None of this is to brag or "showboat", this is simply my personal trading journal and recap for the month of April, I have been posting everything about my trading publicly over the last two months and it has had a major positive impact with my trading, I think it's mostly because of the amount I time I spend reviewing all of my trades and writing down key lessons for them (2+ hours a day) while I'm making the daily blog posts.
In the first full week of April, I lost 6k in two days, which was half of what I had made in all of March, that was a pretty big hit to my confidence and account size. At that point, I never expected to make more this month than last month, I was just hoping to just finish the month a few thousand "in the green". I finished that week down $4000, but then bounced back twice as strong, and I've had an insane past three weeks with lots of 1-3k green days and only three small red days. I hope to keep this consistency going into the month of May and in the months to come.
The total for the entire month is $20,450 with $1,538 in commissions (after ECN rebates), making the net total $18,912. This was my best month of trading of all time, and I also accomplished some new "personal trading records", such as "most profits in one day" (twice, I made 3.6k and 3.1k and my best day before this was 3k), and "most profits in one week" (three times, I made 7.9k, 9.6k, and I'm up 6.1k this week with one day left, and my best week before this was 5k). It is awesome to be making this much progress "dollar-wise" but I still want to greatly improve with my "add, add, adding" and my overall position sizing and my ability to size back down according to what the stock is doing (size down if I'm in too big or if it's not doing what I expected), I don't want to be holding through so many big unrealized losses next month.
I made a lot more money going long this month compared to last month, last month I made about 12k shorting and about 1.6k going long, this month I made about 10.6k shorting and about 9.9k going long. Last month, I had almost 2x as many short trades than long trades, this month I had a bit more long trades than short trades.
Feel free to "skim through" as much as you would like on this, there is quite a bit of text and some of it is just repeated from previous posts.
Here is a look at the PnL for each day of the month (before commissions):
| Week 1 | Week 2 | ||||
| April 1 | -$344.55 | April 6 | -$4,485.95 | ||
| April 2 | $1,193.50 | April 7 | -$1,532.50 | ||
| Total | $848.95 | April 8 | $1,898.80 | ||
| April 9 | $1,964.50 | ||||
| April 10 | -$1,849.26 | ||||
| Total | -$4,004.41 | ||||
| Week 3 | Week 4 | ||||
| April 13 | -$244.83 | April 20 | $743.00 | ||
| April 14 | $2,190.55 | April 21 | $3,143.11 | ||
| April 15 | -$208.21 | April 22 | $2,101.54 | ||
| April 16 | $3,653.98 | April 23 | $1,276.30 | ||
| April 17 | $2,532.46 | April 24 | $2,310.40 | ||
| Total | $7,923.95 | Total | $9,574.35 | ||
| Week 5 | |||||
| April 27 | -$744.22 | ||||
| April 28 | $1,683.91 | ||||
| April 29 | $2,194.35 | ||||
| April 30 | $2,993.30 | ||||
| Total | $6,127.34 |
I had a total of 14 green days and 7 red days, with the average green day being $2,134.26 and the average red day being $1344.22 (average red days should have been less than that but my bad week with -4.5k, -1.5k, and -1.9k brought it down a lot).
Because of the way I trade, often averaging into losers, I have a fairly high "win rate" but my losses are often a lot bigger than my gains, the averages get skewed from a few really big losses (especially -4.7k in "one trade"). It looks bad having my average loss over 3 times my average gain, but that's just how I trade, lots of small gains adding up and trying to hardly ever "lose", and sometimes I'm dead wrong or it never "comes back" and I take a big loss.
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.
Here is a look at all of my shorts with the total PnL being $10,587.86 from 77 total trades with 65 "wins" and 12 losses (84.4%) with an average gain of $339.83 and the average loss of $958.45:
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.
Here is a look at all of my shorts with the total PnL being $10,587.86 from 77 total trades with 65 "wins" and 12 losses (84.4%) with an average gain of $339.83 and the average loss of $958.45:
| 1-Apr-15 | VLTC | Short | 3.08 | 2.65 | 650 | $0.43 | $279.50 | 13.96% |
| 1-Apr-15 | VLTC | Short | 2.70 | 2.50 | 1100 | $0.20 | $222.00 | 7.47% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.09 | 4.06 | 1000 | $0.03 | $30.00 | 0.73% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.41 | 4.70 | 4100 | -$0.29 | -$1,185.94 | -6.55% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.24 | 4.24 | 1000 | -$0.00 | -$1.00 | -0.02% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.33 | 4.27 | 1800 | $0.07 | $123.00 | 1.58% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.66 | 4.65 | 1700 | $0.01 | $23.00 | 0.29% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.64 | 4.48 | 1065 | $0.16 | $169.00 | 3.42% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Short | 4.30 | 4.18 | 1000 | $0.12 | $120.00 | 2.79% |
