Today I was down but I wasn’t. As a matter of fact, I have never felt so high before. The whole day I was trying to catch the biggest trends with the biggest volatility (ie. GFRE, GPRO, QGEN, SWY), however without utilizing a wide peripheral, even the easy trade became the hardest. I seem to end up buying at the top of candles selling it at the low of another one. This seemed to permeate from one trade to another no matter if I am trying 52 week highs, 52 lows, new highs, new lows until Alex, a head trader here at Shinesroom, stopped me.
At that moment, I was frustrated at the stock AXP, was determined it went against me because the SPY was heading down but I believed it was a strong stock. It made new 52 week highs twice in one day and I felt that it would reach that level again. However, I couldn’t make myself move as I didn’t know where. After hearing what I had to say, Alex looked at the chart and asked where was my conviction of the place and time coming from. I couldn’t really tell him. It was then when he told me that entering any stock, there needs to be consistent reevaluation along the way as none of us will never know when it will go against us. We must look at our planets, put on and take off shares of a stock as the rating of the stock fluctuates as new information comes in regards to the stock like volume coming in, series of red or green candles or positive or negative news comes in. With some guidance from Alex, I focus my attention on AXP the rest of the day to understand its average true range and traded it to its 52-week highs. What I gained from there in numbers didn’t make up for losses I piled up but what I did gain made up for the losses I would have incurred.
-Tony
