Daily Recap: Patience Pays Off with XRTX
Today was a decent day for me, filled with lessons learned from observing the market. I only traded one stock today but took two trades on it. I won one of those trades and ended the day with a profit of $44.00, bringing my account balance up to $1,141.89. Let’s dive into the details.
Trade 1: XRTX
My first trade was on XRTX, a premarket gapper with a new catalyst. Unfortunately, I missed the first entry opportunity because I anticipated the price would continue downward. I hesitated, and the price reversed upward. I decided to take the second entry point, but it ended up being at the high of the day. I should have allowed the price to come down through my entry to see if it would hold above my stop or continue declining. However, I entered when the price touched my entry point at $2.38 with a 10-cent stop loss at $2.28. I got stopped out almost immediately at $2.28 for a loss of $22.05.
It’s always tricky to predict whether the price will keep climbing or drop, but in this case, since the price had already experienced a significant ramp, it was more likely to drop. I should have been more cautious with this entry compared to the first one. Lesson learned—I’ll be more careful in the future.
Trade 2: XRTX
My second trade was also on XRTX. After a significant drop, the price began to curve upward, presenting another entry opportunity. I entered at $2.16 with a 10-cent offset at $2.06. Although the entry wasn’t perfect, it worked out because my stop loss was deep enough to avoid being triggered. I held onto the trade for quite a while, with the price coming close to stopping me out multiple times, but I stayed patient.
About an hour and a half into the trade, buyers started coming in stronger, pushing the price up. The price briefly wicked above my take profit but didn’t register as it quickly dipped back down. I remained patient, believing that since the price had already reached my take profit once, it could do so again before the end of the day. As expected, the buyers pushed the price up again, and it hit my take profit at $2.46 for a 3:1 RR, resulting in a profit of $65.94.
Reflection
Today was a test of patience. I missed a solid opportunity earlier in the day because I was a bit too cautious, which is okay—I can’t capture every opportunity. However, my first trade wasn’t well executed; I didn’t stay patient enough to confirm whether the price would drop below my entry before committing. This is something I often see after a shooting star candle on the 15-minute chart, so I should have anticipated it.
Despite the initial setback, I remained patient throughout the day, waiting for another opportunity that felt right. While my second entry wasn’t perfect, I stayed calm during the trade, let the price move as it would, and ended up with a nice win. It’s always challenging to know whether a price will continue upward or drop after an entry, but I’ll keep working on minimizing those mistakes over time.
Patience paid off today, and I’m optimistic about applying these lessons in future trades. Tomorrow’s another day to refine my strategy and improve.