Worst mistakes that you can make on a trade!

Alright so yesterday was a complete mess for me,

I traded VRA, which I shouldn't have in the first place, but ill get into it later explaining why I should have entered it and every mistake Ive made.


So I was looking at it at the open saw the good spike reaction to earnings and was waiting for an opportunity, so far so good.


this is how I saw it :



right after this first candle, I forgot everything I learned and assumed that this was the top, without anyyyy indicator pointing at it, mistake number 1.

I got in long after this candle broke, with no risk level, mistake 2!

After it broke out, it went down to 14.2 and + the big spread, I took a loss of 0.4 cent, the good thing here was that I took the loss..



moving on I was sticking to my plan and waiting for a top to be made and this is what I saw :



I was waiting for this top to crack and have a nice good breakout, NOW this is the worst mistake.

if you look at the chart, you see no good risk level to play off of it, only 14.8 and 14.4 are looking like good supports, when the entry is at 15.47, the closest one is 14.8 and that's a 0.5 cent stop which I NEVER USE because its too big for me, I like somewhere between 0.10 and 0.15 stops for best risk.

I totally ignored this and used just a simple 0.15 mind stop loss, mistake number 3!

when the breakout happened, I not only did enter the trade, I chased my entry and entered at 15.60 instead of 15.47 !!! missed by 0.13 cent. mistake number 4!

after going 0.2 cents for me, I didn't take profits because I was greedy, and wanted to cover my loss, It spiked down and gave me another loss of about 0.20 cent..

this is how it looked: (red line is breakout level and my stop)





It crossed it for a minute and after that kept going for another 1.5 $ ...



Major lessons that Ive need to remind myself before every trade are:


1.Don't guess the top! never try to guess the top, let the chart play out and give you the best setups!


2. don't chase the entry if you missed it, many more will come its not the end of the world!


3.take profits when you have them and you feel like taking them, its better to take a profit then to take a loss.


4.ALWAYS go into a trade with a plan, I usually do! but this time I don't know what happened, I wasn't in the right mindset to trade I guess and the fact the I haven't traded for two days made me think that I HAVE to play this one not to miss out.

5.Cut losses when the stock is reaching your stop point, don't let ego and hope to play the game for you.

Buying breakouts and how they can fail.

So I haven't traded for two days because there were no plays for me,

Today I saw VRA on the premarket gainers and saw that it had earnings.




I was looking at it when it spiked and stupidly bought the morning intra day breakout, it was a mistake.

The spread on it was confusing and it helped my loss to grow from only 20 cents to a 0.4 cent loss.

next I kept looking after an hour for it to really break the daily breakout at 15.46, it broke it and I got in but again it failed to break and the spread got me again with a . 0.18 cent loss,




I didn't give up on it and still wanted that breakout, after a few minutes it broke out and I got a little late at 15.6 instead of 15.50, it held it well and my stop was at the breakout point at 15.47.

after all two of these not so small losses, I stoke to my plan patiently.

I kinds forgot the fact that it already spiked for a dollar and maybe its a bad idea to buy breakouts when the stoock is this much over extended.

I had 0.2 cents to take and I didn't because I wanted more. I should have because the stock was already over extended.

I ended up losing another 0.1 cents at my stop, It was a terrible trading day for me but many lessons learned!




1. lookout for big spreads.



2.take gain when you have them.



3.cut your losses quickly if trade isn't going your way!

Why watching the Level 2 is VERY HELPFUL!

Alright, today was a little slow day on the trades side, the market was spiking buy it seemed like no stock that I liked was going with it.

BLOX was in my watch list ( its important you have one everyyy day!) as a potential earnings winner to breakout, it also had news about Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement, which were good!


I got my eye on it at 18.66 it has spiked in the morning, tested the breakout and started fading.
heres how it looked:

I was watching it for a rebound to test the breakout level again, as soon as it broke I got in at 18.81, My first stop loss was at the correct days high which was 18.77, I was on Skye with a friend who also trades (he got me into trading) and told me to set my stop at 18.6 where there is clear support, I didn't like the idea of a 0,20 cents stop but the chart looked like a 100% breakout with all the indicators pointing on it (earnings winner, holding gains, spiking at the mornings, the fact that its a Friday and could possibly squeeze shorts)

I was waiting patiently and looking at the LEVEL 2 quote, to see and feel what the chart is going to do, half and hour later the stock started spiking and broke out! I was break even and was thinking about taking it and closing the trade because the volume was only 500K but again my friend Igor Lev was in my year and I remembered all the things that point on the breakout and everything that Ive learned.

