Welcome to my blog!

I've worn many hats during my entrepreneurial journey, including writing and creating whiteboard videos, marketing, investor relations (Blurbeo), owning and managing my own vapor pen brand (TouchESubject), servicing the real estate market and other clients as the CEO of Puget Sound Field Inspections, founded CLV Investments LLC, and currently holding a position with Byte Me LLC as a Digital Marketing Consultant.

This blog was originally started as a way for me to track my progress in trading stocks, but it's has since morphed into much more. I now use it as a window into what I'm doing to reach my goal of financial freedom. You're going to see what I'm doing to create multiple streams of income, articles and interviews that are business related or featuring other entrepreneurs, and most importantly you're going to get to know me and hopefully I can inspire you to pursue your own dreams

I'm a very driven individual with a passion for customer service and improving our communities.

Please feel free to connect. I'd love to do business with you.


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Daily Review, Trading Around Thanksgiving & The Best Stock For Tomorrow






Tim always gets me excited to keep learning, haha. Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I've been really focused on paper trading and learning more about the MACD indicators. I've been paper trading futures on Think or Swim (TOS) and so far I've made 1k in a week. Not too bad I think.




I'll post more about my real trades in the near future.




Happy Thanksgiving!!!


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Karma Rocks!

Thanks for the Karma Tim!


Sometimes the Best Trade is No Trade: $GIG



One good thing about limiting myself to 1 trade a week until my account is bigger, is that I must be picky about my picks. I had planned on trading $GIG today if the pattern held and was aiming for an 8% to 10% gains target.

I decided to wait for the morning bounce in hopes of getting a better entry price to increase the chances for a better % gain.

But the opening was ugly and the trend changed directions so I stayed out and will look for a stock to play tomorrow.




I can't remember where I heard it... possibly from one of Tim's YouTube videos, but it basically stated that sometimes the best trade is no trade. Since every time you put your money into the market you are taking on risks, you might as well wait until the trade is in your favor or at the very least the risk is at the lowest possible.



Monday, October 26, 2015

Why I'm Happy I Didn't Trade $IMMY Today.

The title is a little misleading isn't it? You may read that and think I avoided a big loss or that I was wrong about it... I did lose money, but only because I didn't play it.


I started to watch $IMMY after someone on Profit.ly posted that it had hit the news for countering that infamous pharma villain's $750 aids pill by offering an equally good pill for the low price of $1 per pill. Naturally the media went crazy with the story and articles popped up on everything from Fortune to the WSJ.


Friday trading saw a huge spike to $9 a share from around $6 a share, a big pullback, then a gain for the EOD at $7.01 a share... this being a great example of how media can effect a penny stock and while, if played correctly, playing with pennies can be so dang profitable.


I ran the numbers with the stock profit calculator that I like to use HERE to see if the $7 a share would be worth me trading. I have what I call a "micro account" of $300 to trade with so the cost per share plus commission slippage really limits what I trade. I will be adding to my capital as funds become available, but for now that is what I have as disposable funds.


The calculator showed that I'd have to see some major gains to see profits and while the news was hot and I figured there would be a good gain on Monday, jumping in Friday at the close and holding over the weekend still felt like more of a gamble than a calculated risk, so I stayed on the sidelines.


I decided to paper trade it as a "pretend" play and follow the rules that I've put in place for myself.


Since I was not in at the EOD of Friday I would have definitely waited to avoid buying at the top of a morning spike, which climbed to the $7.50 range and then quickly fell to the $7.10 range. That would leave me with a likely entry point around the $7.30 range. Following my rules I would have exited in one of two places, $8.10 range mid-day, or $7.80 range closer to the EOD.


I would have seen gains of roughly $0.50 to $0.80 a share...


So while I didn't make any money today on this play, I'm happy I didn't trade $IMMY because I stuck to my rules, was smart about calculating in my cost per share, commission slippage, and % needed to hit green and made the smart decision to learn from this. I hope you did too, and I hope if you did play this that you banked!


ps. I think there may be enough momentum to see more gains tomorrow especially since more news came out with $IMMY in the articles HERE and HERE, but I doubt the same amount of gains and I wouldn't hold this overnight.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Possible Trade on Monday $IMMY

Just a FYI for those who happen to actually read my blog. I'm keeping an eye on ticker $IMMY for a possible momo play on Monday. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. hit the news pretty heavily today with a report that they are under cutting that $750 aids pill and only charging $1 per pill. News is going crazy over it, including an article set to come out the Sat from the WSJ.

It jumped nicely today and closed with a 17.42% gain.

It is a bit pricier than the stocks I really want to trade, especially with the amount of commission slippage I have with my small account.... but with the amount of buzz this has, if it continues throughout the weekend or we see new news, the gains on Monday would be well worth it.


How my Pretend Trade Did




Today's "pretend" trade on $ARO would have likely been one of my best executed trades. I followed my rules and it paid off nicely. I know not every trade will go like this but this is the basic rundown of it.



Remember... this is not an actual trade, only a "pretend" or paper trade.



There are two possible ways that this would have taken place depending on when I entered. But the results are very similar.