| 2-Apr-15 | CAPN | Short | 7.65 | 7.46 | 500 | $0.19 | $95.00 | 2.48% |
| 2-Apr-15 | CAPN | Short | 7.89 | 7.76 | 1000 | $0.13 | $130.00 | 1.65% |
| 2-Apr-15 | CAPN | Short | 8.03 | 7.94 | 500 | $0.09 | $46.00 | 1.15% |
| 2-Apr-15 | CJJD | Short | 3.28 | 3.15 | 500 | $0.13 | $65.00 | 3.96% |
| 6-Apr-15 | VLTC | Short | 3.27 | 3.08 | 2000 | $0.19 | $370.00 | 5.67% |
| 6-Apr-15 | VLTC | Short | 3.47 | 3.79 | 14700 | -$0.32 | -$4,695.95 | -9.22% |
| 6-Apr-15 | VLTC | Short | 4.20 | 4.06 | 1000 | $0.14 | $140.00 | 3.33% |
| 6-Apr-15 | VLTC | Short | 4.24 | 4.54 | 1000 | -$0.30 | -$300.00 | -7.08% |
| 7-Apr-15 | BIND | Short | 6.57 | 6.47 | 800 | $0.10 | $80.00 | 1.52% |
| 7-Apr-15 | WBAI | Short | 13.84 | 13.58 | 700 | $0.26 | $181.00 | 1.87% |
| 7-Apr-15 | WBAI | Short | 13.93 | 14.08 | 1000 | -$0.15 | -$152.00 | -1.09% |
| 7-Apr-15 | WBAI | Short | 14.18 | 14.55 | 1050 | -$0.37 | -$391.30 | -2.63% |
| 7-Apr-15 | WBAI | Short | 15.38 | 16.18 | 850 | -$0.80 | -$677.00 | -5.18% |
| 7-Apr-15 | WBAI | Short | 16.30 | 15.75 | 400 | $0.55 | $220.00 | 3.37% |
| 7-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 4.31 | 4.26 | 3500 | $0.04 | $150.00 | 1.00% |
| 7-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 4.34 | 4.54 | 4850 | -$0.20 | -$969.30 | -4.61% |
| 8-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 4.78 | 4.67 | 1000 | $0.11 | $110.00 | 2.30% |
| 8-Apr-15 | AMCN | Short | 4.64 | 4.48 | 4390 | $0.15 | $669.10 | 3.29% |
| 8-Apr-15 | CNDO | Short | 4.22 | 4.13 | 1000 | $0.09 | $90.00 | 2.13% |
| 8-Apr-15 | KONE | Short | 7.66 | 7.34 | 1120 | $0.31 | $352.60 | 4.11% |
| 8-Apr-15 | KONE | Short | 7.25 | 7.11 | 500 | $0.14 | $70.00 | 1.93% |
| 8-Apr-15 | KONE | Short | 7.30 | 7.02 | 300 | $0.28 | $84.00 | 3.84% |
| 9-Apr-15 | AMCN | Short | 3.08 | 2.94 | 3000 | $0.13 | $404.00 | 4.38% |
| 9-Apr-15 | JRJC | Short | 6.00 | 5.90 | 4500 | $0.10 | $451.50 | 1.67% |
| 10-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 5.80 | 5.94 | 8100 | -$0.14 | -$1,122.21 | -2.39% |
| 10-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 5.61 | 5.56 | 679 | $0.05 | $35.95 | 0.94% |
| 10-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 5.58 | 5.41 | 1000 | $0.17 | $170.00 | 3.05% |
| 10-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 5.58 | 5.50 | 4400 | $0.08 | $332.00 | 1.35% |
| 13-Apr-15 | ORMP | Short | 9.09 | 9.19 | 5048 | -$0.10 | -$510.57 | -1.11% |
| 13-Apr-15 | PSTR | Short | 5.41 | 5.25 | 1900 | $0.16 | $312.00 | 3.03% |
| 14-Apr-15 | BCLI | Short | 5.01 | 4.99 | 1200 | $0.02 | $22.00 | 0.37% |
| 14-Apr-15 | ORMP | Short | 9.23 | 9.00 | 3000 | $0.23 | $679.00 | 2.45% |
| 14-Apr-15 | ZIOP | Short | 11.53 | 11.46 | 5000 | $0.08 | $387.00 | 0.67% |
| 14-Apr-15 | AVP | Short | 9.28 | 9.20 | 6408 | $0.08 | $508.40 | 0.85% |
| 15-Apr-15 | CLSN | Short | 3.26 | 3.21 | 7869 | $0.05 | $370.95 | 1.45% |
| 16-Apr-15 | MNOV | Short | 5.39 | 4.94 | 1000 | $0.45 | $450.00 | 8.35% |
| 16-Apr-15 | MNOV | Short | 5.40 | 5.29 | 13832 | $0.11 | $1,545.98 | 2.07% |
| 16-Apr-15 | ROSG | Short | 4.30 | 4.17 | 3000 | $0.14 | $411.00 | 3.18% |
| 16-Apr-15 | MNTA | Short | 19.13 | 18.86 | 1700 | $0.27 | $460.00 | 1.41% |
| 16-Apr-15 | MNTA | Short | 18.41 | 18.19 | 1900 | $0.21 | $401.00 | 1.15% |
| 17-Apr-15 | SPPR | Short | 3.66 | 3.51 | 700 | $0.15 | $105.00 | 4.10% |
| 17-Apr-15 | SPPR | Short | 3.46 | 3.34 | 13800 | $0.12 | $1,680.47 | 3.52% |
| 17-Apr-15 | SPPR | Short | 3.37 | 3.22 | 5000 | $0.15 | $745.00 | 4.42% |
| 17-Apr-15 | SPPR | Short | 3.20 | 3.20 | 1000 | $0.00 | $2.00 | 0.06% |
| 20-Apr-15 | BIOC | Short | 3.11 | 3.08 | 10300 | $0.03 | $298.24 | 0.93% |
| 20-Apr-15 | BIOC | Short | 3.15 | 3.10 | 3500 | $0.05 | $169.00 | 1.53% |
| 21-Apr-15 | BIOC | Short | 3.99 | 3.82 | 6800 | $0.17 | $1,156.00 | 4.27% |
| 21-Apr-15 | BIOC | Short | 3.79 | 3.73 | 10100 | $0.05 | $554.00 | 1.45% |
| 21-Apr-15 | BIOC | Short | 3.64 | 3.59 | 12000 | $0.06 | $680.00 | 1.56% |
| 23-Apr-15 | MOBL | Short | 6.76 | 6.65 | 2000 | $0.11 | $210.00 | 1.55% |
| 23-Apr-15 | MOBL | Short | 7.33 | 7.29 | 6350 | $0.03 | $201.00 | 0.43% |
| 24-Apr-15 | AMCN | Short | 5.03 | 4.95 | 10300 | $0.08 | $871.00 | 1.68% |
| 24-Apr-15 | CALI | Short | 2.70 | 2.50 | 1900 | $0.20 | $373.00 | 7.27% |
| 24-Apr-15 | CPRX | Short | 3.54 | 3.44 | 4900 | $0.10 | $480.00 | 2.77% |
| 24-Apr-15 | CPRX | Short | 3.84 | 3.80 | 10500 | $0.04 | $386.40 | 0.96% |
| 24-Apr-15 | HIVE | Short | 6.19 | 6.03 | 2000 | $0.17 | $330.00 | 2.67% |
| 27-Apr-15 | CANF | Short | 3.26 | 3.33 | 15100 | -$0.07 | -$1,105.00 | -2.25% |
| 27-Apr-15 | CANF | Short | 3.28 | 3.26 | 9800 | $0.02 | $161.53 | 0.50% |
| 28-Apr-15 | UNXL | Short | 4.18 | 4.06 | 1000 | $0.12 | $120.00 | 2.87% |
| 28-Apr-15 | AGEN | Short | 7.52 | 7.41 | 4000 | $0.11 | $420.46 | 1.40% |
| 28-Apr-15 | AMCN | Short | 4.66 | 4.62 | 10234 | $0.04 | $417.70 | 0.88% |
| 28-Apr-15 | ISNS | Short | 3.03 | 2.94 | 700 | $0.09 | $63.00 | 2.97% |
