4/3/2018

$CLLS gapped up during premarket and was getting closer to that $35 level which was the 52-week high. It also has positive news out about the company closing an asset contribution agreement with company Pfizer. On the daily chart, the stock had bounced off that $35 price 3 times before so I waited to see if it would bounce off of it again to look for a short entry. Once it bounce off $35 and  broke below VWAP and lost the 200-MA(dark blue line) I got short at 33.93. Like a dummy, I got greedy and didnt sell when price got to $33. I kept holding and the stock kept grinding up. Sold all my shares at $33.70 for small profit, but in my head I took at loss and I was frustrated since I was up .90c/share at one point. Decided to reset and wait to see what the chart was telling me. Once it broke above VWAP and consolidated above $35 I saw the uptrend and jumped in long at $36.45. I had small size so didnt sell in partials and got rid of all my shares $37.51. 

1/3/2018

$RENN: This was on gap up scanner making new 52-week high and they put out a PR announcing acquisition of a tech company with a social platform for the trucking industry. They used a lot of buzzwords in the press release like "artificial intelligence" and "block-chain technology" which is what alot of these companies have been doing lately to get attention from some of this cryptocurrency madness going on. Keeping that mind, I was long biased as long as the stock could break the premarket high of $13.93 so at the open I was using that round $14 as a guide. One it broke above it and held I got long at $14.07 with a stop below 14. It started to feel heavy once it made a new HOD and I took profits at $14.60. 

Stats for the month

Ever since I started auditing my trades this way, it has immensely improved my trading. I can see exactly what day and time of the day Im having more success with and I can focus more on that. Trading is all about doing more of what makes you money and less of what costs you money. I didn't trade much at all due to holidays this month but here are the stats:

Happy New Year!

5/1/17

$NTRP: Pretty giant gap down on negative news.I was watching that $9 level which was pre market support. Once it broke below it, I started stalking it for a pop for a short entry. Never really got one it just slowly kept selling and grinding down. got short at $8.75 risking on that $9/whole dollar mark, which was right where VWAP was also at. Covered all shares at $8.25. It kept unwinding even after I got out, but I ended up not touching it again. 

$ITCI: Also a gap down on negative news about FDA regarding their research studies on lumateperone. Held premarket support at $7.50 and then kept making higher lows/trending above VWAP. Once it got near HOD around $9 around 10am I got long at $8.75 with a stop below VWAP. Sold all shares at $9.30.

4/27/17

$EXAS: Big gap during pre-market from $23 to $28.70s that caught my attention. Then looked at the daily chart and saw the stock was at its 52-week high. Checked the news and saw the company reported a loss of $34 million in its first quarter which initially seemed bad, but their actual revenue was $48 million and up 220% from last year's first quarter. Also, their net loss was 26% less than last years Q1's loss. Apparently this company's main commercial product is a 'cologuard test' developed through their proprietary DNA-based technologies for use in the detection of cancer and their sales are rapidly growing since its a lower-cost and less-invasive way to screen patients. Both technicals  and fundamentals indicated a bullish sentiment so at the open I was focused on how the stock was going to react towards the $28 whole dollar mark since was it trending steady, VWAP was right at $28 and kept making higher lows. At the open it dipped down $27.70s but quickly got bought up and the next two 1-min candles held right at $28. Got an entry at $28.10 on the third 1-min candle.  The next candle it literally jumps a whole dollar to $29.20s and so I get out at $29.10 with all my shares. This was my first trade in over a month so I didn't want to scale out in partials. I just wanted to be in and out with no headaches on my first day back. Nothing like a stress-free trade!

3/2/17 and 3/3/17 Recap

3/2/17: $PTCT entry at $11.23. It had long term support at $10.50 and was trending well above VWAP. Took half of my position off at $11.88 and then the rest off at $12.00. 

3/3/17: $NTNX got long at $25 once VWAP and that $24.70s level held. Tried to give this too much room to work and got stopped out at $25.08 once I saw weakness in price action. It was a scratch trade but at least it covered the cost of commission. I should have taken half of my position off at $25.30ish, but I was sure that it was atleast going to test $25.50s and I was gunna take profits there. 

