What’s up, everyone? Here we are, Thursday morning, another green day of trading finishing the day up $4,700. Life is good. It’s about $40,000 of profit in the last five days trading one hour a day.
Today’s one of those days, however, where I was up about 6,000, and then I gave back about $1,500 on my last two trades, so I don’t feel like I’m finishing on top the world. I feel like I’m humbled a little bit. The market gives you that little smack if you stay too long, and that’s what happened today, but $4,700 is good. Green is good. Today’s a day where I’m crossing over $650,000 in my account. I started with $583 18 months ago, crossing $650,000 today. That’s a big day. I’m excited next up? 700k.
I’m going to break down the trades from today. Hope you guys enjoy it. Any questions, any comments, leave them below. We’ll come back and answer them later today.
What’s up, everyone? We’re going to do our Mid-Day Market Recap, go over the trades from this morning. Here we are finishing the day another green day, up $4,723.91. Life is good. I’m happy with that. I was up 6,000 earlier, and I gave back about $1,500 of profit, but you know what, $4,700 is a great day. Puts me up about $40,000 in the last week. Today, I put in the wire transfer request with, I’ll put this up, with Lightspeed, and I’m taking out $40,000. I’m taking out the $40,000 of profit I just made in the last week, and I’m just go take it out.
I like to do that because I don’t want leave all my profits just growing and growing and growing in this account because it just, it feels real when you take it out and you see it land in your checking account. It’s like, there you go, that I can now use to pay my bills at the end of June and beginning of July, whatever, and just kind of gives me that cushion. If I have extra money, I can go reinvest it in mutual funds, long-term stuff, whatever, but it just makes it real to take it out.
That means tomorrow my account will be around 70, actually it’d be at like 78,000 since I just made almost $5,000 today. Whatever. It does mean that if a stock like GBR or CEI, both of these are on margin restriction, and so what you see here is this little symbol that says 100%, 100%. That means I can only use my equity balance to buy these stocks. I can’t use any of this buying power. I’ve got almost half a million dollars in buying power, but I can’t use any of it on these two stocks, or this one also, this third one.
That means on GBR, I can only take … Well, see, this is the thing. It’s at $2.50, so 10,000 shares is 2,500 bucks, so today, I could’ve taken 40,000 shares. This is not holding me back at all to have just 100,000, but tomorrow, when I have 70,000 in the account, it means a stock like this that’s up around $5 or $6, if it’s at $7, and I take 10,000 shares, that’s $70,000.
That’s where I’m going to start to get a little bit restricted if we happen to see stocks in the $8-12 price range that are really volatile and that are on margin restriction. Then I might start to get a little restricted by not having as much cash in my account, but in any case, lately, we’ve been seeing most of the momentum on cheap stocks like CEI. With this one, I could’ve bought almost 100,000 shares of it today if I really wanted to.
That’s just the one disadvantage of taking money out, but I do think it’s good to pay yourself, draw out that profit. It also prevents you, really, from going super, super aggressive on a stock that maybe you shouldn’t be that aggressive on. Maybe I should take 20,000 shares of a $12 stock. Maybe that’s not a good idea, so taking the money out makes it so I simply cannot do it.
Anyways, here we are, $4,700. Green is good. The 6,000 earlier this morning would’ve been a little bit better, but 4,700 is good, and yesterday I made 3,700, so I’m making an extra thousand dollars versus yesterday, which is great. Today is the 117th trading day of the year, and I am up right around $310,000 this year.
Remember, last year, January 1st, 2017, I set out with a very small account, $583, and I wanted to prove that anyone can be a successful trader. Being a successful trader doesn’t require a lot of money, doesn’t require a master’s degree in finance, doesn’t require you to have worked at a hedge fund for 15 years. It just requires you to attack the market with a consistent strategy.
Starting with $583, I attacked the market with consistent strategy. Today, that account is breaking over $650,000. $650,000 in 18 months. Today is the day we break that level. That’s awesome. That’s pretty exciting. That means I’ve got $350,000 to go before I break the one million dollar mark.
