Daily Recap: A Day of Strategic Trading and Lessons Learned

Today was a great day with a profit of $83.75. My goal was to take only 3 trades and trade each stock only once, which required careful selection and tighter stop limits. Despite a few mistakes, the day ended on a positive note.

Big Loss: VLCN

My significant loss of the day came from VLCN. I bought in at $9.33, attempting to catch a pullback that started to ramp up slightly again. Unfortunately, the stock crashed down. I had set a stop limit at $9.03 but should have placed it higher to minimize the loss. I exited close to my risk level of $20.00, resulting in a $22.50 loss.

Big Win: AIEV

The big win of the day was with AIEV. At 7:37, I noticed a pullback and anticipated surpassing the previous candle at 7:38, so I bought in at $3.25. The stock soared to $3.98. I tried to set stop limits to secure profits during the rise but mistakenly applied the stop limit to only part of my shares (about half), reducing potential gains. The fast-moving stock led to a partial sell at $3.60, with the rest sold at $3.45. Despite the hiccups, I gained $73.73 on this trade, which was fantastic but could have been higher without the errors.

Reflection

Today, I focused on patience and discipline, aiming to trade on the simulator as if I were on a cash account. I spent considerable time before market open identifying stocks with good volume and high potential. Today’s success was a confidence boost, especially after a tough loss yesterday. I'm feeling more assured in making good buys moving forward.