Linda’s Stock Trading August 10 – 14, 2020 Listen To the Stock Market

Linda’s Trades

Here are my trades for the week of August 10 – 14, 2020. This is my first week of working full time and managing my portfolio all by myself. Teaching virtually from home is definitely a stepping stone from teaching all day at school. Since I can’t micromanage my account anymore, my focus is to listen to the stock market and act only if necessary.

If you are new to trading, taking a free trial of IBD Live and listening to these experts will heighten your trading knowledge if you like that approach to trading. That has been my biggest learning boost. Even thought I can’t listen to them live anymore, I still listen later in the day, sometimes skipping a bit to shorten the length of time. For more information on how much time it takes to work on your trading, see How Much Time Does It Take to Be a Successful Trader?

Week’s Summary

Oh how I hate to put that subtitle in red. Boo. But it’s only slightly down from last Friday, which is about how most of my down weeks have been. Pretty small overall losses. I have had some very significant positive weeks which far outweigh the negative ones.

Listen to the Stock Market

The first two days of the week were brutal, and it didn’t help that they followed a bad Friday as well. I spent some time listening the my IBD “friends” and there didn’t seem to be anything with the market that was truly out of character. Yet saying that, only having 2 down days in a row up to now, and now having 3 down days in a row since this bull run started is something to consider. Mike Webster’s forecast is for the market to go sideways for the next week or two. But the market is going to do what it’s going to do no matter what we want or say.

Fortunately, Wednesday turned things around and the rest of the week just went sideways. The week ended in a .43% loss. It graciously left some of my 1% profit of last week.

Outcome of New Trades This Week

• SPY (Spdr S & P 500) – I bought this ETF twice this week as a day/swing trade and made a tiny amount the first time and lost a little the second time. It definitely came out a wash.
• SQ (Square) – I bought this at $138.55 and it closed Friday at $141.96.
• AMZN (Amazon) – I first bought 2 shares to test it out at $3121.49 and then bought more the next day at $3142. It closed the week at $3148.02.
• SPOT (Spotify) I bought this on an IBD suggestion at $265.83 but it hasn’t done well. It closed Friday at $251.32 but I think I’m going to wait until it hits the 50 day line before I sell it (unless the 50 day line is below my 7% loss rule.)
• TSLA (Tesla) I had been wanting to jump back into this and I bought it at $1464. Currently it’s at $1650.71 so it’s been my most profitable trade of the week with a 12.75% gain (on paper.)
• EBAY – This was Friday’s only trade at $57.23 and it went down a little with the market to $56.29.

Right now I only have 3 stocks with total losses in my portfolio: my new SPOT and EBAY as well as AMD from a week or two ago. Everything else has a paper profit. I say paper profit because I don’t “lock in” real profits until I sell the stock. I had a quick gain with AMD the first couple of days I had it, but didn’t sell it and now it’s slightly negative. But it’s a quality stock and I’m going to give it some grace.

What will this next week bring? Maybe just going sideways. And I’m okay with that. But you can be sure I’ll be watching and listening to the market to know how to respond.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Is it possible to make “Monday” twice as red? Ugh. I’ve patted myself on the back for taking losing days in stride. But I really don’t like two big losing days in a row. That’s when I hold my head between my hands and think, “What makes you think you can do this?”

But when I look at my balance (profit) from April to now, I give myself a pat on the back and say, “You can do this!” No, days like today aren’t fun. And I don’t get why institutions would sell off big name tech stocks. Isn’t our world built on technology? It’s not like a fad.

But the market is going to do what it’s going to do. And the only way to handle it is to be flexible and listen to the market. And react. Or don’t react. I just listened to a podcast where the featured person said he always sells too soon. (Actually I think he was talking about taking profits too soon. Not jumping out when there is a normal reaction.)

Lots of Selling

Let me get back to my trades for today. Almost a fire sale but not quite.

