Lover of trading, tacos, 3D/AR/VR, cryptos, and most things Japanese

After establishing a position in FNKO last week, I was looking to add to it. It had already gone up several percent and I was pissed I got distracted by work during the week and missed the pullback opportunity to add more size. That said, FNKO just announced a new set of Pop! figures for the Nightmare Before Christmas would be hitting the shelves in a few weeks, just in time for Halloween, and I wanted to buy more before the news spread. And FNKO reports earnings next week, had been running up, and I wanted to get my size up.

I watched it hit an ATH first thing in the morning at 18.15 and sat back to see what developed. The previous three ATHs had been followed by big selloffs, and I was looking (hoping) history would repeat. With earnings being reported next week, it did not. Hope is not a strategy. 😉

I bought more at 17.86, just above VWAP, and it proved too eager a move again. It had been consolidating above VWAP for about 10 minutes, and I thought it was going higher. It pulled back to my adjusted buy point, before I FOMO bought, so if I had been patient I would have gotten in at a better price. Lesson still to be learned: Don’t be too eager to get into a position, wait for your moment. Also, I had given myself until 8:30 MT to see what happened, and bought right at 8:30 instead of waiting for it to show me its move. Right after I bought it dropped, showing that there’s nothing magical about 8:30 – use it as a guideline, not a rule.

After getting to work and my morning meetings, FNKO had popped up to another ATH at 18.21, and I was relieved to see my trade was in the black. FNKO kept rising through the afternoon session, finally reaching another new ATH at 18.77 before selling off into the close and closing at 18.45. This was “One Good Trade”! Of course, it could have been a few percent better, but I’m still learning and I’m calling today’s trade a win.

Practice! Practice! Practice! I’m getting better and learning with each trade, and need to see if I can find a way to do them more often going forward. Loving the process!

This morning I did three trades: two “good” ones and one “bad” one.

The first trade was the “bad” trade in AMD, where I FOMO’d in to buying near the ATH after a pretty big run whose energy was starting to wane. I tried to play the bounce, but set my stop too tight and didn’t stick to plan to buy if broke 19.2. Missed it and tried to grab on the way up from 19.68, finally bought at 19.75 and it peaked at 19.88 before trading back down and stopping me out.

The second trade was also in AMD where I got in at VWAP and was playing for a bounce that didn’t happen. I got stopped out just under VWAP, where I had set my stop too tight, and it ran up a bit over before returning to VWAP.

I set the first stop at a good point, confirmed the downtrend, but the second stop was set too close to VWAP where it pipped and popped from there. I didn’t have my indicators on when I jumped in – no VWAP, TTM, RSI – because I was too eager to get in. 🙂 The market was trending down, SPY/WIM/QQQ were all down, and I should have reversed my position and gone short. I also couldn’t trade AMD again for 4 days because I don’t have a large enough balance to be considered a pattern day trader, and TDA would have locked my account.

The third trade of the morning, NCR, was in play from the SMB Radar screen at 8.2. It had been there for an hour or so, with TTM levelling off about 8 up bars and bought at 28.49. It hit a consolidation phase, with the uptrend continuing, and I set my stop at 28.35 looking for a pop. I got a little one, with the RSI at 58 and fairly flat. The play was right, the move was right, and I was holding until Reason2Sell. NCR was trending up slowly, pulling back to higher lows and pushing up to higher highs in a tight range. TTM was staying postive, pulling back a bit but fairly flat too. I was being patient, sitting back and watching as NCR continued to stair step up. Volume decreased to less than 10k, flat chart, flat TTM. SPY at LOD at 282.75, and NCR started slowly trending down. I moved my stop to below VWAP as SPY started to turn around at 9am MT, approaching lunchtime in NYC on a summer Friday. NCR was fighting going down, with flat flat flat bars, volume under 5k, and no liquidity. SMB Radar still had it at a 7.5, #4 on top, when I stepped away to go to the bathroom.

When I got back, the dam had broken, and NCR had tanked fast, hitting my stop below VWAP. The SPY/QQQ/IWM were all up, so the move didn’t correlate with the larger market. In hindisght, I could have gotten out at with a small profit which felt like the top in my gut at the time, but I stuck with the trade to see how it developed. It was a good trade, a good exercise, and good for patience, which I still need to work on. However, I didn’t take profits when I sensed the turn in the stock, mainly because they were so small, and I need to remember that small gain is better than a loss. That said, I was working on practicing staying patient, which I did pretty well, and so I consider this a “good” trade – I set my target and stops and waited for it to develop.

The gym is my battlefield and I enter it with swords drawn.

Focused intensity.

Singularity of purpose.

To go as hard as I can, every time.

What’s your vision?