by Jane | May 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today was a great day with over $1700 in profits which made up for my red day yesterday when I was down $700. My biggest lesson I have learned in the past week is to use hard stops to try to protect myself.
Monday morning was going great I was up $980 in profits in the first 45 min. I said I was going to walk away and……
I did not of course. I saw more opportunities because I wanted to hit my $1000 goal. I scalped a couple profits of JWN and BITA and MGT. Then I decided I wanted to get back into MGT because it kept spiking.
Here is where I went wrong. I was being emotional with my trades. I wanted it to go higher instead of letting the chart let me know when to enter. I am not a great break out trader and I was trying to do something that doesn’t do well for me. For some reason I kept trying and kept trying.
To make it worse I was revenge trading and positioning fairly large because it was a penny stock. I was long 6000 shares and my worst loss of the day was just before close when the stock went down to 2.89 and hit my stop. If I had let it ride overnight I would have been up roughly $12,000 today. It could have also taken an after hour tank.
I think I self sabotaged myself in my brain thinking its ok because I made $980 already I can be more aggressive when in fact. I need to do just the opposite to protect those profits.
Trading is definitely all about yourself and the market. Don’t get distracted with necessarily what the masses are doing if that doesn’t match your strategy. In life do you feel best when you are being yourself or when you are trying to impress people and doing things you think they will like?
The same is true with trading. There are some traders that are absolutely amazing at breakouts and penny stocks. I know for me that is not my expertise. I am doing well with my strategy that I have developed. Yes there is some quick money in it, but I don’t execute those trades well.
I find when I deviate from what works for me I end up losing. Why try to do what others are doing? Why not do what works for me. If it works why break it?
Trading for me is enjoyable when I am confident in my entries and feel my risk is truly minimized. Like today with FRAN. It was oversold down 30% on news of the CEO voluntarily leaving and estimated poor earnings. The market reacted and it dropped the stock. These are the ones I love. I went long at 10.474 with the analysis looking at the chart that it is setting up for a double bottom a great bearish indicator on the macro scale looking back at the year. So I thought I will put in my limit order to sell at 10.68 which looked like a resistance point for the day and if it spiked it should execute there. I did 10.68 because there was a big order to sell at .69 and I wanted my order to execute.
Trusting my trade and my decision, I left my desk and went for a run. I took a small walk break as my cardio has been suffering since I sit trading a lot more. During that break, I checked the price for fun. It was a .63 and I was going to change my order to lock the gain and in that time the stock broke through .70 to .73. I knew I had just made $1000 while out for a run.
Depending on your trading strategy and your risk tolerance it is possible to trade being away from your desk.
This week has been a great week. I spoke with two amazing female traders from Australia and I was interviewed by Jacob Whitish, a writer for TheStreet.com. I will definitely post the link to the interview once Jacob has it ready. You will be able to access it for free on the Digital Stock Summit page as well. The other Summit videos have a fee, but mine will be free for everyone.
As always I hope the blog is helping you in your trading journey. No matter what happens don’t beat yourself up. You are human and imperfect. Learn from your mistakes.
If you have any questions or comments leave them here or reach out to me on Twitter, Profitly, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Carpe Profits and stay green.
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.
by Jane | May 15, 2016 | Uncategorized
I remember when I was thinking about what am I going to do in order to be at home to be present should my daughter need me. And my real estate career was smashed with the silly language laws in Quebec. It’s not enough that I pass the equivalent of law boards for real estate in Quebec I had to pass a language proficiency test for French. Well that I bombed and I was shattered.
I thought I need to figure something out to be available for my daughter and still make money. I started studying and now after studying and learning every day since Feb of 2015 I’m making my average goal of $1,000 a day.
Of course I still have bad days as you can see from my calendar below.
I honestly don’t let those down days get to me. Each day, each trade is a fresh beginning and a new opportunity. When I have a bad trade I don’t beat myself up because it won’t get me anywhere. I try to analyze why it went wrong.
For my two down days. I had bad entries. I know better. I was anticipating the move on the stocks and not letting the trade set up and enter at the right time. As hard as it can be sometimes to take a loss it is better to cut the losses early and use the capital to make money with a better trade.
