Linda’s Trades
This is my stock trading report for August 24 – 28, 2020. I enter my trades (if any) daily, mostly at the end of the day, so this is an evolving post during the week. I am currently working (more than full time) teaching school virtually, so life is back to being real. Like real hard. But I’m dedicating as much time as I can to growing my portfolio and still learning as much as I can. I get my hands on about everything pertaining to being a successful trader. But I’m starting out the week with a swing and a miss, so I might as well as follow that baseball reference for the rest of the week.
Week’s Summary
Last week was my biggest gain, so my goal this week was to just hang on to that gain. (Like the stock market really cares what I think!) But even with my swing and a miss on Tesla on Monday, and one down day, I was still up 3.67% for the week.
You Don’t Need to Hit a Home Run Every Time
One thing I’ve learned during this experience is that not every trade is going to work out. It’s just the nature of stock trading. But the other thing I’ve learned is that not every trade has to work out to make a lot of money.
Now I’ve only followed one baseball partial season in my life, (back in 1996 when we were in Mariner country) but the super traders seem to make a lot of baseball references. I don’t think using these references will make me a super trader, but I think I can grasp the concept. According to my more knowledgeable sources, to be an exceptional batter you only need to have a .400 batting average. That means out of 10 swings, only 4 have to be hits. The same goes for trading. You can miss 6 times, but if you get 3 or 4 solid gains, you will increase your portfolio substantially. Especially if one is a home run! But only if you limit your losses. I always add this in case you’ve missed it on every post I write. If you keep your losses to 7% or less, you can have one increase of 25% and more than make up for 3 losses. So you could even only make 2 hits out of 10 and still be ahead.
Outcome of New Trades This Week
- QQQ – the Invesco Exchange Traded Fund – I sold a chunk to be able to buy more aggressive stocks. I bought these shares at different prices along the way, and all of these purchases were solid hits.
- TQQQ triple leveraged QQQ – I bought this to get 3x the profit of QQQ. My first purchase this week was at $142.92 and it’s closed the week at $157.71. A solid hit.
- TSLA the first time I bought it Monday it was at $2116 and sold it an hour later at $2060. Total miss.
- TSLA the second time I bought it Wednesday at $2090 and it’s closed at $2213 before the stock split.
- EBAY I sold this stock to be able to buy other stocks. I would’ve liked to have waited longer with it, but wanted other stocks.
- COUP I started this as a new position on Wednesday. I meant to buy it Tuesday and I missed the gap up. But I bought it the next day at $324 and it closed the week at $325.97. Not much of a gain but it’s a stock I want to be in.
- SHOP Shopify – I just added to my position at $1068 and it’s down to $1042. I could consider that a miss but I really like the stock.
- NFLX – I got back in this one at $510. It closed the week at $523. A hit.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Why the two different colors? Was it a gain or a loss? Well, my brokerage account says I went up .05% but my balance went down about .06%. Why the difference? Because I made an intraday trade and lost money on it. Since that loss was no longer tracked, it wasn’t averaged in the percentage. And that is why my balance was lower.
Why the bad trade? Because I had faulty reasoning for buying the stock. I bought Tesla about 8 days ago at $1464. I knew it was going to have a 5-1 stock split and it kept just moving up in price with tons of strength. (If you own one share before the split, you would own 5 shares after the split. But the value would be the same. If it was $2000 when you bought it, now each share would be $400.) I figured no one would sell their stock and lose their chance for that split even though it doesn’t add a profit.
So this morning I saw the premarket price keep going up and up. I couldn’t wait to jump in because I wanted more shares. But I waited the 5 minute obligatory time to decide if it would shoot down. It didn’t so I bought some shares. And THEN it sank. It was like it was waiting for me to buy it. But as soon as I first bought it, I put a stop loss order to sell it if it fell to a certain price. Well, it didn’t take long for it to hit that, so my sell was activated and went through. Good thing, because it went down even more. My core position was fine so I left that alone.
Research Goes a Long Way
So I don’t know why everyone else wasn’t thinking the way I was. I listened to 5 minutes of Investor’s Business Daily Live this morning and they were saying that today was the day you had to own shares in Apple to participate in their 4-1 stock split. That made me wonder if Tesla was the same way. Just because they were splitting on the 31st didn’t mean that was the day you had to own them. Newbie mistake. I should’ve researched stock splits before I went making assumptions. Also, when I looked at the chart this morning, I saw that Tesla was REALLY extended. In my right mind I would’ve never touched it. But I thought I had a better reason to counterbalance good judgment. Another lesson learned at a cost. A swing and a miss.
