Went into today wanting to just take it easy, knowing that Friday's I often do stupid things and give back a whole week in one trade, like I did last month on SGNL. I was taking it easy for 3 hours, I had only made 2 trades and was up like $200, and I wanted to just keep taking it easy and finish the day green. I had internet/connection problems twice today and that is partially to blame for my losing day.
This is what happens when you are stubborn and add, add, add to a loser into max size, I have gotten "bailed out" on a bunch of add, add, add trades over the last two weeks and it finally caught up to me again. The thing about, add, add, adding, is that it can work 9/10 times, but that ONE TIME it doesn't, you usually end up losing more than all the other times combined.
I nailed the initial short on FXCM, 2k at 2.73, had an order in for 1k at 2.64 and then got disconnected from my internet and reconnected 5 minutes later with a hotspot from my phone and it was 2.70 (it had hit 2.64 without filling me and then bounced back and I would have covered 2.64-2.66). It went against me a little bit and then came back down and I covered for a small gain, ideally (without the connection issues) I would have covered where I was trying to and re-shorted it again 2.75-2.79 and then covered 2.61-2.65.
The LL CNBC interview/conference call, or whatever it was, came on and it went from $33.80's to $34.80's in 2 minutes, I nailed the short into the parabolic but only with 300 shares and covered for 40 cents, then went long just for a scalp, but I didn't have the best entry, then I add, add, added to 1100 shares 33.90's average, put an order in at 34.14 for 600 shares and that filled, I had an order at 34.28 for the rest, and then the internet/connection went out again, I tried getting back in as soon as possible but it took around 5 minutes and it was in the 33.60's (down like $100-300 on the rest). I add, add, added again to 1400 shares now, my new average was 33.60, it bounced to 33.72 and I just missed an order at 33.74 and didn't hit the bid/panic out anywhere 33.40-33.60, even though it looked weak. It washed to 32.80's and I was down $1000 unrealized, then it slowly bounced and I tried to sell into the bounce but just missed orders again, I had some orders 33.30's and it topped out again 33.25ish and started rolling back over, retested the 33 level and I should have stopped out of everything for a $600-800 dollar loss. It washed out to 32.47, tried to bounce some but couldn't, I almost stopped out at 32.47 when it was retesting that level, but didn't and it was soon 31.60's (more than $1000 dollar difference had I sold 32.47). Then Suretrader liquidated 400 shares at 31.64, then it bounced to 32.20's, once again my orders were just a bit too high, I tried selling half at 32.16 and got 200 shares filled, then it dropped again, I readded 300 shares at 31.81 and then stopped out on everything at 31.80 when it wasn't bouncing for a total loss of $2400, putting me down $2000 on the day after being up around $400 (from the first 2 trades and then the first parts of trading LL). Traded it twice more and made a little bit back.
Then I starting trading on AMPE, I was trading too big and emotionally trying to make back as much as possible as quick as possible, I scaled in short into the parabolic just looking for a quick washout to cover into, my average wasn't very good (8.39), and I was in huge size already (3k shares), only got 1300 covered for about 5 cents and then it went higher, I readded higher, now had 3700 shares 8.44 average, probably should have stopped out on everything at 8.50, it went to 8.60 and then did a big pull to 8.26 and I covered everything into that and got bailed out of a bad trade. Thought about re-shorting it on the bounce in the 8.30's, thinking it's now the backside, but didn't take it, and it faded below 8 by the close.
Gave back a good chunk of profits today, but at least it was basically only giving back one day, not a whole week like I've done in the past, still finished up $3670 for the week before commissions.
FOR NEW READERS ONLY: If I am scaling in and out of a position, that is considered one trade until I am completely out of the position and then it becomes a new trade, that's why some trades have a lot of shares, even if I never had that much at once, if I cover half and then re-add my cover, it's still considered one trade until I am completely out. The entry is the average of the entries and the exit is the average of all the exits. The entries/exits are rounded to 2 decimal places, but the exact number is calculated for the PnL, so that's why the dollar amount may look different than what you see. (it may be 7.165 instead of 7.17, etc). Also, you can click on the charts if you want to make them bigger to be able to better see the entries/exits.
FXCM
| Type |
Entry |
Exit |
Shares |
+/- $Amt |
$ PnL |
% Pnl |
| Short |
2.73 |
2.66 |
2000 |
$0.07 |
$150.00 |
2.75% |
JDST
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| Long |
14.56 |
14.70 |
500 |
$0.14 |
$70.00 |
0.96% |
LL
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| Short |
34.77 |
34.38 |
300 |
$0.39 |
$117.90 |
1.13% |
| Long |
33.46 |
32.41 |
2300 |
-$1.05 |
-$2,408.20 |
-3.13% |
| Long |
31.16 |
31.46 |
1000 |
$0.30 |
$300.00 |
0.96% |
| Long |
31.45 |
31.40 |
550 |
-$0.05 |
-$27.56 |
-0.16% |
- Lessons:
- Be very careful trading anything with an ongoing outside influence (conference calls, CNBC, etc), I don't actually follow them and I have no idea what's going on and anything can happen
- Do not hold and hope, these can go much further than you think
- Cannot add, add, add to that much size (the usual size I would trade on a $30 dollar stock is like 200-600 shares and I was in 1400 at once)
- Cannot be so greedy on exits when in a bad trade, I was trying to turn this bad trade into a 20 cent profit, and I missed exits, and also missed exits again into bounces not being aggressive enough getting out for a reasonable loss and lost over a dollar a share on huge size
- Make sure to exit ALL into a bounce, I've taken big losses in the past on similar charts to this, where I would sell HALF and then RE-ADD lower, and it would just keep fading and fading
- Never stay in a long just on hope, when it's failing to bounce and still acting "heavy", also previous support (33.30ish) was becoming resistance and then it tanked another $1.50 a share in 10 minutes
AMPE
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| Short |
8.42 |
8.32 |
5000 |
$0.10 |
$525.20 |
1.24% |
- Lessons:
- Control your emotions, do not revenge trade with huge size trying to make back losses
- Cover your whole position when it's still basing and holding higher lows on an uptrend (can take the ask if you have to), then can re-short it again higher
- A big, quick pull like that on an up-trending chart (and made a lower low) usually signals that it's now the backside, where you can short the bounce for more fading action until it starts to grind back and make higher lows again
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