Option #1: The Morning Spike



In this option I would have placed my entry right at the opening and road the momentum within the morning spike. The spike quickly rose to the 12% gains area and I would have placed a hard stop loss at the 5% gains level as it climbed. Once the stock reached and passed my target of 10% I would have taken profits as soon as it began to turn red. This would have likely had me exiting with roughly 9% to 11% gains on the trade. 


Option #2: The Bounce Play

This is the more likely play that I would have taken part in. Mostly because at time the market opening is taking place I'm in the middle of getting my kids up and out the door for school. I would have entered around the $0.73 range and fairly quickly placed a hard stop at the 5% gains level around $0.72. I would have then let the trade breath through the day and close out the trade near the EOD with roughly 11% to 12% gains.


Of course it goes without saying, that if I was dealing with a larger account I would have likely played both and doubled my gains.

Please feel free to comment.








$ARO Pretend Play is Running!

Just a quick update to log what I "would be" doing. $ARO is running and the momo play would be working nicely. Currently it is up 7.20% @ $0.74 a share. A little bit ago it even hit the 8% area. I would be placing a hard stop at the 5% gains level, roughly $0.72 a share.

8% trailing stop still in place of course.


Profit.ly: F**k You Fake/Lying Traders

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Pretend Pick for Friday $ARO

Thought I'd do another practice play and have a pretend pick for tomorrow.


$ARO in @ 0.69 target is 10% gains.


I like the chart's steady upward trend (5 day chart).


In keeping with my rules I'll pretend that I have an 8% trailing stop in place and if the ticker reaches a 6% to 8% gain during the trading day I will pretend that I'm putting a hard stop loss at the 5% gains marker. Being that it is Friday I would likely close out the position and not hold over the weekend, so I'll pretend that I close at the EOD.

Pretend Picks Update!

I was please with my pretend picks today. 


$BPTH closed in the red but it did have a nice run today into the 6% gains mid-day.


$NBG (which is the one I would have truly picked) was up this afternoon 9.79% gains and closed in the green at 3.86% gains.


I would have placed an additional hard stop loss on both today around the 5% gain mark and then left the 8% trailing stop in place to breath with the plays. I would have been stopped out of both, but I'd been sitting on 5% profits today.


This leads me to a new rule that I'm adding...


I will always place a hard stop loss at the 5% gain marker with my play reaches 6% to 8% gains.

Done with $IBIO

I stuck to my plan with $IBIO of exiting at the EOD regardless of the price level. I was hoping for an end on green but it really doesn't surprise me that the EOD was in the red. This play has been bad for a while and looking back at it I see three major flaws in what I was doing. But one flaw is so major that I literally just slapped myself... no really, I actually did.

It boils down to this... ready???

I believed in the stock!


Yep, one of Tim Sykes biggest "don't do that's"

Let me break it down for you. I originally entered the trade on 4/27/15 with a position size of 100 shares @ $1.15. I liked the chart at the time. It was actually the same type of play that I'm going to be focusing on and it would have been a decent trade if I had not broken the rules. I even blogged it.


Originally I had a 5% trailing stop in place... not a bad idea but a little tight I think. The stock's momentum faded and the T/S was triggered kicking me out @ $1.1144. 

That should have been that and I should have been done with this trade. It would have been a loss but a well traded loss.

Now this is where I made my biggest mistake. I looked at the charts, listened to the chat room chatter, ready the company's website, articles, etc etc etc. I said to myself, this has to go up! This looks like a great company and there is HUGE potential here! I "BELIEVE in $IBIO" this is a good play and it will work.

I then re-entered on the same day with 100 shares @ $1.1399 and had no stop losses in place... why would I? I believe and this will go up... it dropped again.

I said, "I BELIEVE in $IBIO still" this isn't a bad thing, in fact now I can dip buy and increase my position size with an even better entry point. So on 4/28/15 I entered again with 100 shares @ $1.0299... it dropped again. (still no stop losses).

I wake up on 5/1/15 and can't believe my luck! Another dip buying opportunity and I added 100 shares @ $0.9373 for a total position size of 300 shares. Still no stop losses and now plans of an exit strategy.

I wait, it drops, I wait, it drops, I wait, it drops... you get the picture right?

So there it is you guys, my big nasty mistake in all its glory. Please learn from it and don't do that!!!

My final exit was at the EOD today @ $0.6531.

I'll be posting this on Profit.ly shortly and the trade logged too, I'm waiting to hear back from them on how to log a trade like this with multiple entries and one exit.

Thanks for reading.


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

My "Pretend" Picks for this Week $NBG & $BPTH

My TD Ameritrade still has my play in $IBIO underway and is currently in the red. I plan on exiting tomorrow and cutting losses. I hate taking a loss (as we all do) but need to do it as part of my trading plan....


1) Only 1 trade a week until my account is large enough to do so.


In the past I've been starting a couple trades at a time and staggering them. Mostly because I get anxious and want to be trading as much as possible. The flaw to this that I'm trading with what I'd call a micro account and not only am I effected by the PDT rule but also have to take commission into account more so than someone trading with a larger amount of capital. Executing only one trade a week will allow me to focus all of my available funds to maximize my position size while limiting my commission slippage. (Yes, I know trading with ALL funds it super aggressive).


