Trades for March 3, 2015

Crazy day, I'm lucky to not be down huge.  This is an example of how it's possible to take a huge loss that wipes out a week of profits, as I have done many times, once again, it came from trading too big, fighting the trend, and adding to a loser.

After the first lucky trade on OREX (made 10 cents after being down 20), I realized that the price action felt the same as ARNA (when it went from 3.5 to 6), because it's a thicker stock, so it trades a bit different than GENE/NDRM, it has over 100 million float.  I saw it grinding back up towards HOD, and for some reason I shorted 1k shares at 7.42 (just above HOD), I must have been thinking maybe we'd get a HOD rejection candle and slam back to 7.20's.  But it kept going, so my theory was wrong, and I should have stopped out in the 7.50's for a 10-15 cent loss and moved on, instead I added another 1500 right away and it went straight up to 8, almost covered there but didn't, almost covered 8.30's but didn't, it hit 8.75, then it came back down to 8.20's and I covered almost all.  I still had 800 shares left, then I readded 500 more shares 8.52, and covered everything around 9, this not covering and then re-adding, cost me about an additional $800 from what it would have been covering all around 8.30.

I kept trading and somehow got back to only -$66 on the day, from being down about $2300 at the most.  I had some nice, pretty much top tick shorts and was fairly patient making 30-50 cents instead of my usual tiny 5-15 cent scalp.  I also had quite a few covers right before a 30+ cent washout which could have added to a lot more.  But, I was also TOO patient and TOO greedy a few times, for example, I was up 40 cents (from 8.74 to 8.35 and didn't take it and it popped back up to my entry, but then luckily washed out to 8.05 on the bad news and I unfortunately covered 8.46 right before that).  Also I had 2k shares, 8.165 average, I covered 1k around 8.05, then was patient on the rest for the 8 break, I didn't cover 7.80 and it popped back to 8, then covered ONLY HALF (500 shares) at 7.88.  Because I still had 500 shares left, I started trying to "make the trade work", after not taking my 30 cents, and I re-added more at bad spots (where I wouldn't normally short), my average ended up being about the same and it hit 8.39, so when it came back to a small profit after being down, I covered for tiny gains right before the washout to 7.50.  Ideally, I would have covered everything in the 7.80's and then had no position and waited for a good push to short into (8.20-8.40), 8.40 support became resistance, and then could have been patient with a winner with better average.

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.

BIOC

Type Entry Exit Shares +/- $Amt $ PnL % Pnl

Long

3.78

3.85

4000

$0.06

$250.00

1.65%

OREX

Type

Entry

Exit

Shares

+/- $Amt

$ PnL

% Pnl

Short	7.17	7.06	2000	0.11	$210.00	1.47%
Short	7.68	8.59	3000	-0.91	-$2,729.90	-11.85%
Short	9.07	8.60	900	0.47	$423.00	5.18%
Short	9.15	8.73	1000	0.42	$420.00	4.59%
Short	8.74	8.46	1000	0.28	$280.00	3.20%
Short	8.37	8.17	1000	0.20	$200.00	2.39%
Short	8.16	8.07	4000	0.08	$338.00	1.04%

Long	8.44	8.61	1500	$0.16	$242.50	1.91%
Long	8.06	8.24	1000	$0.18	$180.00	2.23%
Long	7.62	7.74	1000	$0.12	$120.00	1.57%

• Lessons:
• Do not add, add, add to losing positions
• Never short a strong, up-trending stock, anywhere near previous HOD after it's consolidated and it's grinding back up, don't try to guess a HOD rejection, wait for it to tell you what it's going to do
• Try to go long on these high volume big % gainers, when they are ABCD'ing and be patient with a winner (I knew this had an ARNA feel to it but I never took it long in the low 7's)
• It's good to be patient with a winner, but not TOO patient, make sure to cover ALL when it starts to base a key levels (8.40 and 7.80 were two spots that held multiple times and I should have been covering)