Small Cap Stocks Day Trading Journey ($25,000 Challenge)

[alexwinkler]

Rough end to the week for me. I’ve felt a little under the weather for the last 2 days. Maybe that messed up my trading. I was slow to place orders and often missed fills by just a hair. You see it in my replays very clearly.

That often put me on tilt. Which caused me to chase where I would have been selling, often resulting in getting stuck in a flush.

The opportunities were there this week although it was choppy. Definitely could have done better but I could make back this week's losses in one solid trade or 2 base hits. Clearing my mind this weekend and coming back feeling fresh will be important.

All it takes is 1 week or 1-3 days per month to make the whole month. Got to focus on the good:

- Still green on the month
- 22.38% Inc. of my portfolio Avg Position Cost
-- I'm sizing more; experiencing growing pains

In today's recap. I'll keep it simple. Want to show what not to do on a RTG move / Morning Panic 😅

#TopGainers
$TOP $SUNW $INBS $NSTG

 

[alexwinkler]

$BMR was a tricky one to keep your profits on so that's why I'm calling it when I'm green. Always nice to start the week green. Also, more momo than I expected after #SuperBowl2024 weekend. Lock it those gains.

For me two things remain true:

1. Trade the frontside harder.

2. Work on my patience more when there is no longer a good setup. I often chase just to get flushed on and stop where I wanted to get in 2 minutes earlier.

Patience, aggression, size.

Be patient for the right setup, get aggressive when you see it (don't miss it by 1 cent), and size hard if it's quality.

This recap will highlight the best and worst of today's trades.

GL to all those trading $MGIH $BMR halts
$DHAI joining the party too now

 

[alexwinkler]

My trading style is like #RealEstate...

you make the money when you buy.

So I need to repeat this while looking for a trade:

"You make the money on the entry"

I have to get better with my entries, I've been chasing too much in this choppy momo we've been seeing and it's costing me because the flushes are nasty and my stops are too slow (chasing sell down the #TOSladder)

Therefore...

"CTRL + F" is my #hotkey to get out at the market. Need to use it more aggressively. On my channel, you can find all my other hotkeys.

This is no environment to hesitate to exit and placing a stop on the ladder or chasing down a sell-the-bid order will cost you like it cost me.

1. You make the money on the entry
2. Be ruthless on your stops (hotkey)

Top Gainers wild day $DBGI $BGLC $OMG $ARBB

 

[alexwinkler]

CTRL+F is my new best friend.

In other news, Pre-Market was where the 🥇 was today. The market open was rough but $DTSS gave us some setups worth trading.

Happy #ValentinesDay gl on what you have planned or extra gl if you didn't have anything planned ☠️

For everyone else; enjoy the gym/extra study time.

I'll keep the recap short today.

 

[alexwinkler]

Again the magic was Pre-Market -OR- on that aggressive short-lived (10m) $CHNR frontside after market opened. Not the easiest day either way.

Walked away green mostly from hanging onto those Pre-Market gains. Down about 40% off highs but nothing looking too tradable anymore.

Today I got asked about my trendlines popping up more in my charts so I'll focus on that in today's recap:

#AscendingWedge with $JXJT

Other #TopGainers: $DTSS $DXF $PLCE $NNOX

 

[alexwinkler]

$MNPR 8:40 until open was the money shot.

Today I'm happy to wrap up green after a short trading day. A good little boost of confidence after my disaster "let me quickly get a few trades in" Friday.

I left a lot on the table today by being a bit more conservative on size and also frontside aggression. I definitely don't want to be sizing down. Need to keep the bigger size. Bigger red days are just growing pains.

All that really matters is that I keep pushing myself daily. The big green days will follow.

In today's recap, we'll focus on frontside day trading entries in hot market. I'll show my Friday disaster trades as well.

- Frontsides are insanely strong
- PB's are insanely strong, backside starts quick
- below VWAP is dangerous

Once a move is over it's over so you want to buy early green candles. Classic breakouts, while a slow market you want to size before the green candles.

 

[alexwinkler]

Another max loss day. My flow this year has been 0. New time zones and traveling are never great for my trading and that theme continues. I need to get more flexible. I've been trying to push so hard lately but only going in the wrong direction.

