This is a continuation to my post on 9/23/20 and is once again mostly for my purposes. While I haven't made any trades between then and now, I noticed deficiencies in the trades that I had made and want to document what I have learned since then. This will add on to the observations that I made in my prior 2 blog posts. As usual, this is for my documenting purposes but if someone finds value in it I am happy to help out.

IT IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT TO FOCUS ON EDUCATION IN THE BEGINNING THAN IT IS TO CONCERN YOURSELF WITH $ PROFITS. If the majority of traders are more concerned with the money they make or lose, why follow the crowd when 90%+ of them are losing money? You must change your priorities and focus on the same things that successful traders focus on. From what I have seen they are focused on education, sticking to setups that work for them, developing and sticking to solid trade plans, cutting losses quickly, and adapting to current market conditions. They all also say that finding 1 or 2 setups in the beginning and focusing on just those will give you better odds to grow a small account.

It is 12/12/20 and I haven't made a trade since 9/9/20 when I closed out an overnight position. At that time I felt overwhelmed and didn't feel like I knew what I was doing so I stopped trading and began reviewing another video lesson category. Once I finished that category I moved on to a few others until I realized that I was around 50% through reviewing all the video lessons. One of the main things I kept hearing while reviewing the lessons is that all the extremely successful students in Tim's program all had reviewed all the lessons and focused mainly on gaining knowledge in the beginning. Having this in mind I made it my goal to review all of the video lessons before I attempted to trade again. While I'm not completely finished at this point (the only lessons I have not completed are 5 lessons of 40 5 minute increments that were either not working or marked as private), I have reviewed all I can at this point. I have requested access to those videos from profit.ly support and was asked on Friday to send links so I assume I should be able to gain access and complete those lessons next week. There are some nuggets that I have recorded while reviewing the last 50% of the lessons, I am going to explain those in this post and continue to focus on the knowledge part of this niche while I mix in some preparation and maybe some trading over the next few months. It has been extremely hard just focusing on the education part of this while I watched everyone making so much money over the last few months, but I honestly believe that if I had been trading this whole time I would have been developing bad habits that could set me back in the future. Some might think it's insane to sit on the sidelines while there is so much going on, but I believe the educational side of this will serve me for years to come and I'm playing the long game here. I am not concerned about short term success, I want the long term success so I am going to follow the path of those that have shown long term success. On to my additional observations.

Superman suggested taking profits at certain points to lock in profits. I never really thought about this strategy when I was trading, I was only interested in getting the position all in and all out. For now, that will still be my strategy because my account is too small and the positions will not be big enough to take this approach, but this was a good nugget for when my account gets larger. Once my account has grown I am going to try to take 50% of my position off at the mid range of my profit goal and let the remaining run adjusting my stop as the move keeps going in my favor. Of course this is only a strategy that works if it looks like the move is going to continue, and if there are signs that the move might not go more I will take my whole position off when it's not doing what my thesis said it should do.

I have extensively studied the SSS over the last few months. I think it is impossible for a new trader to be able to quickly use this when looking at fast moving plays. Obviously it is a great tool for after the market has closed and you are making trade plans for the next day or during premarket, but when the market is open and the moves are happening I think it will be nearly impossible to utilize this wonderful tool to help put me in trades with the odds in my favor. With this in mind, I want to compress the SSS focusing only on Pattern/Price, Risk/Reward, Ease of Entry/Exit, and Past Performance/History of Spiking. I will only have entries when my Personal Schedule/Time of Day, Reason/Catalyst, and the Market Environment are in my favor in essence to have favorable numbers for those indicators and cut down my decision making for fast moving instruments. 

As I have stated before, it is instrumental to my success to start writing down my trade plan for every trade. This will help me document the trade when uploading into profit.ly, and will also help me to review the trades to find weaknesses in my trading or the setup I am using in the current market conditions. I want to have a defined risk, this should be a specific price that the instrument is using as support, and a realistic "single" goal that the chart supports can be achieved. I also want to have the short term and long term support and resistance zones defined. This is going to be tough to achieve during high volatility hours, but I need to work on this so it becomes second nature in the future.

