My typical trading day
Usually I sit down at my desk roughly 910. I have just dropped my daughter off at daycare and I go down to my office and open up my two laptops. I open up my Equityfeed on my Mac and on my Asus I open up Trade Ideas free trading room and my Trade Ideas alerts.
I look at the market view on Equityfeed. I filter it down to stocks from $0.50- $50.00 100,000 volume and 100 trades. I sort them by % move. I look at the biggest gap up and down for the day. These stocks have the volume right at open the should allow for liquidity.
If I have held a trade overnight I watch it/them to see for the spike at open. I have learned that the spike in the first 5 minutes should be seized because it could potentially sell off all day. If I am looking to make an entry in a stock I try to sit on my hands until 950-10. I look for the clear reversal in the trend. The first 20-30 min are panic and has massive volume and can’t really be trusted. Since I don’t have the ability to do a trailing stop with Wells Fargo I have to either use a stop limit or a limit sell order. It can make it more difficult to execute a top exit at open. I’m considering looking at trade station that will put a stop to protect me right when I enter a trade.
If I have found a trade to enter I let the price action work in my direction and then close out either if I have stopped out protecting my profit or I try to execute at the top of the run up with a high RSI and price action stalls.
At this point I check the big gappers down for the day. I look to see if they are set to reverse. I try not to enter at 1030 because I feel that the small jumps in price tend to be fake outs with shorts closing 1 hour after open. So I try to wait until anywhere between 1030-11. For my typical trade I look for stocks that reverse with shorts that are going to close their position and investors creating more of a demand and the price increases. What I really love are when the shorts have stops that execute and spike it up.
If the gappers are not performing I look at Trade Ideas alerts that I have set up as well as Holly. I use it to alert me of stocks that are primed to reverse or have a big move with low floaters. Holly is a good tool for people that don’t have strategy of their own. They can watch the stock movement and learn from it. For those that already have their own strategies that they enjoy trading you can create your own alerts to target the stocks you prefer.
I try to finish my day by 12 pm and enjoy family life with my husband and training and mommy time. In April I had an amazing month with roughly $37,000 in profits, but I realized I was glued to the computer screens. I tried to put balance back into my life after that month. Making profits are great, but there is much more in life.
I usually check the stocks I had on watch again at 2:30 to see if they have hit a bottom for the day at a point to go long for power hour. I find that stocks shorted all day except Mondays will have covers during power hour. Usually there will be a jump around 3pm a slight increase and then a decrease around 325 and a jump again around 330. Then around 345 -4 it can either sell off or spike to end of day.
At 4 pm. I review the market to see the bigger losers and winner, then it is time for family again. I put everything aside to be present with them. Once my daughter is down and the after hours market is closed, I work on creating my watchlist for the next day. I review my trades, messages and questions. I enjoy sharing with other new traders. It is a tough road to tackle and it is much easier with someone trying to help you than someone trying to cheat you.
Through all of my journey I have found others that are willing to help as well. I am thankful to all those that have helped me. Jonas Ogren, a fellow student of Tim Skyes, who is from Sweden is also generous in trying to help other succeed and has put together a study guide for new traders.
It is great to be in a community of traders looking to help each other and encourage each other to get better. There is enough for all of us to succeed in the market.
In fact in my losing trade of the day when I entered HMNY today above 15, there were many that profited on the short side. I’m ok with taking a loss every once and a while. In fact a fellow trader that cares about me succeeding as well sent me a message that right after I entered the trade a trading room announced it was a good time to short and the masses drove the stock down. It is interesting because I stayed away from the stock for the fear it would tank and then right as I entered it went up 20 cents then dropped $2. I waited for the bounce and closed out. I need to protect myself more on entries.
We are all students of the market and there is always something to learn from each trade every day.
As always I love hearing feedback from you. It makes my trading more personal and I like to hear how I can help you. If you have questions or comments you can contact me here or on Profitly, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.
This blog is for information purposes I am not a registered securities broker-dealer or an investment advisor. The information here is not intended as securities brokerage, investment or as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund.