The stock kept spiking, I was WATCHING THE LEVEL 2 like a hawk, to see for any momentum change in the trend of the stock (Learned this from Tim Grittanis DVD "Trade the ticker" really recommend this one!) and slowly it got to 19.22, There was a little panic down to 19.13 and I took the profits of 0.32 cents for some reasons.

First of all The stock has gone up a dollar which I thought was a little over extended.

Second I was tired of watching it and 0.32 cents a share was not a bad profit.

Thirdly the Level 2 looked like the momentum has changed.

I think it will spike more on Monday because of the news, breakout, earnings, but I'm a scared trader and I like to take profits when I have them.



So the great lessons from toady's trade are:


1.Watching level two with stocks on low volume helps allot to maximize profits and feeling the stocks trend.


2.Control the feeling of wanting to take profits every cent it goes up because you down want less than you see, play by the chart not the feelings !




3. patience! patience was the key at this trade because of the low volume and that It was lunch time at the time I was in it.



4. Putting smart stop losses.

I usually do smart stop losses, but I had a problem with putting the correct stops on breakout plays like this, in breakout situations you should put your stop on a comfortable size that wont freak you out if you see it reach it like 0.1 cents 0.2 cents, I don't like more than that, and you should look for a key support area to be your stop to confirm the stops less risk to reach it.

Why cutting losses is soo important! + BONHEAD mistake.

Alright so today was a pretty good lesson for me to remember!

I will analyze 2 trades that I lost on, why I lost, and why it was stupid of me to even trade them.




I was watching VNCE and APIC, both are pretty good earnings winners that are breaking out, my mistake was forgetting to look at their VOLUME!


Ill start off with my first trade of the day, APIC.

I saw APIC gaping up on pre-market and saw that it is an earnings winner.

here's how it looked on the open:



My setup was good, entering at 8.48 and my risk being at yesterdays high at 8.38, I was planning on a breakout to happen, but the stupid mistake that I made was not looking at the volume which was LOW nearly 12,000k...

This is something I don't use to do, I tend to enter trade that trade with big volume for good volatility! but...I made my mistake and cut ted the loss.

Now, why is it good that I cut ted the loss? because the stock fell 0.48 cents from my buying price. eventually it bottomed and spiked broke 8.48 and kept going to 8.78 a nice 0.30c gain but I didn't want to trade it because of the loss I had + volume was still too low.



Moving on to my next trade!

VNCE, here's how it looked before my entry:



I didn't see it at the morning when it spiked 0.50 cent, but I got it when I saw it coming down and was hoping to get a good dip.

I bought it at 6.42 with the days low being my stop, the plan was OK overall BUT! I didn't see a few things, first of all, it gaped down to earnings, second! it was making lower lows, these are two things that I always look at before entering the trade, I guess I wasn't in my best today.

cuted the loss and it kept falling 0.40 more cents.





The major lessons that I learned is:


1.Not forgetting to look at major indicators before entering a trade like VOLUME!


over all I lost 0.20 cents today on both trades, this is a SMALLLL loss for 2 trades and I'm proud of my self that I control my cutting losses quickly rule! I just need to be more focused before I enter trades and make sure that it is really THE BEST SETUP that I look for.

Sticking to a trading plan

This morning I was watching $ONKD and $BLOX, two earnings winners that I found with the help of Tim sykes.




