IDGX

IDGX

Because of mistakes learned from SUNE, RJET, CRC, and VNR as well as seeing noticeable patterns on pre-market activity for gap-ups.  I wanted to grab IDGX pre-market at 1.5 and sell at pre-market highs but was unsure of what my position size due to not being able to specifically define a risk. I could've set a stop loss under 1.5 and call it a risk but the patterns that work during normal market hours doesn't translate 100% to work during pre-market.  Even worse is that once the bell opens, the stock can completely ignore the pre-market pattern especially if a stock has already gapped up a ton which in this case is already at 50%.  There was no edge and it was pretty much a guessing game so i became patient and waited for an 5m ORB or a breakout past the pre-market high of 1.73.

Bought 2000 IDXG @ 1.7299 12/09/2016 09:32:07

Stock moved too fast and i saw an ORB on the 1 minute candle teasing a nhod.

Sold 1000 IDXG @ 1.8593         12/09/2016 09:33:03

Profit taking system activated.

Sold 500 IDXG @ 1.7501              12/09/2016  09:34:31

Downsized to minimize my risk just cause the stock is moving too unpredictable on the 1min.

Sold 500 IDXG @ 1.8593              12/09/2016  09:40:44

Since i only had 500 left and some profits locked in, i held the last 500 to see if it can break past 2.0.  I had about ~6mins to sell above 1.90+ but still waited to see if it cracks above 2$. Stock cracked from 1.9 > 1.8.  Was able to hold an extra min to sell off strength on a bounce.

** 11 Dec, on review of my trade, i was actually out of the trade at 0940 instead of the 0950 i initially thought, sold early without even seeing an ema crossover or a break of the 13ema.
** 20 Dec, review
- F3 prior day GAP UP, bought B/O of pre-market HOD on spike 

- Spiked on volume B/O of pre-market HOD. Very volatile and quick trade. Less than 1min from buy to 1st profit taking and 8 mins for the whole trade. 

- GO-TO-SETUP, relied on price action to close out on position. 1st time i've done that and good thing i did because the lagging indicators would've been too late. 

- STUDY PRICE ACTION !!!

VNR, NVCN, SGY

VNR

Bought 500 VNR @ 1.27 12/05/2016  15:48:08

Just like in RJET when the big move happened during extended hours.  I was still at work when i saw it peak a 1.44 on my phone's ToS  Trader App, i didn't think much of it at the time and thought it'd keep on going.  I completely forgot about my profit target of 1.40-1.50 and I didn't realize at the time that my goal was to sell just under it testing 1.5.  I was already up 13-17cents a share/~10-15% and yet i didn't take my profits.

To make it worse, once i finally got home and logged in.  The price was going back and forth at 1.30-1.34, i had the feeling that i've been in a similar position before and KNEW that the chart was broken.  Each experience is indeed unique when i'm winning so it's bad to associate the past when i'm winning.  But if i'm about to lose my profits or go into a loss and i associate my current position to one in the past--it should've been a wake up call to GET OUT QUICKLY and MINIMIZE MY LOSSES.  What did i do? I ended up holding til 1.30 cracked all the way down til 1.18.. Held an extra minute or so because i knew a good probability of a small bounce because of <30 RSI.. and sold my position at 1.2.  It eventually rebounded higher to 1.25 but the RSI was already out of the 30's and holding on would've just been the wrong thing to do even though it would've meant a smaller loss.

Sold 500 VNR @ 1.2 12/06/2016  09:21:25

What should have been a 65$ profit turned into a (-35$loss)+(-20$commission)=55$ P/L

** In hindsight, i'd need to gain at least 1%/trades taken just to break even on position's so small.  Small lesson learned but i was able to get back into the rythmn of trading without losing alot.

SGY

I honestly don't remember why I put this here so I've got no comments for this.. Prolly something for shorting.

NVCN

Another stock that fit my F3/Pre-market GO-TO-SETUP that I wasn't watching.

VNR, SGY*

VNR

F3 pattern.  Bought in at 1.27 with risk set at 1.25 but kept 1.20 in the back of my head for some reason.  Been months since i traded so i traded a small 500 shares.  Profit target is 1.40-1.49 selling just under the 1.50 test.  No need to get greedy, it's a small position and i'd be up 13cents a share/10% at 1.40.

SGY

Just practicing spotting tops ahead of me getting an IB account to start executing short trades.

EBIO

EBIO

Missed morning entry at F1 flag at 1.38 and just watched it leave without me..
Tried to dip buy post 1400 for an o/n gapup play and got stopped out, worth. I do need to check RSI when buying.. for dip buying, nothing higher than 50 on 5min and 30ish on 1min. Worth small o/n position for the gap up? My usual play but it didn't come to my mind since it didn't trend up at the eod like i'm used to.

Tried to buy the breakout the nxt day... Similar mistake as NEOT, Chased way past the previous day's breakout as well as the breakout in pre-market. Should have been a scalp and I was up 5%ish but similar thinking as NEOT. Pre-defined my risk however did not have a complete plan as far as estimating where i should start locking in profits.

