Trading Recap 1/29/16

I wasn't able to do a recap of Wednesday due to being busy and I am just now able to do a recap of Friday's action for me. For Wednesday I didn't take any trades although I should have and was stupid not to. I saw FATE right at the open and decided against taking it. I believe some fear set in again but fast forward to Friday and I made a profitable trade. With my account not just going down anymore and instead bouncing a bit shows I am improving and I can feel it. Unfortunately, I was up a decent amount on Friday's trade but it turned into close to breakeven with commissions. But I stuck to my plan so that is all I can ask for I think. I think there is something to learn from this experience when looking for taking profits. I will mention that below.

White arrows are entries followed by exits.

WTW: I had this on watch for failed follow through thinking there would be more sellers after everybody chased the Oprah tweet and the stock fell quite a bit afterwards the next day. I knew there would still be bagholders and any weakness was an opportunity to short (SSR was on though). When it made new lows after a couple of minutes breaking 12.7 I tried to short and got filled. It did get a bit spready and spike up a bit on me but I held on. When it went red and peaked I added in thinking my trade thesis was valid. I got a nice flush and looked at the where the pre-Oprah tweet level was which was around $11.6. Therefore, I thought about holding on for any potential $12 wash and I would take my profits there. It broke the prior day's lows so I figured it could continue lower if I was patient and stuck with my plan. My plan was to hold it as long as $12.4 peaked. After it flushed, it started holding a bit but I stuck with my plan because I thought it could continue lower. I don't think there was any greed involved. However, I was only looking at the 1min chart and now looking at the 2/3min charts it looked like a short term bottom and capitulation with buyers who came in. After it started basing for a bit it just shot up and I wasn't going to let it go red on me so I took it off where I added and only made $ on my initial entry. My thesis is people put their stop below the LOD of the prior day and when that triggered it took everyone out and that was it. No more longs to dump their shares and thus the stock was able to rebound. Going forward I will keep this in mind.

WMB: I had the idea of shorting this if oil was weak. At first I wasn't interested but then I was after it went red on the day and looked to continue lower. However, oil wasn't rally tanking, although that doesn't mean this couldn't have gone lower. It did make a slight push which got it green again. However, when it went red again and couldn't sustain staying green that was an indication that it was ready to go lower.

AMDA: Didn't have this on watch since it was not shortable for me but I want to put it here as a note to keep calm. If I did trade this, I might have shorted it when it went red only to have it squeeze on me and shake everybody out. But that was the top for the day and it faded nicely from there.

WATT: I thought about trading this short after the initial run but ti looked like it was curling back up and while it looked like it was peaking at prior resistance again, it was 50/50 and something I didn't want to both with, similar to ENOC. It ended up working out but I think it's better that I didn't take the trade if I thought it was a 50/50 shot and no edge was there for me.

UVXY: I had this on watch because I was looking for a possible long because the SPY seemed overextended. However, after closer watch it was really just a grind upwards and nothing to take advantage of. However, later on when the SPY made what looked to be a lower high, UVXY barely inched upward and came right back down to lows. Once I saw that I thought it would be a good short candidate since fear seemed to be exiting the market and there was a chance the market was going to new highs. However, I thought it was still a possibility that the SPY could roll back down so I didn't take the trade. Plus, I didn't have shorts for it and only had shorts for VXX which really doesn't move that much. It ended being a decent fader for the rest of the day.

Things to work on:

1. See if a stock stops going down after breaking a prior day's lows.
2. Use multiple time frames (2/3/5) min charts even when in the trade.

Trading Recap 1/25/16

Another losing day for me although I took the trades I thought would work out. Unfortunately I didn't get filled on the ones that would have ended up being winners but whatever. I must say though that I don't really feel anything about the losses. In the past I would have doubted myself, hated myself for being such an idiot, etc. Now, as long as I take the trades that I want and take action then I think I will be content. If I go all the way back below $500 then so be it and I will add in some funds to replenish and try again. But it feels quite good to not give a shit and just go to the next day. Overall, I am less emotional and that is a bigger win than anything else when it comes to trading. As long as my process is ok then the results will come. Day by day profits will vary but will be exaggerated with my small account but that is ok.

