Essentially a flat day (up $1). The funny part (not really) is that I think I traded less well than yesterday. Today had some potential but considering the way I traded I am surprised I wasn't down. Emotions came in today for some reason. I have to be ok with being wrong and taking losses - Trading in the Zone etc. Staying in the present is still a WIP especially in the heat of the moment.
CBMX: Total fuckup in that I ended up flat on this. At the open I saw 4.05/4.10 which was the premkt high absorb a lot of shares. In addition, based on the daily chart every time it gaps up, it just gets faded back. Plus I saw that they had a lot of warrants outstanding etc. So all of this combined made me short biased. So I shorted at 4.05 and got a flush to 3.75 which was the first support level. I had a bid at 3.55 which I thought it could get to (it did and more eventually) but it didn't get hit. It then bounced and made a new high. I have it a little room but with the 5 cent rule, it moves quickly. At this moment, I decided to cut it as I thought 4.05/.10 was THE top and when it went higher it reminded me of yesterday on REPH. I then saw it have big volume and absorbing again so I shorted 4.25 and put a bid at vwap to get me flat on the name and then it flushed lower, hit my bid and then went to 3.55. Later on it did have a push back to the highs, which would have been a nice reshort but I didn't trust it at this point even though it had a nice volume candle. It definitely could have been more bullish at this point so I avoided it. That wasn't the right move as it faded to almost $3 but I'm not so pissed about missing this trade as I really didn't trust it and with the games they were playing with it, I didn't want to bother. But going back to when I did actually trade it and my emotions and thought process.. I was ok with giving it some room but when I saw it get going a bit, I didn't know how much higher it could go before it would possibly fade. Maybe I was sized in a bit much but I was going off the basis that 4.10 was THE top based on how it was trading. After some thinking, I decided that it was ok to have stopped out there given what I knew at that time about the circumstances. Where I covered, that was giving it enough room so the fact that it just didn't work out at that point isn't anything to really do about. However, once it setup again then it was good to get in again. The bad thing was trying to get to flat and trading PnL. Had I not had my bid at vwap but at my original place, once it got under vwap again I could have added and then made decent money when it got to my level. There are a lot of possibilities here like maybe using less size or covering on the first minor wash but given everything I mentioned before, I was pretty confident this could fade and I was right in the longrun so those wouldn't have been good options.
CTSH: My only winner for the day. I was interested in a continued fade from the day before. If it got to an important level from yesterday then I would put on a short and then add to the winner or if it peaked $57 then I would start in and add accordingly. It started off peaking $57 and got under vwap so I shorted when it was around vwap. It went lower and I wanted to add on pops. I missed the fill on my add by a penny and then kept trying to lower it until it wasn't a good entry anymore. At one point the 57.30 bid was absorbing quite a bit of shares. I covered as it ticked up from there in case. While I had a bigger picture idea, that bid would not budge so I did the smart thing and took it off for a profit. It did get under that bid though and I shorted it with bigger size when it got under it. I was going to give it to over/under .30 if it reclaimed. It faded off a bit but then it spiked up. My stop almost triggered but I took it off as it got back under. So one thing to note of course is to give things enough room on these. I saw it consolidating and thought the move was over so I put a stop at a few cents below my price and got out for a tiny gain. At this point I should have been more patient and given it the full range. My PnL dictated that I should take profit even though there was nothing in the way to stop it from going lower besides needing extra time (unlike before with the refreshing bid). I then tried to reshort it on the base break again but was so worried about a few cents for some reason that I covered for flat. It wasn't a good entry of course and I was looking for more followthrough. Had I covered just because it was a bad entry then ok but I was so worried about it and the few cents affecting my PnL which is stupid. So that is the big lesson here and with CBMX. Don't trade PnL, don't have any hesitation or fear, and give things room.
TIF: My main loser for me. I was long biased due to the earnings and thought it could get to the $84ish level based on heavy resistance from the daily chart in the past. It did exactly that but I ended up losing money on this... After it made a little move at the open I decided to put a bid in at around vwap. I should have put my bid much lower because it wasn't far enough in the day to do a vwap bounce and it wasn't high enough to pullback just enough to vwap either. So that was a mistake. I decided I should just get out for flat if I could since at the time I thought it could just peak vwap. This was also stupid. I was stupid with the bid and not bidding lower. Would I have been disappointed if I didn't get filled at a lower price and it went higher? Yeah but looking back as I said, it wasn't a vwap play yet. As mentioned before, disregard vwap at the open besides certain setups. Anyway, I shouldn't have been so trigger happy to sell at breakeven because it did go higher and right to my target. Now, it did pullback later and I had a bid at support because I didn't expect it to fade the way that it ended up doing. I got in at what was at the time a decent price and wanted to be patient for a potential move to the upside again because I thought it would consolidate for most of the day as the earnings were good and IMHO deserved a gap up but that it wouldn't go much higher beyond that resistance. So I would play dips between the range. Unfortunately, it broke under $82 so I sold when that happened. I didn't touch it until I saw another range develop and I saw a refreshing bid at $81.25 so I bought in front of that looking for a move to the topside of the range at least. I still had a positive bias but less so at this point but thought I could get at least a decent scalp out of it. It ended up going lower though and breaking the .25 level. I did give it enough room but the stock seemed pretty weak after giving it enough room to say it wasn't just a fakeout and so I stopped out for a tiny loss. I could have gotten flat I guess if I waited but it's ok. Overall, I played it poorly with the vwap in the morning and then later on my thesis wasn't correct so those stop outs were ok and they were definitely worth a shot in both instances I think.
Things to work on:
1. Give things enough room.
2. No pressure on PnL at all.
3. Stay in the present.
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