What’s up everyone? Well, I’m wearing my sensei shirt, and I barely feel like I deserve it. I made $2,300 today, and I finished the day down. Well, I finished the day up $144, which feels like a red day because I gave back $2,300. Not the way I wanted to finish this day. $2,300 yesterday or some $2,800, whatever it was.

That was a good day. Today, I had a great start, and then I had an $1,100 loss and then another $1,000 loss, so it was like, ugh, so frustrating. We’re just not in a market where I can be aggressive, and I tried to step it up a little bit and then push for the next flag and get that second breakout, and it just didn’t happen, and I took too much risk and then gave back more in profit.

So, fifth new rule that I’ve been sort of adding new rules one by one this month just to try to tighten up my trading is if I lose more than half of my day … If I hit my daily goal and then I lose more than half of my profits from that point, I’m done for the day. I could have walked away with $1,100 today, and I took that last trade. Was it a good idea to take that last trade? It was a decent setup, but the fact that today I had already given back half of my profits indicates that I wasn’t really on today. Something was a little off. So, even an A quality setup on that type of day, you have to look at it with a little bit more caution and … Well, the good news is I believe Deadliest Catch is on tonight. It’s Tuesday, so I’m really happy about that. Looking forward to it later tonight.

All right, any questions, any comments, leave them below. I’ll come back and answer them later. Otherwise, see you guys first thing tomorrow morning.

All right everyone. So, we’re going to go over the trades from today. Today was kind of a disappointing day for me. I was up $2,300, and I’m finishing the morning up only $144. So, $2,300 basically in losses to finish the day is not a great way to finish the day, obviously. There’s better ways to finish, but at the same time I’ve got more money than I started the morning with, so green is good, and sometimes that’s just the way it is. It’s a couple steps forward, a couple steps back, or a couple steps sideways, and that’s the market that we’re in right now.

So, the trades today, VVPR only $470, gave back about $1,200 on that, and I lost $1,100 on STG. So, these were the two that had losses. These three were just winners, but they were small winners: STAF, ATAI, and ABIL. So, we’ll start I guess by looking at the gap scanner from this morning. So, this morning, like really any other morning starts by going over the gap scanner and seeing if we can find something that looks decent.

Now today, we actually had a bunch of gappers, which was awesome. This was a better day for the gap scan than we’ve seen recently. STAF right there on the scan. ABIL on the scan. You can see those two I traded. A couple of others I didn’t trade, AFMD the leading gapper; however, a five cent tick stock, so not surprising to see it kind of just chopping around. I mean, it’s moved, but not in a way that’s really easy for me.

So, STAF is the one that I was really watching, and it had a nice pre-market chart. However, it started to sort of break out towards the end of the pre-market session. It opened down just a little bit, and so as the bell rang on this, I jumped in it for … My first trade on it was a break of $3.36, $3.39, or $3.30, right around there for a break over $3.40 thinking if it broke $3.40, we would retest the pre-market high of $3.47 and then hopefully break over the half dollar.

So, I got in this anticipating two setups. One, break your pre-market highs; two, break over the half dollar. So, I’m in at 33, it pops up, it hits 46 and really doesn’t hold, so I ended up selling that for a small win, whatever, at 40, 45, and 38, so about $250 on that. It then drops down in the first one minute candle to make a new high is over $3.25, right here. So, I got back in at $3.22 to anticipate that and sold at $3.28 as it couldn’t get up above $3.30. So, another like $300 there. Put me up … $200, $150. Put me up $404 on the day on that stock.

So, that’s a good start the day, and then we had VVPR. All of a sudden, VVPR, it hits the scanners. It was not on the watch list. It just hits the scans and starts taking off. So, on this one … I’ve got to reset these scanners. Let’s see, this morning. So, it hits the scanners, and I see it at $1.75, and I’m like, “Okay, that’s interesting, but I’m not sure if I can get in it there because it just kind of popped up out of nowhere. I think I’ll give it a chance to show a little bit more strength,” and it squeezes up to $1.80, $1.90, and $2, and I was like, “Wow, okay, this thing is taking off; I’m going to jump in.”

So, I umped in at $0.99, $2.11, and $2.13. So, I’m in this a little high with like 8,000 shares, and then I end up adding $2.30. So, now I’ve got like 12,000 shares or 10,000 shares with an average of $2.14. I think it was $2.14. And it popped up to a high of $2.43, which is a really nice move as you can see. I mean, basically straight up. So, on this one I felt comfortable jumping in because it had made this quick move, it’s a former runner, it looks strong, so I jump in, I sell half at $2.40, book like $1,000, and sell the rest I guess as it’s coming back down here. So, total profit was $1,600 on that trade or maybe $1,400.

I get back in at $0.95, $2.04, and I’m selling at $0.99 and $2.09 for basically a break even trade. So, I tried to get in here for the first candle to make a new high as it popped up, didn’t end up really being a big winner, just kind of choppy. So, that was kind of a bummer. So, at that point I’m up $1,600 on VVPR. I’ve got $400 on STAF, so I’m up like $2,000 on the day just like that, which was awesome.

I then took a little scalp trade on ATAI, which we were watching from yesterday. It’s continuing a little higher, but it really wasn’t very easy to trade. I jumped in at actually right here at $0.80 for the break over the high a day. It did a false break out to $0.89 and then faded. So, that didn’t really work, but I was able to make a little bit on it.

ABIL, I took a small scalp on this one at the half dollar. That was right here. I got in at $0.45. It pops up to a high of $0.55, but again it didn’t hold. And then STG hits the scans. So, I see this one hit the scan, and we were actually watching this one yesterday during the class because it squeezed from $6 to $8. It ended up coming back down.

