TIM $15,688, Down $140, You Can Do So Much Better Than Me!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh what a stupid, stupid, stupid loss, I feel like this guy:
The beautiful thing about PennyStocking is that you don’t have to scan through thousands of stocks every day, looking for the latest and greatest. No, it’s best to trade stocks that have been in play for the past few days so plenty of fickle day traders are involved. That way they’ll be volatile and liquid, two qualities most needed to give you the best odds of profiting 5-20% on a trade, long or short. Read some past blog posts and you can see me transitioning from one stock to another, whatever fits the patterns I’m comfortable playing.
COIN couldn’t breakout so it’s back to the 12-13ish range, aka not volatile enough for me (for higher priced stocks, I want 20-50% intraday moves or else with my poor timing skills, the odds of success aren’t very great) so the two plays on my radar today were SHZ and DARA, both looking like they could spike and inevitably fall (I wish I could buy, too, but I just suck at it) I woke up early to borrow shares to short, but Thinkorswim had no DARA, just plenty of SHZ to go around, so I reserved 600 shares.
The stock opened lower and I had a chance to short at the open at $7.67, just 1 cent below where I covered yesterday—a penny I’d gladly paid to avoid any overnight holding risk—but now, my screwed up COIN trade fresh in my mind, I couldn’t risk shorting too early, I had to watch out for that morning spikeness risk! So, I waited.
Within 10 minutes of the open, I coulda woulda shoulda covered at $7.31 those shares I coulda woulda shoulda shorted at $7.67, but we’re talking only $100ish in profits, ideally, before the morning spikeness came in, on very low volume, pushing the stock up big. Not an ideal trade, good avoidance. From 9:45am to 10:15am, the stock surged from $7.30 to $8.75. Ahhhh, volatility. Even though I knew I shouldn’t be shorting in the morning and more importantly, I had an 11am meeting, I thought this was just a brief spike so I shorted 400 shares–not the full 600 I’d borrowed–at $8.40, only 3 cents off where I successfully shorted yesterday, and right at yesterday’s busted support (broken support becomes resistance) Sweet, a gift, yes, please!
Twenty minutes into my trade, and 15 minutes before I had to leave, it wasn’t such a gift with the stock gyrating between $8.50 and $8.80. Damn my impatience! But there were sellers, plenty of big block sellers, so I wasn’t worried. As I got ready to leave, I figured I’d put in an order to give me a nice profit in case the stock dropped enough. Since I knew there’d be buyers trying to prevent a negative close around $7.70, I put in my buy to cover order at $7.75. It executed immediately?!?!?!?!?!
This idiot made a fat finger mistake, entering a limit order of $8.75!!!! My limit was above the current asking price so I bought 100 shares at $8.69 and 300 at $8.73, for a ridiculous $140 loss! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! What a freaken moron! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
I took my anger out on my front door and went to my meeting. The stock rubbed my mistake in by downtrending for the rest of the day. It’s not the dollar loss that gets me—even if I had held, my gain woulda been minimal, like $100—it’s the poor execution that pisses me off, especially after yesterday’s perfect trade. This was not my first fat finger mistake nor will it be my last. Good news is this time thanks to the TIM project; it cost me about 5% of what it did last time!
TIM Lesson: Always double check your limit orders before placing them
What I Did Right:
– Not wanting to risk a overnight/morning spike, I didn’t hold overnight into today
– Shorted into the morning spike at yesterday’s support (now resistance)
– Small position size
– Posted my trade on this site and on TheLion, so others who are less stupid than me, profited
What I Did Wrong:
– Didn’t wait until the afternoon to short!
– Traded even though I knew I had an intraday meeting
– Not an ideal pattern to short into given the low volume and its already sizable drop off its highs
– Fat Finger Mistake, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
PS: DARA enjoyed some sweeet morning spikeness of its own before downtrending gradually, 25% off its morning high, 2 ideal times to short, 1.) at the first signs of weakness on the morning super spikeness 2.) when it cracked the sideways price action at $5.05, fifteen minutes before the market close.
Tomorrow it can still spike on the open, maybe a bit more, but it’s tough to sustain momo on the 3rd day, as SHZ and IDMI have proven lately. Whatever the outcome, add its chart to the pile of other microcrap momos, I’m not making this PennyStocking junk up, it really works and I’m really not that great at it! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Posted in 101bad, Bad Trades, Fess Up Time, Impatience, Patterns To Short, Short Selling, Supernovas, TIM Lessons