I will analyze these two plays so you can see what I did wrong and what I did good:

so, when I watched ONDK, I didn't want to enter right at the open, I need to see a base, some sort of confirmation to enter the trade.

the stock started falling so I opened the daily chart and saw it had a big resistance around 11.50, this was my PERFECT dip buying point, I waited patiently for it to drop to my price, it got a little choppy for a minute and I thought that Ive missed the move when it started spiking, but minutes later it dropped more to 11.6, this is how it looked:




the 11.6 drop was a 10 second drop, I was watching BLOX for my entry and right as I was watching it it touched 11.6 and SPIKED HARD 1 dollar a share from my buying price, I saw that I missed the trade when it was at 11.8, 11.9 I did not chase it because I stick to my rules, would have been good to chase buy you might get lucky once or twice but when wrong you will lose allot more than you should. and this is how it ended






On to my next trade I was looking at is BLOX,

BLOX was also an earnings winner, I watched it right at the open and set my stop loss as yesterdays close at 18.35, I got executed at 18.48 a little bit late because it jump quick but still a good risk to reward plan.

It spiked for 1 minute and it looked slow to me, I took profits of only 0.9 cents, I think of this as a bad trade because I took profits that are less than my stop.

I took the profits because I didn't trade for a while and was only watching stocks sitting on the side lines, after my exit the stock continued to spike for another 0.40 cents of upside.







Lessons that I learned:


1.Stick to your plan,

dint be emotional and take profits just because you are scared, move stops, stick the your plan.


2.Don't be afraid to stick to your plan!

because this strategy is so simple I sometimes think its really too good to be true, but at most cases I am right.


3.Be confident at what you do.


4.Be aware more, don't forget to look at the other stocks you follow, because sometimes they can move to fast for you to notice.

Golden key rules that I have learned

These are the GOLDEN key rules that I have learned along my way.

1. This is rule number one, the most important one, the hart of every trade,

CUT LOSSES QUICKLY. 

if a trade isn't going according to your plan and it has reached your stop loss you MUST take the loss and move on, you cannot let hope and greed take over you trade.


2.Enter only the BEST/STRATEGY setups that you know and master.

When you sit down and start your trading day, take on only the setups that you have learned and that you feel comfortable with, NEVER try to scalp unknown trades with unfamiliar patterns, this leads to disaster.


3.Don't force trades when there are no good trades.


Slow market days can be frustrating because you want to make money, but in these situations you MUST control your feelings and just sit back, go study, go out with friends, go wash your car, don't force trades! because sometimes you will profit but in most cases you will lose.


4.Go with your plan.

Always go with your initial plan that you had from the beginning, do exactly as you planned out, when you don't stick to your plan, you lose the big picture that you had before you saw some things happen, it changes your overview about the stock.


5.No emotions.

This is a hard one because we cannot control them, but in trading you MUST trade like a robot, you cannot let emotions come into act in a trade, when it comes to cutting losses, taking gains, or entering a trade, everything you do must have a plan.


6.Lookout for big spread.

Many times Ive entered a trade without noticing the BIG spread that made me cut the loss even before it made a move.

7.First thing you look before you make a plan is...
Watch your Risk to reward, before I enter every trade the first thing I do is looking at the risk and the reward, my risks are smart risks, not risking by $ or % but risking off major key levels on the chart.

8. Learn from your mistakes!!!

Every mistake you make is a lesson, you learn about trading everyday it never stops, don't let the losers beat you down, LEARN from them to make sure they never happen again!

__________________________

These are the main rules that I have applied to my trading strategy, Sometimes I do break the rules, but every time I do I learn from my mistakes!

Missing out on trades.

I was watching $GIGA today on the premarket and saw the big % gain, went to http://Finance.google.com and saw it had a contract with a company ( a contract winner, after an hour I found out the contract wasn't actually that good but no one noticed it and still the stock spiked).

I waited for the open and my play was to buy on a small dip with the open price as my risk, my entry point was 2.6, and my risk was 2.50 the open price.
 it was a solid plan but I froze and did not execute. it spiked and I didn't want to miss out so I came with a new plan to buy at the yearly breakout of 3.15, I bought a small position of 50 shares because it was a really sketchy plan and it fell 0.10 cents so I cutted the loss, After 5 minutes it broke the 3.15 and kept going to 4.

GOOD THINGS I  DID:

1.Cutted the loss.

2.Didn't chase the morning spike with a bad risk.

 BAD THINGS I DID: 

1.Chased the stock with a new plan because I was a afraid to miss out on this potential "Big play that comes once in while"

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Always stick to your plan.

2.Never have the fear of missing out.

3.Don't try to make up new plans after you missed the play.