I didn’t buy anything today. In fact, I sold my QQQ and AMD to be able to buy those Tesla shares. So now I have cash sitting on the sideline. Sometimes that’s a good thing.
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Four months until Christmas. Funny how our mind works some ways.
Today I swung again and got a hit. No home run, just a base hit, adding TQQQ to yesterday’s purchase. It made a nice 1.65% in half a day. The shares I bought last Thursday are already up 10%.
I also sold some of my QQQ. I wanted to buy TQQQ in my IRA account but didn’t have enough extra cash. So I sold the QQQ shares but will wait to make the TQQQ purchase. You see, in an IRA account, you have to wait for the funds to settle which takes a couple of days or so. The weird thing is that I am able to BUY stock with unsettled funds, but I can’t sell them. So if I’m making a bit of a risky purchase like TQQQ, I want to be able to sell it right away if suddenly the market drops. That’s the same reason I didn’t buy TSLA yesterday. If I had bought it in the IRA account, I would’ve had to seen it drop way more than I wanted and I would’ve been helpless to do anything about it.
I’m sharing this information because when I first started trading, I kept getting this “unsettled funds” warning. I called my “financial consultant” at my brokerage firm a few different times asking why I was getting this and what was it. He had no clue. He seemed to be at a loss. I finally called the main call center for the company and the nice lady gave me the correct explanation right away. I told her of my concern that my main contact with my brokerage firm was pretty clueless. It’s situations like this that make me want to keep handling my own money.
Today was a decent day as in any gain is a decent day. My portfolio was up .9%, so close to another benchmark. (I’m crawling back up to my preCOVID crash total. It’s brutal but happening.) The market does look extended so TQQQ might be on the chopping block tomorrow as well as my weaker stocks.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
I was a bit more active in my trading today and it really paid off.
QQQ – I sold more shares today to participate in faster growing stocks. That gave me more unsettled funds so I made sure I bought stocks that I wouldn’t be interested in selling in the next couple of days.
TSLA Tesla – I added to it today even though it didn’t work out Monday. Being nimble is the name of the game. This time it worked. Another base hit.
SHOP Shopify – I also added to this position.
COUP Coupa – I had meant to buy it Tuesday but for whatever reason, I didn’t and it gapped up. But I still got into it today and it still moved up. This was a new position for me. It has a 47% increase in sales, and triple digit increase for EPS earnings per share and I’ve been meaning to get into it for a some time. Sometimes it just fell off my radar.
NFLX Netflix – I started a new position with this stock too. On the chart, it showed a double bottom pattern with a break out so that seemed like a good time buy it. Think of it as a “w” with the right bottom point lower than the left. A good point to buy it would be when it comes up that right side and passes the middle point.
Today my portfolio went up 2.97%. A very good day!
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Today I only checked a few times on my portfolio as it was a really busy day. The market was down a bit and I closed with a -.57% loss. I did not add or sell any shares today.
Friday, August 28, 2020
Again, another super busy day feeling like I’m running bases all day. But because I have new purchases this week AND TQQQ, I kept checking on my account every hour or two, just to stay flexible. I could’ve put in stop loss orders for TQQQ if I knew I couldn’t check it at all. It never hurts to take a few steps off the base in case the pitcher tries to throw you out!
My account ended with a .58% increase. That brings my weekly total to 3 1/2 days of gains and 1 1/2 days of losses. I know, how can it be 1/2 a day both ways? See Monday’s post.
Until next time,
Linda
Linda Davis (“Publisher”) provides this website (www.stockmarketgal.com) for informational purposes only. All information on this website is information of a general nature and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or entity or on any specific security or investment product. In reading this website, you understand that Publisher is not advising you personally concerning the nature, potential, value, or suitability of any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, investment strategy or other matter. In making an investment decision, each investor must rely on his, her or its own examination of the investment, including the merits and risks involved, should consult with his, her or its own investment, trading, financial, legal, tax, accounting and other advisors, and should not construe any information on this website as investment, trading, financial, legal, tax, accounting or other advice. From time to time, Publisher or her affiliates may hold positions in securities discussed on this website and will disclose those positions if applicable, but neither Publisher nor any of her affiliates receives any compensation from the issuers of any securities discussed. Publisher does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information provided, either expressly or impliedly, and expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind.
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