• NET – This stock has been tanking since Thursday. I had made an earlier purchase for $$35.49, but then added on at $39.85. I sold a third of my position right at the open at $38.50, and then another third when it continued to drop to $36.76. It’s bounced off of its 50 day line, so I’ll watch what happens tomorrow. I may buy it back if it goes up in price on volume. But that whole sector took a beating so I’m not feeling super great about it. It closed at $36.99.
• DOCU – Just like NET, it’s been dropping for 4 days now. I bought this last batch for $223.96. I unfortunately lost track of this trade (it was an add-on) and it dropped 11% before I sold it at $197.30. Currently I am developing a good stock tracker spreadsheet so that I don’t lose my add-on trades. I’m still holding my shares I bought at $207 but they are being watched closely.
• TWLO – Another stock in the same space. Hmm. Maybe I should be more diversified. I had bought it last week at $250.31 and sold it for $245.55. Not a big loss but because that whole sector was losing ground, I felt it was time to bail the most recent purchase. I was trying to build a bigger position because I was making up to 26% gains. I was willing to admit that my add on was a wrong move and I didn’t want to take much of a loss.
• DXCM – Another defensive move. I added this to my position last week at $429 and I sold it today at $424. This is in the medical equipment space so it’s not related to my tech stocks. It also rebounded off the 50 day line but it closed at $421. I’ll check on it tomorrow to see if might have some strength off of that line.
• ZM – I used Zoom all day for meetings but apparently that didn’t help my stock. Boo. It sold on my stop loss order. It broke through the 50 day but it’s slightly above it now. I bought it at $265.11 and it sold for $248. 36.
• SPY – I actually made a buy of SPY shares to participate in the S&P 500. I watched the 5 minute chart for a few minutes and decided to try it out. My balance had unsettled funds in it which I didn’t want to use. If I had bought the stock with unsettled funds, I wouldn’t be able to sell it for a day or two, something I didn’t want to do with the market being a little wild. So I bought a few shares and made a whopping $1.08! Now I can go to the convenience store and buy a soda! (Not really. It’s in my IRA. I’ll have to wait a couple of years.)
• AAPL – I just have to put this one in here to show that my day wasn’t a total loss. My average price for this stock is $300.34 and it keeps going up, closing at $450.91 today, up 1.45% for the day.

Remember, always do your own research before making any trades! And ALWAYS have an exit strategy when you purchase a stock.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

If I wanted yesterday to be double red, it better be triple today. Ai-yi- yi! I sold some of my DXCM and TWLO just because. Well, those particular DXCM shares were purchased higher as a add-on position and I wanted to take some profit from TWLO. I tried SPY when the S&P started to get stronger, but that didn’t do much. I did end up buying SQ and only lost $30 by the end of the day. AMZN looked like it was turning around so I bought 2 shares before it tanked another $40 per share. My portfolio dropped 2.2%!

Since this is day 3 of tanking, I’m going to take profits of my low price shares tomorrow if my stocks don’t turn around. This is ridiculous!

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Finally a positive day! Now that the blood bath is temporarily over, (at least until the market opens again) I feel like there is hope.

I was more active in trading today. It means that I’m doing more school work in the evening. (But what else is new? I always worked on school stuff through the evening after teaching nonstop during the day.)

• TWLO – Everything was up, except a couple of stocks, TWLO one of them. I really hate to sell it but it just keeps going down. So I sold the higher purchased shares of it and now I only have about 1/3 of my position in it.
• ADBE – Another one I hated to sell but these shares were bought at a higher price. But ADBE was waiting it seems for me to sell it before it turned around and went up $5. Grrr.
• DOCU – I sold the last of these even though they too went up later in the day.
• GMAB – I ended my position in this stock too. It also went up a smidge at the end of the day.
• TSLA – I have been wanting to get a few shares of this ever since I sold hit at $935, snagging a $500 profit. If I had hung on to it, I would’ve had a $6000 profit! After the stock split announcement today (5 for 1) I knew I was going to jump in. But I’m really glad I watched the 5 minute chart. It really came down those first few minutes at the open and I was able to buy it a little lower as it started to go back up. I was able to see a 6.2% paper profit.
• AMZN – I had sold my position a few weeks ago right around $3000 a share for a profit and have just been watching it. When it started its move up, I bought it at $3142.26 and it’s made a .64% profit for the day.
• SPOT – My losing stock purchase of the day. I bought this at $265 and it’s at $253, a 4.7% loss. I will keep a close eye on it tomorrow and will sell it before it gets to a 6% loss.

Finally a solid day gain after all these losses. My total was up 2.5% for the day. Still a ways from last Thursday’s high, but not far from Friday’s final total.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

This is one of those days that I just had to let the market be. It started strong so I knew I didn’t need to babysit it.

EBAY – This is the only stock I bought today. It was recommended as a buy so I jumped in at $56.30. It closed at $56.28 so I’ve lost a whopping 20 cents. I didn’t want to buy it with unsettled funds so I only bought a few shares. If it’s moving up tomorrow, I’ll buy some more.

During the midday my account was up pretty strongly but it lost half of that at the end, a profit of .8%. I’ll take it!

Friday, August 14, 2020

EBAY – I added to my position today at $57.42 but the market slid down in the day and ended at $56.29. So I only lost a penny per share on yesterday’s purchase, but over a dollar on today’s. Waiting for those funds to settle cost me some money as of today. But I feel like it’s a good stock and it will go back up. I’m going to give it some room.

I was hoping for a tiny gain today so that at least I would be back where I was a week ago. It was not to be but it wasn’t a big loss at least. My portfolio was down .16%.

Until next time,

Linda

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