1.38 Missed play- Fear still hit me.. i've seen the ORB/F1 pattern enough times yet i was still immobilized. One new thing however, i was able to predefine my risk for the first time... 1.35 was the opening and was my mental stop... 3-5cents of downside for so much upside yet i was frozen.

Dip buying- I need to make sure i'm not trying to dip buy when the stock is over bought on the 1min and 5min charts.

Buying ORB on after day 1 of the move- Same thing as NEOT, my goals/profit targets for the stock is unrealistic causing me to miss opportunities to lock in profits and instead lose money.

Still here... Trading in the Zone/Matt Owens

Randomly blogging stuff..

Still here, Been a little busy because of work/process of moving from Japan back to the US/Illinois. I've been really reflecting hard on the main problems i've been having. Most of my losses are because of my inconsistency in being controlling my emotions and not the strategy/market.



GREED - desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.

Symptoms of Greed (credit to Matt Owens)
Greed will make you:
- Set unrealistic price targets
     (Guilty- I've had alot of progress in the past few months in setting realistic targets, taking profits along the way also helps me lock in profits and not lose money because of this. This is still a prevailing problem for me that i need to work on. Mostly because my hypothesis is usually incomplete prior to entering a trade. Having a complete hypothesis with the focus of actually quantifying my risk is a step to helping me set a realistic price target)

- Not realize profits because of them
     (Lock in profits along the way completely kills this adverse effect)

- Dwell on how much more you can make if you stay in a trade
     (Guilty in the past- Locking in profits helps negate the bad things this can do)

- Set price targets for the trade based on how much you fantasize about making
     (SUPER Guilty- this is a very big reason why I currently have a hard time in setting a realistic price target. I do find myself still thinking about wanting to make at least a thousand in a trade even though I know logically that it's pushing it and very very unlikely that the stock will reach that point. I will then start to hold on longer than I should and "Hope" that the stock reaches that point, which most likely won't and reverse in trend causing me to either lose my profits or even worse puts me into a loss.)

- Ignore rules and risk management practices
     (I've been good with ignoring rules so far cept the last trade where i traded without having any sleep, but that wasn't because of greed. I technically can't ignore risk management practices if I don't have any hahaha... I need to work on really quantifying my risk prior to the trade and ways to minimize it. I've been very very good at stopping out at my mental stop though. Rule #1 Cut your losses !! thanks to Tim Sykes for always drilling... I literally think he says that more than he breathes in a day.

- Get Rich Quick Mentality-gamble
     (Super guilty- This feeling is slowly dying out as I get more and more used to locking in profits along the way. It's slowly making sense to me that It's the grind that'll make me rich and not the swinging for the fences mentality.)

- Cause You To Lose All Of Your Money Int The Market
    (Not there and will take all appropriate steps necessary to not reach this event)

FEAR - a distressing emotion aroused by impeding danger, evil, pain, whether the threat is real or imagined.

(My current thoughts on fear.. I shouldn't try to be fearless, Fear is a natural instinct for survival. However, realizing whether the fear is irrational or rational is crucial in trading. Having no fear in life is horrible ex: I have a fear of jumping off a ledge of a high cliff/skyscraper with no parachute/means of getting to the ground safely or without dying. Fear in this case keeps me alive duh... But in a scenario where I have a fear of dogs due to a negative past experience, but there's a cute/harmless/no history of aggression/cup poodle dog in front of me that wants to play.. The fear of dogs in this case, to others, is completely irrational and because of it will cost me the experience of having fun/positive experience with the dog that's currently in front of me.)

Symptoms of Fear - (credit to Matt Owens)
Fear will make you
- Sell in a panic regardless of price
     (Not felt yet)

- Never want to take a calculated risk
     (HUGE, affected me for weeks during March/April hiatus for 7-level CDCs.. Still affects me atm but having a quantified risk/complete hypothesis as well as ACCEPTING RISK/Accepting that each trade is unique is slowly easing me past this emotion).

- Paralysis of analysis
     (I've felt it before but not to the point where it's affected my trading as of yet, will monitor closely for now.)

- Not enter quality setup because of former losing trades
     (Felt this but have process in place to slowly put myself past this emotion/learning to accept risk and that each trade is unique)

- Chase a stock- FOMO
     (This greatly affects me so much that that i've actually dedicated a section for it,.. Stupid shit...)

- Ignore rules and risk management practices
     (Same as greed's comment)

FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out

I do follow the market/papertrade to keep in touch of how the overall market/strategy is doing as well as really, really killing FOMO... I've watched so many trades where I would like to play but i intentionally miss them in order to experience FOMO to get myself in a mindset/emotional state where It's OK to miss trades. FOMO still affects me where i'd consider chasing a trade even though I KNOW not to. I will continue paper trading until I am at the point where I can ignore FOMO when I do miss my entry point.