2) I plan on entering trades mostly on Tuesdays or Wednesday at the latest. Mondays only if there is news over the weekend that would be a "no brainer" move.


I'm sticking to "momo plays" as in momentum plays. Finding a stock that is in a strong uptrend for 2 to 3 days and then looking to ride the momentum for a day maybe two if the chart and news warrants it. I'm only looking for gains of 10% to 15%. But will let it ride if the trend is good.


3) I will be using an 8% trailing stop on every trade and leaving it alone. I WILL NOT REMOVE IT!!! I do not have to use the trailing stop and can exit at any time to either take profits or limit losses should it look really bad and I can exit with less than 8% losses.


I know many don't believe in trading with a stop loss but I look at it as insurance. Better to have one in place and not need it than need one and not have it. The only thing as unpredictable as the stock market is life... Shit happens, and I like knowing that if the power goes out, computer crashes, kid breaks an arm, or zombies attack... I'm only out 8%.


4) Transparency. All my trades will continue to be posted here as well as Profit.ly


Personally, if you are going to trade and not really share with the public what you're doing then go ahead and be private. But if you're going to post on a blog or YouTube or StockTwits etc... show your damn trades and prove it. 


To test my plan and picking strategy I'm looking at two stock that I'm pretending that I went long on. If I were to actually be trading I'd only pick one as I stated in rule #1 and I'd likely go with $NBG. I like the chart a little more and higher volumes.


$NBG in @ 0.90 w/ 10% target
$BPTH in @ 1.51 w/ 10% target

Yeppers $VTL turned into a Loss, but Manageable!

The trade was both a good trade and a bad trade for me. The momentum play with $VTL could have been an easy 10% gainer for me because I hit that within the 1st hour of placing the buy. 

I failed to pull the trigger however and planned on holding through the weekend with my 8% trailing stop in place. I figured that it could breath and do a slight pullback before another leg up.

Here is a breakdown of what I think went wrong and what I think I did right:

1) I really should have taken the 10% to 12% profit as soon as I hit it. Especially since in was into a weekend and I didn't see any hints of new coming news.

2) Holding the ticker over the weekend without news coming out.

3) VTL had already climbed a few days and I was at the tail end of the momentum. 

4) Lot size, with me trading a micro account I need to clear the board and trade only one play a week to maximize my position size and lessen the blow from commissions.

4) I stuck to my 8% trailing stop and limited my losses

My next entry for a trade will be next week likely Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll explain my trading plan in the next post.

$WTW for a Gain of $16.15%

Well I didn't get to stay in for the $18 closing range because my 8% trailing stop triggered during the afternoon dip, but I did take in some profit on this easy momentum play. To bad I'm still trading with a micro account as this would have been a nice one to cash in on. :)












Tuesday, October 20, 2015

$VTL Likely to be a Loss

I'm still holding $VTL with an 8% trailing stop but I just learned that an Investor's Alert has been issued... Again, proof that I should have taken the initial 10% to 12% gain within the first hour of placing my trade. The easy momo gain just turned into a loss (most likely unless there is a spike for some reason).


INVESTOR ALERT - VTL: The Law Offices of Vincent Wong Launch Investigation Vital Therapies, Inc. Possible Securities Fraud Violations


Yahoo Finance Article Link



Taking a Small Position on $WTW

So I missed the meat of the move today with Weight Watchers $WTW... I wasn't watching the news today, but with major resistance not coming until the $15 range I think there is a good chance that the momentum of today may continue for a quick 8% to 10% gainer. I have a very small position because the available funds are minimal, but a gain is a gain and I hope to snag some.





Monday, October 19, 2015

Mondays... Ugh

Just a quick update on the $VTL play. The ticker declined to $6.13 after hours meaning I'm extremely close to the 8% TS being triggered. I'm hoping that it is a correction/consolidation and that we see it move further towards the mid 7s in the next couple of days.


The lesson here is that on the day I entered the play I saw a gain of 10% to 12% but didn't pull the trigger. I figured it would pull back some and then continue higher... YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TAKE YOUR 10% and RUN!


Time will tell if this changes directions and I can see green again.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

I know that the whole idea behind a blog is to make consistent posts... I have not done that. But to be fair, life has been unusually crazy the last few years and even more so recently. I won't bore you with details, but trust me when I say that making trades has not been on my mind.






That said, things are starting to return to a normalcy or at least something close to it.






I still had two positions open all this time and both I hate to say have turned into bags.






$IBIO is sitting at an ugly 31.45% loss and gouging my TD Ameritrade balance. I haven't decided if I should cut the damn thing out and lick my wounds or continue to hold and hope that the market Gods smile upon me and at least give me a nicer exit point.






