Heres the story of how I began trading, I began studying Trading around the first week of February this year, or I should say I started reading about Investing, which then turned into reading about Trading, Day Trading, Swing Trading and everything and anything about Penny Stocks/NASDAQ stocks.

My girlfriend came home one day telling me "this guy at work said I should take my 401k and invest it into something", which was the 1st thing that pointed me in the direction to the stock market. The 2nd thing that led me to trading, was a guy that I work with at my side job who said "I just invested $500 into 50,000 shares of a Penny stock", it was a weed stock, that he had just put in there, in hopes it would take off and go to the moon. The 3rd thing that pointed me in the direction to the stock market was myself talking to a few guys at my main job about day trading in which they told me I should talk to a kid that sits right at my table at lunch about it. I asked him, he'd said he's been playing in the market for about 5-6 years, and proceeded to tell me what I should begin studying and to forget about dividends, bonds and anything of that sort. 

I began studying everything he told me to study, from candlestick charts to level 2's the price action thats involved, chart patterns, I watched almost all of Tim's videos and every video Investors Underground has to offer on YouTube. It all helped in one way or another, making more sense each day that passed, I was lost in all of the information there is about the topic, and have since drowned myself in studying and learning something new every day. Im sure all of my closest friends that I have been talking to about it are sick of hearing about it, and actually two or three of them have already delved into trading themselves, after recommending Tims videos and IU tutorials. Everything I learn in a day or week, I explain to my best friend from kindergarten every time I see him, which helps engrain each lesson and every bit of knowledge I take in, on top of note taking and hearing it from videos that are constantly playing in the background on the TV. 

Once I tried paper trading, which I only practiced for a week or two, I felt like it wasn't enough, it didn't have the emotions, it didn't update up to the minute only every 15 minutes, felt like I was learning at a slower rate than when I was just reading or watching videos about the topic. I know what your thinking "then how did you know any of your plans would work in the real market, if you haven't practiced them with paper", well I didn't, I opened my E*Trade account and put 2,500 in to start. Finally I get to watch live time Level 2's price action, finally get to see the peak playing times, finally get to see the difference in charts from Penny Stocks to NASDAQ. I didn't feel prepared to actually play but it helped seeing real time trading action, looking at the yearly, monthly, daily, and intraday charts and comparing levels of resistance and support compared to what was happening that day.

Needless to say, I finally felt comfortable enough to try a trade with REAL money, MY money, and I could not tell you the amount of emotion I had felt the first time I hit BUY and was IN the stock market. I was anxious, I didn't do my homework the night before, nor the morning before the open that day, I looked at FINVIZ at what had some volume 20 minutes before the open. I figured "well I'll play the market as a morning momentum trader", found the stock I thought would be one that I could dip my toes in and get the feels for. It took me for an emotional rollercoaster, I know "Cut Your Losses Early" which really I will tell you, i didn't know when EARLY was, when do I pull the trigger if it doesn't go my way. This is when I learned how important Risk/Reward ratio really is, I studied the risk/reward ratio multiple times over, had an idea in my head of when I would get out if it went my way, and an idea of where I would get out if it didn't go my way. I was in only 100 shares ENPH at 1.62, but I missed the morning move, the stock dipped and came back up to a cent lower than what I had gotten in at. Mistakes from that trade I learned is that I bought in too late or Chased the morning spike thinking maybe it will go a little bit more, the FOMO Fear of Missing out got the best of me. I did however feel that first adrenaline rush of playing, cut my losses quickly, in the market for all of 35 minutes, had I waited another 10 minutes and been patient, I would've left the trade positive instead of negative, tell ya the truth I was down more from the trade commission than I was from missing the move and getting in too late. Another lesson had to be learned, learn to be patient. Still with 2 day trades before I hit the PDT rule, I ended up not using because I lost a bit of confidence in playing, didn't see any potential plays so I waited to play and hit the books while watching the rest of the week play out.

Starting the next week fresh, worked the first 3 days of the trading week, and decided if I saw a play on that Thursday I would attempt to play. Well I saw a stock that people were talking about, being hyped up all week, played a couple times, and said that'll be the one I play. PRKR is the ticker, the stock had a good breakout the days before, even a month before around the same day of the month. Unfortunately trying for a Long 250 shares at 2.60, the stock had dipped, I planned on dip buying, the stock came up, then dipped further, my emotions now taking over again, I couldn't imagine if the price dropped any more(in the moment) that I'd want to see how it played out, so I pulled the panic trigger and sold. Had I have waited, the price had rebounded 20 minutes after I sold at .15 lower than what I had bought in at. 

In that same week, I found CATB on everyones radar and on FINVIZ, I logged in my trading journal, "Looked for hype, followed the crowd, rode the momo wave". I ended up long 250 shares, at 1.80, rode the wave until it hit $2, saw one red candlestick and sold. It was my first WIN, I did something right and had to go back and analyze what I did. I looked at the chart, and realized I had made a mistake of getting out too early, I know, a Win is a Win everyone will say, but the mistake I made was that I didn't look for a true sign of a reversal. Looking back I'm just glad I had a win under my belt. So far in the game 1-2, not down, not out.

 

To be continued...