White arrows are entries followed by exits.

OMED: I had this on watch for failed follow through/lower highs for a possible all day fade on the bad news. I saw it ramp a bit then have lower highs which got me interested. I thought about shorting but thought the risk was too high for me so I waited to see what would happen. Once the $9.70s cracked I thought I could short any retest with risk to $9.7 o/u. So I did that and while it held a small higher low on the retest on the 1min I didn't think much of it. I drew a downtrend line and figured any pops on that line would be good which is where I got short. Right after shorting it popped and I let it test but it held so I got out. After a while it made new lows. Maybe I could have risked to $10 o/u instead but to me it seemed like a waste because if it reclaimed then I wouldn't be interested and it would have the potential to squeeze a little by trapping shorts like me.

ENOC: There were a few things going on in my head for this trade. The first is that it is day 1 so I need to be careful and the fact that it was past 11AM and still holding up. However, I thought that the move was over with when it consolidated at the highs and could not push anymore. I figured any retest of $6.2 would be ok for a short. So when it retested I went short with risk to $6.2 o/u. It consolidated and while it looked to be holding, any pushes towards the .20s were rejected. Plus, the 11AM rule is flexible since it was around 11:30. However, I should taken into account the higher lows forming/looking like it would breakout. At the same time I didn't want to be scared out of my position when my stop still wasn't hit. By the time it was ready to breakout, I thought to myself it really can go either way which if I wasn't in already I would have avoided but since I was in I decided to let it test and see what would happen. Generally, "just seeing what happens" is a bad thing but I tried to balance not wanting to get out prematurely with the fact that it was just chopping around and could go either way. Overall, I don't think I broke any rules; my choice to hold on and give it that 50/50 shot since I was already in just ended up being wrong. On a side note, when I covered ST executed my buy order twice so I was long 100 shares at 6.34. I tried to get out just to cover the commission and I did. I thought about holding on to it and "seeing what it would do" but I decided against that since I didn't want to be greedy and it wasn't part of my plan at all. Obviously I would have been better off holding but whatever.

GLNG: I wanted to see either weak open or failed follow through at the open. It had some higher lows at the open but I didn't take it, mostly because I was looking at other stocks. After it had rocketed up a bit I kept it on watch. I thought it had gotten rejected a few times and so a short would be decent but after flushing it came right back and made new highs. However, it consolidated and couldn't push anymore and I figured that is where all the shorts gave up. The HOD consolidation pattern is something I look for and it is similar to how ENOC looked, sort of. This short would have worked nicely.

OAS: I wanted to get short on any sign of weakness and if oil decided to go lower. Oil stocks were very weak compared to oil on Friday so that was a major reason for my bias. When OAS had a failed breakout I tried to get short but didn't get filled (was only a penny away) which is a shame since I would have added to this and it would have been a nice win. I found out that it doesn't matter if I take or add liquidity, the fees are the same so I will just take liquidity from now on if I want to get into something.

WMB: This was the only oil stock I was interested in to go long since it had nice relative strength compared to all of the other oil names. When it broke out from 19.50s that was a good indicator to get long. That would have worked nicely until it decided to fade with the rest of the oil names. The only reason I didn't take it is because I didn't want to risk .50 cents on it. I guess I could have done 50 shares although it was under $20 so I think 100 is the minimum allowed.

Things to work on:

1. On OMED type of trades, short into pushes only and since it had big range my stop needed to be wider as well. Which means for now I shouldn't take this type of trade.
2. Just take liquidity if the spread isn't bad.
3. Keep the focus on for setups throughout the day.
4. Balance situations like ENOC better. Maybe I could have taken it off and put it back on at the expense of commission.