$BRWC is the worst bag at the moment and not just because the move is still in the red. The numbers aren't actually that bad when I look at my entry of $0.0015 and it is still hovering in the $0.0011 and $0.0013 ranges. As a swing it could still pop to $0.0016 or higher. The issue is that I made the rookie mistake of using my Sharebuilder account to buy the stock. The commissions on the penny are ridiculous... $42 in commission fees for the buy and another $42 for the sell when that comes! When taking the commissions into account I'm currently sitting on a -42.71% loser and for me to see green the price would have to climb to $0.002! It can be done but the wait may not be worth it. I have an auto sell set to $0.0025 a share... so we will see.







Now for the new.






I decided to get back into it and wanted to go for something that has worked for me in the past. I chose to find a nice momentum play and see if I can ride it with a trailing stop.






I found $VTL to be enticing after seeing the 5 day chart with a nice steady climb.



I was able to enter at $6.43 a share and ride the momo to $6.77 a share at the EOD. With my 8% trailing stop in place I'm going to swing this and see if I can continue to ride the momo tomorrow.













Monday, April 27, 2015

Swing with $IBIO

Decided to enter a momo swing with $IBIO after liking what I saw on their chart and today's gainer ranking on Yahoo Finance. My first trade was stopped out by my 5% trailing stop but I decided to stick with my swing plan and re-entered when the price continued to consolidate.

Profit target is 10% to 20%

Daily Chart and entries




5 Day Chart w/ Upward Trend

      
1 Month Chart w/ Upward Trend

3 Month Chart w/ Upward Trend


Friday, April 24, 2015

Dropped a Bag and Got a Win with $VALE

Man it really feels good to start posting on this blog again. I know it has only been a couple of weeks or so since I began to focus on my business launch... but it sure seems longer.

I'll start with my trade updates. If you take a look at the Profit.ly app on the side of the blog you'll see that I closed two trades today. 

$NTN with a loss and while it looks small it was actually a pretty big bag to hold for my E-Trade account which now sits at $54 in capital. It was a pretty simple rookie mistake and poor risk management on my part. I entered the trade with a plan to ride a bump after earnings. That didn't happen and instead of cutting losses quickly I held for the news and let the loss get bigger. I will say that I played the exit pretty good and took advantage of a close at the EOD order. The no emotion of it helped. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the E-Trade account at this point. I may add funds or continue to trade small with it.

My $VALE swing closed with a nice percent gain today. On the technical side it was a well executed trade and my 10%+ momo plan worked. I was even able to control the exit and almost hit the HOD. But with all that said it wasn't a money making trade since it was only a 10 share position. I knew this going in and already accepted the heavy commission slippage that came with the trade.

$VALE Swing Momo 04-23 to 04-24


Honestly it was more of a moral booster for me after the $NTN loss and the larger... more embarrassing baggage that is $BRWC, which is currently -$200ish and basically cutting my Sharebuilder account in half.

The crazy thing about $BRWC is that I still feel that I should hold it. I'm not sure if the PR is complete BS or if the company actually has the potential to bounce of the 52 wk low and hit my target price of $0.0025. Currently this turd is sitting at $0.0006 and has done a little bouncing to $0.0009 and back for gains that read 50% or so. I think by the end of next week I will have a better idea of what to do with it.

Probably the two biggest mistakes with this one is holding and not sticking to my trade plan and using my Sharebuilder account to make the trade. The commissions and fees raped me haha.

Looking Forward

I just opened an account with TD Ameritrade and I will be focusing on options and mini options. Most like only 4 options $AAPL, $GOOG, $BP, and $GPRO. The more I study trading and options I keep seeing two constants... Risk management and focus on a small collection of stocks.

Pennies are exciting and I still may trade momo plays on occasion, but I've found that it is difficult to find a shiny penny without risking following someone else, and that opens me to greater risks.

So stay tuned.


Thursday, April 23, 2015

I'm Still Here!!! Just Busy :)

I apologize for taking a while to post. I've been busy with family obligations and spending time launching my business Blurbeo.

Here's what I've got going on:

$BRWC is a loosing trade that I should be getting out of. I went against my rules again and will likely be cutting my loses tomorrow.

$NTN is also a loosing trade and I went against my rules here too!

Basically I've found that the psychology behind trading is a very real thing and something that I need to work on.

That said, I'm making a big move. Starting next week I will be taking a break from pennies and will be focusing on options and mini options.

So stay tuned...

Oh yeah, entered a mom play today with $VALE

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Update: Red Tide!!!

It would seem that I'm getting caught red handed lately. $NTN has refused to stop bouncing around the $0.41 to $0.43 range and I'm left with the decision of holding for a possible bounce play or sell and take losses.



The latest play is also in the red, $BRWC, though I have to admit I'm holding because it continues to look like a promising trade with the potential to have a significant bounce. News was out today showing the company having sales up 12%, profits up 3%, and operations losses down 30%. As the pr sinks in, there's a chance that that it will cause the stock to bounce off of the bottom. Only time will tell, will I get to take profits? or be left holding the bags?


Monday, March 23, 2015

Monday's Ups and Downs / $NTN and $CJTF

Monday for my position in $NTN stayed in the red for most of the day and only pulled into the green at the EOD at $0.5464 @ 3.09%. Continuing to hold this to see what it does as we get closer to the earnings report on the 26th.


