The first week of December was my second week trading and it sure was a rough one, even with full time studying and trading. Trading is definitely harder to master than I though it would be. Going into this week I was slacking. I stayed out late and came home late a few nights which made it almost impossible for me to prepare for a good week of trading. 

My watchlists this week also seemed to be quite a bit off from Tim's, maybe that was due to insufficient studying. But one mistake was certain this week; I relied on alerts way too much. That's what I used to trade instead of following my plan, which caused me to chase stocks and resulted in losses all week. I also had a hard time catching morning spikes. 

However, by the end of the week I began to realize the pattern of dip buying. Now I don't know if this pattern still works or not I have to go over all the past trades Tim, Mark, and others have been making to see if this pattern is still strong. But, I have a good feeling about it. After studying on this pattern, something seemed to click about it and I am excited to try trading this pattern this upcoming week. Now onto my trades this week. Sorry they are not as detailed as they were last week, I got lazy with uploading them.

 

$PTOTF 

Entry: LOW VOLUME. Same mistake as $PURA (relying on alerts instead of my watchlist/plan). I bought on Tim's comment as this could run because it had a good catalyst and was a former runner. 

Exit: The stock crashed and I kept holding in hopes of it returning and making new high because it had everything going for it. Even though it did run up I was in the bathroom and after I came back it started dropping again. 

 

$PURA

Entry: TERRIBLE trade. Man I keep screwing up. At least I know what I'm doing wrong and can keep learning from my mistakes. I went in off an alert however it was already too late at that time. 

Exit: I didn't cut losses quickly but decided to hold it to see if it would ever go back up and breakout again. I'm finally realizing that stocks that have run up a lot usually don't keep running but fail. I'm glad I'm beginning to see and understand this important lesson. 

 

$PTOTF

Entry: Again I bought this stock off Tim's alert. 

Exit: However, it did not run but went lower. I tried to hold instead of cutting losses quickly. 

 

Lessons

1. Make a watchlist every night. Don't be lazy. 

2. Do not rely on alerts to get into a trade.

3. Cut losses quickly.

4. Do not hold onto a stock in hopes of it coming back.