Trades 6 tickers today and red on all 6. Death by 1000 paper cuts. Super frustrating day.

Trader rehab for me starts today..

- No backside trades period.
- Only frontsides over VWAP.
- Tighten max loss to half.
- Reduce size when red on the day.

At this point, I'm just bleeding cash for no reason.

Top Gainers I'm red on 🤦
$MOTS $EBS $GBNH $IVP $VYTX $SOGP

 

[alexwinkler]

What a day, $MNPR was my savior. Was down -$1250 at my lows. Now breakeven.

Pre-market and at open I did horrible trading. Everything I said I wouldn't do during my trader rehab. Then I took a step back and took a breather.

Only bought green candles. Second I saw strength I entered with market order, second it got weak I sold with flatten (also market order). Pure hotkeys.

No recap video today. I've been trading so poorly and I think part of that might be overthinking during my trading "what I'll do for my recap".

Need to give myself more headspace.

Keeping everyone posted as I decide more. Still studying tape as that's🥇always open to feedback.

Images is snapshot of when I stopped today. We're all well on are way, just need to keep going 💪

 

[alexwinkler]

$OCEA PM got me green $600 but at open gave back
$AXTI got me more red -$200
$MNPR frontside rally was the major winner for me

Didn't film the recap yesterday or today. But reviewing my recordings a lot. Same lessons remain true.

PM you got to ride frontside accumulating the bid. While after market opens, it is best to get aggressive, buying green candles via market orders.

R:R getting uncomfortable quickly so wrapping up the day solid green; even after messing up arguably the best top gainer on the day $AXTI

Happy weekend everyone! If you want to see more live recordings let me know.

 

[alexwinkler]

Easy trades are currently behind us and for that reason I'm out. Roughly $1k day, gave back about 30% off the highs. $ZVSA at open was my champion, $HOLO slightly green but trickier ticker due to spread unless you limit order arbitraged the spread lol I messed up the beautiful Pre-market $AKLI frontside with my hotkeys and actually red on it.. Tried quite a few trades on $OCEA but R:R felt bad and I got shaken mostly.

 

[alexwinkler]

It's never great when your top gainer looks like $IFBD

The next best ticker was $JANX or maybe $VKTX but well over $20 which is usually the top price range of tickers I'm looking to trade.

$AULT was solid pre-market and that's what got me green today. $CXAI & $SOUN had some opportunities as well but somehow wasn't able to find my grove with them.

Gave off the top but all things considered, P&L was pretty solid for the fact that I came into Pre-Market late so didn't get much of $AULT

No need to keep trading w/o good setups.

---

Want more gold nuggets?

I'll post a live trades review (15-30m EOD study session) on this playlist. It is the members' area as only want real and dedicated traders commenting, discussing, and learning from those.

All insiders have access to it as well.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVSHfPEavmSVEZxpl5UqDJ-oTRK71x9ek

Let's get after it 🥇🚀

 

[alexwinkler]

My mistake today was looking for the $VANI reversal, and not trading pure frontside. That's where I grinded down my profits. Was up $1500 and now $300 on the ticker.

99 documented trades on that ticker alone 👀

Doesn't feel tradeable anymore, frustrating for sure but in times like these, remember to be grateful. Could have been a max oss day for w/e reason.

Green is always good to have on the calendar.

Pre-market again was the winner $VANI this time, yesterday pre-market was $AULT.

I would have wrapped up sooner but last few weeks it paid to stick around a bit longer. Look at that horrible 8.51% profit margin 💀

$BETS $BYND $ADIL $IXHL $VKTX

#TOS stats are slightly different because I did some small scalps after uploading to @TradeJournalco and taking screenshots.

Don't let the revenge trades getcha! I'm out 🫡

 

[alexwinkler]

Doesn't feel like the day for me to push it. Spent most of the trading session digging outa an almost max loss hole.

$ENVB and $ADIL got me deep red but ended green on both wich is a blessing although never the goal to keep trading a ticker your trending down on.

In this case, I slowed down and got patient as hell. Once they had a nice frontside I got aggressive.