Roland stresses the importance of ensuring that you stick to your risk level and cut your trade at that level. If you develop the habit of letting cut levels go longer, you skew your risk/reward and although it will not necessarily lead to a total loss in the current trade it is developing the bad habit that will bleed your account over time. He thinks in terms of a year or more down the road and what habits he can reinforce now that will set him up for success in those trades in the future. You must define your risk and also have an attainable goal that is realistic with the pattern, chart, catalyst, and price action. Always just go for singles as those are what build your account over time. Home runs are more exciting but they are like catching lightening in a bottle and will not happen often enough to move the needle on your account. Always have defined risk and reward levels and stick to your trading plan.

TRADE VOLATILE STOCKS ONLY, FOCUS ON CLEAR CUT PATTERNS NOT CHOPPY STOCKS, CUT LOSSES QUICKLY, TAKE 50 CENTS TO $1/SHARE PROFITS(10-20%), RINSE AND REPEAT #1-4 AND YOU'LL GET RICH OVER TIME.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TRADE EVERY DAY!!!! Only trade earnings winners & contract winners on breakouts and dip buys and pump and dumps short or early in the pump on a breakout, these are the only stocks that will play out in predictable patterns.

THE VALUE OF A TRADE IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE EVENTUAL PROFIT OR LOSS, IT IS DETERMINED BY HOW GOOD THE SETUP IS.

Buy earnings winners into panics near past resistance levels that should act as support and sell into spikes. This reduces your risk and prevents chasing a fake-out breakout.

Grittani uses Level 2 and charts to time his trades. I really want to get his Trading Tickers DVD and know I will at some point in this journey. His trades are determined mostly by price action. He says to never follow alerts because the market moves too fast and there is no way to replicate the trade from the alert. Only use trade alerts to learn, it is okay to be on the sidelines. Stopping chasing alerts was the best move he made. Never let yourself trade for any other reason besides the setup. NEVER STAY IN A TRADE TO SAVE A DAY TRADE. Early on in his career fear caused bad trading decisions. If you're scared, you're in too big. Trade smaller and in his case hiding his P&L helped him get over these fears. Working through emotional issues when trading gets better with time, but you have to hone in on what the issue is early and take steps to try to eliminate those issues. Overtrading is another issue that can be solved by trading smaller and focusing on ONLY 1 or 2 setups and stick to those until you have learned them inside and out and then expand to other setups afterwards.

Indicators of possible bottoming that could be followed by a significant bounce: 1. Needs to be a recent runner that is down off its highs. 2. Sideways price action, not necessarily at a technical support zone. 3. There will be a spike and dip during the sideways price action. 4. A new catalyst creates new volume and spiking. Buy when these indicators line up and it breaks the high of day. Just like everything else, this is not an exact science and will not work every time. CUT LOSSES QUICKLY!!!

With a small account and limited day trades you need to focus on buying stocks that can make 20, 30, 50, to 100% moves. That means focusing on buying low float stocks that can spike ideally with a solid catalyst (earnings win/contract win/billionaire investor).

BECOME MORE CONCERNED WITH % GAINS IN THE BEGINNING RATHER THAN THE $ GAINS!

Define risk before every trade and take a position size based off a maximum $ loss you are willing to take. Example: Long a breakout, $1 risk level: Desired maximum loss: $10, Enter at $1.05 = $0.05/share risk, $10/$0.05 = 200 share position. Same breakout with a $1.10 entry = $0.10/share risk, $10/$0.10 = 100 share position. DON'T FORGET TO ACCOUNT FOR "SLIPPAGE"

Instead of having a certain % willing to lose, set your risk level as a specific point on the chart and exit the trade when that level is broken. Just play the chart and try to take emotions out of the equation. If a play is going your way, keep playing the chart. 

BUY INTO WEAKNESS AND SELL INTO STRENGTH / SHORT INTO STRENGTH AND COVER INTO WEAKNESS.

