Well, as I wrote in my last post, holding HIG and PRU short was not a good idea. HIG was spiking in the pre session today. I did have a strong feeling that all the financials will gap and crap (and they exactly did that), I could not risk holding 1500 shares of HIG short.
So I got out in pre-market at average price of around 7.47$ for total loss of 1600$! Ouch! I swear to God, I won’t hold any financials overnight OR over the weekend. As GS in chatroom correctly put, market is running on emotions right now and it’s simply stupid to hold these things overnight or over the weekend. I also got out of PRU in pre at 19.10 for around 340$ loss.
So you can imagine how tough it would have been to trade on a day when I am already down by 1900$ even before the market opens.
None the less, I decided to put things behind and decided to take a fresh look at some of the opportunities. After my successful trades with FAZ on Fri, I decided to try my hand at FAZ again. I was mostly playing FAZ for a dollar move, 50 cents move or some times move worth 10 cents. Overall, I made 1521$ from FAZ (paid 132$ in commissions!) I would have at least made 800$ more but I did a mistake in order entry with FAZ. [went long 1000 shares at 76.487, I don't know how IB allowed me to take a position worth 76,487$, I got a panic attack and tried to get out quickly, sold my position at 75.6 for 887$ loss 
]
You wanna see my FAZ trades? Here’s a sample:
FAZ Trades - 22nd Feb
Yes, IB with 1$ commission rocks! I will put up another post about how I traded FAZ as I think it might be useful to someone.
Overall, if I combine my trades for Fri and today, I am still up a little bit in my trading account. Now, I need to learn not to break my rules and avoid stupid mistake in order entry.
After being successful with FAZ, tried to play FAS but couldn’t really do it, only did one trade and closed it for a small loss of 14$.
I also called the CAB fade from HOD, short at 8.5, covered at 8.2 for 75$ gain after commissions. [played small position because I wasn't familiar with the stock.]
Trade well,
RJ
Status as of end of Feb 23rd:
Positions closed for Gain: FAZ (1521$), CAB (75$)
Positions closed for Loss: HIG (-1600$), PRU (-340$), FAS (-14$)
Open Positions: None
Sorry, I could not update my Friday’s trades right away. Did pretty well until the market end. Financials spiked very hard in the last hour and I got caught up in that. Against my better judgment, I decided to hold over the weekend. It did turn out to be a very costly mistake.
Status as of end of Feb 20th:
Positions closed for Gain: FAZ (276$), HIG (262$)
Positions closed for Loss: PRU (-62.98$)
Open Positions: HIG (1500 at 6.40$), PRU (300 at 17.97$)
1. HIG – If it starts tanking again, I am in.
2. WFMI – Up by 30% yesterday. There was a sell off towards end of the day. It might give back some of these gains.
3. PRU – Another financial which could tank.
4. BAC and C – Ride the train going in to the ground.
Short summary for now:
Today was the first day I could trade this week. I could not spend as much time as I would like to prepare, but I decided to trade anyway. I feel that if I don’t trade for couple of days, the next time when I trade, it is kind of difficult.
- The day didn’t start on a good note, got whipsawed with BAC and lost some 120$.
- I could have had a huge winner with HIG but I exited too soon. [I was short 3000 shares at 9.10 (HIG closed 7.73 with LOD of 7.38)]
- One excellent trade with S (I faded it almost perfectly from 2.35 to 2.10 in late afternoon)
- Another small winner with WMFI (30$)
I will put more details up when I get back home.
Trade well,
RJ
Status as of end of Feb 19th:
Positions closed for Gain: HIG (549.62$), S (60$), WFMI (45$)
Positions closed for Loss: BAC (-160$), BMRN (-62$)
Open Positions: None
As I posted in my watch list, I was watching MELA and MRNA. I found them by watching pre-market action. Out of the two, I traded MELA.
With MELA, I waited 10 minutes before I placed the trade after market open. It turned out to be a great idea as MELA tanked for the first 10 minutes and then started moving up. I went long 1,000 shares at 5.95. After I entered the trade, I was watching the price action closely and saw that MELA had huge spread something like 10 to 15 cents. I hold on to MELA for a little bit as price kept jumping up and down from my entry price. I couldn’t stomach it for long and I got out at 6.00$ for 40$ profit after commissions.
Next, in the chatroom, I saw an alert from SIRI. I looked at the chart and I saw that SIRI was very jiggy. I went long 10,000 shares at 0.1030. After I entered the trade, I realized that I broke my rule of not trading a stock whose chart I haven’t studied. I got out at 0.1040 for 10$ profit which turned out to be 1.39$ loss after commissions.
As my two trades for the day were up, I couldn’t trade any more and I ended with 38.61$ profit for the day. Not a big amount but none the less it was good to end the day on GREEN after so many RED days.
Even though my two trades were up, I was still watching price action on MELA. After I exited, MELA continued to go up hitting HOD of 6.64. After MELA hit the HOD, based on the chart I called out that MELA will now fade and it faded PERFECTLY. I just wish MELA didn’t have the wide spread, I would have been able to wait out on my trade.
Few lessons I learned:
1. In my earlier post, I wrote that it may not be good idea to wait after market open. Today I would have been killed if I didn’t wait. I think just like all other things with trading, it depends whether you should wait after market open or not. Though after today’s trading experience and some of the other charts I have seen, it’s definitely a good idea to wait for 10 minutes after market open before you place the trade.
2. You need to have a lot of patience in the game called Trading. I was trying to short ARNA for last couple of days without any success, I was deciding that ARNA has run enough and it’s time to short. If I had been little more patient and watched ARNA from sidelines, I would have seen the breakdown today and made good money. IL called out ARNA breakdown perfectly in the chatroom on Friday.
Anyway, as I broke my rule on Friday, I am not going to trade tomorrow as a punishment. [If you are not a trader, you won't understand how not being allowed to trade is a punishment. 
]
Trade well,
RJ
Status as of end of Feb 13th:
Positions closed for Gain: MELA (40$)
Positions closed for Loss: SIRI (-1.39$)
Open Positions: None