Trading Recap 1/22/15

Well I took some of the trades that I thought were good trades. Essentially broke even/slight loss on both (lost more on commission in both cases) and had I taken some of the other trades I wanted and tried to get filled on it would have been a good day. But the losses don't matter. I don't really even care about the losses to be honest. I feel so much better and more proud of myself for just pushing the damn button whenever I liked something. The stuff I said about not caring about my streak and if I lose money? All true. I felt really good and can't wait for Monday.

White arrows are entries followed by exits.

WYNN: I had this on long watch for dips due to the nice wedge that it was forming on the 15min chart and the fact that it can have nice moves and is honestly pretty thin for a larger cap stock. When it gapped up I took it off radar but then looked at it again and saw that it had flushed and reclaimed some intraday support. When it retested that support on the dip I went long. Essentially it just chopped around and it looked like it would flush at any second only to be bought back up again and look like it would break out. It kept doing this until I said if it doesn't break out on the 4th or so attempt then I'm out. So it tried to get above that .50/.60 level but couldn't so I got out for close to breakeven. It was a good decision and it wasn't out of panic or emotion because I had given it enough time and while it was toying with me the entire time I let it pan out. It never did breakout and did go lower. This might not have been the best of trades but my idea was the wedge breakout, flush and reclaim of support, and the fact that the SPY was going higher so I figured this could get a nice move upward.

SUNE: I also had this on watch and I either wanted to join a trend long for a bounce since it looked like it had reclaimed levels of support on the daily chart and put in a nice bottom or if $2.7s peaked and failed to go in for the short after the gap up since I know most gap ups in this are sold off. It mostly screwed around and then I saw the news about Blackrock which caused a nice spike towards $2.7 and failed. These news items are sometimes used as exits and with the huge volume that came in but it couldn't move I figured this might be the case. I might have chased a little when I couldn't get a fill but I wanted it to prove itself that there was no follow through after the news. When I got that confirmation I decided to get in. It made nLODs and tried to go red but couldn't and then it started to come back up quickly. I wanted to give it some time but I figured that if it wasn't just straight flushing then my idea was invalid and it wouldn't be what I thought would happen. I wish I looked closer at the 1min though since it formed that same pattern I saw on ZFGN so instead of covering near the top because I figured it could go higher, I could have waited it out and been more patient and got breakeven instead of a slight loss. It ended up doing nothing the rest of the day.

ALKS: I was looking for any pops/failed follow through to get short on this. Shorts cover and that provides an opportunity to short after their buying pressure exhausts. I was looking at the $34.5 level since that was the first possible resistance level. Once I saw it had peaked there I looked for lower highs which came but unfortunately my TOS crashed and it took a while to restart so I missed this.

ZFGN: I was looking for any pops/failed follow through to short this since most of the move was a squeeze and the squeezes is done and the backside is in. It flushed at the open and then it started to hold a bit so I took it off radar but then checked it out later in the day and noticed it had stuffed at the $9.5 level which is a potential major resistance area. From there I wanted to see the uptrend fail and lower highs. Ideally I would have started in  but I wanted to see a lower high first and it peak at the $9.3 level. Instead it just flushed straight down. It came back and my friend shorted it when it was hovering around r/g and it made nLODs so that was good. To me it looked like it was holding r/g again but when it peaked r/g afterward it was good.

General thesis on oil names/DWTI: I was looking at oil names for either a continued bounce and to go long on dips if there was a trend or to short any weakness especially if oil fell again. I was mostly looking for a short though because the oil numbers released were pretty bad and yet we still bounced. It felt like it needed any excuse to bounce and that when the chasers/late shorts got squeezed out it would fall right back. This wasn't the case however with oil making new highs the oil stocks like MRO and OAS were relatively weak and they would have been good shorts. I was looking at OAS's chart and it looked like it had a nice failed breakout and would continue lower. Later in the day though, I saw oil continuing to make new highs so I took a look at DWTI and saw it looked really good for a short. It based nicely through the day and now cracked. I thought about shorting any retest assuming that if oil was still making new highs then it was at least in the short term still strong and I could short DWTI. I didn't take the trade because I had never done a play like this before but it worked out really well anyway.

