by Stevie Swai
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and will keep on saying it until this sinks in – the best thing Trader Scott ever said to me was – “focus on hitting singles”. I recall those words every day as my trading day begins. Those very words changed me from an erratic, nervous trader who was chasing down trades in a sort of desperation, to a focused professional who can consistently bring in profits and make a pretty good living doing it.
I don’t intend on sharing my trades every single day, but since we’ve been focused on trying to show you how to trade with small accounts and position sizes, it seems appropriate for now. Also, as you will notice from the symbols below, all of these stocks have been talked about in our pre-market comments. We don’t only come up with these symbols to share with you, we actually trade them ourselves, because we make our living with trading – NOT by talking about trading.
So here’s just a little recap of how and why I chose to trade these:
AVEO – we gave this symbol in Friday’s pre-market comments, it was the winner of the trading day on Friday, and we stated that it had good news and had the potential to reach a multi-month high. It was up 70% on Friday and 62% once again today. I had taken on a position in ICLD on Friday and was focused on selling it at open today so I missed the opening rally of AVEO, and that opening rally was pretty impressive. It opened at 1.35 and rallied up to 2.11. It had another small rally around 1:35 PM from 1.59 to 1.82 which I missed again. I started watching for a nice entry point and entered at 1.71 at 2:15 PM. I put a sell order in for 1.95 which did not get filled because it hit 1.95 at exactly closing. Good for me because I then sold it in after hours at 2.05. I made 20% on a $1700 investment in 3 hours.
ICLD – I’ve been trading in and out of ICLD for the past week or so since it’s been on the move. I traded it on Friday for a nice little profit and explained the trade here. I bought it again on a really nice dip right before the close on Friday, held it over the weekend, and then sold it right after the open today.
MARA – Another great little stock which we talked about in the pre-market today, and it ended up being the #1 gainer of the day. I put in a market order at open and it got filled at .50 which bummed me out. Here’s where intuition sometimes can come into play and prevent a freak out from seeing losses. Keeping the position size small also helped. It tumbled to .37 but I held on and figured I’d add more after it bounced which I did. My averaged position was now .45. I thought I might end up scratching the trade by just unloading all of it at .45, but it started growing legs and moving. So I sold the second lot I had bought at. 40 when it reached .48, and the first lot was sold at the high of the day at .55.
MBRX – I bought that stock on Wednesday and had sold half on Friday. I sold the rest today and made a little profit. Would have made much more had I had the patience, but already held it too long for my comfort level.
So there you are, a little peak into my day and my trades. Keep reading the pre-market and enjoying all the articles and videos on this website. With consistently hard work, you can become a better trader.
You’re like a hawk Stevie, swooping down on fast moving prey.
That brings to mind when I strapped on my first Fury ram air rig the drop zone owner gave a piece of advice to me… you better watch your a$$, thats like going from driving a Volkswagen to a Corvette.
Learning to be more cautious these days while still intact.
Good morning David – Thank you for the message. I like the analogy, but hey – I want you to take a real look at those charts and see that there was absolutely nothing risky going on and the movements were pretty anticipated because I knew what I was looking for which comes from learning and observing. The position sizes were also small to minimize risk. The point of showing all this to you is that THESE are the little trades that can be done with small accounts. And the getting in and getting out, stringing all these little, not very interesting trades together to make a great day is how I operate. Also, not looking back with any regrets. Remember that little slice I took out of DCTH on Friday? Well it hit .22 yesterday. I sold it at .15 on Friday. Does that mean I missed something? Should I regret that? Absolutely not and I’ll tell you why. Yes, I could have made an additional $630 had I sold yesterday, but when it opened in the morning it went to .125 and it could have kept going lower. We never know these things. Also, had I held it, it would have had to have been micro managed ALL day long which would have been stressful and would have kept me from trading other things that added up to over $1000 instead of trying to squeeze out as much as I could from DCTH. Also-something to keep in mind which is another reason I like to try to get in and out of things is the problem with boredom. Sitting in trades and getting bored can lead to boredom which can lead to boredom trading and mistakes. It’s interesting how almost every stock can have a trade in it, unless it’s going sideways, or the volume is so low and it’s just not liquid.
Right, I made a boredom trade at the close and the retest yesterday in GPRO, now it’s a hope trade.
I’ve been watching my own trades,
but you get my point? I’m still around because on occasion someone with the experience and foresight has stepped up to say watch yourself.
U guys are dynamos, hope you’re not working too hard.
Heya David – well if you bought it at the end of the day yesterday, at least you’re seeing a little green today. We’re happy you’re still around and hanging out with us on the site. Guys like you are our big #1 motivator because the work we put into the website takes away from our own trading, but it’s worth it when we see people benefiting and becoming better traders. We’ll keep the site around and working as hard as we do on it as long as there’s interest and we see people working hard to learn.
Nice move on GPRO today David. Looks like you picked a great entry point!!
Doldrums, holding until a move up but it doesn’t have a lot of leg.
Really dismayed at planning to buy CY this morning on the pull back but someone had to pump it.
Hope you showed OWPC your fast draw.
BTW, OWCP is in the news this morning.
Yes. Debated whether to put it in. Stevie is long still, I believe. GPRO also moving, showed up yesterday. Small position there.
And thank God. It’s about time that side of my screen turns green with this. Been long for a while.
What…you’re not a go pro basher?
Kick a $$… that’s inspiring. Thanks for sharing stevie☺
Stevie,
How small can a small account be? How many $$? Which brokerage do you recommend for a day/long
term trader with a small acct.?
Hi Suzy-
I personally use Etrade and I’m very happy with it. Different brokerages charge different transaction fees per trade. For example Schwab charges $4.95 and so does Etrade as long you make 30 trades per quarter. Otherwise, it’s 6.95 per trade. Some brokerages will let you trade for free for the first 90 days. As we’ve said before, the biggest obstacle you will find daytrading on a small account is the 3 daytrade per 5 rolling day rule. As far as account size, I wouldn’t let that be a barrier to start out. Even a $1000 account, trading no more than 20% of it at a time can bring profits. But you will have to be patient and well researched and understand that overnight trades may just become your best friends. And it’s important to be able to identify those with a higher probability to return profits. An account with a minimum of $5000 would be more ideal, on the other hand, because trading a position size of $1000 and getting in and out of trades with a 5-10% profit would be great and not be eaten up by transaction fees. The biggest thing to keep in mind when working with a small account is the temptation to ‘hold out’ for higher profits. Trader Scott is the best teacher you will ever find. Seriously. Read and study his posts and videos, come up with a plan and stick to it and you will be fine. And let us know how we can help because this is the mission with this website.
One more thing Suzy – Just a little example of bringing in a nice return on a small stock by having a little patience. I took a position way too early on this one. I took a position on June 21 because it looked to me like it was setting up to take off. I was wrong. It went sideways for the week and then popped today on news taking a 64% profit on an $1100 position. That’s why we love these little stocks, but again, finding that great entry point is key.