04-09-2014 Trading Journal

Market had another strong bounce today.

However, the strong bounce only became evidence in the latter half of the day. Price is now near the top range of the previous consolidation range.

In the morning after the open, although price was higher, it wasn’t very convincing.  As a result, I sold my swing trade positions $GWPH to lock in profit; sold $CARA with very small gain, closed out $NUGT with a small gain (gave back a lot of gain from yesterday) due to lower open.

I also bought a starter position on $TZA and $FAZ to see if the market would drop later in the day.

Nope.

Due to my not paying close attention during the day, I had to close out my $TZA and $FAZ at a larger losses than I had planned for. Regardless, when I found out $TZA and $FAZ had fallen hard, I sold for losses without hesitation.  If I made a mistake of not paying attention, I should not try to compound the mistake by “wishing” for a bounce to reduce my losses.  Sell and move on.  Good thing I did ’cause the market rallied hard to the close which would have costed me more losses if I hadn’t sold.

With the market rallying hard, I bought back $NUGT looking for more bounce in the week.

From the look of the chart, $NUGT looks good for a continuing rally.

$SVA looks good for a bounce off the 79 & 89 MA lines so I bought back some position.

Love that green solid bar that used the 79 & 89 MA lines at the launching pad. I will add more if price takes out today high tomorrow.

Next, I added more $SEED.

$SEED mirrored $SVA on the bounce off the 79 & 89 MA lines.  I’ve been watching $SEED closely ’cause I don’t want to miss any sudden rally due to China’s decision on the GM seeds offered by $SEED.  An approval will pop this one up like a rocket launch in a high school science project.  But in a general market correction, everything goes down regardless of how compelling the story is; thus my being in and out for safety reason. Now, let’s see if this one can climb back up to $3.00.

I missed out on the continuing rally of $GWPH after I sold for smaller profit in the morning.  $GWPH rallied hard after I sold.. oh well, playing safe had its cost; but it definitely worth it and I’ll do it again if I feel/sense a market collapse in the horizon..

Despite my larger than planned losses on $TZA and $FAZ, my port bounced back today thanks to rallies from $LRAD and $SEED.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, SEED, NUGT, SVA and 52% cash.  Despite the waterfall market last week and this Monday, I am able to maintain the 12% gain for the year.

From the other account:

$MCIG continued to rally hard and barely took out the resistance level at $0.80xx.

If you look at the daily chart closely, you can see the head and shoulder pattern.  Both the left and right shoulder have a $0.80xx price level which prove to be a difficult resistance to break thru.  As a result, I sold my position to lock in gain,(or should I say ‘recover my earlier losses plus some’).

$FITX was getting hit today due to an article regarding the issue of a “barn” size.  Apparently, someone at the city council had decided the size of the barn doesn’t fit the definition.  To me, it is just political maneuver trying to get $FITX to pay a higher taxes to the city.  Hey, the way I look at it, it is a non-issue and price will bounce back once $FITX works it out with the city council.  Still holding long and strong.

My 2 cents.

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Market finally bounced today!

Wow! Did you see that price bounced off the 79 MA line?  Magical!

The morning didn’t exactly started out with a big bang going straight up, the bear actually tried to push the bull head under the water but only succeeded for about half-an-hour. The bull, after having suffered a moment of weakness with the bear’s taunting, finally realized that it could use its horn to gore the bear stomach.  Ouchwee… the bear let go of the bull and the bull bounced right back up.

Sensing the bull attack, I started to buy back starter position on $CARA and $SEED.

The chart above shows that $CARA could bounce from here.  I like to see price takes out the resistance around $20.50ish.

Since I’ve been eyeing $GWPH, the surprised lower open gave me an opportunity to buy back some on the cheap.

The green bar after a near doji bar could be a formation of a bottom.  The next few days will be telling.

I like the higher open of $NUGT and added a bit more.