As I already mentioned earlier this morning in our Pre-Market Analysis, today, 1:00 p.m. Eastern, in less than two hours, we’re hosting a totally free workshop for anyone that has the time and wants to show up. We’re going to be teaching you the strategies that I used to take that 500 and turn it to $650,000. I’m going to teach you how to find the strongest stocks to trade, how to minimize your risk every single day so you have small losers and big winners, and how to find the right entry points.
By doing this on the first day with that small account, I made $124.15. That was day one. Day two, I made $187. Day three, I made 150. Day four, I made 150. In four days, I doubled the account. I didn’t do it by swinging for the fences. I didn’t do it by hitting home runs. I did it by getting small winners, but by minimizing my risk on all of those trades.
Stocks like PED, they go from 30 cents to $4 in a day and a half. Obviously these types of moves are great, but it’s not realistic for you to try to swing and get a stock where you’re in at 50 cents and you sell at $4. It just doesn’t happen. Any guru or anyone that says, “Follow me and buy this penny stock. You’ll sell it tomorrow for double,” that’s just not going to happen consistently. You’re going to end up buying it too high, and you’re probably going to end up holding it during drops like this, and that’s no fun.
The real secret to success is learning how to find stocks to trade totally on your own so you don’t need me, you don’t need newsletters, you don’t need any guru alerts or anything like that. You can find them yourself. Here are the seven stocks I traded today that I found all by myself. I didn’t need anybody … However, I will say, Ishmael, you did call out CHNR, so good job on that one. I’ll give you the shout-out. You called out CHNR at 2.50. It did come on my scanners, but it came on my scanners at I think 2.52, and I bought it at 2.60. You did call it out there just before I saw it on the scan, so really, good job there, and maybe you’re using a variation of this scanner with a slightly lower filter or something like that, but in any case, you can find these stocks on your own.
Now, yeah, having a community to bounce ideas off of and all that stuff, that’s great, but you don’t want to be waiting for somebody else to say, “Buy,” to press the buy button, because what happens? Just in the latency between me saying buy, that I’m getting in, and by the time you get it, with the way some of these stocks trade, by the time you’re actually hearing it, I might’ve already sold my position before you’re even hearing it.
I’ve had trades where, in a matter of two seconds, I’m in and I’m out because it’s a breakout. I’m basically taking that trade 100% by myself. By the time you guys hear it, I’ve already sold my position. If you’re waiting to follow me, waiting for me to say buy, that just doesn’t work. It’s okay when you’re learning and you’re practicing in the simulator and getting a sense of what stocks are moving and stuff like that, but when it’s time to trade with real money and money’s on the line, you want to be able to find these on your own. How did we find these seven stocks this morning?
We start every single day same as always by looking at our gap scanner. This scanner right here, which we’ll talk about in the workshop, this will help you find stocks. They’re going to gap up, open more than 5% versus yesterday’s close. We’re going to do historical date and time on this. 9:12. That’s fine. At 9:12 this morning, this is what I was looking at. These were the stocks that were on my watch list. These were stocks in the entire stock market that were gapping more than 5%. You could see, there’s a few on here, but what we’ve just done is we’ve filtered from potentially 15,000 stocks of trade down to about 30 or 40, and we’re going to focus on pretty much the top 10.
Leading gapper is GBR. Notice I’ve got almost $2,000 of profit on FBR. I found it right here at 9:15 this morning, so I found it really early on. GBR. Let’s pull up that one. A reminder, for those of you guys that want to register for this workshop, maybe you’re watching this on YouTube later this afternoon, this evening, maybe you’re watching on Facebook later this afternoon, later this evening, the live workshop has already happened. You can register for one of the next ones.
We’ll update the link here below. We will host an encore workshop for those of you that miss it. Just so a heads up. Don’t feel bad if you did miss the one today. We’ll host an encore.
GBR, pre-market high of 3.68. The bell rings, and it sells off a little bit, so I’m not really sure about it. I’m waiting, and then I decide to take a red to green move. The high of the first candle 3.40, and the low was down here at about 2.85. As it starts to curl up, I jumped in right here for the break over 3.30. It spikes up to the high of 3.60, and that’s where I’m selling.
