Today I made my first trade 6 months after joining the challenge.  I had $NEOT, $LGCY and $TLOG on my watch list, $NEOT was already up by 15% pre market. my entry was flawed, i forgot to enter the entry price, but I had selected limit order, yet my order got filled at 1.53, whereas it should have been 1.37. I entered the position very late I guess, the stock was already up by .20+ cents. After started to drop I tried to sell my shares at 1.37 but it didn't get executed so I guess I panicked and sold it at 1.33 thinking it may fall further. I think this trade I made was more to get a hang of how the platform works and to test my agility, but I feel the position was too large 300 shares x 1.37 either or 1.41 well thats what I had planned to enter the stock when it was spiking.( though on my Risk Reward Sheet It was entry at 1.05 and exit at 1.45) so the key lessons learned. 

 

This is more of my trading dairy than a blog post 

These are the lessons I have learned, it may or may not apply to you, ;-)

1. If the stock doesn't go as planned don't trade (here the initial plan was entry at 1.05 exit at 1.45)

2. Cut losses quicker, .20 cents on a $500 trade is a big loss.

3.Do not panic, I think I panicked and sold too quickly, in hindsight what I should have done was wait for it find a base, at the time of writing this it was basing around low 1.40ish, this may sound contradictory to point #2 but what I really mean is keep your calm, my heart was palpitating faster than it would during an HIT 

4. Evaluate the commentary by the gurus and fellow students Tim had posted a commentary which stated 04/25 9:27:21 AM - $NEOT and $VRNG are top 2 potential morning spikers, but market's down today so be careful. 

5. Do not trade an over extended stock like $NEOT unless there is a catalyst. 

6. I think I got excited this morning,Don't be too eager to pull the trigger for your first trade, look for better rather great set ups, or if you do then take smaller positions I went against the advise of some experienced traders, they advised me to trade with 100-200 shares which or in dollar terms 5-10% of your account. I used 25%. 

7. Do not force trade as Tim, Mark and Michael have always emphasised. Today I only forced trade because I wanted to get the knack of it, I have been wanting to trade from past 2 weeks since I transfered money into my brokerage account, but was only looking for great set ups or maybe I was procrastinating, I wouldn;t have lost so much money if my entry wasn't messed up DAMN, well SHIT happens will have to suck it up. 

8. Don't beat yourself for small losses, but make sure they remain small.

If you read this I would appreciate if you can pin point any misinformation or something that doesn't makes sense.

Time to ante up the knowledge quotient...

Cheers.

Many Happy Returns...