** Funny how i just ran across a slide from Matt O.- "Traders need to understand what fear is = simply a natural reaction to what they perceive as a threat (in this case perhaps to their profit or money-making potential). Quantifying the fear might help, Or that they may be able to better deal with fear by pondering what they are afraid of, and why they are afraid of it. Also, by pondering this issue ahead of time and knowing how they may instinctively react to or perceive certain things, a trader can hope to isolate and identify those feelings during a trading session and then try to focus on moving past the emotion." This is EXACTLY what i'm doing with FOMO...

PRGN Chart

PRGN

Saved here for future learning...

Super Weird stuff

Was going through some tough mental battles over tuesday's mistakes. Was listening to Trading in the zone and exactly where i left off, it was almost narrating exactly what it was i needed to do..

Same thing on youtube, while listening to Bulls on Wall Street's Kunal free path to profitability video.. I was reviewing an in-play chart of this past day or two.. and Kunal was again TALKING exactly about what I was having problems on as well as what he was talking about was what was happening with the chart i'm currently looking at.. his youtube video is back from 2014 btw.. Same catalyst, same pattern... I just love how the coincidence of that point really sync'd my thoughts to kunal's mentality on trading...

On the daily timeframe, both charts have started to uptrend and just bounced off a MA when an Earnings Win Catalyst catapults both stocks above the ranges for a huge day.

On a more important note, Trading in the zone talks about qualities of a successful trader that both cameron fous and kunal talks about to the teeth. Staying disciplined, and having a specific mindset that allows them to not be worried about what the stocks would do. It almost seems like they are not fearful of the market just like Mark Douglas mentioned.. Why? It's because both cam/kunal knows that their strategy works and what hey focus on comes down to just managing risk. Courage is not needed if there is no fear in the first place, nerves of steel is not needed if there was no stress in the first place.. there is no stress since both cam/kunal have already accepted the RISK and have a system in which they can cut their risk/loss when the trade doesn't go their way. It's exactly why cam always repeats himself saying that at best, he's only a 50% win trader but it's how he manages his losses that makes him profitable/successful.

It's funny that up to this point, most of my studying/learning had been focused on trying to KNOW the market, KNOW the strategies, KNOW the indicators.. but something always lingered in the back of my mind... Alot of the successful traders i follow and learn from admits publicly that they aren't smart at all... They have no financial background, some have no degrees, sykes at the extreme just basically uses barebones candlesticks and nothing else other than basic support/resistance lines. Grittani who i love doesn't use that much indicators as well and trades off the level 1 mostly+basic resistance/support zones.---

--- Only when I started to listen to Matt Owens that it really hit me that the more complex/hedge fund strategies are out there alright,.. ones you can use to scale up your wins as your account grows. BUT for most if not all retail traders.. It's not needed.. The market is neutral... The strategy is already proven to give you an edge, the MAIN thing I really need to focus on is trying to be as objective and an impartial trader as i can. Finding a way to not be swayed by emotions such as fear, greed, fear of missing out, anger/revenge trading, boredom, etc.. should and IS NOW my main goal for trading since these are exactly what i see between the novice traders and all the successful/profitable traders i've followed so far... sykes, grittani, fous, kunal, nicorico's blog, tim bohen's presentation on youtube, derrick leon's blog, matt owens, and in the future superman..

The market is NEUTRAL, controlling yourself to be a disciplined and consistent trader = successful trader. Discipline.... Compared to the majority of americans, with my past, i feel like i have a very, very good discipline as far as financial discipline and work/studying discipline.. But currently, i'm having discipline problems in trading when it comes to sticking to the strategies i know since i like to try out new things. I do have systems thought out to counter the habits i have the is in direct confrontation to trading, but I have identified a 2nd problem.. a behavioral problem that gets in the way of me fixing my first problem.. Laziness/Procrastination... I've decided to halt trading for a week or so until i finally have the systems i want in place that'll protect me from my 1st problem of being an undisciplined trader..

"Think of it this way, as traders, Our job is to be patient. Most of our time should be spent watching and waiting.” -LX21

Having a patient, disciplined, objective and impartial trading mindset/attitude is what i'll be working on this next 2weeks-1month .. Once i start on a path on being consistently being in that state.. Only then can I expect myself  to be a consistent profitable/successful trader. ................

Computers can't accurately judge huge portions of the market because the market itself are just a huge blob of emotions. It's very irrational like everyone keeps saying, cause what moves the market at it's core is human emotion. If people stopped going to sbux, how would it affect its stock? If people's emotions towards buying each new iphone that comes out changes, what would happen to the stock of Apple for each new gen release of the iphone? lx21 says show me someone with no emotion, i'll show you someone with no passion.. On the other hand, there's been successful traders out there that says to trade as if you have no emotion, just like a robot.. Humans have the edge in analyzing the market because the market itself is irrational and made up of emotions.. humans are at heart, irrational/emotional beings... Computers have the edge in the act of trading, because they don't let the emotions of a human affect/disrupt the plan/strategy. I think I can refine those two opposing schools of thought even more in one sentence...