Price closed above the high of two trading days ago and is looking good for the next leg up to take out the 89 MA line. See how the 5 MA line is turning up along with the stochastic indicator below.

Thanks to the gain from $GWPH, $NUGT, and $CARA, my port was able to reduce the bleeding from $LRAD and $SVBL.  Ironically, the two new buys acted as a hedge instead of the $TZA which I sold yesterday.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, GWPH, NUGT, SEED, CARA and 55% cash.

From my other account:

$MCIG made a dramatic come-back today.

I knew that if yesterday high was taken out, price would go higher.  Glad I bought my shares back yesterday even though I got stopped out earlier in the day.

$FITX remained defensive but that is expected giving that the facility is still in the process of being completed.

My 2 cents.

 

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The market continued on downward from the starting gate, with the exception of a small bounce inside the hour after the open, price followed the waterfall pattern all the way to the close.

$SPY is now trading near the heavy supports (79 & 89 MA lines, lower range of consolidation area–> near the previous two pivot lows in 3/14 and 3/27 respectively).

Due to that bounce that failed near the close, I decided to close my $TZA and $FAZ to lock in the gain.

Why?

At first, I thought I would hold for tomorrow; but then I noticed the falling prices for many of the momo stocks had been “decelerated”.  In other words, while they were still down for the day, the percentage down was less than that of last week.  Also, $TZA and $FAZ are not known to be trending vehicle.  From my history of trading, I gave back gain in $TZA for holding too long more than I could count.  They had a tendency to gap down against me if I over-stayed the position.  Thus, taking this lesson, I decided to take the money and run to break the old pattern.

If market continues to fall tomorrow, I can always buy $TZA back…

How did I start my day?

Let’s see, I added to $FAZ after the open to flow with the upward momentum.  I did not want to add to $TZA since I already had a large position.  Adding more would be over-weighting my port that a sudden rally on the DOW would put my port in a precarious position.

Next, I bought $NUGT since the chart looked good for a bounce.

Price was trading above the 5 MA line and it gave me the confidence to buy a starter position. If it drops below the 5 MA line tomorrow, I’ll be out.  If it bounces higher, I’ll add more.

As mentioned above, by day end, I closed both $TZA and $FAZ to lock in gain.

Because both $LRAD and $SVBL did not drop much, the gains on both $TZA and $FAZ more than offset the losses that I ended up with a small gain in my port.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, NUGT and 66% cash.

From my other account:

$MCIG was struggling with the support @ $0.60 so I put a stop just below 0.60 and was stopped out in no time.  Price proceeded to waterfall all the way to $0.50 and consolidated there for about half-an-hour.  Seeing that price did not go any further down (come on now, at $0.50, $MCIG was down 20%, so I saw little risk for price to go any further down); thus I started buying some of my shares back.  I paid b/w $0.50 and $0.535 to buy back about 70% of my shares.  I used the 30% to add more $FITX when it was trading at low $0.73.

As you can see on the $MCIG chart above, price showed a very nice hammer candlestick pattern.  Did you see the tail coming close to the 89 MA line. If price takes out the high of today hammer candlestick, $MCIG may bounce from here.

$FITX also recovered nicely from the day sell-off.

Did you see how the Bollinger band began to form a narrow range around the consolidation area?  Any significant price movement that closes either above or below the Bollinger band will be big alert to future price trend.  I like to think that price will close above the Bollinger band simply because I believe $FITX will complete the facility with such high standard that Health Canada will simply approve the license.

My 2 cents.

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Today the market played a cruel joke by opening higher to make another new historical high that lasted for about two hours before collapsing into a waterfall pattern.

It was a blood bath through and through.  Although I did not know if it would drop today I was certainly prepared for it.

At first, the higher open had me questioning my wisdom of holding the $TZA position coming in from the morning.  Then I remember the old saying, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!”.  This was related to the incident from the last time I bought $TZA back in late March when I closed my position at breakeven due to higher open and then had to watch the market turned south for the next four days without me on board.  Thus, with this recent memory, I decided to give this one a bit more time before I closed the position to cut losses.