I also implemented hard stop limit orders to protect my profits as they go up to ensure I don’t give back. On Friday I had an amazing day with JWN. It was on fire. However I still had one trade that I was emotional and entered at the top of a spike and in turn lost .34 a share. It tanked so quickly I didn’t get a chance to put in my stop.
In working on my project to try to help inspire female traders I spent a good hour speak with Mandi Pour Rafsendjani a specialist on trading and psychology. She gave me great perspective about trading. Trading is a reflection of who we are as a person and how we process our thoughts. If you are beating yourself up about what went wrong then you will probably find losses. If you have thoughts that you can improve and look for the positive in a loss like a lesson to be learned it will help you become a better trader.
It is true that our trades are a reflection of who we are as a person and that is why different strategies work for different people. We all have different risk tolerances and enjoy different rates of return. Some people are amazing at swing trades while others are great at breakouts and some are top notch at shorting.
From my perspective it is important to figure out what works for you. What limitations do you have with your broker. Work with them and figure out how to be successful. When you have a negative trade was it trying a new strategy? Bad timing? Where is the lesson in it?
We are all human and not computers so there will always be an emotional side to your trades. For me I know this week I had bad entries. Friday was much better and when I did have a loser my stops protected me.
Each day I trade I learn more about myself. Being transparent and sharing my experience as well helps me to see the sometimes brutal truths about my actions in trading. When you trade it is you and the market. Do you want the market to run your thoughts and be tense or enter trades that have the probability to go in your favor? Studying the market and yourself will teach you what works. Stick with that and be profitable, successful and happy.
As always I hope my posts are helping you. If you have any questions feel free to share them here as comments or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. I love hearing how it has helped you to become a better stronger trader.
With hard work we can all succeed. Enjoy your time this weekend with your friends and family as that time is priceless.
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.
by Jane | May 11, 2016 | Blog Post
I have never been a 9-5 office job individual. I started my career after college working in a bank and then moved onto working as a Trading Broker’s registered assistant. The registered meant that I had attained my series 7 license. A series 7 license allows you the right to enter trades from a customer for the brokerage house. That was in 2001 and I was working in the Smith Barney office where the Worldcom employee options office was located. The crash of Worldcom’s price and all the employees on margin all happened while I was working there. I learned a lot about investing and was on par to take over my broker’s book of clients he had built up over 25 years. The crash happened and the market was declining, so I decided working as a broker in charge of other’s money 14 hours a day was not the future for me.
So I decided to follow another passion of food. I left the stock market world and went to Europe to culinary school in Italy and France. Then I moved back to the States and worked in the culinary world as a pastry chef of my wholesale pastry business. In order to pay for health insurance as a small business owner I began working for one of the major airlines as a part-time customer service agent.
In my time working for airlines, I met my husband a commercial airline pilot. He was based in the US but living in Montreal. That led me to my move up to Montreal where we settled down and had our first child. I had kept my job with the airlines in order to have a job when I immigrated and it worked. I was laid off just prior to giving birth and I had my one year of Maternity leave to figure out what to do with my future.
The August of 2013 I made a $25,000 investment in AAMRQ which over the course of 9 months turned into a value of $250,000. That was just prior to me being laid off and giving birth. Once I was 6 months into my maternity leave, I realized I have 6 more months and then I have to go back to work but I don’t really want to go back to the airlines. I was talking with my husband and he reminded me of the great success I had in longer term value trading.
So in my late nights breast feeding I began to do research about day trading and I came upon Timothy Sykes site and Profit.ly. At first I thought this is a bogus scammer on the internet. Then I did as much research as possible to find out about him and his training. It turns out it was all true. I applied to be his challenge student and took the leap of faith and told my husband I can do this and be successful.
So I signed up as a challenge student back in February 2015 for roughly $6,000. ( For those that don’t have all that capital to invest in the program I recommend the Silver Subscription – monthly payments)Once the DVD’s and notebooks arrived I was overwhelmed with all the information. I began watching the videos every night and during the day. I would schedule my daughters morning nap to allow me the time to be in front of my computer at market open.
In the first 3 months I did not follow the rules. I was a bag holder, revenge traded and positioned too large. I burned through $6000 in just a few short weeks. Afterwards I took 3 months to re-establish myself and find my bearings through strict discipline and focus studies on my areas of weakness.