| 29-Apr-15 | GPRO | Short | 53.45 | 53.09 | 1400 | $0.37 | $515.50 | 0.69% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CLNE | Short | 9.45 | 9.31 | 4700 | $0.14 | $674.00 | 1.52% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CLNE | Short | 9.05 | 9.03 | 1000 | $0.02 | $20.00 | 0.22% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CNYD | Short | 5.67 | 5.35 | 1400 | $0.32 | $450.00 | 5.66% |
| 29-Apr-15 | JNUG | Short | 24.07 | 23.66 | 600 | $0.41 | $246.00 | 1.70% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CRM | Short | 74.44 | 74.64 | 1965 | -$0.20 | -$391.15 | -0.27% |
Here is a look at all of my longs with the total PnL being $9,881.93 from 91 total trades with 85 "wins" and 6 losses (93.4%) with an average gain of $169.87 and the average loss of $759.51:
| 1-Apr-15 | CRMD | Long | 9.66 | 9.70 | 500 | $0.04 | $20.00 | 0.41% |
| 1-Apr-15 | LL | Long | 32.19 | 32.19 | 1100 | $0.00 | $1.00 | 0.00% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.01 | 5.06 | 1000 | $0.05 | $50.00 | 1.00% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.96 | 4.95 | 7600 | -$0.01 | -$68.91 | -0.18% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.52 | 4.56 | 2878 | $0.05 | $137.80 | 1.06% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.45 | 4.56 | 1000 | $0.11 | $110.00 | 2.47% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.41 | 4.48 | 1000 | $0.07 | $70.00 | 1.59% |
| 1-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.01 | 5.06 | 1000 | $0.05 | $50.00 | 1.00% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.14 | 4.21 | 2900 | $0.08 | $226.50 | 1.89% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.53 | 4.59 | 1000 | $0.06 | $60.00 | 1.32% |
| 2-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.23 | 4.25 | 6200 | $0.03 | $161.00 | 0.61% |
| 2-Apr-15 | NYMX | Long | 1.80 | 1.78 | 1000 | -$0.02 | -$24.00 | -1.33% |
| 8-Apr-15 | PSTR | Long | 4.45 | 4.50 | 3380 | $0.05 | $169.60 | 1.13% |
| 8-Apr-15 | AMCN | Long | 3.37 | 3.40 | 2200 | $0.04 | $80.00 | 1.08% |
| 8-Apr-15 | AMCN | Long | 3.13 | 3.19 | 3700 | $0.06 | $229.00 | 1.98% |
| 8-Apr-15 | AMCN | Long | 3.09 | 3.13 | 1000 | $0.04 | $40.00 | 1.29% |
| 9-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 5.57 | 5.69 | 3000 | $0.13 | $380.00 | 2.28% |
| 9-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 5.34 | 5.47 | 1000 | $0.13 | $130.00 | 2.43% |
| 9-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 5.94 | 6.02 | 1000 | $0.08 | $80.00 | 1.35% |
| 9-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 5.71 | 5.73 | 9200 | $0.01 | $102.00 | 0.19% |
| 9-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 5.78 | 5.83 | 6000 | $0.06 | $340.00 | 0.98% |
| 9-Apr-15 | ROSG | Long | 3.46 | 3.57 | 700 | $0.11 | $77.00 | 3.18% |
| 10-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 6.67 | 6.79 | 1000 | $0.12 | $120.00 | 1.80% |
| 10-Apr-15 | PSTR | Long | 5.81 | 5.88 | 200 | $0.07 | $14.00 | 1.20% |
| 10-Apr-15 | INUV | Long | 3.36 | 3.39 | 1000 | $0.03 | $30.00 | 0.89% |
| 10-Apr-15 | INUV | Long | 3.01 | 2.86 | 9800 | -$0.15 | -$1,429.00 | -4.84% |
| 13-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 6.06 | 6.18 | 1000 | $0.12 | $120.00 | 1.98% |
| 13-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 6.43 | 6.49 | 5400 | $0.06 | $339.58 | 0.98% |
| 13-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.37 | 4.26 | 7800 | -$0.11 | -$826.61 | -2.43% |
| 13-Apr-15 | BIND | Long | 7.47 | 7.48 | 1000 | $0.01 | $8.00 | 0.11% |
| 13-Apr-15 | ARWR | Long | 8.22 | 8.32 | 3000 | $0.10 | $311.77 | 1.26% |
| 14-Apr-15 | BCLI | Long | 5.06 | 5.10 | 600 | $0.04 | $24.00 | 0.79% |
| 14-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.54 | 4.64 | 2000 | $0.10 | $190.00 | 2.09% |
| 14-Apr-15 | ZIOP | Long | 11.31 | 11.33 | 2500 | $0.01 | $35.00 | 0.12% |
| 14-Apr-15 | NVGN | Long | 7.00 | 7.10 | 3470 | $0.10 | $345.15 | 1.42% |
| 15-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 7.36 | 7.56 | 1000 | $0.20 | $195.65 | 2.66% |
| 15-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 8.81 | 8.91 | 3000 | $0.10 | $310.00 | 1.17% |
| 15-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 8.26 | 8.33 | 1000 | $0.07 | $70.00 | 0.85% |
| 15-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 8.68 | 8.35 | 5400 | -$0.32 | -$1,747.81 | -3.73% |
| 15-Apr-15 | NVGN | Long | 8.21 | 8.25 | 825 | $0.04 | $33.00 | 0.49% |
| 15-Apr-15 | NVGN | Long | 8.05 | 8.16 | 1000 | $0.11 | $105.00 | 1.30% |
| 15-Apr-15 | NVGN | Long | 7.95 | 8.07 | 1000 | $0.12 | $120.00 | 1.51% |
| 15-Apr-15 | NVGN | Long | 7.83 | 7.92 | 3000 | $0.09 | $272.00 | 1.16% |
| 15-Apr-15 | CLSN | Long | 3.16 | 3.19 | 2100 | $0.03 | $63.00 | 0.95% |
| 16-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 8.34 | 8.42 | 1000 | $0.08 | $80.00 | 0.96% |
| 16-Apr-15 | MNTA | Long | 17.22 | 17.56 | 900 | $0.34 | $306.00 | 1.97% |
| 20-Apr-15 | AMPE | Long | 2.85 | 2.99 | 1000 | $0.14 | $140.00 | 4.91% |
| 20-Apr-15 | GENE | Long | 5.45 | 5.51 | 2000 | $0.06 | $130.00 | 1.19% |
| 21-Apr-15 | BIOC | Long | 3.70 | 3.73 | 1000 | $0.03 | $30.00 | 0.81% |
