Lack Of Patience And Discipline Causes Trading Losses
TIM $15,470 Down $115
Despite me being so gung ho telling people not to short Converted Organics (COIN) all day yesterday, I saw the fluff news this morning coupled with a lack of incredible volume, so I shorted 300 shares at $13.50, thinking it didn’t have enough juice to break the key $14 price. Now this is what a trading addict does—sets rules and break them.
In my post last night, I stated clearly:
“Ideal trade for newbies would be to buy on a clean breakout on strong volume—think 5million+, everything else is just small moves that can easily reverse.”
Well, that was a good call because it was wrong of me to short, win or lose, I didn’t have the odds on my side, and within a half hour, I covered my shares at $13.85, for a stupid $100 loss. I was right to cover in that it went all the way up to $14.30, wrong in the sense that that breakout failed, as it’s now back down to $13.45.
Again, look at what I said last night, we got a clean breakout past $14, but the 3 million share volume is weak, so we’re getting small moves back and forth. From here, who knows, the pattern isn’t perfect so there’s little predictability. I’ve seen enough of these to know what I’m talking about, now I just gotta work on my patience.
“The only time I really ever lost money was when I broke my own rules.”
“Throughout all my years of investing I’ve found that the big money was never made in the buying or the selling. The big money was made in the waiting.”
Every time my impatience gets the best of me, I’ll post these quotes. That way when I make these mistakes—as I inevitably will again—you’ll at least benefit!
Get Tim's pre-market watchlists, real-time trade alerts & access to subscribers-only website all for just $1/day -- sign up for TIMalerts today!
Alternatively, get all blog posts emailed directly to your inbox by signing up below:
LoadingRelated Reading
36 Responses
Trackbacks
Add a Comment!
If you want to receive TIMBUCKS, you'll first have to Login before posting a comment. Click here to learn more on the new TIMBUCKS rewards program.
Top TIMbucks
Our top TimBucks earners to date are:
- Yngvai (478)
- JMoates77 (258)
- ViciousChicken (206)
- Fantom (196)
- Davey (194)
- brent (172)
- trader@MIT (163)
- investorslive (162)
- ivegotstylekid (155)
- noobtrader.08 (150)
Navigate
Only $29.95/mo
Earn $$$
$
Participate & Earn
52 Links
136 Books
Buy TIM products!
Up 81%
Clips 24/7!
UPDATES
TIMtrades
Learn from my successes, learn from my failures, learn from TIM. Click here to learn more.
| Date | Stock | Buy | Sell | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 23 | MKTY | $4.73 | $5.40 | $187 |
| July 22 | MKTY | $4.10 | $4.28 | $240 |
| July 21 | ZYXI | $3.03 | $3.18 | $130 |
| July 15 | MNLU | $6.37 | $6.73 | $340 |
| July 11 | IDAE | $2.27 | $2.49 | $630 |
| July 8 | ERII | $11.29 | $11.00 | $162 |
| July 3 | TGC | $2.14 | $2.39 | $471 |
| July 2 | HYGS | $2.15 | $2.29 | $260 |
| July 2 | TGC | $3.44 | $3.49 | $80 |
Total: $22,457 (
81%)
1timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Short 500 SHZ at $8.43, betting that somebody takes out that last big buy block at $8.35 and it retests $8 today or tomorrow, ideally taking out $8
2timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
within 15 minutes, takes out $8, now $7.80, beautiful crack of sideways price action, still up 100% in 2 days, i want more!!!
3ETQT
February 26th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
do you have a heavy short bias on SHZ?
4timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
SHZ is the latest crap penny stock tp be pumped up. gotta watch out for spikes but i’m comforted by the big bloc sell orders around $8. if it cracks $7.70 area, could easily go down to $7 and below, remember it was just $4 the other day
5Davey
February 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Great trade, looks like you’ve finally figured how to make consistent money with a small account and less frequent trading…keep it up
6Dan
February 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Tim you are missing out on agix nice move today. Look at the volume . Looks like you are doing pretty good on shz
7timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Covered my SHZ + 75 cents/share, $400. just gotta wait for those perfect charts. memorize, up 50% 2 days in a row, no news, sketcky company, negative on the third day, cracks sideways price action, rinse and repeat
8timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Heads up on DARa, hopefully it’s a multiday runner like sHZ!
9Davey
February 26th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Tim,
Keep an eye DARA, not seeing any news, up over 100% now.
