My trading style is all about high beta.  While some of you may leverage yourself to the hilt with $AAPL stock, I load up on high beta stocks using cash.

Both styles are obviously high risk with a high reward scenario; however, I’m more likely to walk home with a few more buck than those who leverage to the hilt when the market crash or the stocks in question crash.  These few bucks that I still have after the calamity will give me another chance to make a come back by buying, you guess it, high beta stocks.

Since I trade biotech, which by nature is high beta, a lot, I’m always subjected to high risk at all times.  Thus, in order for me to survive, I’ve to be quick in my execution.  I try not to think too much when I trade.  You can say I trade by reaction.

Below is an example of my thought process:

This morning, $BBRY opened higher but then started heading lower.

“Hey, $BBRY looks good at the open”

“Wait a minute, $BBRY is tanking”

“It dipped to negative territory in 6 min after open!”

“I’m still in the money.  I’ve not given back too much yet.”

I looked at the daily bar chart and compared today bar to the previous day bar.

“Not looking good.  I’m taking my money now.”

I clicked the mouse button to sell all my $BBRY shares to close.

Done.

All three 3D printer companies headed higher after open; but then after 10:00am EST, both $DDD & $SSYS began to tank.  Meanwhile, $XONE was fighting the downdraft and even bounced back up after falling off a bit.

“XONE is holding well despite $DDD & SSYS tanking.”

“XONE is dipping… not yet, it is holding…and bouncing back up”

“Give it a few more moment”

“Holy Smoke! DDD is crashing and look like SSYS is following through.  XONE is still holding… impressive!  But I’m not going to wait for it.  I still have profit so I’m taking it.”

Click, click, & click.

I’m out to lock in profit.

$DCTH opened up at the open and then after 20 minutes began to tank.  It went into negative territory and dropped quickly to the gap-filled area of $2.04 which I postulated was a good support.

“No way! Already? Let’s see if it will stabilize.”

“There is a lot of bid in there.  Maybe it will hold.  Wait…”

Meanwhile the bids size increased and price looked like it might hold.

“Looking good.”

10 minutes later, the sizable bids had all been hit and price started to tank.

“Holy smoke!  I’m getting near the breakeven mark!  I’m getting out now while the bids are there to take my load.”

“Maybe I can buy them back below $2.”

Click, click, & click.

Out of $DCTH at breakeven level.

And this is pretty much how I think during trading. Really, there wasn’t much to think but to express short burst of emotion in reaction to the price action at the time.   I know what I’ve to do and I strive to do it quickly.  There were times I hesitated just a bit and the stock god took that opportunity to punish me.  A few seconds of hesitation and someone took away the bids I needed to get out without tanking the price further down.  Darn!  Then you had to scrambled out before others jumped ahead of you.  Sometimes, it was the right thing to do ’cause price just kept on tanking after I had gotten out; but sometimes I just happened to sell at the bottom for the day.  Yeap, it happened!

$DCTH was a good example today.  Now, in hindsight, it would be nice that I took profit at the open; but you should not think like that.  You just have to deal with the hand (like a poker hand if you will) you have at the moment.  I was given the choice to get out at breakeven and I took it.  Right after I took it, price continued to tank further down and broke under $2.  I bought back some shares to see if the bounce had leg but it didn’t.  I dumped it when price went back down to the low $1.9x area.

Did I think about what if price went back up after I got out at breakeven?

Sure but that was the least of my worry at the moment.  I was more worry about turning my gain into loss!  As far as I’m concerned, I do not have the same “trust” in $DCTH as I’ve for $USU, $AMRN, $LRAD, and even $SZYM.  Therefore, I’m not willing to hold this one against me after I was sitting on a gain.  This thought process simply pushed away any thought that I could be getting out at the bottom of the correction.

Thinking about it, perhaps my username should be called “High Beta Trader”.  Feedback anyone?

My 2 cents.

 

 

 

Comments »

I sold $DCTH at breakeven in the morning, practically gave back all the gain from yesterday run-up.  Try a “catch-the-falling-knife” trade by buying under $2 with half-size position but dumped it when it could not hold for small loss.

