Trades for August 4, 2015

Pretty slow day, I'm very "trigger shy" off the open lately, I had my new best day a week ago but since then, each day has mostly been "scratch", make some here, lose some there and finishing about the same as I started (usually giving back gains that I was up early on).

I'm trying to just be green everyday regardless of how much it is and being more satisfied with 500 bucks, 1000 bucks, etc., and trying to control risk and plan out my trades much better as I mentioned on my blog post yesterday.

The "numbers" may not be all the "big"/exciting starting out, I'm not really trading all that big of size as of right now (depends on the setup though) and I'm somewhat just "experimenting" with different things and focusing on daily consistency as I mentioned.    

The blog format will be a little bit different, I am going to try to incorporate an idea of my risk on each trade to really demonstrate my thinking behind the trades and really help me think more about what my plan is and sticking to it.  I am just going to put the actual number but sometimes it's "over/under" risk and sometimes exact I guess.  I may be taking breakevenish before it gets to my risk area if I don't really like what it's doing.  Some of the "reactive stuff" off the open and all the scaling in and out (but I'm trying to do less scaling in and out during the day) may not totally have an idea of risk but I will try to incorporate it when I can and also incorporate hard stops when I can.

I'm am going to try doing the blog for a month or a few weeks and see how things go, and decide if I want to keep doing it or not.
     
I was really hoping for a great setup on OGEN today with a gap up 3.20-3.40 and a 3.50+ push to short, that was the "ideal setup" I was hoping for, but that never happened with the gap down and weak open and low volume today.

I missed an "easy trade" on GBIM but the volume wasn't that great (and it was "thinly traded" with a 10 cent spread, etc.) and I had missed some of my entries around 3.50-3.60 (never got where I was waiting/wanting) and didn't take it on the CONVINCING VWAP break at around 10:00 (great setup with risk on the previous top 3.25-3.28).  Also missed my fills on EXEL on the "triple top" in the morning for a short.  Those were two of the best setups today, also LXRX short would have been great with patience but I covered way too early for no real reason.  

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.  Using two monitors can be useful (one for the full-screen chart and one for the text/trades), that's how I personally do it whenever I am reviewing my old posts.

LXRX

Type

Entry

Exit

Shares

+/- $Amt

$ PnL

% Pnl

Short

13.66

13.66

1000

-$0.00

-$2.96

-0.02%

Risk 13.80 (high from yesterday) but took a tiny loss (only got a partial fill) when it still seemed strong, ended up covering the rest for breakeven right as it washed out 20 cents

Long

13.42

13.44

1500

$0.01

$18.50

0.09%

Risk VWAP "over/under" (13.41), sold breakeven when it seemed weak and couldn't reclaim 13.50.

Short

13.44

13.25

1000

$0.19

$190.00

1.41%

Risk 13.50ish (reclaim), reason for short was convincing VWAP break after failing to hold green, covered too early and never got back in on pops, could have been more more patient or gotten back in.

Long

12.17

12.26

3210

$0.10

$305.70

0.78%

Risk 12.06 (LOD), was trying to sell at least some for a small profit in the 12.20's when it couldn't get over 12.30 but there seems to be an issue since last week with SSR and hitting the bid on longs (it doesn't let you hit the bid even if it's a long, it treats it as a short).  There wasn't much volume and SSR was annoying, so I ended up selling it all for a small profit into strength, idea was right on the bounce off 12 but ended up selling too early overall but low volume grinds aren't really my thing, I hate trading them.

Short

12.58

12.52

50

$0.06

$3.00

0.48%

Risk 12.60ish, only got 50 shares so I covered for 6 cents and waited for higher.

Short

12.69

12.48

500

$0.21

$105.00

1.65%

Risk 12.75-12.90 (willing to add another 500 shares possibly), covered into the washout below 12.50 thinking it might try to reclaim 12.50 and "grind" up again as it did.  

• Lessons:
• Try to be very patient on a short on "Day 2" when the stock failed to hold green on the day (after a "r/g push") and now broke below VWAP, ideal target is LOD's from the morning and possibly even more if that can't act as support
• Don't be afraid to "short a pop" on a downtrend like this, it's never "fallen too much", just control your risk and be patient (possibly using manual hard stops as it continues to fall), and pay attention to how it reacts at whole and half dollar marks

TNET

Type

Entry

Exit

Shares

+/- $Amt

$ PnL

% Pnl

Short

17.18

16.93

800

$0.25

$201.00

1.46%

Risk 17.25ish (scaling into the whole number parabolic with SSR on), ideal goal was 16.80's but ended up covering some of it before that.