I think ultimately, what I need to observe is what I learned. I did learn from my loss on INO and I applied it to APOP – and you will notice that my loss on APOP was significantly lower than my loss on INO.

On INO, there was volume. It was yesterday’s top gainer and I figured everyone remembered it, but it’s not what everyone’s focus was on. As high as it was, and with everyone’s attention on APOP and CTRM, I should not have been trading INO.

But, one of my favorite patterns was forming and I decided to give it a go. There were several things that I did wrong on this trade. Deciding to try was not one of them.

I was not selective about my entry.

I hurried myself in. I was having trouble convincing myself to get into the play. I was convinced that it was about to run without me. So, I bought – I just forced myself to get in. I was not picky with my entry. I got in far above my stop loss.

I was reckless with my stop loss.

The pattern I was playing was the ascending triangle pattern, wherein clear resistance is formed and a trendline forms below it, squeezing the stock in an upward direction. This pattern relies on the trendline holding. When I declared the trendline (and with it, my stop loss), I drew my trendline along the bottom of the bodies of the candles, which had lower shadows. The lower shadows coincidentally also formed a trendline. When the stock went below the trendline I had drawn, I moved my trendline to the bottom of the lower shadows. What I should have done was get out when my declared stop-loss was hit.

In short, I should have bought closer to my stop-loss – these stocks have enough range within a minute or two that I could have got the price I wanted. The second thing I should have done was get out when my stop loss was hit.

I deserved to lose 1% of my account on that trade and I am grateful for the lesson.

v v v

My APOP trade was slightly different.

In my APOP trade, I saw it holding $3 through the morning. It bounced off of 3 a couple of times and made it back up to 3.25. Having learned from countless trades to get in closer to the bottom in order to minimize my losses, when I saw it hold 3 – and bouncing, I placed a limit order for $3.03 – which is the highest price I wanted to pay for it. Yay! I learned something! I got filled before the stock bounced up to 3.10.

I should have got out when I realized the stock was bearish.

When it failed to even reach VWAP, my friend in the chat pointed out to me that there was a downtrend. It kept getting stuffed at the downtrend. At that point, I was up on my trade. I foolishly maintained that there was an opportunity, having bought so low, to make some money on an 11 o clock breakout. I should have got out when it was failing to break downtrend and I was up on my trade.

I didn’t get out on time.

The stock fell from 3.10 to 3.05, where there was decent bidder support. When that support failed – when they got sold through – I tried to get out at the next lowest bid: 3.02, but by the time my order went through, the bids were at $3. I couldn’t cancel my order fast enough to place a new sell order and by the time I got my next order in, the stock had dropped to 2.94 or 2.93.

But I learned my lesson.

I set my sell order to below the bid and managed to get out above my sell order.

These lessons hurt, but they are worth it and I am learning. I am grateful to myself for keeping my size small so that these losses are manageable and not devastating. Additionally, by last month’s records, I lose 2/3 trades, but 1/3 of my trades double my losses. So, I am still feeling okay about this. I’m two bad trades closer to my good trade and as I learn, my losses will be less and less and my gains more and more.  

 

I think ultimately, what I need to observe is what I learned. I did learn from my loss on INO and I applied it to APOP – and you will notice that my loss on APOP was significantly lower than my loss on INO.

On INO, there was volume. It was yesterday’s top gainer and I figured everyone remembered it, but it’s not what everyone’s focus was on. As high as it was, and with everyone’s attention on APOP and CTRM, I should not have been trading INO.

But, one of my favorite patterns was forming and I decided to give it a go. There were several things that I did wrong on this trade. Deciding to try was not one of them.

I was not selective about my entry.

I hurried myself in. I was having trouble convincing myself to get into the play. I was convinced that it was about to run without me. So, I bought – I just forced myself to get in. I was not picky with my entry. I got in far above my stop loss.

I was reckless with my stop loss.

The pattern I was playing was the ascending triangle pattern, wherein clear resistance is formed and a trendline forms below it, squeezing the stock in an upward direction. This pattern relies on the trendline holding. When I declared the trendline (and with it, my stop loss), I drew my trendline along the bottom of the bodies of the candles, which had lower shadows. The lower shadows coincidentally also formed a trendline. When the stock went below the trendline I had drawn, I moved my trendline to the bottom of the lower shadows. What I should have done was get out when my declared stop-loss was hit.

In short, I should have bought closer to my stop-loss – these stocks have enough range within a minute or two that I could have got the price I wanted. The second thing I should have done was get out when my stop loss was hit.

I deserved to lose 1% of my account on that trade and I am grateful for the lesson.

v v v

My APOP trade was slightly different.

In my APOP trade, I saw it holding $3 through the morning. It bounced off of 3 a couple of times and made it back up to 3.25. Having learned from countless trades to get in closer to the bottom in order to minimize my losses, when I saw it hold 3 – and bouncing, I placed a limit order for $3.03 – which is the highest price I wanted to pay for it. Yay! I learned something! I got filled before the stock bounced up to 3.10.

I should have got out when I realized the stock was bearish.

When it failed to even reach VWAP, my friend in the chat pointed out to me that there was a downtrend. It kept getting stuffed at the downtrend. At that point, I was up on my trade. I foolishly maintained that there was an opportunity, having bought so low, to make some money on an 11 o clock breakout. I should have got out when it was failing to break downtrend and I was up on my trade.

I didn’t get out on time.

The stock fell from 3.10 to 3.05, where there was decent bidder support. When that support failed – when they got sold through – I tried to get out at the next lowest bid: 3.02, but by the time my order went through, the bids were at $3. I couldn’t cancel my order fast enough to place a new sell order and by the time I got my next order in, the stock had dropped to 2.94 or 2.93.

But I learned my lesson.

I set my sell order to below the bid and managed to get out above my sell order.

These lessons hurt, but they are worth it and I am learning. I am grateful to myself for keeping my size small so that these losses are manageable and not devastating. Additionally, by last month’s records, I lose 2/3 trades, but 1/3 of my trades double my losses. So, I am still feeling okay about this. I’m two bad trades closer to my good trade and as I learn, my losses will be less and less and my gains more and more.