Trading Recap 1/20/15

Yesterday I fucked up. No, I didn't lose my ass shorting ZFGN early. Worse. I hesitated to trade again and didn't trade at all when I again had a 100% hit rate for my "calls", which doesn't mean shit. I feel that same level of disgust at myself as when I had that long rambling a few posts ago. I keep thinking that the hesitation is gone but it still lingers in the back of my mind, like a splinter I can't take out. I keep going back to what my thoughts/emotions are when I am contemplating entering and the things I keep coming up with: being afraid to lose and being afraid of being wrong, as mentioned before. But when I look at the worst thing that can happen should I enter a trade, which I guess is blowing up (losing money), I've lost money already - been there done that. My streak goes away? So what? I don't get a bonus for having a streak - it doesn't mean anything. I was wrong? Been there done that too many times to count. Every time I enter a trade, I make it seem like a big deal. "Ok this is it I'm in the trade and filled." So fucking what? I want to be a trader, I'm supposed to trade. That is the nature of this business. It's not a special fucking moment where the trading gods come down and congratulate you "Wow you made a trade. Congrats." It's part of the job; it's even in the fucking name (TRADEr). A lot of this also comes down to the fact that I am too focused on the results and not on the process. Yeah, I only have $700 and don't have a big account but it's going to stay at $700 if I don't fucking trade. I need to focus on my process (which I have been) and not worry about the $, either gain or loss. Overall, I am tired of being a bitch and being a trader in my head and not being an actual trader. An actual trader in reality has to fucking place trades.

Tomorrow it's go time. I WILL take any and all trades that I perceive as good trades. End of discussion - even if I have to trade naked outside in the cold.

ZFGN: After seeing the failed follow through in the premarket I developed a short bias and wanted to short any failed follow through or a parabolic/lower highs. Neither came. Instead I should have realized that it had nice range and any higher lows could be a decent long. I won't chew myself up too much for missing the long since I didn't understand at the time what would get it going since at that point all shorts were up for the most part so a squeeze seemed unlikely at the open. Anyway, fast forward to the parabolic and at first I thought about shorting when I saw the volume increase near $10 but avoided it, thankfully. However, the way that the parabolic shaped was something I have seen and recognized many times. It was around $11.50 and I was looking to short but hesitated because it looked too strong. This ended up being the top. I try to avoid front side shorting, especially for my small account, but this pattern was quite clear to me. Even though I didn't short here though, there were plenty of opportunities on the backside that I didn't trade. I wanted to short $10.50s and didn't see the $11 stuff and hesitated again and then even at $10 too.

NFLX: I originally didn't have this on watch but saw that it had given up all of its after market gains from the night before which made me think that it was weak and a short was possible on failed follow through. I saw it in the $106-107 range and thought this would be a good short on pops. I should have just went in with risk to r/g and it wouldn't have been a problem. Ideally you start in small and can add on pops as long as the trade is valid. Anyway a few seconds later it washed out and I figured I missed my entry.. but was I wrong. It went much lower than I thought it would have and would have made a great trade.

OPTT: I saw this rocketing up and kept it on watch. I checked the daily chart and it has a lot of potential resistance in the $2.5 area. I saw it tried to break out and get rejected, which was a short signal to me. I saw it at $2.1 when the high was $2.44 and thought it was too late, which is retarded as mentioned many times before. I can't keep this notion of having to get the top tick or else I am chasing/not good entry. I am taking things too literally when people say not to chase etc. There is plenty of potential downside to be had still.

NXTD: I had this on watch for a parabolic/lower highs to short into after everyone was properly squeezed. It felt crowded and it was one of the few runners going on at the time so a lot of eyes were on it. However, it just stuffed (which I didn't see in real time) and just fell from there. By the time I actually realized there was a trade it was when it had that massive red candle, which I still could have shorted into and made money, proving yet again how on certain plays it is ok to not have the absolute pristine entry.