I had made a pretty large watch list on Sunday night but wasn't crazy with how they were moving. Shortly after the morning push I spotted an alert on $CJTF having positive news out on the OTCmarket news area. Basically, the company won a court case and are being awarded a $12.5 million note receivable. A nice chunk of change into the company's coffers for sure.

Momentum was there at the time and it looks like I'm still in before any real push from the news, especially since it hasn't hit more mainstream outlets like Yahoo Finance or Market Watch. I went long with 200,000 shares @ $0.0020 a share. As Murphy's Law would have it, the price climbed to the HOD of $0.0024 a share then dipped to $0.0015. It stayed pretty level untill the EOD push and I saw it start to uptick for an EOD call of $0.0017 @ 30.77%. I'm still in the red on this play and will hold into the morning as a swing. Hopefully news makes the rounds tonight and I see a gap up in the AM or a nice spike that I can sell into. Otherwise I may just be taking it in the ass again and forking over my cash!






Friday, March 20, 2015

$NTN Stayed Red & The Diagram Experiment

$NTN Opened red and stayed that way for the day ending with $0.555 -4.31%. On a good note, it continued to bounce around in the consolidation zone of .54 to .56, so at this time I'm not too worried about today's redness. Next week is the earnings week for $NTN with the report due on the 26th. My guess regarding any possible promotions (if one starts) will be Sunday night to early Monday and continuing till Thursday, maybe a dump on Friday or Monday the 30th.

I'm not an expert and have no knowledge of a pending promo campaign, just a gut feeling.

I've also put together a Trading Day Diagram that breaks down the key points of the trading day. I'm planning on going over my trades and marking down the entries and exits. It will I'm curious if there is a pattern regarding when I entered and exited vs wining and loosing. I'll post the results just for fun.

Here's the diagram


$NTN Pops @ EOD to .58: Continuation of Incline

There was a slight gap down this morning for my small position with $NTN. I watched as it climbed back up to the previous closing price and then went sideways. Seems like a lot of stocks follow the pattern of a pop or spike during the power hour... aka closing period.

Thought I'd share the chart.



Thursday, March 19, 2015

Words of Wisdom from Michael Goode

I've been spending a little time reading Michael Goode's blog, GoodeTrades.com, and thought I'd share a couple lines from his post titled, "How to make almost $30,000 in under thirty minutes of market time."

"(If you sign up for Stocktips or any other promoter, do not ever pay them for anything — just get on their free email list. And never believe what they write — they are scheming scoundrels and pumped stocks inevitably dump big.)" ~ Michael Goode

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Small Position with $NTN... Here's Why

I honestly first looked into this ticker after hearing Timothy Sykes mention it in a recent video were he talked about potential earnings winners. He's since sold out of the position with a small gain...


"Entry comments: Bought this maker of restaurant entertainment/ordering tablets that has a big deal with Buffalo Wild Wings...I've been watching it for months, but only in the past few days has it broken out and price action suggests some good news coming, ideally another restaurant franchise contract. Goal is to make 30-50% on this one and sell into a big spike

Exit comments: Sold into the Business Insider article-related runup, normally I would hold for bigger gains, but with uncertain earnings coming in the next week I like taking safe 10%+ profits on a speculative stock pick. If they announce some meaningful news or #s I might re-buy but this company has usually excelled at hype and underperformed at actual business so I sell into this media hype!" ~ Timothy Sykes


My position of 100 shares is small enough that I am okay holding with the plan of using any positive catalysts to sell into near March 26th when the earnings report is due.

But I didn't enter the swing solely off of Sykes' comments. Here is was I saw in their charts and some of the reasoning on why I'm playing it.

Also, please note that the nearest support/resistance points are April 2014 and June 2014 between the .70's and .80's ranges. I didn't pull another chart picture to show that, but feel free to look while doing your own DD.

 



All Out of $AXXE, 29.17% Gain and 10.42% Gain

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

1 EPIC fail and 1 GREAT WIN!

I guess I'm a bit of a Ying and Yang trader this week... my position and modified plan with $TPAC failed me epically -$88.00 with -52.38%. I have no one to blame but myself and it did some serious damages to my E-trade account. That said, it did not go wasted. I am learning and will take that loss and take a long hard look at what went wrong.

#1: Not enough DD on the stock or the promoters
#2: As soon as the trade deviated from my plan I should have cut losses and walked, especially with no trailing stops available.
#3: Modifying a plan just because it appears a promotion is starting isn't okay... Always verify and look at the risk / reward.

One small blessing is that it was my E-Trade account with minimized the overall losses somewhat. Not sure if I should deal with the loss and look at building it up from the now balance of $98 or add a little funds to get it back to $200. 

On the other side of the penny however I had an awesome momentum trade with $AXXE.


Yep, entered the trade with 4,500 shares at 0.12 ea. gained 29.17% and took profits with 3,500 shares. Since I had originally planned on this being a swing I decided to leave 1,000 shares on the table over night to see if it gaps up or spikes with morning momentum. ShareBuilder isn't allowing a trailing stop so I'm watching this one closely. I AM NOT REPEATING $TPAC!!!