1/31/17, 2/1/17, 2/3/17 Recap

1/31/17: $TEVA was a gap down on negative news. I saw it holding trend and got long at 33.24 and got out at 33.60. I was a little late to the party missing most of the morning move so it was a small gain but easy, stress-free trade overall.

2/1/17: $OKS was a big gapper on positive news about a merger deal. Around the $46 area was resistance on the daily chart and this stock gapped up to almost $60 in premarket so my thought was that if it starts looking weak and cant hold VWAP then it has alot of room downward for a correction. You gota think when a stock gaps up like this there is going to be a lot of people who have been holding this for a while that are guna want to take profits and sell their positions creating a surge in supply....and we all remember from econ class what happens when supply>demand = price decreases. My first entry was right below VWAP at 56.32. Sold half of my position at 55.60 and the other half at 55.15. Kept my eye on this and it kept selling off so entered short again at 55.21 and took first half off at 54.77 and the second half off at 53.75. Awesome trade here and good risk management on my part!

2/3/17: $CY had news about missing their 4th qtr earning estimates, but it still made for a decent long trade. You know never know what these stocks are going to do..sometimes they have positive news and they tank and sometimes they have negative news and they skyrocket. My job is to plan for the most likely scenario based on the chart and react to price action, not try to guess which way the stock is gunna go. Anyways, 12.50s was resistance on the daily chart so when I saw the stock shoot up to 12.90s in the first few minutes of the open I planned to wait for a pull back near 12.50s for an entry. Once 12.60s held I got in long at 12.69. Sold half of the position at 12.90 to secure some profit and got stopped out of the rest at 12.75. Second trade had no follow through. I got short once it broke below VWAP but stopped out pretty much right away. 

1/18/17- 1/23/17 Recap

1/23/17: $QCOM gap down ticker on news about Apple's big lawsuit against this company. The float on this stock is bigger than I usually trade at $1.47 billion shares, but I figured I'd give it shot anyway. Got short at VWAP $55.22. No follow through and at 3:30pm my broker cuts my buying power so had to get out at 55.90 for a decent size loss. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  live to fight another day.

1/20/17: $BMY gap down on negative news about their cancer treatment drugs. This stock also has a big float of $1.67 billion shares but I kept it on my watchlist anyway. I wasnt patient with the first entry short. then I added again when it popped up towards VWAP my average was now around $50.10. Got spooked when it reclaimed VWAP so I got out for a loss at $50.30. Kept this on watch and re attacked once I saw the stock was starting to break down. Second attempt got short at $50.15 and finally it faded. Locked profits at $49.10.

1/19/17: $NFLX big gap up here. I took a small position since this is a higher priced ticker. Short $140.38 held through the pop and finally faded. Covered all shares at $139.

1/18/17: $CCJ scratch trade here. Was looking at $11.50s on the daily as resistance. Didnt have any patience with my entry and ended up getting out flat.

12/20/16 and 1/13/17 trades

 12/20/16: $ACAD was a gap up on positive news about their study on this new drug to treat Alzheimers. I try not to read too much into the news, really I just want to know why its moving then I let the chart tell the story. Drowning myself in fundamental analysis is just not as effective for daytrading. Here I got short at $29.95 on VWAP rejection and rejection of that $30 level which was support/resistance on the daily chart. Covered all shares at $29.35 really just because it was the friday before the holidays break and I didn't want to leave for vacation on a loser trade so I took my profits and ran lol.

1/13/17: $P pandora radio station gapped up on positive 4th quarter earnings, but this trade was a dud for me and didnt go anywhere. Got long at $12.90 once the break over VWAP was cofirmed and I saw 9ema holding, but didnt have enough range so got stopped out at $12.80. This was the second week of trading for 2017 and still havent had any juicy setups hit my morning scans so hopefully things pick up here going into the third week!

12/12/16-12/16/16 Recap

12/13/16: $AKAO long entry at $14.43 once it broke above VWAP. Held through the pullback then sold half the shares at $14.75 and the other half $15.15.

12/15/16: $ATHN had the right read on this just bad timing. Got long at $117 and stopped out at $115.50. Luckily I had super small size on this so loss wasnt too bad. I need to stay more patient at the open and not trade for atleast the first 15 minutes. 

