Trading Recap 10/15/15

There was pretty good opportunity today but I didn't take any of it unfortunately. It is hard to have a good risk for my small account on some of these names even on 100 shares. Even on my TRIP trade yesterday I had to put my risk less than what it should have been (83 over/under vs 84.5 over/under). I will have to take this into account. It is hard to balance not wanting to stop out prematurely with the fact that it is hard on a lot of plays to have a good and proper risk set. Key word is proper.

Here are the main plays I was looking at.

TTHI: I saw this on the top % gainers scan and looking at the daily chart I knew it was a junk company and the news seemed like junk. I became interested in the short when it looked like it failed to breakout and 2.60s would be the peak again. I hesitated shorting in the 2.50s mainly because it looked like the same thing before where it tried to breakout and failed but then pushed higher anyway but came back down again. Also, it was 20 cent risk and on 200 shares that would be a lot and I wasn't going to do 100 shares and then 100 to add since it wouldn't be worth it, unless it went back to $2 or something... (which it did). Anyway it broke 2.50 and I was looking for it to peak for an entry on the backside. It peaked and I saw the sellers absorbing at 2.47 so with all this combined there was no excuse for not taking this entry. I remember seeing some support around 2.44 so I thought it could bounce from there but I was overthinking things and taking the chart too literally, if that makes sense. I was scared to do it even though everything was lined up perfectly. No excuse but I will use this as a lesson going forward. Totally unlike my TRIP trade yesterday where I just went for it.

ZFGN: I was thinking of trading this in the morning a few times but decided against it. I wanted to remember this chart though because it has a pattern I see often that works most of the time. If a stock consolidated and breaks out but then comes back and has lower highs and starts to fade away, then it is almost always a great short opportunity. That happened here after the failed 11:30AM breakout.

VTL: I was going to have this on watch for a short either tomorrow or next week but it ramped so much that I got interested in it. I saw it had a huge volume move on the 1min and it looked like a top. That was followed by a quick stuff move. It was hard to have a proper risk for my small account even for 100 shares since I would have to short in the 7.50 area where I first saw it and my stop would be HOD (40 cents away). It faded the rest of the day with no real pops to short.

Things to work on:

1. Take the fucking trade - no overanalysis.
2. No fear. When we choose safety, we reinforce fear.