Thanks goodness I waited.

When price began to fall, I added more $TZA.  I also bought back $FAZ to increase the hedging positions.

That’s correct, I didn’t buy $TZA or $FAZ to make net gain, I bought them to offset any potential losses I might incur due to my holding $LRAD and $SVBL.  I held a lot of shares on these two positions and they are not exactly very liquid.

$GWPH was taking water and began to sink.  After seeing it was $2 against me, I dumped it without hesitation to cut my losses.  Good thing I did ’cause price dropped more than $2 bucks for the day.

I also sold $SEED to take small losses while I was at it since I expected most stocks would get hit with sell signals in a general down market.  For those who got the selling bug, the infection could easily spread to other stocks in the portfolio.   However, by day close, I could see $SEED bounced back up like a coiled spring.  I may have to buy it back Monday if the underlying bullish tone is still strong.

Thanks to my previous action of playing safe, I was able to escape today blood bath with only a small scratch.  The gain on my $TZA offset the losses on $LRAD; and the gain from $FAZ was able to knock off a chunk of the losses from $GWPH and $SEED.  The result was a small losses overall for today bearish action.

Current holdings:

LRAD, TZA, SVBL, FAZ and 44% cash.

From my other account:

I decided not to sell any of my cannabis stocks (both $FITX and $MCIG) during today bear attack due to the upcoming catalysts on both stocks.  $FITX will soon complete all requirements to seek Health Canada approval for a license and $MCIG will soon launch the sales of Vita-cig in late April.  I do not want to be without shares for these two major catalytic events.

My 2 cents.

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Market couldn’t make up its mind about being a down day today; it tried to go down but last hour rally brought it back to neutral zone.

As you can see, price is still right at the resistance point of previous high. Tomorrow job report will determine the final outcome.  A breakout to make new historical high or a breakdown for a possible bear market.

Due to the initial downdraft of the market, I added to $TZA and $FAZ.

As you can see, $TZA had a nice bounce and it served the purpose of hedging my portfolio since $LRAD was in negative territory.

$FAZ didn’t have the same bounce due to the late rally by the close.  Thus, my close stop at breakeven was hit and I was stopped out.  I chose to put a stop on $FAZ and not on $TZA ’cause I didn’t want to be too over-weighted on short ETF due to the job report tomorrow.  I can handle $TZA going against me but not both.

While most of the stock lists on my quote machines were in red, $SEED was showing resiliency in green.  Thus, I bought back 25% of my original size for a possible bounce.

I like the fact that the 5 MA line is now pointing up.  If price bounces from here, I’ll continue to add.

I’ve wanted to buy $GWPH when I found out about the stock but did not want to chase its high price; thus recent correction had given me the opportunity to buy some today.

Did you see how price formed a near “doji” bar right at the 79 & 89 MA lines?  Seeing the support there, I bought a position looking for a bounce.

Thanks to gain on $TZA, I was able to hedge against the downdraft of $LRAD; thus my port was a solid breakeven for the day.

Current holdings:

LRAD, TZA, SVBL, GWPH, SEED and 42% cash.

From my other account:

$MCIG took another tumble and the chart did not look good at all.

See how price close below the 79 & 89 MA lines?  Despite the poor chart outlook, I’m still holding this one for the fundamental story.  $MCIG will be launching the vita-cig in late April and any good feedback on this launch will drive the price up.  They are also looking into vaping alcohol.  Is it even possible?  Well, if people can sniff glue to get high, I guess you can sniff the “alcoholic vapor” to get drunk as well…  ok.. not sniff, but to inhale thru the mouth using $MCIG alcohol vapor-stick- same principle whether you inhale thru the nose or the mouth..  I’ve to give $MCIG points for creativity.  And if this alcohol idea can gain even a small traction, lo and behold, the sky is the limit.  Now, you know why I’m holding this one waiting for the fire-cracker to start cracking…

$FITX remained neutral waiting for the facility to be complete and the approval of license from Health Canada.  As far as I’m concerned, $FITX will get the license so I’m still holding.