12/15/16: $PIR was from the gap up scanner on good earning estimates. This could have been a easier long than short I just have to make things complicated lol. I was watching this all morning just kept hesitating for an entry thinking it would pull back to VWAP before 11 am. That didn't happen so I stayed patient and  I waited for the backside then got short at $8.69 once I saw price action weakening and approaching VWAP. Got out at $8.45 since my broker reduces my buying power at 3:30pm and it was getting close to that time. 

12/5/16-12/9/16 Recap

Wednesday 12/7/16: $WDC from gap up scanner.Had a nice short entry here at $67.41 and exit at $66.88 for the first trade but then I started chasing. Second short entry was at $66.70, which was horrible, I should know better than shorting into weakness like that. The stock rebounded and I tried to get my average cost of shares down with another short entry off VWAP at $66.92. Got stopped out at 67.30. This is how you turn a $200+ winner into a $50 winner. I guess green is still green. 

$PLAY from gap up scanner as well. Long entry at $54.90 risking on the 9EMA and exit at $55.50 once I thought I saw weakness. Nice and simple. If only every trade could be this headache-free. 

Thursday 12/8/16: $LULU also a gap up. I was initially looking for a long since the the 9EMA and VWAP were holding well, but I was patient and kept waiting for confirmation. Once that first candle printed under the 9EMA I got short at $70.22. Exit was at $69.15 near support. 

11/29/16-12/2/16 Recap

Tuesday 11/29/16: $X popped up on gap down scanner and I was looking to short under $31 which was premarket support but it broke through before the open and didnt take the trade since i dont like trading premarket. I decided to wait and see what sets up. Around 11 oclock the stock was uptrending nicely and broke above VWAP. Got in long at $30.91 with a tight stop right below the 9-day EMA. Saw resistance at $31.50 so got out at $31.40.

Wednesday 11/30/2016: $SPLK from gap up scanner. Big sell off right at the open so I made sure I didnt chase (as tempting as it was). Waited until stock came back up towards VWAP and got in short off the bounce at $60.31. It was consolidating for a bit at that $60 level and that kinda spooked me out so I got out pretty fast at $60.07. I kept my eyes on this and on the next move back up $60 confirmed as resistance so I got in short again at $59.84. Got out way too quick here at $59.50 but I'll happily take my piker profits lol. 

Thursday 12/01/16: $BLUE from gap up scanner. I had my eyes on this all day and when the short set up off the VWAP bounce I realized my broker didnt have any borrows and stock was not shortable. :( no trades this day.

Friday 12/02/16: $WDAY from gap down scanner. Was looking for a short to break under under $67.50 level. got in short at $67.67 and got stopped out at $68. I kept my eyes on this but I let my earlier trade affect my bias on this and I was still thinking short for some dumb reason instead of looking at what the chart was telling me. I should have taken this long around 11 oclock once VWAP and the 9EMA was holding and stock was uptrending. Im just glad I didnt push any other buttons for another short attempt here.

Things to keep in mind:

Look at where stock is at around 11 oclock once you have a whole half day of price action to go by

Missing out on a trade is better than a losing trade

Dont let earlier trades affect yout bias

Check to make sure broker has borrows before wasting time on a stock looking for a short 

General Rule- gap down, look for uptrend. gap up, look for downtrend. obviously this is just something to use as a guide. 

Interesting video related to Trading

At 3:40 he explains exactly how I attempt to approach the markets. Even if you only make money on half of the trades you take, as long as your using proper risk management to let your winners run and to cut your losers fast, then probability will be on your side. If you make 100 trades and every time you lose you only lose $10 and every time you win you make $20, even if you only have a 50% winning ratio, then the chances of you losing money at the end are 1 in 2300! Also funny to see how hesitant the people in the video are to take on any risk at all lol trading is definitely not for everyone 

Running a scan and finding a worthy setup

Night Scan

Finviz.com is what I use for scanning stocks for the next day. Their service is free and you can even create an account to save your scanner filters so you don't have to manually change them every time. I use 6 filters, which you can see in yellow in the pic below. But the two main things I'm looking at are circled in red and those are:

Stocks making a new 52 week-high
-These are of interest because the stocks are hitting the highest price they've hit all year. Meaning that no one who bought this in the past 365 days, and is still holding it, is down money on it. So one of two things will most likely happen here. The stock is guna  keep going higher because new buyers are guna step in and people who already own shares wont have an incentive to sell since they're already in the green. Or there is guna be profit taking causing a sell off and price is guna fade. Simple supply and demand rules. As a trader, I'm not trying to predict exactly which way price is headed. My job is to make a plan for all possible scenarios that could take place and then react to price action.

