but of course I didnt keep an eye on it at the open and missed some good opportunities. It setup nicely with resistance at 54.49, then resistance at 53.03 on the next breakdown, and 52.69 on the last breakdown. I should of been a little more patient with my third round of short shares I had at 53.94 because I got out right before the breakdown of that 53.72 support level and missed the quick washout. The loss from $SGYP really got me in a "play it safe" state of mind so I need to make sure I'm being patient and nailing my first trade of the day because its gunna establish momentum for the rest of the day. 

6/16/15

Nice short day today. Made $170 on $AAVL and left the computer so I wouldnt give any of it back. Once I saw a lower high from that 19.45 level I entered a short position at 19.25 with a stop at 19.36. I covered half at 19 and then the rest at 18.82. Of course by looking at the chart now I just wana kick myself for leaving the computer and missing the short entry on the next pop towards 19.45, it would have been very profitable seeing as how the stock ended up dropping to 17 after that. When I first saw the chart today though I saw how it was down from 40 to 19 in just a couple hours so I didnt think it would go down that much more. Guess I was wrong. Atleast Im not the CEO of this company who ended up losing a little over $24 million today! ouch. 

6/15/15

Frustrating day today. I completely butchered $BLFS. Bought at 2.70 (near top) and instead of getting out quickly in the mid .60s when I saw it wasnt going my way, I held and ended up selling at 2.53 for a bigger loss. I need to use smaller size if Im gunna chase and have a tight stop. Then I made another dumb mistake. I shorted at 2.46 which was near the bottom and then covered at 2.60, which was near the top. I did the complete opposite of what Im supposed to do. This was a revenge short trying to make some of the $$$ back that I lost trying to long it and I realize now that I had no business shorting it there.

$AMCN I actually did pretty decent on this ticker. Sucks I only got 50 shares filled on my first short or I would of had a nice gain on that one. My next short was at 6.16 when I saw lower highs from that 6.28 level. This was a great entry I just need to work on my exits a little bit. After I sold half at 6.07 I should have let the rest run until the 5.80s, but I was already frustrated from the $BLFS trade and I wanted to lock in profits. The next short at 5.92 was a decent attempt. I covered at 6.02 for a .10 cent loss. My last short was at 6.17 once I saw it wasnt breaking over that 6.28 level. Covered at 6.06.

6/11/15

Maybe I'm trying too hard not to over trade, because lately I've only been focusing on one ticker a day. Today it was $CJJD. There were some news in the morning and the stock spiked up to 4.67 then began making its way down. I was about to short it at around the 4.20 level, but I chickened out and decided to wait until it made a new lower high. I ended up missing the first lower high it made around 4 and so I waited for the next one. I started a short position at 3.90 with 500 shares. Once it dipped to 3.68 I sold 300 shares to lock in some profits. The plan then was to put a stop order at 3.85 and let the rest run until I either got stopped out or was satisfied with my gains. I had to leave for work around 3pm and ended up cashing out around 3.68 this time too. Waste of commission, but Im glad I covered there because it came back up towards the 3.80s a couple mins later, which was probably all the shorts covering before the close. 

6/9/15

Only had one scalp today for a small gain on $AXN. It could have been a decent trade, but I was not patient with it at all. The stock hit a high of 3.75 during after market hours yesterday and today during premarket it made its run to 4 then quickly dropped back down. It ended up opening at 3.35. I shorted at 3.10 once I saw it failed to break above the VWAP. This time I used a hard stop at 3.20 because last week I got caught in some plays (like $VLTC) where I didnt respect my stops and ended up losing .20-.30 cents more than I was supposed to. Anyways, I covered half of my position at 3 to lock in some gains and I originally planned to let the rest run but I got impatient and took the rest off at 2.96. Had I stuck to my plan and let the remaining 500 shares run with a stop at 3.20 I would have been able to catch an extra .30-.40 cent move once support at 2.83 was broken, With the 500 share position I had left it equals out to an extra $150-$200 that I missed out on because I was impatient!

