Today I lost discipline and did not trade well on RTNB. This resulted in a sizable loss of $4391 for the day. I want to journal what happened on this trade.
The chart below shows my entries and exits. I have parts numbered that I will discuss. This stock was tricky for sure. It was well manipulated and normal price moves/stuff you see on other plays like this meant little. However, had I stayed more disciplined my outcome would have been much different.
- I started in with 1/2 size. When it stuffed 2.20 I added 1000 shares. It held VWAP and appeared to stuff again so I added another 1000. I held and I added two more times getting to my max size. It stuffed 2.50 twice so at this point I was determined to stay patient on my exits. I was finally pulling and there was no reason to really cover at this point. My average was 2.04, not the best due to what turned out to be early adds on the first two adds.
- By this point yes it popped back above vwap but it also rejected a key support level of 2.20, which in my opinion become resistance now on that rejection of that area. Once again, no real reason to cover. Given my average though and size, I was wishing I had covered some on the pull below vwap. I did place an order to cover some at 1.95 but it never came back down to that again. I thought about taking the position off many times for a small gain, or small loss and almost did but in the name of patients, I held. I did not want to lose my profits up to that point or miss out on a big gain. I let the $$$ influence me here and ignore what was happening.
- This is where I should have taken the position off for a loss. It is where the price action was screaming that my trade plan was proven wrong. It popped above resistance of 2.20 and held a higher low. However, due to stubbornness and some determination to be patient, I didn’t cover as I should. Where I really let stubbornness take complete control is when I did not cover on the 2.50 break of the HOD. This was my biggest and most costly mistake on this name today. It is what I regret the most about this trade.
- I covered for a 6K loss here, my max daily OH CRAP I have done something stupid stop loss. At least I covered finally! It then looked to run out of steam so I jumped back in with full size. Somewhat a revenge trade I guess. I was right, it did pull, but they were able to manipulate the price action and hold it up. I stopped out on the HOD brake. I was down over 7k now
- After the cover, I jumped in again full size on the sign of weakness with HOD as the risk. It had a nice hard pull so I was again determined to be patient on my covers. However, it consolidated and continued higher. I stopped out at my average.
- I started in again 1/2 size but then quickly added to full size. By this time I was truly revenge trading. I was frustrated. It was starting to look like it was running out of steam. I was determined not to miss the big pull I felt was just around the corner. This caused me to add back in full size too quickly, which I normally would not do.
- I was .02 cents away from stopping out at my max stop loss again here. I did not cover at my average as I should have. I got stubborn again. I was not thinking straight. I was super late for an appointment at my other business which was adding stress, but I did not want to miss the pull I felt was coming. I was emotional. I ultimately got lucky and it finally stuffed big time.
- I wanted to cover around 2. But I had to go so I covered for around a $2500 gain. I should have put in a range order, and actually had one entered, but I told myself since I had to go it was better to take $2500 than risk stopping out at breakeven. In my mind, If I stopped out I would be gone and miss the next play and my chance to lessen the damage I had done. Also, Investorslive and D4 were buying this pull. They were calling for it to go higher again and I let that scare me. They are more experienced so they know better right!? I did not want to see my unrealized profits dwindle to nothing for a 4th time by being patient again! Boy did that turn out to be wrong! I would have ended the day green had I used that range order. I let my P&L and other traders influence my plan… again.
Not my best trading today. Stubbornness and a lack of discipline got the best of me. The loss is painful but not devastating, thank heavens. I want to learn from this trade and try to improve for next time. Things I HAVE to STOP NOW… I have got to stop letting others influence my trading plans. I have got to stop letting my P&L (the $$$’s) influence my decisions.