Once my daughter was in daycare on a steady schedule, I watched the market each morning looking for trends. I began to see the patterns and worked on paper trading. 9 months into my studying, my paper trading was profitable so I began trading with real money again. I positioned small and did my research every morning before open and slowly grew my profits. 11 months into my day trading journey, January of 2016 I was in the green.
When I follow the rules I’m making more in a week than my husband who is an airline pilot. My husband now calls me Sugar Jane with all the profits I have coming in to enjoy our life to the fullest. It is wonderful to be able to provide for my family with 12-15hours of work a week and now well on my way to making 100K by my new goal August 15th.
This blog post is to help you see that you can have the curviest of roads to success. It isn’t always a straight line. There are speed bumps, pot holes and detours, but as long as you keep your final destination in site you can get there. One day at a time, studying each day you can achieve your dream no matter what it might be.
As always I hope this helps you in your day trading journey. If you have any other questions shoot them to me here in comments, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
As always Carpe Profit and Stay Green.
Here is the link to Tim’s Blog Post about me Feb 28th, 2016.
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.
by Jane | May 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
I had a request to write about the setups I look for and how I tackle them. I am in a timeframe when I am more long biased. I like the fact that when you go long the loss is limited to the investment you put into the market. The short squeezes that drove KBIO into the sky could easily cause anyone to lose the shirt on their back if they hold short overnight. That being said I stick to more of the long side unless it is a stock that I see moving within the ranges of the days.
For $LXU and $ENDP I found them in the same way. I found them by looking at the stocks with the biggest move down in the market for the day and looking at the chart. I typically try to play them for the initial morning reversal.
For $LXU I was in at 9.06 for initial reversal and then out at 9.25. It sold off a little and had held 9 fairly well so I added more when it dropped back down to the whole number. If you don’t see it already the round dollar and fifty cent marks tend to act as resistance and support as most people are looking to enter or exit around those numbers in their brain. So I went just below 9 as it was holding well. Then at lunch it started to sell off and continued down until close. I added again just before close for an average of 8.74 with the idea that this stock has come down $6 from $14 a 40% drop in 3 days and the shorts should close before end of day on Friday.
Most people that short stocks want to close out the short position before the end of trading day on Fridays. They want to close out the position because in shorting you borrow the stock from the brokerage house and have to usually pay a borrow fee each day you have the stock short. On Saturday and Sunday there isn’t really a benefit to borrowing the stock because there is not trading sessions. So typically on Friday’s you will see a stock that has been beaten down over the week to have a bounce up on Fridays before lunch.
That was exactly the case on $LXU today. I sold part of my position at 8.99 this morning thinking the 9.00 mark would pose resistance to the price movement. Well the next minute it spiked to 9.81. In that minute I went ahead and executed a market order to get out of the position in case it tanked down the rest of the day. In holding overnight for the gap up I have learned take the profit early. It could continue up, but it can also tank away all day again so as I say…..Carpe Profit!. Seize that moment in price action. All gains are never a reason to be upset. It’s a gain. Yes if I had held my full position to the high of day on LXU I would have been up $17,000 but I’m happy with my $4600 profit on the stock.
Another indicator I look at for the stock is looking at the RSI for the stock in both a daily chart with 1 min time frame or year chart with daily time frame. With the year chart with the stock below 30 it is a good indicator oversold for the macro vision of the year. Then I look more micro into the minute time frame to see the price action for below 30 or a dip below the Bollinger bands.
With $ENDP I have been in and out of this stock a couple times so far this year. This FORBES article from April 11 resonated with me about the stock and now when I see the RSI below 30 I usually capitalize on it.
As you can see by the chart above ENDP definitely looks oversold with an $RSI of 23.55 on the 1 year chart. The stock was down more than 40% of Thursday’s closing price all day. The low of the day was 15.50 and it opened at 17.40 from a closing price of 26.59. To me this is the rubber band effect. It has been overextended downward and shorts have tried to pummel it down as well as people selling their value investment. The shorts in my opinion will cover. The stock lost 40% of the value based on forward looking statements. For the past quarter they produced better than expected earnings per share however a negative forward looking statemen
I guess my rubber band reversal strategy comes from looking at a value stock seeing it on deep discount it makes me think of this quote from the Forbes Article….Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.