6/8/15

The only ticker I payed attention to today was $CAPR. It gapped up on some news and went from $6 to $7.50 premarket. Right at the bell it shot up and hit a high of 8.30, It tested it twice on the 1 minute chart then slammed back down right under the VWAP. I should have entered a short position at around 7.60ish once it consolidated under the VWAP and failed to break above it. I didnt pull the trigger and missed my entry. The next play on it setup once it based at 6.95. It tested resistance at 7.36-7.41 twice. I had a limit order to short at 7.42 the second time but it only came up to 7.36 and I didnt get filled. I could have quickly changed my order to make sure I was in, but I didnt like a dummy and by the time I realized it wasnt coming back up it had already broke support and I didnt want to chase. I was frustrated now I had missed two entry opportunities. By the time the next play setup with support at 6.58 my daughter had already woken up and it was time for dad duties. The stock ended up fading the rest of the day went green to red closing at 5.75. Im pretty upset I missed this, it would have been a very profitable trade. If I would of gotten filled on my 1k shares short at 7.42 and held until the close it would have been +$1600 gain. Should of, would of, could of. I guess theres no crying in trading you just learn your lesson and move on to the next one. I gota remind myself that even though I didnt make a trade here, sometimes its good to watch the price action, and get a feel for the flow of the market. 

\

6/3/15

Ended up pretty much flat for the day. I was down some after the first trade on $BLFS and then made it all back on the next two trades. I need to work on being more patient with the first trade of the day and using smaller size which will allow me to get in the rhythm of things first without risking much $$. I also need to take the first small loss when a trade isnt going my way instead of compounding it by trying to average down. 

Trade logs

I figure I should fill up some space on this blog since I just started it so here are some reviews from some trades I've made since I've opened my Suretrader account. I always go over my trades and try to see what I missed or what I should of done better. Since Im still a new trader I need dissect my every move and thought in order to get to where I want to be. Learning from your mistakes is a HUGE part of this game. If your interested in learning technical analysis then take a look at www.stockcharts.com theres a link "Chart School" that is full of free educational content about how to read charts.

The Beginning

 The first time I was introduced to the stock market was in my first college class at Florida State University. We had a contest on who could make the most money using paper trading accounts, which simulate live trading without any actual money being involved, but real live stock prices. It was a class of about 500 students and 1st place would get to skip the final. I decided to give it a shot why not right? Everyone was given  like $10 million buying power and I quickly spread my money into blue chip positions like $NFLX $AAPL $UA $NKE $SBUX and a few others. It was in 2012 and  I remember looking at $NFLX before buying it and seeing how it was up like 60% in 3 months. I figured they wouldn't stop going up now just because I was about to put my fake money into them. I got lucky and by the end of the semester I was up like 30% or so on my $10 million paper trading account. I was ecstatic even though I didn't get 1st place. All I could think about was how I could of just invested all my summer savings, which was around $5k and made 30% return just like I had done with the paper account! I was hooked. I got an account with Scottrade right away and quickly did pretty much the same thing I had done with the paper trading account. I started small with only $2k and distributed it into big name stocks once again. By the end of the month of having my first broker account I was bored with it. I wanted action, I wanted more money, and I wanted it now! I started following a bunch of gurus and got introduced to penny stocks. Then something crazy happened. I was at the right place at the right time. The marijuana sector went bananas. Stocks like $MDBX that went from $25 a share to $99 a share in less than a month were everywhere. $MJNA $HEMP $GRNH $MINE $FITX $CANN. It was definitely a nice, welcoming time to the market for new traders. Any bozo with a little knowledge and will power could of made money. 

Although the market was going crazy and stocks were flying left and right, I was very cautious with my money. Like I mentioned earlier, I began following some gurus/trading coaches on social media and this is probably what saved me and my $$$. @timothysykes and @investorslive would preach about how these stocks should be used as trading vehicles not long term investments and how dangerous it was to have your money tied up in OTC stocks. I started doing a little research and realized most of these companies were losing money! Some werent even in the marijuana sector, but changed their ticker symbol to make it seem like they were...sketchy stuff. and yet the hype of legalization blinded investors who poured cash into these penny stocks. Of course once the hype died down, most, if not all, of these stocks crashed right back down. $MDBX went from trading at $99 a share to currently trading at $0.48 cents a share just to give you an idea of how much money one could of lost by holding on to this long term. After the marijuana craze things cooled down and I realized this is something I could scale and make consistent money in. I just had to put the time and effort into learning this craft. I have made it a point since the beginning of my trading journey to be patient, learn as much as I can trading small size, and to not blow up my account.  When OTCs dried up I started focusing more on Nasdaqs. I also opened an account with a new broker, Suretrader, which is based out of the Bahamas so that would allow me to avoid the PDT rule. Ever since then, I been working to improve many aspects of my trading such as becoming more consistent, discipline, keeping emotions on a tight leash, risk management, and just continuing the never ending learning process of this business. This blog will help me stay on track and hopefully someone else besides me can gain something useful from it.