Despite F-Ups, Still Green in the Gutter

Depite a trading day riddled with f-ups, I still finished the day green in the gutter.

At the open, sold off my PDO position as soon as it crossed $40 as I planned. Got my fill at $41....$260 profit after commissions....only to see it go to $44....leaving $180 on the table.




WWEI...that POS....gapped down to 16.8 cents on me at the market open. Rare for a breakout. Quickly sold for a $120 loss, wiping out almost half my PDO profit. Looking back, I kind of wish I hadn't gotten into this trade....too close to 2-year resistance and too much downside. Also didn't close near its high.



Next came SPDE....a premarket hit from Mike's chatroom.



I jumped in this one a bit too fast at 6:31 AM, getting a poor fill for 500 shares at $1.6732. It pulled back a bit to under $1.60 in the 1st 5 minutes of the market , then went up to $1.88. I was looking for a push close to $2 but it didn't happen. It came back down, and I got out at $1.67 for a $17 loss after commissions. A profit turned into a loss.

LESSON LEARNED: Wait a few minutes after the open before you buy any market prehits

BIHC was my worst trade of the day.



A sub-10 cent stock, had a nice surge yesterday. A lot of hype on the message boards. I was looking for momentum would continue. Somebody alerted me to it in Mike's chatroom, and I quickly bought it, not paying attention to the fact that it had gapped way up. Got my fill for 5000 shares at 3 cents, only to see it pull a gap-and-crap maneuver. I got out at 2.1 cents for a $65 loss. Stupid, stupid trade!!!!!

LESSON LEARNED: Avoid buying stocks that have gapped way, way up at the open...or at least wait a bit to see if it craps on you.

HYGS was on my short list, and it had tried to pass $1.35 only to come back down, consolidating in the $1.26-$1.28 range. Already way up in the past few days, I figured this would be a good short if it cracked $1.25 support. Sure enough, it finally cracked it, so I entered a short position of 800 shares at $1.2312. It fell down to $1.16, but then bounced and hovered around $1.20. I figured I'd hold the short position as long as it stayed red. However, a few hours later, it started creeping back up....$1.24....$1.25....$1.26. It was time to get out. Bought back the shares at $1.2676 for a $49 loss. Despite the small profit turned to a loss, not a bad trade for me in regards to risk/reward, and I was smart to get out quickly because the stock closed at $1.37. HYGS is still on my short list for tomorrow.


I thought I was going to finish the day with my account slightly red. However, around 11:45 AM PST, Tim Sykes made a post on his website that he was watching LAUD for a breakout. Sure enough, LAUD broke past its previous high of $3.40, and I jumped in for 300 shares at $3.47. I didn't have enough buying power for any more shares than that. LAUD progressively increased to near $4 by the market close. Within 5 minutes of the close, I sold at $3.985 for nearly a $150 profit. Not a bad profit in 1 hour!




Also, in the last 15 minutes of trading, I threw a measly $50 at HTOG, a POS sub-penny stock being pumped by Beacon Research. Got a fill for 5000 shares at $.0085, which is the price it closed at.



These sub-pennies can sometimes double and triple in a day or two, so I could turn that $50 into $100 or $150 quickly. At the most, I might lose $25-50 if the momentum doesn't continue, so it's not a bad trade for me given the risk/reward. I'm holding this one overnight.

Tomorrow should be a good day. My extra $2000 is now in my account (any stats I present now will act like I've had that extra $2000 in my account ever since June 10th), and my day-trade buying power is at its maximum at $5300. If I avoid any stupid mistakes tomorrow, I'm set up for some nice profits.



Gutter Account Stats:

June 10th: $4823.46
Yesterday: $5268.66
Today: $5348.60

Today's overall gain: $79.94, or 1.52%
Gain since June 10th: $525.14, or 10.89%

Compare that to S&P 500 since June 10th: -3.2%


Positions traded for a gain:

PDO: $260.60
LAUD: $144.50

Positions traded for a loss:

WWEI: -$119.90 (probably shouldn't have gotten into this one)
SPDE: -$16.60 (horrible entry)
BIHC: -$64.90 (stupid, stupid trade)
HYGS: $-49.02 (only smart trade out of the 4)

Positions being held overnight: HTOG

See you in the gutter tomorrow