I was anticipating the break of 3.40 by adding at 3.35, the high of this level here. As I saw volume coming in, that’s what got me excited. I’m adding at 3.35, adding at 3.40, adding at 3.50, selling at 3.55, and then stopping out of the rest as it comes back down. This was not a home run trade, but it was a winner with 10,000 shares. Actually, it might’ve been even more than that. I traded a good number of shares on all of these stocks. GBR, GBR, 15,000 shares, so these are between buying and selling. They count it, a share is traded both when you buy and when you sell, so 15,000 shares total.
Remember, yesterday and earlier in the week, I was saying, “Guys, I’m going to be stepping up my share size this week because we’re seeing hot momentum. I’m going to be more aggressive.” Last week and the week before, I was pretty much topped out at 5,000 to 7,000 shares, but now I’m stepping it up, being a little more aggressive.
GBR. Right off the watch list, and the entry on this was a red to green move, so getting in for the break of the pre-market highs. It ended up not holding that level, which is kind of disappointing.
Second stock was PED. Now, PED we were watching for continuation because yesterday, it made this big move, and so this morning, right out of the gates, I was a little bit iffy on it. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to trust it, but it pops up, and it squeezes up towards 4.40, and so I jumped in it right here for the break, this is a one-minute micro pullback, the break over 4.40. It hit 4.44, and then it just chopped around, it dropped and came back up, and I sold it basically break-even for a $35 profit with 7,500 shares. 15,000 shares total traded. I bought 7,500, and then I sold 7,500. Let me just move this thing out of the way. Got in that, got out of that. Really, nothing there for me for profit on PED.
Also, on the scanners this morning was CEI at 72 cents. You can see I actually lost $1,100 on it. This trade is kind of disappointing because where I got in at, I was waiting for it to start to open up. I wanted to see it starting to open up right here, and so as it started to break over this pre-market high, it squeezed up to a high of .43 right here, and it was halted on a five-minute circuit breaker halt. It hit .43, it’s halted on a five-minute circuit breaker halt. My feeling on that was as soon as it comes out of a halt, I’m a buyer, and I’m going to want to jump in.
It comes out of a halt, and I jump in at 1.45 and 1.50. I now have 10,000 shares with a cost basis of 1.52. It squeezes up to 1.59, and then it gets halted again. I’m like, “This is awesome.” It comes out of that halt, and I add 5,000 shares at 1.72, and now I have 15,000 shares at 1.59 average, so my new cost basis is 1.59 right here with 15,000 shares. 1.59 to 1.8, that’s $3,000 of profit. It tapped 1.80. I was looking for it to hit $2 and potentially get a third circuit breaker halt, and it didn’t.
It immediately reversed, caught me a little off guard. It dropped down here and was halted going down at 1.51. Instantly, I went from being up 20 cents to being down … Oh, sorry. I see the video is covering that. Sorry about that, guys. Instantly, I went from being up 50 cents to down, sorry, up 20 cents to down 10 cents as it dropped right here.
It resumed from the halt, and it curled back up, and I sold it for like a, I don’t know, five or six, seven, seven-cent loss or something like that, so I lost $1,100 on that. I had unrealized profit of $3,000, and I gave it up looking for a little bit of a bigger win. It is what it is. I was out of it, and then it ended up selling off and coming even lower. On that one, I pushed it a little too hard. I thought it was going to really take off a little bit more, and unfortunately, I was wrong on that. Gave back a little bit of profit on that one, but by that time, of course, I was already well in the green on the day. Let’s go back on the high of day momentum scanner.
9:30, the bell rings. PED is on the scans. PED. PED. BRN hits the scanners. BRN, only twice. Then, let’s see, PED, do-do-do-do-do-do-do. I’m waiting for the next stock to hit the scanners. I’m just watching it, watching. PED is hitting the scans, but I felt like I didn’t want to chase it, then boom, USEG. Look at this. It hits, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I added with a cost basis of 1.56. USEG, it hits the scanners first at 1.35.