Now, this morning as I saw it taking off, I was like, “Okay, this thing is strong. If it breaks over yesterday’s highs, that’s very interesting,” and it showed the potential to move yesterday. So, as I saw it hit the scan and pull back here, I was like, “Okay, I’m going to jump in here at $7.60. Target is a retest of yesterday’s high, $7.87.” It pops up to $7.76, and then in the next candle drops all the way back down to $6.97. I mean, it pops up and then it comes all the way back down.

So, on this one, basically I got in at $0.60, and I thought there was a hidden seller, but it broke. It went up to $0.76, and then it dropped back down to $0.60, and that kind of hidden seller was back, and that’s when I was like, “Okay, I need to start piecing out of this.” So, I start piecing out at $0.58, $0.59 underneath the ASX trying to unwind this position. I’m able to unwind most of it, and then it starts dropping, and I start selling the bid.

And so I’m selling at $0.40 and $0.28 and $0.25 and $0.10, and I think I sold the rest at $0.07 for … let’s see, where was this? Lots of trades on VVPR, ATAI, STG, lots of small, small executions, so the last fill was $7.50. Yeah, it was $7. It basically drops down to $7, and then I’m out the rest of it. So, I’m like that down $1,100, and I just gave back half of the day’s gains.

I don’t have a hard set rule right now, I’m looking at my set of rules, about walking away if I’ve given back half of the day’s gains, but at that point I was up like $900, or no, it’d be $1,100, and then I get back into VVPR, I try to take a scalp on it, I lose on it, and then I get back in one more time at $2.15 and $2.26 and stop at $2.07. So, my last trade on VVPR, I’m in right here and added at $0.25, so my cost basis is $0.20, and then look what happens. It’s just disappointing because this was first candle to make a new high, target was $0.30, I added at $0.25, it taps $0.30, I wanted to break that level, and then one candle drops all the way back down to $2.

So, should I have just said at this point, take the $1,100 and walk away, or should I have not taken that trade? Did this have the potential to go to high a day? The 200 moving average was here, but I thought maybe it could break it. I don’t know. In hindsight, yeah, I should’ve just let it be, but in the moment I was thinking this had the potential, so I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t have a hard rule about giving back half of my gains and then throwing in the towel, but I think I’m going to make one here. So, I’m just going to write down if you give back half profit, walk away because you start to get frustrated and annoyed, so I think I’m going to make it a rule. Rule number five.

This month has been a grind. I’m up like $2,000 on the month, $370,000 or $368,000 on the year. It’s been a great year, but this month has not been fun. I mean it’s just been sideways. 79 total trades today. This makes me feel like, “Oh, geez, I should just take the whole month of August off next year,” but I guarantee you that if I do it, August is going to be the best month of the year next year. So, that feels like the luck of the draw or maybe my luck that I’ll take August off next year and then it’ll be like the hottest month of the year. So, I don’t know. And then of course if I trade next August, it’ll be the same as this year. It’s just the way it is.

So, it’s a tough thing, and that’s kind of FOMO, but anyways, so whatever. $140, it’s a grind. A little bit of profit though. More than I started the day with it. So, it’s always green. That’s good. It’s not a red day, so I’m happy with that. So, put it in the calendar, the 159th day of the year, $144.11.

It was kind of disappointing. We had a couple of good opportunities. I was a little late on the first trade on VVPR, and STG was just nasty, and I’m probably lucky I only lost $1,100 on it given how fast it dropped. So, I don’t know. That’s kind of where I’m at right now. It’s frustrating, but I’ve been coming in here everyday for the last three weeks and just not making a of progress, but yesterday was a green day, $2,300. Today’s flat. Hopefully we’ll have a green day tomorrow and can try to finish up this week green Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That would be nice. See if I can finish the month at least in the green so it’s not a red month.

I’m in the green right now but not by a lot, so I got to keep trying to build up that cushion a little more, a little more and remember that better trading will be on the horizon. In three months last year, November, December, January, I made a quarter million dollars, so … Actually, I made, it was about $280,000 in three months. So, when the markets are hot, I can be aggressive, and I can really put the pedal to the metal, but in this type of market these kinds of setups on … Well, this one’s gone a little higher, but these types of setups that look decent just end up not following through. Not enough traders in the market. Probably people just being more conscious in general. You multiply that by 100,000 traders, and the result is fewer breakouts. They’re not as well sustained, and so it just kind of continues.

But anyways, that’s it for me today. I’m just going to put the day behind me, be happy with $140, and hope tomorrow’s better, and we’ve got class at noon time. All right? So, that I’m looking forward to. That’s going to be a lot of fun. So, class at noon, today’s a scalping class, and I’ll see you guys, Warrior Pro students, in about an hour, and everyone else I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow morning, and hopefully we’ll see some better opportunities, and I’ll be working with a new rule which is if you give back half your profits, walk away for the day.

Would have preferred to walk away with $1,000 today following that rule than to be break even, but again, it’s like if you had a day where you gave back half your profits, that right there is indicative of choppiness in the market. So, it’s like walk away. Don’t expect the next setup is going to follow through well. If we were seeing good follow through, you wouldn’t have already given back half your day.

But it’s easy to say that when you step back for a few minutes and look at it. It’s in the moment that you can get tunnel vision on, “Okay, where’s the next trade? Where’s the next opportunity?” And that’s the battle that we all have. So, psychology of trading is something we’ll be talking about in class tomorrow because that’s a big one. We all go through it.

All right. So, hope you guys have a good afternoon, and I’ll see you students in about an hour and everyone else first thing tomorrow morning. All right, bye guys.

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