Seems to be heavy promotions neat the EOD and after market. I'm leery since that is the same thing I saw with $TPAC. If it's the promoters looking to get a pre-market spike and sell of in the AM I'll be ready to pull out with profits. Only one more trade this week so I'm out tomorrow regardless.


 

$TPAC Promotion in Full Swing

I'm about to hit the sack for some sleep but couldn't help posting about the Twitter activity for $TPAC. Since it was first posted that Penny Busters was starting their promotion campaign there has been non-stop tweets that either mention the ticker or actually post something about the ticker... literally like every 10 to 15 minutes there is a tweet.

Pretty interesting being long before a promotion. I'm really curious if the campaign will be reflected in the morning.

I'm a complete Newb but it smells like something is on the horizon, maybe a gap up or a new high of the day.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Monday's Play a Rough Start... But Swing Hopeful

I spent a few hours on Sunday night putting together my watch list of promoted OTC stocks to move on. Most of them failed to take shape in the morning spike but $TPAC climbed quickly to the $0.0024 range and looked like the momentum would carry it through the first hour and beyond. That prompted me to go long with 80,000 shares at $0.0021 ea. Of course the momentum dipped and so did the ticker... Murphy's Law right?

It hit a low of $0.0012 and I should have likely pulled the trigger way before that and cut losses, but I had made a mental plan to hold to the EOD because the promotion / volume still seemed new and that there was more to the ticker. I held and road it to the EOD @ $0.0015 with my plan being a swing play into the morning spike to take profits if they came. No spike and I cut losses.

Needless to say I felt like a dumb ass for switching my trade plan "mid-plan" and I started to mentally prepare myself for the likely losses I was going to see to my "micro" account at E-Trade.

Then as I continued to monitor the $TPAC Twitter page for after market activity I noticed an uptick in posts. Then a post from OTC Dynamics Inc. came in mentioning that "Penny Busters" was starting a promotional campaign this evening. That was quickly followed by 6 tweets promoting the stock as well as OTC Dynamics posting a link with the promotion letter that PB had sent out.

Here's a chart that was posted along with the promotions and though I know this is a promotion I have  to admit the chart doesn't look too bad. Of course they mark the targets way up to the $0.015 range.



Bottom line is that my not so greatly executed trade my turn into a nice swing if their campaigning causes a gap up or morning run. I'm prepared to cut losses, but there is hope for greenage!

My 10 Trading Goals!!!

I think everyone needs to have goals that are physically written down and available for all to see. The transparency of it not only helps with keeping focused and inline, it also makes it more rewarding when you hit a goal and get to check it off.

Here are my personal 10 trading goals. They will be posted here in this blog post as well as on the side of the blog for permanent viewing.

My 10 Trading Goals:

  1. $1,000.00 balance in my ShareBuilder account.
  2. $1,000.00 balance in my E-Trade account.
  3. $2,500.00 balance in my E-Trade account to allow shorting.
  4. $500.00 profit in a single trade.
  5. $1,000.00 profit in a single trade.
  6. $5,000.00 balance in my E-Trade account.
  7. $10,000.00 balance in my E-Trade account.
  8. Become a Tim Sykes student.
  9. Meet Tim Sykes in person.
  10. Be Tim's next million dollar student.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Josh Sason: A side of Penny Stocks I Never Knew

I'm a firm believer in the old saying that you learn something new everyday... and if you don't you're doing something wrong.

I owe this tidbit of knowledge to Aaron Fifield of the Chat With Traders Podcast, who tweeted a link to this Bloomberg article.

Just goes to show you that the Penny Stock world is more in depth and opportunistic than you'd think.



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A Little Inspiration

Two plays today. Small position in $PPCH in an attempt to scalp yesterday's momentum but it didn't hold. Cut losses at a $4 gain... which after E-Trade's commissions translates to about a $16 loss.

Also in a swing with $INVT with 500 shares. Waiting for the EOD push and tomorrow's action. Shooting for at least 10% gains. Trailing stop set at %8

Last but not least I stopped by a dealership for a little inspiration... Not that I want a Lamborghini or Ferarri, I'll take my trans am thank you very much. But "what they are symbels of" is what inspires me... Financial freedom



Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Sometimes a "No Play" is the "Best Play"

With all of the markets seeing red today the trading waters were not ideal for jumping in. On top of all the red in the markets I also failed to see a decent entry for any of my picks on the list I'd made the night before. 

So, rather than find myself chasing a stock I opted for sitting today out and watching. Sure I didn't make gains today, and I missed out on a crazy OTC runner today (500% to 800%)... but I didn't lose capital either.

I'm doing my best to follow a rule that Timothy Sykes has said multiple times throughout his videos on YouTube. Trade like you're retired.  Trade like you're a sniper. It's okay to not trade.

Bottom line, don't risk your money! Trade the set ups with the most potential to see gains.

As for tomorrow I have a few that I'm watching. Two that are leftover promotions from last night's watch list and the other is the 500% - 800% gainer from today. Not going to trade the $PPCH gainer, but I'm curios to see how, or if, it falls apart tomorrow.