Remember, guys, if you’re using this same tool that I’m using, you can find these stocks the moment that I’m seeing them. You and I are seeing them at the same second. If you decide to buy it at the same time as me, that’s fine. If you buy before me, that’s fine. If you buy after me for whatever reason, that’s okay too. It’s your choice, but you’re seeing it at the same time.
USEG right there. I jump in it as I see it starting to spike up. Get in at 1.56. That was my average, and it pops up to a high of 1.83, and it’s halted for 10 minutes on a circuit breaker. It resumes higher and hits 1.95, so with, I think I had 12,000 shares, I’m up, whatever, almost $5,000 or something like that. No, no, no. Sorry. I only had 7,500 shares.
Let me go back at this. USEG. Yeah, I had 7,500 shares. I didn’t have a big position on that one, so 7,500 shares. It starts to curl and roll over, and so I sell as it’s coming back down. This was kind of the first red flag of the day. A stock goes from $1.50 to $2, and then comes all the way back down, and so it kind of felt like, hmm. That’s a little concerning what we’re not seeing continuation, just this pop, and then this drop, this fade.
When we see that type of thing happen, it always makes me a little nervous. This obviously shows opportunity both long or short. There’s volatility, but I want to see a little bit more strength than that. That’s not what I liked.
To answer your question, a circuit breaker halt is a mechanism the market uses to reduce volatility. If a stock moves more than 10% during the market hours of 9:45 to 3:45, the stock will be halted for up to 10 minutes while traders have time to circulate what’s going on and pause for a moment. This was put in place after the Flash Crash to prevent stocks from just dropping 50% in five minutes. It stops all trading after a drop of more than 10%.
Now, in the first 15 minutes, those circuit breaker thresholds are doubled to accommodate the high levels of volatility we see at the open and at the close. In this case, the volatility bands are closer to 20%. It goes up 20% in basically less than five minutes, and it’s halted on a 10 minute long circuit breaker. It ends up coming back down. That was a little bit disappointing there. I was still able to make money on it, but I was very disappointed it didn’t continue over $2.
My next trade was GBR. As you see, it’s on the scanners here. I did take a trade on ASNS, but not just there. I waited a little while. CEI is on the scanners. USEG resumes, hits 1.90. ARCON, another one, hits the scanners. It pops up. Doesn’t holds its levels, and ends up coming back down. JAGX hits the scanners, pops up, and then comes all the way back down, so we’re seeing a lot of these types of moves, and after the first one on USEG, I was a little hesitant.
Couple of other stocks on the scanners. Do-do-do-do. This is how I’m finding stocks. I choose them not just because they’re on this scanner, but I choose them because I want to find the right pullback. I want to get pullback entries because that for me is the safest place to get in.
CHNR. This one hits the scanners, and when I first saw it, I was like, “Number one, it’s a China stock. China stocks have been really strong in the last week. We’ve got this pretty good daily chart,” and I saw it starting to pop up, I was like, “I’m going to jump in this.” I jumped in at $1.60, $1.75, $1.80. Sorry. 2.60, 2.75, 2.80, and adding at 2.95 for the break of $3. I’m adding as it’s going up. I have 15,000 shares of this stock with a cost basis of 2.75. It gets halted on a circuit breaker. It resumes higher. It resumes, and it taps 3.15, and I actually added at 3.15 thinking it was going to continue higher, and then it immediately reversed and came down like this, and I had to stop out at 2.90.
I made on this one $2,000. A nice winner, but very disappointed that it came down, and as you can see, it came all the way back down, just like USEG. Now we’re seeing a couple of stocks, three or four that are doing these popups and drops. I’m noticing that there’s certainly opportunity to profit, but it’s getting a little, those windows are getting smaller and smaller and smaller as short sellers are thinking, “I’m going to short this sooner and sooner and sooner because we keep seeing them drop back down.”
The last one I traded was XPLR. This is the one that ended up getting me. I mean, it popped up, and it immediately came back down right here, and I lost 500 bucks on it. I jumped in at 4, I think it was 4. Yeah, it was 4, and then I stopped out at like 3.60. That was disappointing. That was the beginning of things turning around for me, and then I lost another thousand bucks on CEI.