Stocks with relative volume over 1
-Relative volume over 1 means that they are trading an amount of shares that is at least as much as their average daily volume. These are stocks that are "in play" and that have a more than the usual amount of transactions taking place. The more volume usually means the more volatile a stock will be, giving you better opportunities for a trade.

After running the above scan on Wednesday night 10/28, I came up with a few results. The ticker $NHTC caught my attention the most because of its low float of 7 million shares (meaning a low amount of shares available for trading. Lower float = takes less volume to move its price) and because of its long term resistance at $45, which you can see in the daily chart below.

After liking the daily chart, I pulled up the intraday chart from Wednesday. $45 acted as resistance on this time frame as well, tapping it twice throughout the day, but never breaking through it. Its also important to note that on Wednesday the stock opened at around $38 and even after it ran all the way to $45 and faded off that point a little bit, it still had a pretty strong close at around $44 right at the VWAP. So knowing that it still had strength after  bouncing off that key level of resistance twice made me think that maybe there isn't going be a sell off and that the stock could def go higher. So I went into the next day a little bullish biased. but still prepared to short the stock off $45 if it happens to be that it cant break through it.

Below is the 5 minute intraday chart for the whole week. After scouting this stock on wednesday night, it setup perfectly on thursday morning. Right at the open you can see the stock is showing strength and blows past that $45 key level of resistance on the first few candles. Once it consolidates for a few minutes and $45 turned into support, it gave me a great low-risk entry opportunity. 

And then finally below is the daily chart after it made the move I was looking for. $NHTC was a perfect example of a clean setup right off the scan. These kind of plays have been the only ones I really feel comfortable trading since all the August/September volatility that happened, so its important I write about them to fully understand how they develop and hopefully become more discipline to sticking strictly to them. 

8/17-8/21 Week Recap

Monday 8/17: Once $AVEO failed to hold premarket levels above 2.50 I started eyeing it for a short. A perfect entry would have been in the 2.40s-2.50s with a stop in the .60s, but I hesitated and got filled at 2.38. Covered all at 2.10 and then another attempt once it made a new LOD, which got stopped  out right away. I should have exited in partials and just let 1/2 run with a stop at breakeven. 

Tuesday 8/18: When $SUNE was showing weakness around $15 I got in short at 14.93 with a hard stop at 15.05. It popped up and stopped me out by a cent which pissed me off, but thats the price you gota pay for setting hard stops. Once I get more robotic and able to cut losses on my own Ill stop using them, but for now, I have let way too many losses get bigger than they should have been. I got short right back in at 14.95 once 15.06 confirmed as resistance. Covered all shares at 14.75. After the washout around 10:45am it bounce up and now 14.50s were acting as resistance, once again trying to use whole and half dollar marks as guides. Shorted 200 shrs at 14.48 and then added 200 more shrs at 14.44. I covered in partials here at 14.19 and 14.12.

 

$OMER was just a pissed poor executed trade. I was looking for the break over the HOD, which ended up coming an hr later. This stock had a wide range so it blew past my .20 cent stop I usually use. I didnt even have time to set the order, and then I accidentally added instead of selling and ended up with 400 shrs that I got rid of quickly in a panic. Should have only thrown 100 shrs at a stock thats moving around so much and should have been looking to buy near support in the 23.30s. I need to work on my longs. I've def feel more comfortable and have more success shorting. 

Wednesday 8/19: $CRBP was a big gapper that just went straight down after the morning move. Once it crossed the VWAP I got in short with 400 shrs at 3.35. I accidentally double clicked the button and sent two orders so I got filled 800 shrs short at 3.35. Covered half at 3.19 and then had too tight of a stop on the rest and got out at 3.20.

