I had a busy trading morning which was not necessary a good thing.
$FB opened higher and headed higher, without thinking I automatically added to my position; but later on, the steamroller ran out of steam and I decided to sell the whole lot since it was taking out the mid-point of the bullish engulfment bar established last Wednesday. One of my rule is that if price retraces more than half-way from a previous bullish bar, stand aside to see if the bear has leg.
$DCTH had me running in circle in the opening hour. It opened to a neutral to higher open and then price started to tank. I immediately sold 2/3 of my position to lock in profit from last Thursday. Then price began to trek back up to neutral so I decided to buy back some to bring my position up to 2/3 of the original size. But it was not to be. Prices again went down along with the overall market and I just had it. I sold the whole lot to protect my remaining gain from last week. Afterward, I watched and watched. Price action began to stabilize and the bids were coming back. Slowly it began to creep back up to neutral. Seeing that there were no more big sellers coming into the market, I decided to buy back slowly until I had 2/3 of my original position. By end-of-day, $DCTH had a last minute dash to the upside; therefore, I’m in good shape here.
Do I regret selling some $DCTH earlier such that I’m now holding only 2/3 of original position? A resounding NO. I adjusted my risk profile accordingly and I lived by it; otherwise, I would be saddled with indecision all the times. Be steadfast on your decisions and accept them as part of your normal business as long as you follow the principles of risk management; before you know it, you will no longer second guess any decisions you make.
Meanwhile, $PACB was on defensive all morning so I sold my lot for small losses so I didn’t have to waste time to manage it. From hindsight, it was a good decision since it tanked 6% for the day. You see, if you play defensive when you are at risk, in general you will be “ok” on average. Overtimes, the big win you are able to catch will make your win a truly bankable event.
$CHK looked bouncy so I bought some; however, at the market began to turn the tide to negative, I dumped it quickly for breakeven.
I added to $DDD because it gapped up and the morning retracement seemed to settle down. However, the act of selling $CHK also prompted me to sell $DDD to lock in profit as well. Later when $DDD settled down again, I bought a starter position with a stop below the intra-day low. It was for naught since I got stop-out later for small losses. Basically, I only gave back a bit what I gained today due to the gap-up. Overall, I still made money with $DDD from last week and today.
With market turning negative, I started to look for swing trade to close out position. I saw $GLOG and sold it for small losses.
Later on, I saw the resiliency in $S and it acted like it wanted to go up all day even though the market was negative. Seeing that it was near the breakout point to the upside from a long long period of cup and handle pattern, I felt this one was a good bet from here. Usually, when price break out from a long period of consolidation, it can run for quite awhile after breaking out. Let’s see if this one will follow this pattern. Oh yeah, I bought some $S in the morning and added more later in the day.
$POT was doing great all day and price was holding steady with a gain; so I left it alone.
Oh yeah, because I was occupied with $DCTH, I totally missed the $AAPL short-trade.
Current holdings:
LRAD, AMRN, TINY, SZYM, POT, S, DCTH and 37% cash.
My 2 cents.
The trades I made in the journal were time-stamped in twitter
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