As shown below; my focus today was $INSM which was the first stock to pop up on my pre-market scanner as soon as I logged in this morning. With the stock being up 100%+ on phase 3 drug news; it was a no brainer that it should be my number 1 focus (like I had tweeted) as it had also traded well north of 500,000 shares (my minimum for touching a stock) by 8:00am in pre-market.
Trade #1: This was easily the best trade I made today. After the massive run-up in early pre-market; the stock tested $25.70 three times and failed to break through on all three attempts. By the end of the 3rd failed attempt the stock had now formed a clear flat-top pattern on the 1-min chart. So I prepped a limit order @ $25.75 to get long if the .70's started getting taken out. Couple minutes later the break out started and I jumped in without hesitation getting filled at my limit. Sold off in halves as shown at $26.6 and $27.15 for a decent $100ish profit after commissions. So excellent start to the trading day.
Trade #2: After finding staunch resistance at $27.75 the stock pulled back hard but sellers could not push the stock below the previous break out level. So I figured the stock might just set up for another run higher which it eventually did. It winded up forming a clean cup-with-handle pattern on the 1-minute chart and I attempted to get long on a break of the handle looking to sell all my shares into a break of the $27.75 level but my order got rejected. I tried again and got filled this time 5 shares @ $27.35 and 95 @ $27.40. The stock proceeded to push to new highs and when I attempted to sell into the break as planned my limit order well below the current bid at the time got rejected for some reason unknown to me. This got me scarred and I ended up hitting the bids a second time getting filled @ $27.77 for a much smaller profit than I should have had. But no harm done...I was decently green on the day and the market hadn't even opened as yet!
Trade #3: So the stock opened and tanked hard; bounced and got rejected at the $28.50ish level and so I switched my bias to the short side. So after it consolidated around VWAP then started breaking to new lows I jumped in short @ $27.01 looking for a push down to $26.50. This trade was a poor trade because I was risking 50 cents to make 50 cents aka 1:1 risk/reward. None the less I tried to give it a chance to work and ended up covering in 2 parts (for what reason I don't know) at $26.77 and $26.89 for a tiny profit after commissions. Not a good trade but still solidly green on the day.
Trade #4: After seeing the stock reclaim and consolidate above VWAP; I jumped in at $27.41 with a hard stop 5 cents below $27 looking for a push back to HOD. Now while the trade plan was not bad; my management of this trade was extremely poor. After the stock failed to follow through on the big break out candle around 10:10am; I should have adjusted my stop up to the low of this candle around $27.15ish minimizing my risk instead of letting the stock which had now clearly started showing weakness drop all the way back to my initial stop which did not get filled until $26.82. So although I don't mind getting stopped out; I gave back an unwarranted extra $30ish of my profits.
Final Thoughts: Were it not for the unnecessarily large loss on my 4th trade; I would have been able to stay engaged with the stock and catch the down thrust for more profits. But I was not comfortable risking going red on the day and simply was not in the right mental zone to continue trading after the last 2 poor trades. So in that regard I did the right thing. However, although I've improved significantly in the timing of my entries; my trade management now needs work. I failed to milk as much profit as I should have on my 2nd trade; I needed to exit my 3rd trade in 1 cover after realizing that it wasn't going to following through instead of exiting in halves and on my 4th trade I needed to be quicker in adjusting my trailing stop loss. None the less, still thankful for the green day and looking forward to making better trades tomorrow!
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