SUNE: I had this on watch for failed follow through which did happen but I was too busy looking at ZFGN and other stocks to really take notice. I did make a note that it would be a nice short in the $2.30s-40s but wanted to save my account BP for other plays at the time. This had a very nice quick washout to $2.

Overall, a day with lots of opportunity in which I did not partake.

Things to improve on:

1. Don't worry about not having the best entry. If the trade looks good and you can get a decent entry then take it.
2. Don't make taking a trade this big thing. Trading should be a calm and collected process. Plus you want to be a trader so... you need to trade.
3. Be more on the lookout for stuff moves.
4. For ZFGN, volume doesn't tell the full story when it is going parabolic. Unless it has huge, huge volume then it can still go higher like it did from $10 to $11. Keep looking for patterns like this for an edge to trade off of.

Trading Recap 1/15/16

No trades for me again today. The reason for that though is mostly due to being too slow to input orders and being unsure as well. The market has been quite interesting as of late and has thrown a lot of head fakes to traders. There was a lot to watch as well and while I tried to focus on the best, my estimates as to which ones would play out the best were wrong. However, one thing I have consistently noticed is that I am sometimes not able to see patterns I recognize after the fact in real time. This may be due to a lack of focus and if so then that means I have to focus and keep analyzing what is going on even though I normally resort to "there's nothing out there".

VXX/UVXY: I had an idea to short at the open because as the SPY was making new lows right before the bell the VXX/UVXY weren't moving much at all which was a signal to me to get short. Then when the market opened the SPY started ripping instead of flushing so I definitely knew it was a good shot. But by the time I had my short order entered it was too late and the decay had begun in both ETFs. However, I now notice a pattern I have seen many times before work on the SPY and could have gone long UVXY. This is one of the many things I failed to notice today, probably due to the fact that it was lunchtime and I wanted to head out. You can see the lines I drew on the charts below to illustrate that.

CDRB: CDRB was one of those that it all happened too quick and by the time the stuff happened it had faded a little bit more than what I like to base my risk off of. I think in the future I will just go for these since they almost always work and whatever even 100 shares if I don't get to add ends up being a good play a la EARS. Some went long in the chatroom when it started perking but I would have rather seen a trend form first then buy dips. While it was a good scalp, it ended up fading right back so you never know with these. I didn't think of any short attempts as the day went on especially since I was out but I don't like sitting around and babysitting the position unless I realized most of it or think it can fade a lot and have a decent sized position.

BSI: Nate warned about this in chat about it being thin (which it is) and being potentially crowded. It's hard to judge whether or not it really is crowded but what stopped me from shorting it was the fact that it had held up well yesterday after the halt and now with the news and gap up, potentially more shorts are trapped. When it went parabolic I didn't realize in real time that it had gone up around $1.5 in 3 minutes or so. The third candle was the place to short and I was contemplating a short around $7.5 but it is just like CDRB where it's not exactly close to the top and it is a bit more risk than I would like to exhibit and it is really thin and I thought it was crowded at the same time. I wasn't sure if all the shorts were covered into that push or now and that now it would have a chance to fall freely.

VHC: I had this on short watch for failed follow through momo. However, it grinded up past r/g and so I took it off watch since it wasn't doing what I thought it would. However, I should have kept it on watch (another miss due to lack of focus) because it had a pattern I have seen before (a certain parabolic pattern) and there was another pattern afterwards where it tried to breakout and gets rejected and starts to fade off a little before the real unwind happens. I saw the news and thought that it was bs (mostly a Roth capital mention) and I know it is probably chasers bidding it up but I guess I overthought the scenario and thought that there might be people (like Roth) keeping it up. Another lesson here is don't overthink.