I sold $BBRY near the opening to lock in profit since price action was tracking down from the start.

I sold $XONE to lock in profit before it turned to loss since both $DDD and $SSYS was struggling in the morning time.

I’m still holding the following biotech stocks:

$AMRN (this is my position trade which make up of 15% of portfolio)

$CGEN.  Since I’m still sitting in decent profit from my entry last Friday, I’m going to give it some more room to work it out.

$PACB.  Same as $CGEN.  I also notice $PACB has a tendency to go up one day and down the next; then up again.  As long as the low for the day is still higher than previous day low, I will give it some room to run.

$RPTP. This one is holding well today and the chart still looks good.  I like to see it goes to $6 soon.

$SZYM.  This one has been extremely difficult for me to trade.  Every time I’ve added, the stock will trade down and then I bailed with loss.  I’ve done it so many times that my losses actually are growing.  And yes, this one always pops back up after I’ve sold as well.  So, I’m going to just grind my teeth and hold this one for an intermediate term.  The prospect of their new facilities coming online in the near future may drive the stock up sooner or later.  (currently 10% of my portfolio)

$LRAD and $USU are part of my position trades (along with $AMRN) since I believe in their future potential (all three positions represent about 40% of my portfolio).

Currently holding 39% cash.

Edit: I added to $RPTP near the close due to its ability to hold the positive ground by end of day.

 

 

 

Comments »

Not with Amazon breathing down their neck.

Look at the daily $BKS chart below:

Price action took out the low of the inverted hammer (or shooting star) candlestick pattern from yesterday; in my book, that is a good short.

Did you see how two of the momentum indicators turned south?

I sold (short) a starter position on $BKS today with a stop above yesterday high.

My 2 cents.

 

 

Comments »

Is it over here?

Above is the weekly chart of $CGEN. You can see the cup and handle pattern except that the rim of the cup on the other side is a bit taller than the handle.  Hmm…  there are two walls to take over before this beanstalk can grow wild…

Take a look at the daily $CGEN chart below:

There are good support at the last December high at $5.86.  The next wall is at $6.17 which looks attainable.

I’m already in from last Friday and will add more if the $6.17 wall is taken out.

My 2 cents.

Comments »

I remember watching “The Andromeda Strain” when I was a teenager and this movie really stimulated my curious mind.  Little did I know that biotech is an essential part of my trading vehicle.  I love biotech because it’s a science which sole purpose is to better our human life- either in sickness or better quality of life.

There is a lot of money to be made if you play it right despite its high volatility.  Somehow, while you can make a lot of money in the market, it is going to make you suffer before you can see the reward.  Suffering doesn’t have to be painful as in taking a huge loss;  the correct “suffering” in trading biotech is the need to be “patience” and your ability to let go of “unclaimed” profit.

“Sh*t! the damn stock takes off without me after I’ve taken profit!”  is one of the suffering a biotech trader has to live with; otherwise, you will suffer real losses, losses that you may not recover from.

However, one of the trick I’ve learned in playing biotech is that you can always jump back in even after you’ve taken profit.  The trick  is to monitor the momentum during the day.  What you don’t want to do is to be out of the position before day end; otherwise, the gap up will make it that much harder for you to get back in.  If momentum is strong near the end of the day, you can elect to jump back in even though you may be paying a higher price from your earlier exit- just like I did with both $DCTH, $PACB, & $RPTR last Friday.  While this technique will not work 100% of the time (that is what taking ‘calculated’ risk is all about), it can make your day when it works.

Now, all three are tracking higher which prove my thesis.

See daily charts below:

I got back in $PACB due to its ability to stay near support even though momentum was down all day.  Since it was near the top level support, I was willing to take the calculated risk by buying back in for less than half of my original position.

Btw, due to the strong reaction from The Fly regarding my username, tradingmytwocents,  I’m changing it back to zenhunter which I’ve spent a year here at ibankcoin to establish.  I’ll be a fool to ignore a sound advice when I see one.