| 21-Apr-15 | BIOC | Long | 3.63 | 3.72 | 595 | $0.09 | $53.55 | 2.48% |
| 21-Apr-15 | BIOC | Long | 3.45 | 3.46 | 10000 | $0.01 | $112.06 | 0.32% |
| 21-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 17.89 | 18.04 | 550 | $0.15 | $81.50 | 0.83% |
| 21-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 16.57 | 16.78 | 1500 | $0.21 | $315.00 | 1.27% |
| 21-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 15.73 | 15.96 | 700 | $0.23 | $158.00 | 1.43% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.64 | 4.87 | 2000 | $0.23 | $455.00 | 4.90% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.18 | 5.39 | 800 | $0.21 | $168.00 | 4.05% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.12 | 5.19 | 3000 | $0.07 | $210.00 | 1.37% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.64 | 5.69 | 2400 | $0.06 | $137.00 | 1.01% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.40 | 5.43 | 16324 | $0.03 | $424.06 | 0.48% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.18 | 5.24 | 750 | $0.06 | $45.00 | 1.16% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.68 | 5.74 | 1206 | $0.06 | $76.48 | 1.12% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.35 | 5.41 | 7100 | $0.06 | $394.00 | 1.04% |
| 22-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 4.91 | 4.96 | 2000 | $0.04 | $90.00 | 0.92% |
| 22-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 18.64 | 18.81 | 600 | $0.17 | $102.00 | 0.91% |
| 23-Apr-15 | MOBL | Long | 6.32 | 6.45 | 2000 | $0.13 | $260.00 | 2.06% |
| 23-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.36 | 5.45 | 2690 | $0.08 | $219.30 | 1.52% |
| 23-Apr-15 | GBSN | Long | 5.14 | 5.24 | 3000 | $0.10 | $290.00 | 1.88% |
| 23-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 11.72 | 12.04 | 300 | $0.32 | $96.00 | 2.73% |
| 24-Apr-15 | CPRX | Long | 3.10 | 3.30 | 1000 | $0.20 | $200.00 | 6.45% |
| 27-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 9.47 | 9.68 | 1600 | $0.21 | $330.00 | 2.18% |
| 27-Apr-15 | UNXL | Long | 3.78 | 3.70 | 5975 | -$0.08 | -$460.75 | -2.04% |
| 28-Apr-15 | AMCN | Long | 3.47 | 3.48 | 1000 | $0.01 | $10.00 | 0.29% |
| 28-Apr-15 | AMCN | Long | 3.18 | 3.26 | 100 | $0.08 | $8.00 | 2.52% |
| 28-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 9.13 | 9.19 | 2000 | $0.05 | $110.00 | 0.60% |
| 28-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 8.82 | 8.92 | 1100 | $0.10 | $108.00 | 1.11% |
| 28-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 9.17 | 9.29 | 900 | $0.12 | $108.00 | 1.31% |
| 28-Apr-15 | UNXL | Long | 3.58 | 3.68 | 1200 | $0.10 | $122.00 | 2.84% |
| 28-Apr-15 | AGEN | Long | 7.24 | 7.32 | 2200 | $0.08 | $176.75 | 1.11% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CLNE | Long | 9.46 | 9.53 | 1000 | $0.07 | $70.00 | 0.74% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CLNE | Long | 8.93 | 9.01 | 4000 | $0.09 | $350.00 | 0.98% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CNYD | Long | 4.82 | 4.84 | 500 | $0.02 | $8.00 | 0.33% |
| 29-Apr-15 | CNYD | Long | 4.36 | 4.48 | 400 | $0.12 | $48.00 | 2.75% |
| 29-Apr-15 | JNUG | Long | 23.25 | 23.48 | 900 | $0.23 | $204.00 | 0.97% |
| 30-Apr-15 | GLUU | Long | 6.63 | 6.73 | 5000 | $0.09 | $474.00 | 1.43% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 9.81 | 10.08 | 2700 | $0.27 | $724.60 | 2.74% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 10.88 | 11.04 | 2000 | $0.16 | $320.00 | 1.47% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 10.75 | 10.88 | 700 | $0.13 | $93.00 | 1.24% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 10.60 | 10.74 | 4000 | $0.14 | $563.44 | 1.33% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 11.01 | 11.09 | 3000 | $0.09 | $264.00 | 0.80% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 10.78 | 10.91 | 2583 | $0.13 | $324.24 | 1.16% |
| 30-Apr-15 | VLTC | Long | 10.44 | 10.50 | 4000 | $0.06 | $230.00 | 0.55% |
Now to specify the PnL from different price ranges of stocks, I have decided to use three different price ranges, $1-10 (most are $3-10), $10-20, and $20+:
| $1-10 | $10-20 | $20+ | |||||
| Short | $9,788.81 | Short | $674.69 | Short | $124.35 | ||
| Long | $6,788.74 | Long | $2,888.18 | Long | $205.00 | ||
| Total | $16,577.55 | Total | $3,562.87 | Total | $329.35 |
The amount I made on $1-10 dollar stocks for this month and the last month are almost the exact same, the difference this month was staying away from $20+ dollar stocks because I had learned from last month that I am not very good at trading those (I lost over 4k in total on $20+ dollar stocks last month). I seriously made only two short trades and two long trades on $20+ dollar stocks this month, and I made a tiny amount overall on them, which is much better than making a lot of trades and losing money on them like I did last month. I also made a bit more on $10-20 stocks this month than last month (a lot of that was from trading VLTC today). Making a little bit more on $10-20 dollar stocks and AVOIDING $20+ dollar stocks was the difference between making 19k this month compared to 12k last month.