My 2 cents.

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The market was beating around the bushes all day deciding whether to go up or down until closing time when it closed higher.

Price now is hitting against the resistance of the previous high for the 3rd time.  How it behaves next two days will provide clue on how commit this bull is.  Whether the phrase “3rd time is a charm” is meant for the bull or the bear remains to be seen.

Due to the indecisive behavior of the market during the day, I decided to jump the gun and take the safety approach by closing out positions to reduce my portfolio risk.

Seeing that $CARA was having a hard time staying above $20.00 after reaching as high as $20.70, I decided to close my positions to lock in gain.  I started hitting the bids piece by piece slightly under $20 and was happy to get out without dropping the price.

Another reason I sold $CARA was because price crossed the resistance at $20.40 established in 3/19 and fell off. Because of the small float and lack of liquidity, I took the opportunity to sell when there were strong bids to take my sales.  Yes, I may miss the rally from here but that is the price I’ve to take for playing safe.

I also sold the followings:

•  $SVA to cut losses
•  $SEED to lock in gain
•  $AMRN to cut losses

To hedge against my other two remaining positions ($LRAD and $SVBL), I bought $TZA and $FAZ.

Thanks to gain on $CARA today, it offset most of the losses from $LRAD, $AMRN, and $SVA.  Thus, my port was almost breakeven for the day.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, TZA, FAZ and 48% cash.

From my other account:

$MCIG took a small tumble and gave back yesterday gain while $FITX remained neutral.  Not much to write about.  Still holding long and strong.

My 2 cents.

 

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Market broke out of the consolidation range and headed higher.

This definitely looked good for the rest of the week.  The next resistance is the previous high established in March 21st which when you think about it is not that long ago.  How price reacts to the old high will be telling…

$KNDI opened lower due to Cramer’s warning of “sell, sell, sell…”

Regardless of whether Cramer is right or wrong on his analysis of $KNDI, the last thing I wanted to do is to stand against his selling recommendation.   Thus, I sold in the morning not long after the open to cut my losses.  Although if I waited a bit longer, I could sell at close to breakeven; but one would never know if price would continue on a big waterfall or bounce, so it’s pointless to regret any action of cutting losses.

Next, with the free-cash made available from the three-day settlement, I added to $SVA, $SEED, and $AMRN.

$AMRN spiked up due to news of a co-promotion agreement with Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc.  Hey, at this point, any co-working relationship with any pharmaceuticals is a plus. Thus I added more.

Notice price opened higher and closed around the same area.  I like to see price takes out the previous high of $1.97 and then $2.00 from there.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I may be able to recover my previous losses on $AMRN; however, I’m not holding my breath for this.

$SEED took out yesterday high and I added more; but price closed below yesterday high.  I’m still holding my added shares.

$SVA opened higher and I added more as well.

Chart looked good so far with today price closed higher than the 5 MA line.  I like to see price takes out last Friday high.

Meanwhile, $CARA continued upward and put my position back in positive territory.

$CARA next resistance is the last pivot high of $20.40 established on 03/19/2014.

Despite a down day on $SVBL, my port continued to move up another notch thanks to $CARA, $AMRN, and $SVA.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, CARA, SEED, AMRN, SVA and 27% cash.

From my other account:

While $FITX ended the day slightly negative, $MCIG had a good bounce day.

I like the fact that price $MCIG price closed higher than the highs of the last five trading days.  Looking good so far.

My 2 cents.

 

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The market finally had a strong up day that did not end up giving back the gain by day close.

However, as seen from the chart, it fell short of taking out the upper range of the consolidation range.  Thus, I wouldn’t say we are out of the wood yet.  The next few days will be telling.