Comments »

As you all know, I’m shocked deliciously over the weekend when I received the invitation from The Fly to join the interim blogger status.  That is surprise #1.  I’m very honored and I will not disappoint.

My 2nd surprise is my insanely stupid name “tradingmy2cents”.  Hmm, maybe I need to think about that!  or not.  As stupid as it is; if it makes me tick as a blogger or as a trader, then why not?  Someone mentions zencents and I’m tickled by that one!  Hmm… perhaps zen2cents?

The good beginning is that I’ve made a damn good decision jumping back in $DCTH Friday near the market close despite my panic attack earlier in the morning and the fact that I’ve to pay a lot more to get back in after taking a loss during the morning breakdown.  Right now, $DCTH is tracking 10.71% higher for the day and I say this is an auspicious sign.

So, how do I get the nerve to jump back in giving that I’ve to pay more from my earlier entry point even after taking a loss that day?  Well, it all comes down to my years of trials and tribulations in my trading career and I will have many more posts to discuss this as an interim blogger.

I won’t be kicking off with a long interim blogger first post; but I’ll surely going to come up with content to tickle your curiosity.

Please feel free to comment anyway you feel so I can strive to improve.

Thanks again to The Fly for an opportunity of a lifetime.

Comments »

Take a look at the monthly $SPY chart below:

I create parallel trendline of the recent 2009-2013 rally and lay it on the last two rallies.  You can tell the angle of ascending of this current rally is steeper than the last two.

What does that mean to have a steeper angle of ascending? You asked.

Well, it could mean the following theories:

1) There is a lot of money in the system going back into the market

2) There is a lot more money than the prior two rallies going back into the market

3) The universe is always expanding, along with our population; hence there are much more money going back into the market than ever before.

4) With so much money wanting to go back into the market, the speed of ascending of this rally is faster; hence the steeper angle of ascending.

5) Giving my 2 cents economic theories from the above, there may be a lot of pent-up power and money waiting to go back to the market that the two great walls of resistance will be taken out pretty soon.  Well, the first one has already been taken out; the second one will be a matter of time now.

There, there.  We may have a mother-of-all-rally this year.  My earlier panic-attack, I learned with the help of  The Fly, has to do with my overweight on biotech speculation.  11 of my 14 positions was in Biotech.  No wonder I panic when I saw the $PACB red bar Friday morning.

Btw, this is a monthly $SPY chart, so there will be wiggle in the daily bar; so trade accordingly.

My 2 cents.

Btw: I change my username from zenhunter to TradingMy2cents.  Time to reinvent myself…

Comments »

I love this stock simply because it offers hope to patients suffering from ALS.  Phase I trial has been successful and it looks like FDA is now offering some flexibility by allowing a public forum to air its concern about the issue involving the Phase II trial.

However, to me, the most important part is the break-out chart:

As you can see, while I have bought $CUR before the breakout happens, I’ve been waiting for it to happen.  And today, price action finally break-out of the downtrend line in a BIG way.

I’m a fortunate man this week, most of my biotech stocks I have bought are in green.

Go Biotech!

My 2 cents.

Comments »

Breaking news: Private Equity Group Reportedly Looking At Life Technologies

All of a sudden, DNA-sequencing or Gene-sequencing is catching the limelight.  Why not?  If the technology can contribute to our biological science to improve our  quality of life, it is time to celebrate!

Look at the daily chart below:

We are seeing a potential double-breakout today if price action can close over $2.39 today.  I like to see price action makes a run for the previous high of $3.25.

$LIFE is a $10.5 billion market cap company, if $PACB can compete, even in a small way, its value is way undervalued right now for the potential since this is essentially still a small-cap company with a lot of room to grow.

My 2 cents.

Comments »

I like to see $DCTH fills the gap that was left unfilled since October of last year.  Take a look at the $DCTH daily chart below:

So far, $THLD is the only bio-stock that I’ve to cut; otherwise, bio-stock rules today; at least for me.  With biotech, you need to be either quick feet or have iron-fist confidence; in other words, it is highly volatile.

My 2 cents.

Comments »