APHA Trade on Feb 3, 2021 09:40 from tjmiller2001: Tradervue User Stock Trades.

Great job trading a stock in play. This name was up big premarket with lots of eyes on it.

I made 2 losing trades and 1 winning trade on APHA today. I was profitable because my winner was bigger than my two losers combined. I'm getting better at cutting losers short and letting winners ride. Although today the argument could also be made that my stops were too tight and my TP level was also too tight. (More on that below).

In the premarket, I marked 16.00 as an important level. My logic was, "This is the next whole number resistance for this stock to try and break through. Since it is a low priced stock. This whole number will be important." However, 16.00 was never even reached or touched in the premarket. I told myself this level was important, and totally ignored the importance of VWAP.

This was a mental lapse where I had my blinders on. I said 16.00 was important and when 16 broke and VWAP held, my mind didn't even internalize, "Okay now watch the next retest of VWAP for another entry." I need to see things clearly as a trader.

I took my first entry with a 3:1 RR and was stopped out in just 6 seconds. I entered the same trade a few minutes later. Same entry price, 3:1 RR, and everything. I hadn't gotten it through my head that 16 was not the level to watch. Only once I was stopped out and stayed in to watch VWAP hold did I realize that VWAP was the level/indicator to watch. Once again, clarity of mind/open-mindedness would've helped here.

Now I've been stopped out twice for small losses in a stock that is forming a bull flag. Although I am slightly trading on tilt, I do my best to stay in my chair, control my emotions, and avoid revenge trading.

On the 3rd try, I take a beautiful 3:1 RR entry, with VWAP and a trendline acting as support. My sizing was lower than it should have been. This was an A or B setup at this point, and not the time to enter with low size. I can't let recent failures scare me away from sizing up on great opportunities.

I rode it up to my PT and exited at resistance. I rode it up .40 from my entry, it ended up rising as much as 1.55 from my entry. I caught a piece of the move but not the bulk of the move. Sizing up would've given me the opportunity to keep a piece of this on and maximize my profits as it broke far above the bull flag.

Lesson Learned: Just because you set a level premarket doesn't mean it's a good intraday level. Have the presence of mind to look at what levels are important intraday.

Size up on your best opportunities. This will give you the opportunity to scale out. It reduces the risk you will catch part of the move instead of a bulk of the move. Lots of $ left on the table bc I entered too small.