TIM $14,409, Down $239 on the Day, No Positions.
my book‘s latest testimonial comes from Sam Ko, Founder, TheLion.com:
“Trading fast moving penny stocks to your delight and kachingos – an astounding money making recipe book but not for the fainted hearted.”
This guy is a legendary trader and his site is one of my favs, so this testimonial might even compare to the one I just got from a pretty famous hedge fund manager (of course due to those fabulous industry regulations, I can’t use his name—I’ll only say he managed $1 billion+).
Awoke to see all the good after-hours action SOLF displayed last night, gone as the stock was flat/slightly negative at 8am. But I held strong as I saw other solar plays HOKU and AKNS strong. SOLF downtrended gradually all pre-market long and I gave in at 9am, selling my 120 shares at $26.77, losing $150ish. Not bad considering it tanked to $26 at the open (the strong afternoon close doesn’t matter, no way would I ever hold that long), but bad because I waited an hour to sell, not wanting a $25, $50, $75 loss. A wasted trade but a solid.
TIM Lesson: When stocks don’t act EXACTLY how you expected, get out IMMEDIATELY, don’t hope, or wait because you open yourself up to larger losses.
Looking for bottoms in other wrecked stocks, I bought some (Nasdaq: BEAV). I mentioned them as a possible play in my AOL article yesterday—they’re an airline equipment supplier and since all the airlines NWA, UAUA, DAL, JBLU were waaay up at the open, I thought BEAV might follow. While meaning to buy 100 shares at the open, a fat finger mistake meant I bought 200 at $43.81, making this an $8k investment and my largest to date. So stupid, I couldn’t risk that kind of $ on a non-perfect play, this was just a shot in the dark, I had to sell ASAP! I gave it a chance to move higher, but after 10 minutes, it’d done nothing, so I played it safe, selling my 200 shares at $43.47, another $80ish loss. Typical trade of an amateur trader, I should know better.
The afternoon brought all the good CFC news, but even better news was that I didn’t trade. Sure, I was tempted—very tempted—but these kinds of plays are too unpredictable for me (the mid-day news exemplifies the reason why I don’t short big-time companies, even if they have perfectly downtrending charts) so while CFC, ETFC, NFI or WM were all out of the question (they’ll all open up 5% or down 10%), but buying into strong stocks like DYII (good earnings), LULU (possible bottom), AMPX (possible further squeeze). DYII and AMPX finished strong, but neither had great volume, even though AMPX now is looking good for a big-time runup considering the near $1 spike in the last minute!
This weekend, I’m gonna have to re-watch my DVD, its lessons were directly responsible for my gains early this week, but today’s losses are directly due to a lack of discipline. I’ll also start screening only for stocks under $5—that way I can take 1,000 share positions and 50 cents-$1/share, which is much easier for me than trying to squeeze $1-$3/share on 200-300 shares.
AKNS bounced nicely off $10, better late than never!
UEIC and LULU possible bottoms, not volatile enough…yet.
CLXS nice fluffy news, but little volume/price action.
EBHI good news, but weak afternoon.
All the solars very weak action, will they bounce, who knows?
VPRT and TLEO can’t catch a break.
Posted in TIM Lessons