This morning, I bought starter position on $SVA and $KNDI and sold $MZOR for small losses.

$SVA opened slightly higher and I bought for the bounce.

We have an inside bar today so that if price takes out today high tomorrow, I’ll add more.

$KNDI also opened higher so I bought a starter position as well.

Since I only bought a small starter position, I don’t mind holding even when price was against me at the close.  Price bounced slightly today but the possible of a V-shape bounce is still in the card.

Again, I was lucky to dump $MZOR before the collapse later in the day.

At first, price opened higher and I was glad.  However, when price began to drop and did not bounce despite the DOW was going higher, I had a bad feeling so I sold my positions by hitting the bids that were available.  I was able to unload a bit above $21.00 for small losses.   Later, the price dropped as low as $19.53 before bouncing back some.  “Cut your losses” fast always save my day.

The highlight of the day was $CARA which gave me a nice 12.65% up day.

I like the bullish engulfment bar today with higher than average volume.  Usually, a big bullish engulfment bar can kick start a rally; so let’s see how it goes this week.

$SVBL did not do so well today.

It dropped below the range of the last seven days.  Since I’m committed to this one for the long haul.  I’m going to have to take the heat on this one.

$SEED was also bouncing.

I like the fact the price is now trading above the 79 & 89 MA lines.

$AMRN closed lower today but the volume was relatively low compared to last week; so I decided to continue to hold.

Overall, despite losses from $SVBL and $AMRN, gains on $CARA, $SEED, $LRAD and $SVA more than offset the losses and put my port back up a notch.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, CARA, SEED, AMRN, KNDI, SVA and 32% cash.

From my other account:

Both $FITX and $MCIG bounced only a bit so I won’t bother to show charts.

My 2 cents.

 

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The market bounced hard in the morning but went out of air later in the day.  Nevertheless, it still closed up for the day.

You could see that it was a soft bounce. We need to see the market bounces hard next week to stop this bear attack from taking over the trend.  Based on after hour market on a Sunday afternoon, look like we may see a bounce coming.  But then, we all know too well that these bounces must stay firm at the close to consider a good bounce.  How the market closes tomorrow (Monday) may determine the tone for the rest of the week.

What I had done today (Friday) was a mixed bag of satisfaction and disappointment.  More like getting satisfaction in the morning and then being slapped with disappointment.

$KNDI opened higher and I immediately added more to average up.  Price continued to head higher and I added more.  By the time price broke out of the $17 resistance, I added even more.  My profit was immediate and it was looking good.  But then price began to correct below $17.00.  I continued to hold to see if it would bounce back above $17.  It did.  I relaxed a bit.  But the hold above $17 didn’t last.  Before I knew it, price fell back down below $17 and I wanted to see if it would re-bounce later; unfortunately, while I was waiting, price began to collapse like a waterfall and before I knew it, I was no longer in the money but was shown a little red.  Without hesitating too much, I began to liquidate some of my position to decrease risk and exposure.  Price continued to head lower and I decided to just dump the whole position ’cause I didn’t like the way price fell down so quickly from the $17.00.  Thus, from the morning of sitting on a nice profit to the liquidation of my position with a small losses, it was quite a ride.  By day close, price closed a bit below my last exit point.

See how price collapsed in mid-day in the 5m chart above?  It was a heady ride.  While I still believe in the fundamental story of $KNDI, I’m being mindful of the overall market correction which if the bear wins, everything will go down regardless of fundamental story.

Next, I bought back $SEED, $AMRN, $CERS, and $MZOR positions.

What?! $CERS again with the $40 million  potential dilution?

Yes, I asked myself the same question… but all I could say was that I couldn’t resist the morning chart pattern which was showing a bounce from a “almost” doji bar the day before.  Due to the fact that I closed out the $CERS position (again!) with another small losses before day close, I guess the “almost” doji bar did not offer a good probability here.