Things to work on:

1. Always keep laser focus when trading on all setups.
2. Take those CDRB/BSI type trades.
3. No overthinking. 

Trading Recap 1/11/15

No trades for me today although I would have definitely traded had I been present for the opening stuff in AVXL. There were other opportunities in ATV and others throughout the day but I didn't take them due to uncertainty. I do have a sense of more confidence though and I am better at knowing which stocks to play and which not to. For example, today on WTW I saw a lot of people trying to play the bounce and while it looked good on the chart intraday, I tried to get an idea of what was happening with the stock and trying to form a thesis. I couldn't come up with one and in fact I thought it should just be consolidating and that is pretty much what it did for most of the day. Trade the best, fuck the rest. The only thing I need to get fixed is my sleeping. Lately I have been feeling tired for some reason and my sleeping hasn't been the usual quality of a good straight 8-9 hours. So even though I went to sleep at 10:30 last night expecting to be good at 8AM and prepare for the day, I still felt tired since I woke up a few times during the night and slept until 9:10 which didn't give me much time to prepare and made me miss AVXL.

AVXL: I was glad to see it shortable at suretrader and with the gap up and pump news I figured it would be a good short on all pops. Unfortunately, it stuffed right at the open which I was unprepared for and missed that trade. I thought about shorting it on the bounce in low to mid 5's for a 5 wash but with the SSR on I was too late (again!) with my order entry and couldn't hit the bid.

ATV: I thought I missed the short at the open when it faded back down but the reason I didn't short it was that it didn't seem to have had any stuffs/big parabolics so I never really saw an entry. I missed the reclaim which I should have saw and went long for. As it went up I was looking for a clear stuff on big volume and/or lower highs. The stuffs weren't on as big of volume but I did notice it getting toppy in the $10 area but didn't want to start in yet. Once it had some lower highs and fails of support I should have went in as I have seen this before and know it is a good r/r. That is my mistake. At the time I wasn't sure though and when it bounced a bit I thought it could still go but it was a failed bounce. However, I had to leave at that point.

Trading Recap 1/8/11

Well another winner for me and a pretty decent sized one at that. The streak continues but I will disregard that since I may not take trades in order to keep my streak alive. I did hesitate about entering the trade but then I saw one of modern rock's tweets about FURUs not trading and only showing off their nice calls and real traders take the actual trade and aren't afraid of losing. I didn't want to be a furu so I clicked the button and it worked out. The biggest help for me so far has been to integrate a thesis/understanding of what is happening with the stock and the participants. This has helped narrow my focus and help me avoid trades that I don't have much faith in. My process for taking a trade is now to have a thesis/understanding of the participants and why the stock is possibly doing what it is doing and then secondly understand that the price action can confirm or deny my thoughts. I also have started utilizing the 2/3min candles much more instead of the 1min since my personality is to take everything too literally and over analyze everything. With the 2/3min candles there is less noise and less chance for me to incorrectly assume something is happening when it isn't.

White arrows are entries followed by exits.

EARS: I had this on watch for a short and after monitoring it for a bit and seeing it look weak compared to prior days and the fact that it had failed to go green meant it was weak and that the squeeze was most likely done and that any reason for longs to sell would be taken. This is what I mean by having a thesis and understanding of what is going on. I shorted after it failed to go green and after it made nLODs I looked to add on any pops but didn't get filled due to the SSR. If the SSR wasn't on I would have added on the nLOD break instead but wanted to be cautious and only fill on pops due to the SSR. Even though I didn't get any adds, I had good patience with it and captured just over a $1 move on it. I covered after it looked like it had a washout candle on volume and was consolidating.

SIEN: I had this on watch due to it looking to be a known junker and any gap up would be a good opportunity to short. It played out exactly like NURO where it fell a little bit at the open and then stuffed everybody out of it and then fell. I did try to get filled when it stuffed but I was too slow with my entry on the suretrader website.

WTW: I saw this gap up and thought again that any gap up opportunity would be a good short and I was right but it was non-shortable so I took it off watch. I figured that most of the move was just a squeeze so the unwind can begin with any failed follow through.

