AMD Trade on Aug 2, 2021 09:32 from tjmiller2001: Tradervue User Stock Trades.

I took two trades on AMD today. This name has been in play recently, rallying from $85 to $105 in the past few weeks. AMD has a 4 Hour Demand zone at $104.91

Trade 1

AMD was trading around 106 in premarket. Before the bell I made the plan to get long if AMD pulled back into 4 hour demand at 104.91 then bounced from there. I feel like this was a solid plan but I should've added more detail to what I wanted to see. A better, more specific plan would've been, "If AMD pulls back to 105 on low volume, then momentum or high volume is present for 1-2 green 1m candles, I will get long with a stop below the lowest green candle."

The opening 9:30 candle was red but didn't represent sellers rushing to get filled at any price. The 9:31 candle showed a sharper move down. The 9:32 candle appeared to show a change in character right at my 104.91 demand zone. I interpreted the first 30 seconds of this candle as a change in character and got long.

My stop was not planned before the trade, I pounced on this opportunity to get long then decided my stop should be at 104.70, below the lows of the 9:31 and 9:32 candles. I figured that I didn't want to be long while AMD was making a new intraday low. I was quickly stopped out with a market order. I love the order fills when I'm trading with shares.

I decided that a good reentry would be at 105.50, a price higher than the 9:32 candle that I perceived to indicate a change in character.

I believe it would be beneficial for me to not trade in the first 5 minutes of the trading day. I will miss opportunities but at my current skill level, it doesn't benefit my development to trade without much information. I should wait at least 5 minutes for the market or an equity to start telling a story before I try to predict where that story is headed.

Lesson Learned: When making my premarket plan for how I will trade certain levels on specific names, include details about the price, volume, and momentum I want to see after the open.

Trade 2

My second trade on AMD followed my reentry rules set after the first trade.

After consolidating inside of 4 Hour demand from 9:35 to 9:45, I noticed strength was back in the name at 9:46, when price broke back above the demand zone. I had a feeling that the character had changed in this name and it was headed up. I don't like the way that sounds, trading off a gut instinct. When I have stronger results, I'll actually have a feel for how names move and there will be more reasoning to trust my gut.

At 9:48 I was filled long with a 3:1 RR. I was long at 105.42 with a SL at 105.12 and a TP level at 106.32. At the time of my entry this stock was up 1% in just 6 minutes. I felt like I was chasing a little bit by getting in on the 3rd of 3 sizable green candles. I think my entry was late becuase I waited for AMD to get 3 minutes of momentum before I was filled long.

At 9:50 I noticed that volume was slowing, this told me that buyers were not as eager to get their hands on shares. That was bad news for the price. I placed an order to get out.

At 9:51 I was stopped out.

My immediate thoughts after the trade were: "Was I chasing, should I have been scalping?" I think I was chasing, buying during such a strong uptrend instead of waiting for a potential pullback. This could've been a great dip buy trade. Patience would've paid here, I want that fresh in my mind for the next opportunity that involves strength in demand then a retest of it.

This name pulled back to VWAP and demand then took off higher, from 105 to 108 without any big pullbacks. Recently I have been selling bottoms on 4 of my 5 past trades.

To address this issue, I should try taking multiple stabs at the same opportunity. I will start accepting that I may get stopped out once or twice for a small loss just to be a part of the bigger picture move later.

Another solution is to use a wider stop and have further TP levels. I will try this if the method below doesn't yield acceptable results.

Lesson Learned: Use small position sizing on each entry, get stopped out a few times if necessary, then hold for the big picture move.