B The Trader

As I said in the previous episode, I love to learn from the lessons of yesterday. The lesson was that I missed out because I didn't borrow stocks ahead of the time. Today I had a pretty good day - I took a gain on CGIX. It was a low float stock - 1.6mln. Low float stocks tend to be radical as they go up and down momentarily. I noticed that the company had a ton of warrants (I check that kind of information through https://www.bamsec.com/). I also knew for a fact that it was about to rotate the float because it was trading pre-market at a half. So I decided to borrow and pay for these shares right then. It cost me 8 cents a share, but it was ok. But this is the thing - I borrowed without knowing if I'd be able to trade them after all. I generally don't like to trade low floats in the morning because the odds are not on my side. I normally don't mess with low floats because I don't like to deal with high volatility when the price goes from $2 to $7 and back within seconds. However, I discovered a strategy that works for me well in the afternoon. At first, I took a small loss of 1R and then made an overall gain of just over 3R. But to get this gain, I waited until the very end of the day. Watch the whole video to see how exactly how I managed to get over 3R on this trade and what lessons I learned from it. You can also see the chart and the detailed breakdown of this trade in this post.

On November 19, 2019, I took a small loss of 0.5R. Yet I felt good about it. The reason was quite simple - I was still doing better than I did a week before. I didn't have any trades on Monday, November 18, because I didn't see a good setup. I recently decided to focus on trading well instead of chasing questionable opportunities. No more playing revenge and jumping in after a loss. The only setup that I saw on Tuesday was with GNPX. However, the strategy that I call gap and crap doesn't seem to be working too well for the stocks under a dollar. I'm thinking of reducing the risk to 0.5R or 0.25R until I figure out how this strategy works on penny stocks specifically. I missed out on a decent opportunity with SAEX. That was a stock that I originally wanted to trade, but the price to borrow was 25 cents a share, and I didn't want to pay that. But what I'm most happy with is that when I incurred my losses, I cut them and I didn't reshort even though I had the urge to do so. You see, when trading I'm proud that I've learned not to compare myself to other traders. I only compare myself to the version of me a day, a week, a month, a year before. Last week I would've acted more impulsively, but yesterday and today I followed my rules. What do you think about it? Are you in competition with yourself or with other traders out there? What motivates you to keep going?

After a bad week of day trading, sometimes you have to step back and think of a redemption plan for the week ahead. I've been having a really hard time sticking to my rules. As I was reviewing my trades and looking at my profit chart, I saw that for a while I was uptrending, then I was stagnant, and now I'm in a place where I start breaking into the support level of my profit chart. There are a few reasons for that, and one of them is that I'm trading all kinds of things instead of sticking to my normal setup. There are a few proven strategies that I love and that work well for me - an overextended gap strategy, gap and crap strategy, micro float strategy that I like to trade in the afternoon, and first red day overextension strategy. The problem is, they don't happen very often. Sometimes there will be a span of several weeks when none of those four setups are present. And then there will be this one day when I'll catch myself not following my rules as I simply get tired of waiting and start trading less than perfect setups. If I'm honest with myself, I do it because I want to break out of my range as my profit chart has been kind of stuck. But instead of thinking of profits, I'll be trying to get back on the path of discipline. It means that I won't trade anything unless it's one of the setups that I've mentioned. And if I experiment, it will be done with a paper account. It's not as much fun, but it's a safer way to try out new strategies without getting upset over losses. The funny thing is that I do very well when I follow my strategy and trade 10-30 minutes a day, and I do much worse when I spend the whole day in front of the computer looking for new stocks to trade. It makes me appreciate a Pattern Day Trader rule (PDT) and think of all the great traders who became profitable and successful despite (or thanks to) starting with a smaller account and fewer opportunities to trade. Having fewer trades means that you become more picky with them, which leads to better trading overall. What do you think about it? Do you agree with me on PDT and its impact on beginner trading?

On November 15, 2019, I broke two important trading rules that I've set up for myself. In hindsight, I should have known better. But this is the frustrating thing about trading: you can do so well for a few months and then just have a bad week and a nasty lapse. But let me tell you what happened. I have 2 important rules when trading: Never trade a stock that's rotating its float Don't jump back in on the same stock once I've been wrong Whenever I break them, I pay for it. This time I took a 6R loss, which is huge for me since I usually try to keep it down to 1R. This is what happens when I trade for the money rather than for the process. I took a large loss that took two recent wins out (I follow a 3:1 profit/loss ratio strategy). In retrospect, I did it out of frustration. I've been working on my trading game for solid 2 years, and it's frustrating to still experience these lapses and struggles. The worst part is to have several great months in a row only to have this happen again. AIHS, I don't think I'll ever forget you! Watch the full video to see what exactly I did wrong when stock trading and learn with me from my trading mistake.

In November 2019 I started a podcast about the realities of day trading. I'm taking this leap despite feeling scared. I wanted to start this project for a while now, but I've been holding myself back thinking I needed to be consistently successful before I could talk about trading. Yet here I am. I'm not quite as successful as I'd like to be yet, but I decided to document my trading journey anyway. I wanted to show its real highs and lows, my wins and losses, my breakthroughs and setbacks. I wanted to show the process of finding consistency and success while working on my mindset and discipline. I was seeking to share my journey with others especially because I left a career to trade full-time. It wasn't easy because I didn't quite "make it" yet. But I'm willing to be open and share my trades, my strategies and my results here in this blog, on my Youtube channel and on my podcast show. Follow me to see me grow as an investor and a trader. Subscribe to get my trading tips and see how my trading strategy works out.

Figuring out day trading is a process, and I'm still working on developing my trading strategy and a plan. I got a lot better over the years, now it's just a matter of sticking to my rules and exercising discipline. To help me with it, I'm now looking for a place to work as the reserves are slowly dwindling away. I'd like to be able to focus on trading well without the added pressure of making a quick and sometimes risky profit. Having a day job and restarting my career might just be the right move for me and my trading journey. I've been trading for close to 2 years and I've developed a skill set that allows me to spend roughly 30 minutes a day on trading. I successfully do it on autopilot as I know what to look for. Of course, trading used to take much longer when I wasn't sure what I was doing. Trust me, it took a lot of work to get to this point. So thanks to this skill set I can get a day job that will provide a steady income and take some of the pressure off my trading process, allowing me to focus on trading well rather than chasing a quick buck. Follow my channel and listen to my podcast to get my trading tips and see my journey as a trader.