The stock market is open again today so it is time to do some day trading. Some lessons I learned this far:
1. Don’t be too greedy. Expecting too much profit can take away from your gains and end up costing you or keeping you iin a trade too long
2. For god’s sake when you hit the goal don’t keep trading. If you have a daily goal (which you should) once you hit it get out for the day. Don’t try to make an extra few bucks at the end of the day and then not hit your goal.
Trade 1 EBAY
This was the trade of the day had I stayed in this trade I would have made way over my goal, but I raised my stop to try to break even because I didn’t want to lose money and I stopped out at break even. Had I stayed in I would have had the potential to close at $45.44 when I entered at $44.71 which is 1.63% way over my daily goal of 1%. I stopped out at break even $44.72 just 5 minutes into the trade. Way to early to set a break even stop. Look at what I could have done!
Trade 2 EBAY
The second trade, because I realized this baby was still going up was just 2 minutes later at 8:57 am but now my entry was $44.81. This would rode up and again hit a raised stop at $45.14. That put me up about ..07% so just shy of my 1% goal. Again, should have stayed in but wasn’t too disappointed locking in over half my goal.
Trade 3 DAL
The next trade went sideways and I got out about 20 minutes after getting in at break even. This one was on DAL entry was $48.41 now had I let the sideways go in about an hour I would have made well over the 1% on this trade as it went up .04%, but again I stopped out at break even out of fear and broke even. I should have just set my target and stop and let it ride. Unless it went sideways for hours and I could redeploy capital in something faster it would have been fine.
Trade 4 CVNA
Then the disaster decides to come along. I don’t know if you have ever trade CVNA but this stock will make you car sick. It ticks sometimes like 20 cents a tick. You might enter then you are down $40 then you are up $60 and before you can close the position you are down $80. It’s an insane stock to trade. That said it has high potential gains if you set it correctly. Today I didn’t set it correctly. I entered at $33.57 at 9:59 AM central and exited quickly at 10:03 AM when it went down to $33.04. In 4 minutes I lost everything I had made for the day. Lower by 1.5% huge loss. Stop wasn’t set right. Entered the position on this stock completely wrong. If your broker doesn’t let you enter with a complex order stay out of this stock. This is not one to enter and then set your stop and take profit orders. That all needs to be done at entry or you WILL get burned just like I did here.
Trade 5 CVNA
The upside to CVNA is it might reverse and you can take profit. The second order I did a complex order and I set it right. I entered back in at $32.72 at 10:06 AM central and it rose back up to $33.22 by 10:14 AM central. Back up to break even gained 1.5% on this trade. So I was positive for the day again. Exited on a raised stop just because this stock scares the crap out of me when I am in it.
Trade 6 CVNA
Then I decide to try one more time to get to my target by trading this stock with another good complex order. I took profit fast and at that point was calling it a day as my target was achieved. I entered at 10:34 AM central at $33.48 and one minute later at 10:35 Am I was able to get out at $33.67. Target for the day was achieved and this is where you should stop. But not me!
Trade 6 EBAY
At the end of the day there is volatility so I decided I should try to make just a little more money. Stupid move was already at the goal should have just hung it up for the day. At 2:04 PM I entered an order that I really didn’t even pay attention to I just figured it would either go up or go down and I wasn’t risking much. Well, it went down and the implications where a pain. My 1% day turned into like a .83% day. So that gives us the lesson of today. If you hit your goal and are out of trades that aren’t going up, just take it and run.
Notice how this broke out of the blue channel up. That is not expected but can happen and if you already hit your target it isn’t worth the risk.