I like to look at the oversold stocks as opportunities. I am still working on perfecting my strategy and not going in emotionally. My entry on $ENDP is 16.15 average so going into the weekend I’m up .02 Yes!
Ending the week Green. Carpe Profits!! Now that the markets are closed on the weekend please take the time to study and research and enjoy time with friends and family. Don’t forget your mother on Sunday. It’s Mother’s Day!
I love to hear back from you. If you have a question a comment or concern please send it my way here as a comment or on Twitter (Jane_YUL), Instagram (MissAirplaneJane) Facebook (Jane Gallina) or LinkedIN (JaneGallina)
I have begun work on my special project to help inspire more women to trade. I never would have thought I would be here today with all these profits, but it is all possible with hard work and study.
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.
by Jane | May 4, 2016 | Uncategorized
There are lots of stocks in play right now because all sorts of companies are announcing their earnings. There are many locations to find the calendar of which companies are due to release earnings here is one through Yahoo Finance. It is definitely risky holding a stock through earnings because the market does not always react rationally. When it is a winner it can tank and when it is a loser it can spike. So remember to trade the price action not what you think it is going to do.
Monday was a tough day trading for me as I broke rules and my trades suffered from it. I try not to enter a trade before 950-10 am when there tends to be a clear trend in price action. I made the mistake of entering too early and ended up down for the day. I also entered at the top of a run at 1030 which I know my past trades is not a profitable entry point for me on the longside. By 11 am I was down more than $500.
When that happens don’t become emotional and revenge trade to try to make it back. I simply stopped. Listened in on the Trade Ideas Trading Room and stopped to watch. I was rushed in the morning on Monday not of a clear head when I sat down and my personal day affected my trading day. Trades are better without emotions. Great to celebrate afterwards, but trading without emotions as much as possible and just the numbers will give you the best profits.
I waited until my head was clear and then entered two good trades to end up down but roughly $21 instead of over $500. I did not force the trades and I was patient for good entries.
Today was an amazing day until 3pm. I jumped back into SRPT for power hour looking for an amazing finish to the day with the downtrend on price action from 230. In retrospect I was trading without my full screen from the kitchen table and I probably would have done better not just jumping in but looking at the press to see it was getting beaten down with downgrades. After I read those articles I made sure not to hold it overnight as I believe it will be a gap down scenario. Not too bad closed down .10 from my entry.
Right now there are great plays even when the SPY is downtrending. Finding your niche and being able to profit when the market is tanking is always good. I’m looking forward to learning more about options to use puts to short because the risk is limited into the contract investment instead of unlimited with shorting a stock.
My losing trades in the past two days were all about entries where my risk was not minimized. It is extremely important to understand about the risk of your entry. I got lucky on my trade after lunch with SRPT today when I jumped in over the half dollar at 18.57. It dropped back down to 18 before it went up to 18.80 again and I bailed. That was a gamble trade. RSI was high so it was showing overbought and I think I might have bought and the high of that runup. It was luck that the trade went for me.
Being continuously successful in day trading is all about a good entry. Learn what makes your entries good. When you have a good entry it is easy to be confident in the trade and not feel stressed in front of your computer. You can breath easy and when it is going in your favor surf the net some, try not to let the profit growing cause you to sell off too soon.( the emotion of profiting can take over) Two days in a row I sold SRPT way too conservatively leaving a bunch of profit on the table. I still profited but I can definitely get better in letting my winners grow.
I have moved up my goal of 100K in profits to my birthday August 15th. I would love to be able to say I made 100K before then and with my goal of $1K a day now it is possible. If I have a loss I don’t beat myself up. I analyze and learn from my errors. Those red days are becoming fewer and fewer. I’m not a computer so I know they will happen I just need to learn from them.
As always I hope these blogs are helping you learn and grow as a trader yourself. I try to post watch lists, however I find I’m actually doing better with my trading when I analyze the market in the morning. Time as a mom is always precious and if my head is not clouded with what I think will happen to a stock and trading the price I find I do much better.
Learn from your mistakes, Carpe Profit and Stay Green.
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.