Now to take a look at my biggest losses on the month and review the charts and what I did wrong:
I had said in last month's trading recap that I was wanting to try to keep my losses from one entire trade under $1000, well that didn't really happen and I also took an extremely big loss of 4.7k in "one trade" on VLTC. With the size that I am now trading, it is still going to be difficult to keep my biggest losses under $1000, I will likely continue to have some losses over this amount, but I will try to be "smarter" with knowing when to size in and when to size BACK DOWN, to try to minimize the amount of big losses I take. A lot of times my initial entries or add's are good, but it's just all about how I manage it, if it's not doing what I thought and I'm stubborn and "add, add, adding" and never sizing down into dips (if short) or bounces (if long) then the losses can get pretty big pretty quick, everything is about knowing when to size in and when to size back down. These are the biggest REALIZED losses that I took this month, but there were many times where I held through big unrealized losses and somehow managed to make a profit on them, I got "lucky" many times this month, and that's not always going to happen, I still have to be much more careful and much "smarter" with how I manage my "adding" and my overall position sizes.
I have copied the charts and lessons from previous posts but I have edited it to only focus on the one big losing trade, so just ignore all the extra arrows from other trades on the charts.
GBSN (On April 1st)
I missed the short in the first few minutes at 4.10ish, woulda have been a nice gain down to 3.60's. It started to grind and make higher lows and regained VWAP and went red to green on the day, all signs of strength and to be more long biased than short biased. I shorted at 4.09, covered at 4.06 when it wasn't breaking down. Then shorted into the parabolic 1k at 4.23 and 1k at 4.29 and it didn't pullback much at all on the second candle was just hanging around 4.25, then it went to 4.49 and I had no more room to add since it was under 2:1 limit today. I knew 4.20 was the previous high from yesterday, so I should have been more careful shorting it around there. It came back to 4.27ish about 5 times (my avg was 4.26), I missed covering for breakeven the first two times, eventually got 600 filled at 4.27 and then was trying to cover the rest at 4.26 and I got another 600 filled and I sorta "held it up" and then Tim Sykes (he was short 5k at 4.38, really frustrating when he makes a trade on something that you are already in and makes it "super crowded") covered at 4.29 and made it pop to 4.38. I readded 800 shares at 4.36 (new average 4.31) and almost covered for breakeven. It tested 4.30 and held then a big buyer came in at 4.31 and I tried to cover everything on the bid at 4.32 instead of taking the ask at 4.34, I didn't get filled and then it soon was 4.50 again, it seemed like it might be "stuffing" in this area at HOD, so I added another 400 at 5.53. It pulled to 4.43 then popped to 4.70 in 2 candles, which is super frustrating when you are short, a few minutes and it changes the PnL dramatically ($500+ dollar difference). I didn't get any covered into dips, I was going to cover 4.50-4.56 into a washout but it never got there, it looked like it might wash out again at 4.65ish and then another huge spike up to 4.90 (another $500+ dollar difference). I waited for a dip to cover into and got 1000 shares filled at 4.76 (covered 1k in one order and then was trying to cover the other 1k and missed it), readded 700 at 4.87, missed covering everything at 4.80 and straight up to 5.10 (another $500+ difference), it dipped to 4.93-4.95 and I was going to cover 4.80's, then it popped again to 5.20+ in one candle (another $500+ difference). Covered 500 at 5.20, readded 200 at 5.34 and then covered everything at 5.05ish for a total loss of $1186.
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| |||||||||||||
- Lessons:
- Stocks that faded in the morning and did a "weak open r/g" are much more likely to continue higher because they've already consolidated and flushed out the "weak hands" and trapped some shorts and there are obviously still buyers supporting it higher
- Be careful shorting close to a "daily chart breakout", try to wait and see if it acts as resistance or breaks past it first (the "daily chart breakout" was at 4.22)
- Stay away from the slow grind/holding of support without breaking down, MAKE SURE TO COVER ALL if short, can always TAKE THE ASK if needed
- Whenever you are in a stubborn trade with too much size, have to be SIZING DOWN OR COVERING ALL into dips and then just replacing the shares again higher, even if you think it is going down by the end of the day, if it looks like it's going higher at that moment it's better to cover and then RESHORT AGAIN HIGHER if it setups up again
- Going along with that, if you are in a stubborn trade with too much size and you were just down on it and it comes back to breakeven, have to be COVERING ALL and then looking for better entries later on, don't get too greedy trying to turn it into a profit
- On these crazy, low float "runners" on the FRONTSIDE, only PARABOLIC shorts and cover ALL into dips, better to be going long off dips but if you are shorting that's the ONLY way to do it when still on the FRONTSIDE
- Once it makes a significant pullback after a big run (5.40 to 5), can now reshort all pops/bounces for continued lower highs and fading
- Follow the trend, it's much easier than fighting it (I was fighting it short on the way up and then fighting it long on the way down)
VLTC (On April 6th)
I just realized I forgot to put VWAP on the chart (and I can't put it on now), the price was well above it most of the day, the key area where it was important was around that 3.30 level when I was in big size and really greedily wanted it to break. I nailed the first short into the parabolic for a really quick scalp with 2000 shares 3.25, 3.28 to 3.09, 3.07, $370 bucks in 30 seconds. Then started shorting too early on the next pop, first entry at 3.23, not wanting to miss it if it didn't get back to HOD 3.30ish. Had around 3200 shares 3.31ish average and it hit 3.25 and I didn't cover any, then it popped up to 3.40-3.50 and I added another 5000 shares and had 8200 shares 3.38 average and it dipped to 3.30 which was just above VWAP, and it was holding there so I started covering some, but only 3000/8200. I wanted that 3.30 break SO BADLY, I was SO GREEDY, I wanted to turn this fairly bad average but huge size into a "homerun" if 3.30 broke and it faded back to at least low 3's, and I make $1000-2000 in the first hour, also that greediness and wanting that 3.30 break so badly, and being so short biased on this junk stock is why I was readding my covers going for that "homerun". I should have made sure to COVER ALL, and definitely shouldn't have been readding any around my average when I already had 5200 shares. It came back down a bit and HELD at 3.32 (a higher low) and then I added some more 3.39-3.50, when I should have been covering it all for breakevenish. Now 9200 shares 3.40 average and it hit 3.67, dipped to 3.58 and HELD, and almost took the $2000ish dollar loss (with $500 realized profits already, would have been down like $1500 on the day). Missed it and it popped to 3.80, and held 3.63-3.79 for a while and I missed covering any again, I was looking for 3.50's, it popped to 3.92 and I was down around $4500 unrealized with $500 realized profits (-4k on the day). It came back down a bit and I covered 6000 shares from 3.66-3.77 to put me at -$1300 on the day total with another $800-1000 unrealized on those 3200 shares if I just covered the rest (-$2kish on the day). Readded another 2000 3.70's, missed covering any when it was still holding higher lows, it popped from 3.71 to 3.85 and then I got bought in on 2800 or so at 3.83. It dipped to 3.70's again but missed it again and then it started going to 4.05ish, I readded 500 then covered 1000. I still had 2370 shares, and I would have covered ALL 3.90-4 when it was just "hanging around" and grinding up, but since there was a 2:1 limit and my account isn't that big right now and already realized tons in losses, if I covered all, the max I would be able to reshort was around 1000 shares or less, so because of this, I was insanely stubborn with the last 2370 shares, it finally broke 4.05ish and went to 4.45ish without pulling back much at all. It starting looking "toppy" and there's no way I would have ever been covering there, I would have been adding if I could have, but I got bought in on 2280 shares at 4.44-4.45, only had 90 shares left and I covered that at 4.32 as it tanked to 4.25ish and then below 4 within 10 minutes ($1000 dollar difference without that stupid buyin). I had no position now and I was down about $4300 on the day, I lost about 4.7k on that "one trade".
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| Short | 3.47 | 3.79 | 14700 | -$0.32 | -$4,695.95 | -9.22% |
- Lessons:
- Be very careful shorting on "daily chart breakouts", this is still up from around 1 in a few days with the huge gap up last week, but the highest it hit on day one was 3.10, today it was really strong and popped to 3.30 and then came back and held 3.10 over/under, then popped to 3.50 and then came back and held 3.30 (previous HOD/resistance now became support)
- Do not add, add, add, so much and can never be in that big at once, 5000 shares should be my ABSOLUTE MAX for sure, 6000-10000 shares is just insane, every candle is like a $500-1000 difference
- HAVE TO COVER ALL when it's still holding above a key area (3.30 previous resistance and VWAP), and NEVER be READDING around your avg when you are already in way too much size
- Stay away from the "grind" on the short, this was slow and steady higher lows, fairly nice uptrend all day, there was no reason to still be short after it dipped to 3.65 and bounced and then kept holding higher lows (my readding and then insane stubbornness cost me about another $2000 than what it would have been just covering all there)
- After a big dip on these big moving stocks well above VWAP (3.92-3.65 and 4.45 to 3.95), make sure to be covering into those dips and NOT READDING right away, if it bounces a bit and then comes back down and MAKES A HIGHER LOW, it will keep grinding higher and continue it's trend, that's WHEN YOU COVER EVERYTHING ELSE THAT YOU STILL HAVE LEFT EVEN BY TAKING THE ASK and then look for better entries again later
- Try to be much more careful shorting these really strong, low float, momentum stocks that are ABOVE VWAP all day (all longs are in the money and love buying dips and chasing breakouts and all shorts are underwater and panic covering every time it spikes and SSR just adds even more to the squeeze)
- Try to go long on dips on these slow and steady uptrending momentum stocks, I used to be able to go long on these but lately I'm the one being stubborn shorting and getting squeezed (I made a bunch on GENE long on it's run from 5 to 10 because I didn't have shares and I was just going long and following the trend, and I want to do more of that again, rather than fighting up-trending stocks short and trying to catch "falling knives" long, like I said before it's much easier to FOLLOW THE TREND)
PSTR (On April 10th)
Nate absolutely nailed this long $1.20-1.80 a share, I should have been paying more attention to chat and seeing that he was long, I didn't realize until it was over 6, I was too focused on my charts. I wanted to short a morning parabolic on this, but didn't expect this much of a spike and without pulling back much at all. It had a big move from 4.45 to 5.20's in 5 minutes, but I was still somewhat careless with my first entry because it was only 500 shares, and I wanted to make sure I got in if that was the top I guess. I had 500 shares at 5.27, and then "trying to make that 500 shares work", I kept adding more 500 shares at a time, 2000 way too early from 5.38-5.58 and then 1500 5.65-5.77, I ended up with 4000 shares 5.54 average and it hit 5.47 quickly on one candle but I didn't have any orders in there, and then it was holding 5.55 area where I should have covered ALL or at least some from 5.55-5.65 for a small loss. It spiked up again to 5.90 and I added another 500 at 5.89, it hit 5.66 for a second on that candle but I couldn't get anything filled. I added another 500 at 5.97, now 5000 shares 5.62 average and it pulled to 5.70, I thought it would fade more after that pull so I added another 500 at 5.84 on the bounce, now 5500 shares 5.64 average. It did a quick pull to 5.62 but then rebounded right back to 5.80 on the next candle, I missed covering anything, my orders were waiting 5.36-5.57. It pulled back a little bit again but was still holding 5.70's and still above VWAP, and I should have been covering some 5.70-5.80 and just taking a $500ish dollar loss because it could easily spike up again. It spiked to 6.25 in one candle, and I think I added 500 at 5.94 on the way up, then added another 500 at 6.04, I should have been panic covering around here but instead I was adding more. I had 6500 shares 5.70 average and it hit 6.60 for a second (5.8k unrealized loss at the very top), it dipped to 6.10 and I covered 1k at 6.16 and then I got bought in on 2500 shares at 6.22ish, which now made me down $1650 on the day and more unrealized still. I didn't want that buyin to result in a bigger loss than would it could have been so I reshorted 1600 again at 6.23ish, new average 5.87, 4600 shares, it pulled to 6 and I missed covering a single share and it bounced back to 6.30 in 2 candles, then popped to 6.44 but made a lower high then came back down to 5.98, there was lots of support and big buyers around 6 and I should have been COVERING ALL when it was still holding, and then looking for re-entries again later. It rebounded to 6.40's and had one "stuff candle" to 6.56 at 10:51, I am so thankful for that "stuff candle", I thought it was going to pop over HOD and I would be screwed again. It pulled back to 6.02 and continued to hold around that area and I still didn't cover any, it popped back to 6.20's again, then it finally broke 6 and pulled to 5.87 in one candle. I originally had an order in at 5.92 but then I changed it to 5.82 and missed covering any, it started to "peak out" and it was rejecting VWAP on the bounce, I tried to cover some 5.82 and 5.85 but got 100 and 200 share fills, it cracked 5.80 and I covered everything 5.64-5.77 for about a $650 dollar gain on that part with -$1770 realized on it already.