Trading Recap 1/5/16

No trades for me again. I think I am reverting back to my old ways which I don't want. I thought about what I want to do with the account (just use it as practice and play everything I think is a good trade and reload if I blow up, keep the current way of trading, or look for those setups where I can definitely play correctly and scale in and have a good r/r) The third option is the best choice so that is what I will go with. Any trade I think that fits the criteria of me being able to scale in for a proper entry and have a good r/r where I am not risking a lot for my account but the reward is worth it I will force myself to take. It is too demoralizing looking at all these tickers and not being able to do anything with them. I will focus on trades that setup within my parameters. On the same note, I have to try and pick the best setup available because otherwise there is opportunity cost since I can really only trade one ticker at a time. There has still been the issue of lack of confidence although truth be told my ideas aren't too shabby. Execution is needed though and ideas don't mean shit.

BXLT: I had this on weak open r/g watch but was hesitant to put it on watch since it seemed random. The chart did look good though. I saw higher lows/perking in the morning and thought about entering there. However, the stupid voice in my head said "oh what if this is a bear flag". It's stupid shit like that that gets me in trouble and doesn't let me trade what I like. It doesn't matter though since it only moved a bit past r/g and then did nothing for the rest of the day until late in the day.

NHTC: I had this on bounce watch and I wanted a gap down and washout and then a higher low to go long. Instead, it gapped up slightly. What I should have noticed was that it was the first day of holding trend so I should have bought dips. The volume wasn't there though so I probably would have decided against it.

SWHC: I had it on watch due to the gap but looked at the daily chart and saw that almost all of the gap ups held their gains so it wasn't a short for me.The only trade I was thinking of taking was when the stock washed due to the Obama comments and I wanted to go long since I thought that it was too obvious to want to short the stock and that everybody would want to short it which would make it crowded. I wanted to buy around $25 which would have worked for a nice scalp but I never pulled the trigger.

GPRO/WTW: I am putting these together since they were similar trades/charts. I had them on watch due to the gap ups but wasn't sure what to do with them so I pretty much took them off radar. However, my idea was to short both since any gaps on GPRO are a chance for bagholders to sell since it's a POS and WTW was mostly all a squeeze so any gaps should be shorted after shorts get exhausted.

GSI: When it unhalted it squeezed and then settled back down. I was thinking there were a lot of shorts trapped and it could go higher so I was cautious of shorting it. I didn't think of buying any dips towards the support since I prefer for it to form some trend. Once the backside was in though I should have shorted any pops. However, I thought that it was still crowded with shorts and that it had a chance to reclaim and go higher. It might have squeezed everyone though in the first few minutes since it essentially doubled or more from the open.

EARS: I saw this on the top % gainers list and was looking at it as it kept spiking higher. Looking at the daily, it consolidated nicely and that made me hesitant to short any moves. Looking back, I could have scalped it at the very least when I noticed the stuff move as shown with the arrow below. I might have top ticked it though when it made nHOD which would have been bad since that was the top. I remember a similar scenario on another stock (I think OREX) where the daily looked ok but the intraday was good for a short but I didn't take it due to the daily. This should be a reminder that with moves like this, the daily is less useful.

AETI: Another runner with a stuff that I didn't take due to it being day 1 but that shouldn't matter with a stuff as obvious as this.

Things to work on:

1. You are a day trader so while the daily is important the intraday charts, especially in these cases, take precedence.

Trading Recap 1/4/16

No trades for me today. I didn't see much that I like although I was about to place some trades on a couple of stocks but decided against it. I assume if I had taken everything I had a thought about trading I would be breakeven to slightly green, but that is just an estimate.


VRX - I saw the news that Ackman had reduced his stake and since he was a major driver of the stock, I thought any pops would be a good short candidate. I had the thought of it fading off right from the open and from then any lower highs could be shortable. However, it decided to ramp towards r/g first before washing out most of the day. The thing to note here is that I just finished reviewing some trades from Nate's free blog and I noticed the theme on most gap downs is to let the shorts gets exhausted first and then you short that first push. That is probably what happened here as shorts came into the stock on the news and they got ramped on and then the real short opportunity presented itself when it failed r/g. The good thing is now that idea is in my head. While there were no real lower highs, once it had that red candle at the r/g fail you could short there and ideally add to the winner.

