Daily Recap: Overcoming Chart Delays and Managing Stops

Today presented some unique challenges. My Thinkorswim charts were delayed by about a second or two, making it harder to execute trades effectively. I’m hoping this issue resolves by tomorrow. Combined with a busy day at my job, my trading was somewhat hampered. Despite these hurdles, I ended the day with a small loss of $3.50, bringing my account balance down to $1,165.31. Let’s dive into the details of today’s trades.

Trade 1: AIU

My first trade was on AIU. I aimed to enter on the pullback just after the price began rising, following an ABCD pattern. My entry was at $5.01, just in case it bounced back down at $5.00. Unfortunately, the price did not break the recent high of $5.40, lacking the necessary momentum. I moved my stop loss to break even and got stopped out at $5.01, resulting in no loss.

Trade 2: TWOU

The second trade was on TWOU. In hindsight, I could have let this trade run longer if I hadn’t moved my stop too early. I bought in at $3.36 with a 13-cent offset on my stop, which provided enough room for the price to move. The price eventually hit a 2:1 ratio, which I missed out on. As the price climbed, I moved my stop to break even, resulting in a 2-cent slippage and a stop-out at $3.34, ending in a loss of $3.50.

Conclusion

Today’s experience highlighted a critical lesson: while moving my stop to break even helped prevent a loss on the first trade, it hindered me on the second trade, stopping me out before achieving a 2:1 profit ratio. Moving forward, I need to ensure I allow my trades to ride until I either get stopped out or achieve at least a 2:1 profit-loss ratio.