I bought $AMRN ’cause the chart looked like a breakout bounce was about to happen.

Thursday bar was a bullish engulfment candlestick bar; therefore, I decided to give this one another roll of a dice.  Thanks to Option Addict’s post about asshole stocks, it brought my attention back to $AMRN which was when I saw the bullish engulfment bar.  By day close, I’m still holding so let’s see if price can bounce next week.

Next I bought some $MZOR back due to a bounce at the open.

Since I still like the fundamental story, I was betting on the fact that the Thursday dramatic drop was over-done.  If price takes out the low of Thursday low, I will cut my losses.

$CARA dropped was expected due to earning report from Thursday night; however, I was just glad that the drop was not worse than I anticipated.  I believe $CARA has the potential to rally later in the year simply because the fundamental story has an excellent catalyst to be disruptive in the field of narcotic pain-killer.

Notice that the price action on the daily chart was stabilizing despite a down day.  If the general market recovers, I can see $CARA bounce higher as well.

Thanks to $LRAD uptake on Friday, my port was at breakeven despite $CARA being down.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, CARA, SEED, AMRN, MZOR and 32% cash.

From my other account:

Both $FITX and $MCIG charts reflected a small correction; thus, I’m not going to bother with the showing of the charts.  Still holding long and strong.

My 2 cents.

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The market was down slightly today.  Thanks goodness it wasn’t another waterfall day.

Notice that today bar looked like a doji bar; while it was not technically a true doji bar since the open did not equal to the close; it was close enough that I believe the market had come to the point where the force of the bull was able to stop the bear relentless attack.  Thus, we may be looking for a possible bounce tomorrow.  Did you see how price bounced after the small range bar on March 14th and March 3rd?  I’ll wager that the probability is on the upside bounce tomorrow.

After the market opened, $MZOR began to drop and took out yesterday low.  Instead of waiting for the price to take out the low of the consolidation range, I decided to cut my losses when there were bids for me to take my sell orders.

Whoa! Was I lucky to cut my losses fast.  $MZOR dropped like a rock not long afterward and continued to fall further down into the close.  Today is another lesson that it pays to cut your losses fast.  Even if I used a hard stop placed below the low of the consolidation range, i would still be able to get out before the price collapse; thus, having a plan (stop loss) to cut your losses is essential to holding on to your money.

After seeing $SEED was struggling to maintain $2.12; I decided to sell my shares as well to cut losses and raise cash.

Because $NUGT opened higher and took out the upper-band of the opening range, I bought a position with a stop below the lower opening range.  I was stopped out for losses not too long afterward.

By the end of the day, seeing that the general market wasn’t going to do a waterfall close; I decided to use the available free cash to buy a starter position on $KNDI in the mid $15 level with a stop below $15.00.  Luckily, I wasn’t stopped out by day close.

As you can see on the chart, price actually bounced off the upper-band of the old consolidation range.  On top of that, the lower Bollinger band also happened to be in the same vicinity.  This served as two supports that gave me the confidence to buy back some shares before the close.  If price bounces tomorrow and I’ve free cash available from the three-day settlement, i may add more.

While I had to take some losses from $MZOR and $SEED, the bounce from $CARA helped offset the losses and my port was even for the day.

Current holdings:

LRAD, SVBL, CARA, KNDI and 49% cash.

From my other account:

The whole cannabis sector was taking a hit from mass sell-off.  Some speculated it had to do with $CANN being halted by SEC.  I didn’t sell any of my $FITX and $MCIG shares.  I’m going to have to take the heat from here.  April is around the corner and I believe the fat lady is going to sing pretty soon regarding the faith of $FITX getting the license from Health Canada.  Of course my money is betting that they will get it.  Why do I think that?  ‘Cause Health Canada needs all the large commercial growers they can get to ensure  a steady supply to the current and growing medical cannabis patients in order to stabilize the price and get the new law off the ground.

My 2 cents.

 

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