Thursday 8/20: $CLTX. My first entry on this was a result of having no patience. I should have waited for the pop towards 3.20s and used 3.40 as a stop. My second entry wasn't bad, but for some reason I put in a stop order only .05 cents behind my entry which caused me to be stopped out almost immediately. Finally got it right on the third try and got .75 cents /share profit. I was patient and waited for a exit signal which came around 1pm with a big volume spike and lots of buyers around that level so I covered 300 shrs at 2.20. By 2pm the stock was already reversing (not on the chart) and by 3pm it was already above 3.50 and headed towards 4 so turns out I nailed the exit on this one. 

Friday 8/21: I'm embarrassed even putting this up. With the markets tanking and having the worst day in 4 years I should have known to just take off. I only had one profitable trade out of five and I think they were all horrible. The stock wasnt even down trending, notice how the first low at 4.16 was never broken, and even after 11am it stayed above that level so I should have stayed away. I need to stick to what I'm familiar with and quit wasting time, money, and effort trying to force trades.   

8/7/15

I have the greatest luck. My first day of vacation with the family back home in Destin and we get one of these "easy layups" I've been waiting for. These are the kind of plays that build small accounts (or destroy them if caught on the wrong side). But of course I didnt have my computer and couldnt get in on any of the action. I checked stockmarketwatch.com on my phone this morning just to see what the gappers looked like and sure enough $AQXP was the first ticker on there. By 10:30am the stock was already up over 100% and by 12pm it was up over 500%!!! It opened at $2.45 and hit a high of $11.68. Crazy move. Like I've mentioned before in previous posts, if the stock is still trending up by 11am, then theres a good chance it will continue. In this case, it continued for another 400%. This is what a low float stock, combined with a news catalyst, combined with a short squeeze can do. I'm pissed as hell I missed this, but all I can do now is enjoy my vacay with the family and get back to the grind once I go back home. 

(pardon the shitty intraday chart lol but no access to my DAS platform)

8/4/15

$LXRX was up on news yesterday and the stock seemed very strong all day. Today not so much. When the morning move failed to break above yesterday highs of 13.80s I started eyeing it for a short. The plan was to wait for the EMA to cross down over the VWAP and look for lower highs. 13.35 was a key point of interest because it was support for the morning move, so I knew that if that couldn't hold then there was potential for bigger down move. Once it broke below it I entered a small position of 250 shares at 13.30 and set a hard stop at 13.40. I covered at 13.07 for a .23 profit. I should have covered half and let the rest run, but like I said I had a small position so I didnt want to waste commission. Either way I need to focus on trading well and not on profits. When I look at my PnL I tend to get a little anxious and usually get out of my position too early for fear of having it turn against me.

Some important things I need to keep in mind moving foward:

 -Pay attention to where stock is trading at 10-11am, this is usually a good indication of which direction it will continue the rest of the day.
-Pay attention to where the VWAP is at. Be more long biased if trading above/more short biased if trading below.
-Setting hard stops and moving them up as I scale out.
-Pay attention to whether its "day 1" of the move or not, and dont short if it is.

7/23/15

$ITEK is a perfect example of what I blogged about yesterday. This stock had a HUGE move today after the 9EMA(blue line) crosssed over the VWAP(red line). So far, its up pretty much 100% since the crossover. I'm still not back to trading, but if I had been at my desk this morning I would have considered a long position over the premarket high of 8.84 and seeing the EMA and VWAP crossover would have been a good confirmation of the move. 

7/22/15

Recently I've been adding the 9-day EMA (exponential moving average) study to my charts, which is the blue line, and using it in combination with the VWAP (volume weighted average price), which is the red line. I've noticed that in a lot of charts there is usually a strong move up after the 9EMA crosses over the VWAP. However, this does not mean that I should rely on a single indicator to determine an entry. I will use this along with other technical info in conjunction to give me the best chance at a successful trade. 

This stock $EXEL had lighter volume today, I was actually first watching it to short near 6, but one of the rules I try to follow is dont short a stock thats still grinding up above VWAP after 11 am and this is a good example of why. I was too short biased and failed to see the opp for a long position here, first when it dipped near 5.85 and then when it based around 6 again. 

    

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.