That's how I knew it wasn't fomo or revenge. Because that's often a fine line.

A lot moving today, new and old:
$VLCN, $SIDU, $VANI, $BETS, $VLCN

Tomorrow is already a new month to end the week! Phewyy, are traders gonna be extra cautious or excited?

Who knows. We trade what we get.
Patience, aggression, size.

 

[alexwinkler]

7-8 AM EST was the winner today. I've been starting around 9 AM and going until 11 AM. Opportunities were far and few between.

Today was less about new PR days and more about not giving back profits.

Hopes were for $BIVI to rip over VWAP and give us some good trades but so far hasn't come.

Lot's moving but mostly chop
$NXU, $MTC, $CRDF, $ENVB, $ADIL

Wrapping up here before I do something silly. Have a great weekend everyone & happy #March1st!

 

[alexwinkler]

Was pretty much a no trade day until $PHUN popped. 10:10-10:25 AM EST was really where the gold was.

I stopped trading today a bit sooner than usual. Had other todo's. Happy to be around breakeven based on the opportunities during my short session.

Looking forward to more momo again after a pretty slow last few trading days. Keep an eye out for former gappers, especially if nothing new is looking too good.

Happy start to the week everyone!

Tickers that were also worth watching:
$FUFU, $RNLX, $CRDF, $QNRX

 

[alexwinkler]

Today was a grind if there ever was one!

$AISP Red to Green (RTG) was the money shot but I couldn't capitalize on that due to this ticker and TOS freezing. Felt like I had frame vision.

Still got some decent wins but was back to breakeven what felt like a dozen times. Solid base hit green day though for this kind of action. Got to be happy.

$OCEA was tricky too now at HOD again.. If we had $OCEA or $AISP I think it would have been a much better day, they both kept trying to pop at the same time and I was always switching between the two. Resulting in easy-to-give back on breakouts/setups.

$PHUN was a death trap I avoided and $SBFM now moving but I'm gonna call it here. Solid 2 hours.

GL to all still at it 💪

 

[alexwinkler]

Ticker overload but the first 2 hours after open was not a walk in the park. I called it probably an hour too soon but I rarely trade after 11 AM EST + I had things to do.

I was sitting at max loss (down $1k) several times today. We had action but it wasn't consistent. Ontop of that, #Thinkorswim was the laggiest I've seen since covid 2020 covid times. Almost unusable.

All things considered happy to be green but damn that profit margin was thin today.

$RVSN, $NKGN, $APM, $AISP, $MEDS

 

[alexwinkler]

I still gotta break out of my current ceiling. I overtrade the bad stuff and under-trade the good stuff. Still my biggest Issue. I'm ready just need to do it.

I've been having some solid rev days even like $5k but giving back a lot. My risk management def needs to be tightened as well. I've done a good job at that over last 2 weeks. Mainly through (1) less aggressive PM trading and (2) quick-to-flatten trade when it's stalling or red.

Gave back today ~35% off the highs but was worth sticking around, had the right ideas but my execution was sometimes lacking.

Would consider to keep trading but R:R is getting more and more unfavorable. Nothing unusual there as we approach noon. Calling it here.

Def was a bit of a ticker overload day but we had some nice clear winners at different times. Better conditions than yesterday just gave back too many profits.

#topgainers
$MNMD, $IMRN, $GROM, $LYT, $IPA, $CELZ

 

[alexwinkler]

Nothing too exciting today, again my big issue was not being able to hold onto profits. Easy to overtrade once the move is over thinking it will continue.

Some good trades in the recording worth reviewing but overall a classic 4G kinda day (Get Green Get Going).

Momo is still in the room. Time to Recharge ⚡️
Have a great weekend everyone!

$AIMD $PBM $SGD

 

[alexwinkler]

Monday Funday! Kept trading today under an hour.

Quite a mix of tickers today but almost all trended under VWAP after open, so I had to keep my paws off.

$PIK, $UMAC, $DUO, $RVSN

Only $TCBP did quite well even though I missed most of its initial big breakout. Capitalized well at the open and Ascending Wedge we got on it.

Nice way to start the week. Seems like there's no need to overdo it today. Be back tomorrow.