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
|
- Lessons:
- Always be careful shorting morning parabolic's, especially after a few days consolidation on a big mover and be extra cautious if it breaks out to new highs on the daily chart, they can go much further than you think (I thought 4.45 to 5.27 was a big move and I still started in way too early, just imagine those that were shorting 4.50-5)
- ALWAYS COVER ALL when it starts to base and it's above VWAP and still "early", 5.55 and 5.70 were key levels that were still holding and then it spiked way higher (I should be treating it the same as if my average was 5.70-5.80, I would have been covering 5.55-5.60 if that was my average but since my average was bad at 5.54 I was more stubborn and then it spiked further)
- Be careful of add, add, adding too much too soon, 5 was a key breakout level on the daily chart and I should have been waiting for even more extension past that instead of just adding 500 at a time carelessly on the way up
- Sometimes it's best to wait until after the first 10-15 minutes before shorting some of these big parabolic's, sometimes they just keep going and going like this one did
- Always cover ALL when it's basing at key levels and still holding above VWAP (it held 6 and popped back to 6.45, it held 6 again and popped back to 6.40-6.50, it hit 6 again and popped back to 6.20's, IDEALLY, COVER ALL when it's holding then replace those shares again higher into pops, you have much less risk and you take more advantage of the entire range)
- Convincing VWAP and 6 dollar break was a great spot to be shorting on the bounce when it was failing to bounce back above VWAP
- VWAP can be used as a guide for reshorts later in the day, if it rebounds to it, it is often rejected by it and that's often the highest price it'll ever hit and it will slowly fade from there
INUV (On April 10th)
Fairly overextended daily chart from 1.93 to 3.50 this week, the right idea would have been a short once it failed at 3.50 and then was slowly fading off. I went long at 3.36 on the washout but it's so slow moving I should have never even taken that trade, what was I expecting to get? 3-5 cents? I sold for 3 cents on the bounce. It started fading from 3.40 to 3.20 and then it hit 3.01 in one candle and rebounded to 3.13, I missed that and then it was retesting 3.01 again and for some reason I decided to go long there, but I should have been waiting for lower if I wanted to scalp it long since it was the SECOND TEST of that level. I would have been fine if I only had 1000 shares, add another 1000 2.80's and sell for a tiny profit on the bounce. Problem is, I accidentally put 10000 shares and I actually had enough BP for that order to go through (I think I had around 31k BP and that order took 30k, super frustrating that it was that close to saying "not enough BP" and not going through). I'm not sure if it was just slowly filling or if it was delayed or what, but I recognized my mistake immediately and I had about 1000 shares filled so far and I was trying to cancel it like 5 times but it was just slowly filling for the next few seconds, the numbers were still slowly filling when it was already hitting 2.85-2.95 (I think it was just delayed since everything still filled at 3.01 and I couldn't cancel it). It actually filled me 9800 shares instead of 10000, not exactly sure why, it hit 2.85 and then rebounded back to 2.90's. I was too greedy on the exits, I had orders in 2.98-3.06 to sell it all but I only got 1k at 2.98 1k at 2.99 1k at 3 and 300 out of my 1k order at 3.01, so I was still long 6500 shares. I could have sold the rest 2.90-3 for less than a $500 dollar loss, but I was too stubborn and I was still down $500 on the day and this stupid mistake was going to make me down $1000+ again. It washed out to 2.60 and I was down $2500 unrealized instead of less than $500 which it could have been, it bounced to 2.70's and I sold everything 2.75-2.86 for a $1400 dollar loss from the whole thing, really stupid to lose that much on an "fat finger" error.
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| Long | 3.01 | 2.86 | 9800 | -$0.15 | -$1,429.00 | -4.84% |
- Lessons:
- Be careful/avoid trying to catch a falling knife on an overextended daily chart that's going green to red on the day (my idea and entry wasn't the best anyways but I would have been okay if I didn't do 10k shares)
- Always make sure the right price and number of shares is in the order box
- If you do an accidental error, don't try to make it work and turn it into a good trade, I could have taken a $100-500 dollar loss, rather than trying to turn it into a profit by having most of my orders 3.02-3.06 and missing them and not hitting the bid at 2.90-3
VLTC (On April 15th)
I made some trades on this earlier and missed a lot of entries and minimized my first trade by a lot. Then I did a quick trade from 9.26 to 9.33, I was very careful with that trade because I expected it to washout more after that "premature" spike. It washed out below 9 and I was just trying to be a "piker", and scalp 5-15 cents on the washout, I started in too early at 8.97 thinking it would hold over/under 9 and bounce back up to 9.10+, I added at 8.88 and 8.76, I had 3000 shares 8.87 average and it bounced back to VWAP 8.82ish and failed, and I missed selling any. I added 400 more at 8.68 and then got liquidated on 1000 shares at 8.61, I readded another 1000 at 8.52 and it bounced to 8.57 and I didn't get anything sold. It washed out to 8.27, then bounced to 8.47 and I only got 1000 shares sold, I still had 2100 shares, it washed out again to 8.16ish and I added another 1000 at 8.25, even though there was literally like 3 minutes left until the close. I had "fishing orders" to sell it all 8.38-8.44 on a quick spike but that didn't happen. I could have sold 8.25-8.33 before the close but I didn't, ended up holding it into afterhours and selling 8.18-8.24 for a total of a $1750 loss giving back my entire day in the last 15 minutes.
