Well, today was the day when my account turned green!

If you played any of the watches I listed yesterday, you would have made money. I played CHIC and GSOL.

First, CHIC. CHIC had the most beautiful chart I have seen since I started trading in October. From the market open, CHIC started the ride down from 8$ all the way to 5.8$, closing at 6.36. Here’s how I traded it:

CHIC Trade 14th Nov

I shorted it twice because chart was just too appealing. Total Profit: 334$. If I didn’t have to go for meeting at work and was able to watch the stock, I could have made more. But I am happy with how I traded CHIC. [Originally I wanted to short 800 shares of CHIC but I couldn’t do it because TOS won’t let me. I need to figure out what went wrong.]

Next, GSOL. And here’s what happened.

GSOL Trade 14th Nov

For GSOL, I tried one idea which I have been thinking for sometime. The idea is to cover half of your position to lock in some gains and leave other half to ride your trade. After covering half of my position for 25 cents/share, I wanted to ride the remaining downside but well, I had meeting and I didn’t want to take chance with a market bounce especially as it was Friday. I covered remaining 400 at 7.10. Total Profit: 116$.

Overall, I am not happy with this trade because I broke my rule and chased the trade. Luckily it worked in my favor. It was quite possible that 7.20 could be the low of the day and stock would never reach that level again. I need to remember to wait for the pullbacks. Also, I need to automate my order entries, I think it’s high time I setup order templates in TOS and also start using Order Queues.

Finally, my open position OPTR.

When it tanked initially in the morning, I didn’t cover because my expectation was that it will go and test 6$. OPTR kept moving up and I shorted more and more. Currently, I am short 1300 shares at an average price of 7.70. OPTR closed at 8.28, so I am down by 760$ on my position.

I think what I did with OPTR was right. OPTR was moving up on very low volume and it could have cracked at any moment. Today, it moved up by 1.65$ while the whole market is down. I think this is because people are now learning about the clinical trial results and are coming in to buy. Even though I don’t like to do a weekend hold, I think it’s worth in OPTR case. The way OPTR is ranging, it could very well tank on Monday and make me money. Let’s see how it works. Either I would look like a fool on Monday OR will be cashing in some nice profit. Will keep you posted.

Anyway, today was a very special day. I started with 5000$ on Oct 2nd. Was down by 1200$ at one point. As I wrote on Oct 8th after taking some big losses, one of my problem was not being able to short. When I analyzed how folks were trading in the chatroom and few blogs I follow, I saw that everyone who was making money, was making money with SHORT setups. And why not, when DOW is touching it’s all time lows, it’s not a smart idea to place your bet on LONG setups. Once I got my head around to shorting, things started working and I am finally GREEN on my account. In between, I created 3 more accounts and my total trading capital is 17,000$. My trading journal tells me that I am up by 212$. Looking back at my journal, it’s hard to believe how naive I was just one month back. I am still no good at this but I think I am slowly getting better.

And once again, it’s Oscar speech time. I don’t think I would have turned things around if not for the wonderful folks in the community. A special thanks to to JV, Steve, Matty, Torello, Adam, JeePee, Muddy and Laura. You guys are THE best! Keep trading, Keep Rocking!

RJ

Status as of end of Nov 14th:

Positions closed for Gain: CHIC (334$), GSOL (116$)

Positions closed for Loss: None

Open Positions: Short 1300 OPTR at 7.70 (Down by 760$)