10Davey
February 26th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I’m keeping an eye on it, these bio techs usually have more than a day in them, just like I DMI, we’ll have to wait for an entry to short.
11S Adams
February 26th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
My thinking is SHZ is going to run again. China stocks are strong right now. The closest comparison is CHNR which has been very strong lately and is up 6%. I rebought at 7.85
12timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
just dont like the large spreads and low volume on SHZ, thats why 1 big block either way can influence prices for hours. for once, i just executed the perfect trade, for once
13Dan
February 26th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Thats what i like to hear Tim. Nice trade, what do you think of agix today up with real good volume. Thanks Tim for your help and all you do for us.
14NeilTheRealDeal
February 26th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
wow hope you guys listened to yourselves and caught DARA today as well. what a day! I’m only virtual trading but I read this post and checked out DARA saw a break and shorted 700 at 4.41 and covered at 3.60! can’t wait to start using real money haha. is it a bad idea to hold a short position with DARA overnight? I haven’t been quite sure when it is good to hold a stock overnight and when not to.
15Davey
February 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I wouldn’t hold it overnight yet, look at CEGE it was up huge and had a massive pullback on the same day, then the next day went up huge again, wait until volume drops off and downward momentum creeps in. Good trade though…
16Davey
February 26th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I’m so pissed I missed the SHZ move but I’m in the process of moving funds to TOS, tomorrow I’ll be ready to go and DARA is in my sight.
17Aegir
February 26th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Tim big IPO next month, VISA, what do yuo think.
18the barber
February 26th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
CAN ANYONE SAY GOODBYE TO COIN??????????? HMMM….. LETS JUST SAY I CALL THAT ONE FOR THIS BLOG. TEXT BOOK DOUBLE TOP GOING TOBE DOWN HUGE TOMORROW. TIM YOUR LUCKY TO DIDNT BET ME.. MAYBE WELL MEET IN MANHATTAN ONE DAY AND U OWE ME A DRINK.. LOL
19the barber
February 26th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
NOT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM SHZ LOOKS GOOD. A LOT OF SHORTS LOOK GOOD INTO TOMORROW CAUSE MARKET IS SET FOR A DOWN DAY TOMORROW. A LITTLE WIND IN THE SAIL NEVER HURT
20Eric T
February 26th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Does anyone ever go long on here? lol
21timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
ah COIN, 13.50 turned out to be a great short, u could take a little pain. hence the reason i prefer shorting in the afternoon where there was no pain whatsoever. gotta recognize this or have the buying power to be able to short whenever u feel like it!
22mitil
February 26th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
wow people do post comments here very quickly!!!….
23the barber
February 26th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
ahhh.. that stuborn coin.. It finaly cracked.. ive been watching this thing patiently for a month now… but pateince pays off cause i can bet that stuborn coin will be in the red tomorrow..holding this puppy. lol
24Al
February 26th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Tim,
I tried shorting SHZ but Ameritrade didn’t have any shares. I shorted GRO for two reasons, 1. because of what looked like an intraday double top and 2. because I needed the action. It was a long booooring day watching GRO.
25sonid
February 26th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
broke my own discipline the same way today and didn’t wait for the crack. Gotta be around to execute the trade perfectly…..live and learn I guess. Looking into DARA for the next one.
26Joey
February 26th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Tim…how about setting up an IRC (Chat) server? I could provide one for free…would be cool to chat with all in real time.
27timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
GRO is a potential short, i lik the intraday 50 cent drops but its not negative yet and its only up 50%
28timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
no chat, too many legal issues, gotta stick to the good ole forum/comments
29timsykes
February 26th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
i’ll look at visa but too many smart people playing it, i prefer dumb competition, aka microcaps!
30PETEKUSH(TIMBUCKS: $35)
May 6th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
visa is going to 1000 fast, whom ever plays it or not.
its goin…boy it be goin!
stony
31PETEKUSH(TIMBUCKS: $35)
May 6th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
i ment 100 i hit 1 too many 0 ….but give it time it will head to 1000…to
32PETEKUSH(TIMBUCKS: $35)
May 7th, 2008 at 1:13 am
oil is the hot ticket still.
goin to 150
33PETEKUSH(TIMBUCKS: $35)
May 7th, 2008 at 1:46 am
nice raide interview, abit blue chip boring but cool
34traknologist(TIMBUCKS: $60)
May 14th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Oil’s going over 150