A/H trading with $MELA suggests that this promoted stock with move tomorrow, but we will see.



**UPDATE 03-11-15**

$MELA gapped up huge in the opening and didn't let up, I wasn't able to make a good entry without it being me chasing and I didn't think I'd see enough gains to make a 10% move... I was right too as it didn't go much higher than the gap up and what would have been my entry. A nice pump for sure.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

$800 Saturday School Detention! Love it!

I don't know much about this trader other than what Sykes has posted on his blogs and profit.ly site, but I have to admit the kid is a rising star. Basically he's a high school age trader who grew a healthy account while in his classes.

Since I work in a high school setting I personally find this humorous. Check out this article he wrote about getting a Saturday School Detention for day trading in class... haha

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Closed Trades: One Loss One Gainer

I closed out both positions today with $ARCP and $XXII. One was a small loss and the other was a large percent gainer (but admittedly a small $$$ gainer).

I decided to close the ARCP position after another day of it not doing much. It appears to me like the potential breakout failed and I'm not willing to wait longer to find out either way. Cut my losses short with under 3% and a loss of only $8... not counting the commissions of course. Another losing trade on the record but I feel that I learned from it.

My position in XXII closed with a very nice gain of 36.35%. It was a very small lot and I only gained $30 out of it... but it honestly is my best executed trade thus far. I had a great entry after the alert from BP_Rising and went in with an 8% trailing stop. I had a set target in my mind of 10% to 12% unless momentum was still there, then I planned on letting it ride. That was possible and I ran into through today and took profits today at the EOD. It may continue to climb tomorrow but holding it for a third day running seemed like a risk.


I send out the details of the trade on Twitter and StockTwits, mostly to say thanks to BP_Rising for the free alert and Tim Sykes for the free lessons and inspiration. Both send responses or favorites/likes.... it was kind of like getting a 100% on a school test and having your teacher slap a smiley face sticker in the corner :) 

Trades settle next week on Wednesday. Will be looking for another trade in the meantime.



Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Open Positions: ARCP and XXII

I currently have two long positions going. The first is through my Sharebuilder account with $ARCP that I entered on Monday. I had a bad entry with it because I made the mistake of entering the trade during the morning spike and have an entry price on my shares of $10.29 ea. That puts me behind the trend but it still appears to be gaining so I'll continue to hold.

03-03-2015

03-04-2015

Tuesday opened with a gap down and stayed down until about mid-day when it closed with a gain. Wednesday was a rougher day on the charts with most of it spent in the red, but finally ending in the green with a few cents higher than Tuesday @ $10.10.

My 2nd trade is through my E-Trade account, and I'm holding shares with $XXII with a 8% trailing stop. This one was alerted today by BP_Rising Group after news. It appeared to be the beginnings of a pump so I jumped in early to ride it up. In @ $0.9168 a share and EOD of $0.98. Hopefully tomorrow brings further gains and I can hit my target of 10%+. 

03-04-2015

Monday, March 2, 2015

780% Gain In One Day ($45,000 Profit) ***BP RISING!!!!!***

I'm blown away by these gains.... Amazing!!! I'm good with a 10%'er but hell, I'd gladly take a 780%'er just the same ha














Confusion on NBG Trailing Stop: 11.25% vs 8%

ShareBuilder sent this reply regarding my trailing stop...

From Capital One ShareBuilder Customer Service
Hi Chris,

Thanks for your patience while our Trading Team researched your NBG trade that executed on 2/25. The 8% trailing stop is what the trigger price would be from the high. So for your sell, the high price was $2.00 per share. This meant that anything $1.80 or below would trigger the order, and then become a market order. So because the price opened up at $1.77 per share at 9:30:16 am EST on 2/25, the order was triggered and became a market order. This market order was filled at 9:30:25 am when the bid was at $1.77/share.

Our Trading Team did confirm that this all executed correctly.

You'll also be able to find additional info about how trailing stops execute by clicking here.

Thanks, hope this helps and enjoy your week Chris!



Sincerely,

Shea McGivney
Capital One ShareBuilder Customer Service

Friday, February 27, 2015

Updates: Resources and E-Trade

My last trade doesn't settle until Monday. But that doesn't mean I'm not busy learning and moving forward.

Here are a few updates that I'd like to share...

As you've likely read, I've been using Vin_Trader's WatchList as a starting point for looking into a stock to trade. I'm now adding a couple other traders into the mix to assist me with conducting my due diligence. ClayTrader's YouTube channel and JumpyStocks.com. Both have some really good charting that you can use for free.

I also just opened an account with E-Trade and will be trading with a small amount in that account starting 03-04-15. I plan on taking advantage of E-Trade's shorting feature and will be shorting stocks with it.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

NBG Stopped Out @ $1.77 by 8% Trailing Stop

NBG gaped down this morning and triggered my 8% trailing stop. I'm not too surprised because of yesterday's performance but over all this one left me scratching my head. Yes, I missed the meat of the move last Friday, but the revival pattern was still good, good flow of news, good volume, strong bull sentiment on StockTwits... but for some reason it continued to pull back.

