Just had to get a trade in. Grrrrrrrr. Lost $3. I coulda bought me a beer with that. Good think I have a keg of my own brew on tap, huh. Picked at WB. Lesson learned... I hadn't planned to live trade today and went into the trade basically without a plan. Pre market showed fair volume and strong up trend. Price was chopping up and down between $40.05 and $40.50 on the 30 second chart. And now it looks like it just did a breakout. Darn. I set my stop too tight and I coulda made a better entry if I had waited for the next dip. Boooooo, me. Bad trader. BAD!!! To the moon, Alice. Coulda made a nice quick $70 there with only $3 risk. That's okay. Tomorrow is another day. So now the $10k account I started with in May is standing at $9977. Okay, the lessons aren't costing me too much, then. I will do better tomorrow. Looks like WB is in a nice up trend but it is seriously choppy. I think it will break $41.
Well, more risk than that. Like I said, I set stop too tight. Didn't think it would touch support again. So realistically if I had made a proper plan well, yeah about $3 risk because I would have made a better entry, down in the dirt, where the obvious support level was. There. It broke $41. What did I say. It might have one more strong move left in it. Let's say $41.50 before lunch. I haven't checked the fundamentals. I am assuming that is Warner Brothers. Movie stocks can get a little crazy sometimes though not like pharma.
So today I was a very busy trader. Busy losing money. $161, my biggest loss to date. Had a very exciting time, and learned myself some more lessons. I didn't see much at the open in the way of stocks in play, so I bought some QQQ to hang onto for a while, and day traded some more. Traded SQQQ/TQQQ, and TVIX, and had another stab at my nemesis, BYND. Curses! Foiled again! A few stocks popped up in the screener and I had a go at a few. I kept at least 3 trades open, sometimes as many as 5, from about 0940 to 1535 What I am taking away from this day is I have been moving my stops up too early and not letting the stock run up and down. Especially choppy stocks like BYND when it is infested with black box traders. I have always been pretty cautious and today I was even more cautious, and looking at all my charts I started seeing great moneymakers that were taking my money instead of making me any money, because the price chops up and down more than my stop distance. Also I figured out the reason for a lot of my price slides on the buy. My chart is way late in populating. My data is coming in plenty fast. I tried trading by the ticks, and made a couple of great entries on the bottom bounce. But the chart takes a second or two to repopulate from the data feed. I am thinking that my graphics card, PSU, and monitor together are bogging the system down a bit. My trading setup is crazy... I got to get a decent gamer and one good 60" 4k monitor. Strategy today was a simple Bollinger play. If center line trends up and stock bounces hard off the lower line or the center line, I buy limit on the ask, with stop and target orders. I use upper Bollinger as a possible line of resistance. It usually works okay but I see now that it has potential to work a lot better if the stock is just allowed to run free for an hour or so. I was seeing very well defined trends from mid afternoon to 1630. I actually was making back my losses. I should have stayed on BYND for just another 15 minutes to let it make me just a bit closer to profitable. Once I had it figured out I was tempted to bet out stronger but that was not the plan. I had firmly resolved to not play any position at more than 100 shares or 200 for a very low priced stock. I really feel like that decision to stick with the plan late in the day cost me a day in the green. But it wasn't a terrible beat down and I will trade again tomorrow and it will be better. I will save the tight stops for the bull flag plays and keep it loose for trend following or scalping. Another bad habit I am breaking right now once and for all is trying to scalp long on a choppy bearish trend. Short selling is such a PITA. By the time my stock is located, the situation has already changed. So I am very much a long player. Sometimes I do pretty good taking cheap shots at a falling stock when it takes an upward bounce. 20 cents here, 15 cents there, it adds up. If I hit it right. But you know what? from now on if it is trending down but chopping up, I just leave it alone. Also I left 100 shares of QQQ on the hook overnight. I was thinking it might be a good thing to load the boat overnight with ETFs and solid megacaps rather than just leave the money out of play overnight. Maybe only sell what I need for trading each day. I might take some screenshots or screen caps tomorrow for the entertainment of my viewers. I was just so busy today, and doing some configuration changes at the same time, urrrrr. And I was supposed to replace the tail light on the truck today so we can get a brake tag. (Louisiana-speak for "Inspection Sticker") and it is still sitting there on the coffee table and I haven't even cooked supper yet. I think it will be a Papa John's night tonight.
Hmmm. A couple thoughts pop up reading this. There's nothing wrong with going short. You said it takes time for the locate.... yeah, don't go short stocks that need located. But the fang stocks and 1000's of others don't need a locate. "Loading the boat" with ETF's overnight. That goes back to what we were talking about before, big positions. You can spread things out, but if the tide goes out for whatever reason, its gonna be the same result s having all your $'s in one stock. For the most part at least. I don't think you should be messing with BYND right now. But thats just my opinion. Why don't you try to master Apple. Don't overtrade. Start using VWAP on your charts too. Thats a must. Watch how the high volume stocks act around it. Keep an SPY chart open. And a DJI. If you have the screen real estate. Start going short from time to time. As always, keep the positions small. " I really feel like that decision to stick with the plan late in the day cost me a day in the green." Yeah well, you did the right thing. BEWARE that feeling. Tomorrow's another day. It'll getcha Growley. ... thats all. lol.
Hey, @GrowleyMonster - another long-time sailor/Linux/Solaris/old-time IT guy here. Keeping fairly mum, but quietly cheering for ya from the sidelines. I'm pretty much 100% in options, but always glad to see another trader making his way through the learning mill - it's where I am in my journey right now. Just spent the summer in southern Colorado, getting ready to pull out for the Michigan salmon season; getting the RV ready to go (trying not to get any AW46 hydro on the keyboard as I'm typing, and listening to the jacks creaking as the air pump fills the bags; we're taking off in two days, so it's time to PM all the mechanicals.) Best of luck, and - @vanzandt is on point with his advice; I've had to pay a fair bit to get those lessons through my skull. Stay careful.
VWAP now that I know how to get it on TWS will definitely be on the charts tomorrow. Too late on the BYND LOL! I am holding 100 shares right now. If it retouches the high of the day I will definitely have a green day. Playing TQQQ also. Giving it plenty of room today and it is in a nice but choppy trend. Watching TVIX and taking a scalp now and then. I took a screen shot but I don't want to bring up my browser on the trading computer. I am showing 7 charts right now. I did put SPY on one. I did have SQQQ right next to TQQQ but I won't be trading SQQQ so SPY goes there. LOL My old buddy WKHS gained 30 cents and I missed it. Apple? I will take a look. It worked for Lieutenant Dan and Forrest Gump. Hmmm everything shows signs of perking back up. Looks like I will have a green day after all.