This morning saw several nice breakouts of 10% or more - $FNJN, $HMNY, $SMRT, and $ETRM. There was money to be made on each of these, with $HMNY being the standout. The play was the same in all four cases - waiting to buy long on the dip.

HMNY was up 80% in premarket action, but I waited for a pullback to $3.91 and held long until the downturn at $4.65 (paper trade) for a paper gain of 18.9% or $0.74 cents a share.

SMRT also shot out of the gate and I paper traded the dip at $1.40, holding until the downturn at $1.54, for a gain of 10% and $0.14 cents a share.

ETRM was up nearly 10% early, and I paper traded the dip at $5.81 and held until the turn at $6.27 for a 7.9% gain and $0.46 cents a share.

FNJN was the final paper trade and the least meaningful. I initiated on the dip to $3.46 and sold at $3.50 when the trend didn't turn out to be convincing. Gain was a measly 1.2% and $.04 cents a share.

Here are my trading rules:

Focus on 3-4 patterns to minimize distraction and simplify screens (2 longs, 2 shorts)

Exit a trade when the momentum shifts and you have already hit your target

Cut losses quickly when your expected trend doesn't develop

Go for base hits. Occasionally a home run or even a grand slam will present itself, but don't try to make it happen. Just position yourself to take advantage when it happens. Base hits often win the game.

Never risk more than 50% of a small account or 10% of a large account.

Here are my wealth rules:

Be a long-term investor. Take your proceeds from trading and invest in stocks for 20-30 years, rental properties, micro-lending - anything you can become an expert at.

Don't buy liabilities; buy assets.

Become a student of money. Study the mistakes that pro athletes like Evander Holyfield and many others have made with their money and develop a strategy to avoid them.

You can't out-earn stupidity, so learn to BE wealthy, not just GET wealthy.

Money doesn't change you - it just reveals who you were all along. So be worthy of whatever gifts life gives you.

About Me:

I am still paper trading at this point. I first started day-trading back in 2000 when I discovered the simple pattern of early morning breakouts. My strategy back then was to buy early gainers out of the gate and sell at the top. I didn't know anything about dip buying, but I was successful enough to make a few hundreds bucks here and there. I shared my experience with some friends and started an investment group. Unfortunately I lost most of their money on a few bad trades, and without a mentor I threw in the towel. Since then I have been strictly a long-term, buy and hold investor, and have done quite well at that, averaging 33% annualized returns since 2008. A few weeks ago I discovered Tim Sykes and then Tim Grittani, and have been studying/learning as much as I can. I utilize 3-4 setups now in paper-trading, and plan to start trading real-money soon. Looking forward to my first successful short!