Dust off and try again when the trade settles... ugh.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Timothy Sykes Seminar in Moscow Russia all on Video!!!

I haven't watched them yet but I had to share as soon as I saw that Sykes has uploaded (4) 1 1/2 hour videos of his seminar in Moscow Russia... That's right, roughly 6+ hours of FREE education!

I know many have negative opinions about Sykes, and yes, he seems arrogant at times... but hey, he's a self made millionaire and he's sharing with people how he did it... he can be as arrogant as he wants.

No matter what opinion you hold about Sykes you have to recognize two things:

1) He puts it all out there. Between Profit.ly and his free videos you see that he's not perfect. Just disciplined and consistent. He loses 30% of the time, but he loses small.

2) While he does run a business selling his teaching materials, there is plenty of free material by him that will give you the basics.

So with that said, here are the videos.










Rough Start but Still in the Game

Pre-market trading looked promising and there was a very health social buzz in the StockTwits room with some members already keeping track with how the stock was doing overseas, such as in Athens.

There was a 4% to 5% gain pre-market and it looks as if we'd see an immediate uptrend so I placed my order first thing in the morning and got in with 177 shares at $2.00. Of course that didn't last and the stock began to decline throughout the day.

The good news is that I had decided to change my trailing stop from a 5% stop to an 8% stop and that kept me in the trade.

So while the stock ended the day at $1.88, I'm still in and able to ride out tomorrow's trading session.

Here are a couple of charts from today!



Entry Marked & EOD Uptrend

My Big Fat Greek Trade: NBG

Sorry, I couldn't resist poking a little fun with the title for this post :)

Last Friday's trading session for NBG was an impressive gainer and it looks like many who held over the weekend took some profits when Greece's reform wasn't submitted in time... This was actually a good thing in my opinion because a healthy pull back before further gains is a good thing. Also, it gave me a chance to buy in at a lower placement while waiting long enough for my last trade to settle.

From the charts I've been looking at NBG still looks great for a reversal... in fact, if you watch the video by ClayTrader in the last post you'll see that the stock stayed well above the $1.76 level of resistance/support and attempted to break past the $2.05 level he mentioned. ClayTrader does a great job illustrating how this has created a nice uptrend line!


StockTwits has also been buzzing since Friday and it appears that the majority of traders there are seeing this gain soon, and by a decent amount.

So,with all that said, NBG will be my next trade and I'll be using $345 of capital with a trailing stop of 5% and a position size of 177 shares.

If she treats me well I'll owe Vin_Trader a big fat thank you for placing it on his watch list last week.








Sunday, February 22, 2015

National Bank of Greece Sa (NBG) Stock Chart Technical Analysis for 02-2...





My last trade settles on the 24th and this is one that I'm watching very closely. Depending on how it looks by Tue and what going on in the news I may trade this as a long.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Out of GLUU for Now

I went into today's trading session knowing that I was pulling the trigger and taking  my losses. I did hold it throughout the day and let the movement whittle away a little of the losses but once I saw that the end of the day was starting to taper down I pulled the trigger. It could have been a lot worse.

This was probably one of my worse trades in regards to how and why I got into it, plus the fact that I lifted my trailing stop. But that said, I also feel like I learned a lot from this one and did a good job of  taking out some of the losses near the end.


Knowing that I was exiting today helped. The day started pretty choppy, which seemed odd for GLUU and made me think that it was more of an intra-day consolidation. I chose to continue to hold for the second half of the day and road it to $5.19. When the down trend began and looked to continue to the EOD I pulled the trigger and exited at $5.15... so as a learning experience I felt really good about my exit strategy.

I don't think this will be my last trade with GLUU, especially with the Katy Perry game set to come out sometime next Fall. 

 


Chat With Traders: Weekly Interviews with Profitable Traders

I recently came across Aaron Fifield's "Chat With Traders" podcast while looking for something to further my learning on all things trading. There are limited choices when it comes to podcasts on trading stocks, some are outright stock promoters talking out their asses while others lack quality.

But not Chat With Traders

Hosted by Aaron Fifield, a young and determined trader out of Brisbane city, the podcast sets out to interview a new profitable trader each week... and he hasn't failed to deliver. In fact, in the eight weeks the podcast has been up and running Aaron has already interviewed some trading legends such as Timothy Sykes, Matthew Owens aka TriForceTrader, and Anand Sanghvi of Sang Lucci to name a few.

Besides the audio quality behind the podcast and Aaron's ability to keep me (the listener) engaged, the other reason I've become a fan of his show is the reasoning behind the show. He isn't pumping stocks, pumping his ego, or push his products... he's learning and bring us along for the ride.

I did something similar years ago when I first began to take my writing seriously and wanted to educate myself on what it takes to get published. Author-2-Author (A2A) lasted for about a year and a half and I had the honor of interviewing some truly talented authors like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I took that experience and confidence boost and moved forward with sending manuscripts out... 6 children's books, 3 audio stories, 1 novella, and 2 short films later I still look back at those interviews.

So, if you're like me and have questions about trading and what it takes to be profitable... plug in your headphones and listen while Aaron asks the questions you want answered!