That small trade on ASNS, this one, I got into at, let’s see, right here. That level, as it was curling back up right here, I jumped in at 6.75, and I sold it at $7. Ended up hitting a high of 7.39, but a small winner because I only filled 209 shares, so very small order. ASNS on the scanners again, now dropping going down, getting halted on a circuit breaker.
Today, I would say … Yesterday, I said the market was choppy because I lost $3,000 on my very first trade. Today, I would say the market’s also choppy. I’m green, but we’re seeing a lot of this kind of “pop and drop” action. We’re not seeing a lot of really good follow-through, and that is making me pretty nervous.
I’m going to make a note to myself that tomorrow, Friday, I’m going to bring down the share size a little bit. Number one, it’s Friday. Number two, it’s the last day of the month. Number three, even though we’ve seen a lot of really great opportunities this week and in the last seven days, I’m up $40,000, today and yesterday, things have started to get a little choppy, and those false breakouts and those “pop and drop” type of moves are making me a little uncomfortable. I’m worried that I’m going to get into one of them with 15,000 shares, and then it’s going to drop 30 cents, and I’m going to lose 4,500 bucks just like that, so I gotta start reducing my share size so if I do get caught in one of those, the losses are going to be a little smaller. XPLR I actually only took 5,000 shares of, thank goodness, because that was a really bad drop.
At this point in the day, I was already up 6,000 on these five trades, so I was like, “I’m going to ease up share size.” Then that was good because I ended up losing on that one, and then losing on that one. My last two trades of the day were losers. That’s how the market keeps you humble because even though I’m up $4,000 today, almost $5,000, I’m ending by getting a little bit of a kick from the market. I gave back 1,500 bucks, so it’s like I’m not ending feeling like I’m on top of world, what an amazing day. I’m ending like, eh, it’s a good day. I was up 6,000. Now I’m up 4,700. I pushed my luck, gave back a little profit. Tomorrow I gotta be a little more disciplined. That’s not a bad thing. It keeps you sharp.
Now, one of the hardest things for me is that right now I’m up 4,700 bucks, and I can’t help but think, “Geez, it would be really nice to be back up 6,000.” It’s always nice to walk away when you’re on top of the world, walk away when you are at your highs. That’s a problem because it can convince you to keep trading because I’ll think, “You know what, I’ll just jump in CEI here, whatever, and at 10,000 shares, I’ll make back 1,500 bucks before you know it.”
Then next thing you know, you’re selling it for a $1,500 loss. Then you do it again. Then you do it again, and next thing you know, you went from being up 6,000 to being up 500 bucks. You can literally give it all back, and that’s what you don’t want to do. You have to just have that sense of discipline where at a certain point, you say, “You know what? If I’m not seeing the follow-through, I’m just go walk away.”
Today, walking away with $4,700, I’m not going to try to fight it. I’m just going to take my profit and be happy with that. I think that’s the right move. I did trade quite a bit today. You can see 71 executions, 160,000 shares traded, just about, so I was pretty aggressive. Commissions are going to be higher as a result, but it’s just … It seems like the last week has definitely been a good time to be more aggressive just because we’ve been seeing so much follow-through.
For right now, I’ll be happy with the $4,700. I’m really turning around the month of June. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow to finish up this month.
Remember, 1:00 p.m. Eastern today, we’re going to be hosting this workshop. I’m looking forward to it. Those of you who are in the chatroom, you can see the link to register in the announcements. Those of you watching Facebook live right now, you still have time to register for the webinar at 1:00. Those of you watching this on YouTube later this afternoon or this evening, if it’s after 1:00 p.m., the workshop will have already started, so you’ll probably miss it, but we will host an encore. You can certainly register. Click the link below to either download a copy of our free eBook, which I’ll be giving everyone at the end the workshop today.
That’s about it for me. I hope you guys have a great afternoon, and we’ll be back at it first thing tomorrow morning 9:15, 9:30 for a Pre-Market Analysis. All right, I’ll see you guys in the morning.
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