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
| Long | 8.68 | 8.35 | 5400 | -$0.32 | -$1,747.81 | -3.73% |
- Lessons:
- Can always be buying dips in the morning looking for a weak open r/g (especially on crowded shorts like this) as long as it's holding a double bottom and higher lows (also VWAP supported it well twice and it spiked up from there)
- Can also be buying near support areas when it's not breaking down and selling into spikes (8.50's acted as support and it ran to 9.80's then 8.50-8.60 acted as support again and it ran to 9.60's)
- DO NOT TRY TO CATCH A FALLING KNIFE INTO THE LAST 15 MINUTES, ESPECIALLY ON A JUNK STOCK THAT'S UP A LOT OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS/WEEKS (longs panic into close not wanting to hold overnight and shorts hammer into the close wanting to hold overnight/swing)
CANF (On April 27th)
Former runner (but now a "beat chart" with a big gap down from 5's to 2's about a month ago), it had a big gap up from 2.17 to 2.77 open on positive data news. This trade was somewhat similar to BIOC last week on it's up-trending day, I wanted 3+ to short initially but it didn't get there when I wanted it to (it topped at 2.97 earlier), then as soon as it broke 3 (which was basically a "breakout"), I hammered in with size too early. (as I did on BIOC last week, last week BIOC eventually came back down and I got lucky and made money overall, this one refused to "die"). I added way too much, too soon and had 7000 shares 3.12 average and it hit 3.48 and I had no room to add (I think there was a 2:1 limit on it today and I'm "supposed to" stay under 7k shares max anyways), I didn't "spread out" my entries enough, and didn't "save bullets" for higher. It pulled back to 3.19 and I had some orders waiting at 3.18-3.16 and I missed covering any, it popped back up to 3.29 and then came back down to 3.23, but it's just very thin, only 2000 shares traded at 3.24 on that candle and it popped back to 3.40's right away, then it was 3.32-3.45 for a while and I missed covering any into dips. It popped all the way to 3.54 and did a "HOD rejection" from there and faded back to 3.24 and all I got filled was 1k shares at 3.25, then readded some 3.32 and it dipped to 3.23 and all I got was 1k filled again, then readded 3.31, stopped out at 3.36 on the add, then readded 3.38 and it was hanging around 3.28-3.36 for a while, it seemed SO CLOSE to breaking down 3.28 but it kept holding and holding and it was very thin and would pop right back up (every 5-10 cents is a big difference with 6000 shares), it was still ABOVE VWAP and grinding and I knew there was no reason to still be short, but I didn't want to be the one that was "propping it up" or taking the ask and "creating the squeeze". I knew if 3.40 broke it could go much higher but I was too slow/stubborn to take the ask 3.35-3.40 and it ramped all the way up to 3.56. Thankfully/luckily it rejected HOD again, this time it could have easily went much further (3.70+) since it had consolidated for quite a long time leading up to this move. I covered 700 shares into the dip at 3.47, then readded it again at 3.51, then covered 4000/6500 from 3.42-3.36, then readded most of that again 3.39-3.42, and covered the rest 3.34-3.26, I was finally completely out of the position and I was down about $450 on the day (lost $1100 on the trade).
| Type | Entry | Exit | Shares | +/- $Amt | $ PnL | % Pnl |
|
- Lessons:
- Do not be too quick to "hammer in" short with too much size right as it gets over a key area after consolidation, I keep getting too stubborn and thinking things like "short at 3+", which would have been good on the first attempt when it went 2.62-2.95, but after consolidation, it is not as much of a short at that level, and I have to always "save bullets" for higher when scaling into a parabolic (if I only had 2000-3000 shares 3.05-3.15, I could have added 3.30's and 3.40's to my 7000 share maximum and covered into the dip to 3.20's for profit)
- Slow grind/basing ABOVE VWAP = No reason to short/be short (I knew this, but I was in too big and was too stubborn and I was frustrated that I didn't cover more at 3.23-3.26 both times)
- Need to make sure to cover most/all when it's basing at key levels, I should have had orders in for more than I did on both the 3.23-3.26 tests, instead of being so greedy looking for the big breakdown, I missed covers and it popped right back up
- I need to COVER ALL when it's basing/grinding above VWAP, regardless of what my average is, and then look for other opportunities later, this trade could have been managed so much better if I had taken advantage of the full range, covering all 3.20's, reshorting 3.40-3.50 covering 3.20-3.30, reshorting 3.50's covering 3.30's again (it was basically trading in a 3.25-3.55 channel all day and I was stuck being stubborn the whole time and not taking advantage of the range, I could have covered and reshorted again higher so many times)
Because I often add to losers, I end up having lots of small gains and then a few really big losses. Overall, the way I traded this month still worked out well, I just need to be a lot more controllable with my size and better with sizing in and out. I had six $1000+ losses again this month which equal a total of about $11,300 (same amount of 1k+ losses and around the same total amount from them as last month). Without those six losses, my total for the month would have been around $30,000 instead of $18,912, just something to think about, but I also held through a lot of other big unrealized losses that ended up working out for a profit.
A few of the main things I need to work on:
- Controlling my overall position sizes and being careful not to add, add, add uncontrollably, have to try to make "smart" adds and keeping my overall position size under control, and knowing when to be sizing back down if I'm in too big or if it's not doing what I thought
- Making sure to exit the entire position when my thesis for the trade no longer exists (especially if I tried to but got partial fills) and not trying to "make a trade work" with more adds and re-adds in places where I wouldn't normally trade that stock
- Making sure to exit the entire position if I know my entry isn't very good and I have a small profit, instead of trying to "scale out" for a "homerun" from a bad entry, it's much better to exit the entire position for breakeven/small profit and then look for better entries again later if it sets up again
- Not being too greedy on sells/covers, if I have an order in at a certain spot for a reason, I need to let it fill, and not worry if I goes a bit higher/lower afterwards (there were many times that my trades were screwed up from being too greedy and CHANGING orders higher/lower and missing them)
That is my extensive trading recap for the month of April, 2015. This was my best month of trading of all time, making a total of $20,450 before commissions and $18,912 after commissions (with ECN rebates) with a total of 14 green days and 7 red days.
Thank you for reading, I hope you learned something from my extensive trading recap for April, 2015.