SUNE: My plan going into today was to short any failed follow through for the $5 break. However, the gap down and the overall market negated that plan. I was looking for a push to the $5 area to get short and when it got there it did flush but then came right back and then I was thinking about shorting but decided it overall wasn't worth it and the whole thing wasn't going as my original plan, which was good of course since it grinded up the rest of the day. One thing to note is that Nate said that he looks for these types of stocks that don't move with the market usually but gap down when the SPY gaps down. He looks to go long and SUNE was one of the stocks he went long on.

LEI: I was looking for a weak open r/g for some sort of move upward. My thought was that it still retained most of the move from Thursday and with it being such a low float I figured any dips/higher lows would be a good candidate for a long. It ended up washing out a little and the ramping right up. It didn't leave much room for an entry unless you took that washout. It did come back down towards the $6.50s which was an opportunity but I didn't realize that at the time. I had actually thought about shorting it since it came under the $6.70 support from the prior day after shooting right through it. I should have thought about the overall bigger picture of shorts still being trapped especially from the bear trap this morning when it looked like it was going to wash out. I need to have a better idea of not just trading the pure price action like I have previously said but also think about what is overall happening with the stock and all the current participants. On the flip side though, had I had that in mind I would not have known that it would be a good short. I thought about shorting it when it went red which told me that the move was possibly over but it was a dollar from the highs so I wasn't sure if it was a good r/r scenario. When it consolidated toward r/g on volume and stuffed I should have shorted there. That was a better r/r. I saw the SSR was on though so I didn't want to bother with it especially since it had low volume.

CMRX: I was looking for a short on this since it looked overextended due its bounce from the lows. The gap down changed things a bit but in premarket it came back to the major resistance point so I thought any shorts near that area would be ok. However, going off of what Nate said the washout turned out to be a good long since it ripped through $9 pretty quickly. I was looking to short after it had gone red and below the $8.9 level. However, I saw on the bids that $8.66 kept refreshing and soaking so I stayed away from shorting it which was good. However, when it looked to be weak again I guess I was doing other things because the same setup occurred but this better looking and it faded nicely into the close.

VXX: In the morning the market was looking weak but the VXX and UVXY weren't heading higher so I thought that the market would head back up so I thought about shorting the VXX. It would have been a decent scalp but it came back and made new highs. I thought that the market was overreaccting so any pops would have been shortable on the VXX. Later in the day I saw the market was still weak so I changed bias and looked for dips on the VXX to buy but didn't want to chase, so I left it alone. The market then proceeded to do what I thought it would do in the morning and rip up.

Things to work on:
1. Always have an idea of what is happening with the stock and not just the price action you see.
2. Stop thinking you are always chasing something when most of the time you are not. Ex.: LEI short when it went red
3. When the market gaps down like this, look for stocks that don't usually trade with the SPY for gap downs and an opportunity to go long.

Trading Recap 12/31/15

No trades again for me. I didn't see much that interested me besides LEI. I was about to short LEI but didn't pull the trigger which was good since my entry would have been bad.

LEI: I first saw it when it was at $5 and then looked at the float and said forget about shorting it for a while. I thought it would have to parabolic and to look for that for a short entry. It had a parabolic but I didn't short it since it didn't seem like enough. While it did wash a $1 it came right back and continued higher. I waited for an entry to go short and while I thought about just going long, there was no way to mitigate my risk and it would be just blind chasing and hoping it keeps going even though it probably would. Anyway, I got interested in a short around the $8-9 area when it looked to make a lower high (arrow shows point of interest). Looking back this was a foolish thought since there was no real confirmation of any lower high being formed and it was still on an uptrend. Plus it still didn't parabolic. As mentioned above, I didn't enter the trade. Later on, I saw it peak at prior support and it looked like VLTC and WTW from yesterday. I couldn't short due to 1:1 margin (although now that I think about it 50 shares would have been ok although I am not sure if I can do 50 shares on a $9 stock with suretrader). Again, moral of the story is to let it peak at a prior support after falling through it.