While under the PDT rule, it is a good idea to focus on afternoon plays to hold overnight. This narrows your focus and allows you to save your day trades to exit same day if the trade breaks your specified risk level. This way you do not feel like you have to stay in a loser because you are out or almost out of day trades.

Do not dip buy or short parabolics unless your discipline is strong. It is not recommended by Roland or Bohen to dip buy panics until more experience and solid discipline is established.

REALIZE THAT IF 90%+ OF TRADERS LOSE, YOU DON'T WANT TO FOLLOW THE CROWD. Buy/cover when people are selling and sell/short when people are buying.

It has been noticed that breakouts rarely go straight up, typically there is an initial spike of the breakout level and a dip of consolidation where buyers are taking profits, this consolidation dip is the idea point to enter once a base of support is established risking off the consolidation zone. Ideally the consolidation zone base is above the initial breakout point, if it is not DO NOT take the trade.

Do not size up in slower markets. Use smaller size and take profits quicker in slower/crashing markets. Size up when the market is hot and the patterns are working better. Also, cut losses quicker in slower/crashing markets.

When looking back on the daily chart you want there to be big/unusual volume on any possible key resistance/support level. If there is not big/unusual volume then the possible level has less meaning because there weren't a ton of traders interested in that level.

Preflight Checklist:

1. Look for big % gainers (up at least 10%) ideally a FORMER RUNNER and PREDICTABLE in terms of its trading history. I will utilize StockstoTrade to find my potential trades.

2. What is the stock's Float, Shares Outstanding, and # Shares Short? Low float stocks can run far more than you can anticipate and squeeze faster than larger float stocks.

3. Why is the stock up? What is the catalyst? More catalyst=Greater odds. Earnings Winner = POTENTIAL BUY, Contract Winner = POTENTIAL BUY, Technical Breakout = POTENTIAL BUY(ideal chart only), Pumps/Promotion(newsletters, seekingalpha, PR's) = POTENTIAL SHORT, Hot Sector (biothech, oil, coronavirus, low float) = POTENTIAL BUY(short when momentum reverses), Buyout Rumor(speculative, news sensitive, NO edge) = NO PLAY/IGNORE, Speculative/Potential News = IGNORE in most cases

4. Where is the longer-term & short-term support and resistance levels? Always look several years back, focus on "clean" charts, avoid longer term "bagholder" charts

5. Develop an IDEAL Risk/Reward trade that is at least 3/1(goal of making 50 cents/share with downside of losing 15 cents/share) Have a plan (entry/exit points) otherwise don't trade the setup, focus only on stocks that meet criteria 1-4, most stocks offer BAD risk/reward avoid these setups at all costs.

6. Look to trade during key times. First 1.5 hours: 9:30am-11:00am EST, Last 2 hours: 2:00pm-4:00pm EST.

7. Execute the trade plan. Ride the winners per your trading plan, cut losses quickly per your trading plan.

These are obviously not all encompassing, but these are the notes that I took while reviewing the last 50% of the video lesson library. I have plans on going back through all the video lessons starting with the first video posted to present and taking notes on each lesson. I will start this process after I have reviewed the DVD's that I currently have. Even though I have not technically completed all of the lessons until I am able to get the 200 minutes of unavailable or private videos, it feels amazing to have made it this far. I feel like I have so much more knowledge and can easily explain many parts of Tim's strategy. Obviously the proof will only be shown once I start to seriously trade, but I am in no rush. I want to continue to soak in as much education as I can right now and set myself up for future success.

If anyone has made it this far, I thank you for your time and hope that you found some value in it. If you haven't done it yet, I highly suggest prioritizing the review of all the video lessons, read The Complete Penny Stock Course a time or two, join and complete the 30 day bootcamp, and at the very least get How to Make Millions and review that (all the money from that DVD goes to charity and it is the most comprehensive of the 5 I have watched so far). Also, pass on knowledge you gain to others in this community. We are not competing against each other, we are competing against ourselves and the more we can help others the more we will get back to help us. With that in mind, good luck on your journey! #OTAAT