November was a great month of trading. I was able to make a strong leap in several different aspects. Although I’m mainly focused on risk, I did a lot better trying to hold more for the bigger move. On several of the home runs during this month I could have made small fortunes with the amount I was trading. I will continue to get better each day while managing my risk and also going after the bigger moves.
You can read about my October 2020 right here. You can see where I came from.
I was hoping to do a video on the November equity curve, but Tradestation was not reporting correctly. Once I get that resolved I will try and create a video. For now, you can read my notes for each day of trading. Well, half of the month since I didn’t start it until the middle of November 2020.
Trading Notes for November 2020
On November 13, which was a Friday, I felt pretty comfortable coming into the trading day. I managed to pull out around $80 from the market, but I wasn’t pressing the buy button enough. I missed a couple of real nice trades on MYOV and KCAC. Each one of these was sort of slow-moving but paid really well if you held some shares. I nailed an early TSLA trade and made some money on an NIO shape play. Strong stocks making deep moves to the downside are subject to a reversal. I didn’t hold enough while the reversal was happening, but I was able to grab some gains on a super fast-moving stock.
I walk into the weekend feeling confident about next week. I really need to step up my trade size and be more selective with my trading. Pressing the buy button will always be a factor. I also need to hold some more before my first sale. Some big goals.
On November 16, 2020, a Monday, I was struggling with an ear infection and had a hard time finding my groove. I got off to a bad start on MRNA, fought back, and missed a whole bunch of nice trades. It was one day I wish I didn’t trade and ended up losing around $300 on the day. The big news event on that day was TSLA getting added to the S&P 500.
On November 17, 2020, a Tuesday, I had a better day than the previous. I missed several great trades on YY, BLNK, and a few others. I tried a ROKU trade which faded and eventually worked several minutes later. I didn’t take the secondary move, however. I was alerted to BA around 10:00 am and entered with 200 shares. I was able to ride this trade up all the way to 211.20. A huge move with small shares. In fact, I sold a lot of my shares in the 200.50 and 201.50 range. It made a magical move later on. NIO earnings came out in the after-hours and did the setup. I was busy doing something else and missed the trade.
On November 18, 2020, a Wednesday, I got off to a great start with a trade on TJX. This trade made a fairly strong initial move but did pull back some forcing me to close out some shares way earlier than I wished. I even tried holding 100 shares for the bigger move. Since I protect my entry after I take some off, as price came down to my entry I got stopped out. Five cents later this thing ran up over $1 for bigger gains. I immediately found TGT at 168. I nailed this entry, but the unfortunate part was my share size. I only took it with 200 shares. I maxed out the move at $164 on a stock that ran four points. Hold, Hold, Hold.
After these trades were over I faced many different platform ordering issues. I spoke to Tradestation customer support without much luck and didn’t have a good resolution, so I didn’t trade the rest of the day. I walked with $301 on the day, but I really think there was more out there. Look at ZM $400 after the announcement of New York Schools closing. I wasn’t able to capitalize on this. I also couldn’t find my way into a TSLA 50 point move either.
On November 19, 2020, a Thursday, I got off to a fast start in CIIC. With 300 shares this one ripped. I jumped in early with momentum and got a decent fill. I was able to make $123 out of in 2 minutes. The reason I sold it all was that I was on the wrong matrix window and I wasn’t seeing the price action correctly. My mistake.
I did try to trade TSLA through 498 today, three different times, and walked after the last one. Of course, the next move at that level worked out all the way to 507. I missed the move I really wanted.
FUV came into my radar with all of the EV plays doing well. The risk was only $90 on 300 shares. I really needed to be at 500 if not more. This thing was making parabolic moves and I was selling shares all the way. I sold way too many early but overall made $170 on the trade. Had I held until the end of the day, we are talking $1200.
Overall a good day and I reached all-time highs on my account. I’m looking forward to really ramping up now.
On November 20, 2020, a Friday, I got off to a slow start where my first trade didn’t occur until after 10:00 am. I found XPEV for the first time through 52 for a minor gain. I had the hardest time getting into ROKU two days in a row and both times I tried I failed. I was able to nail XPEV later on for a nice $1 gain and made around $120 on the trade.
I did take a couple of losses on ZM and TDOC. Both were in the process but failed. Unfortunately, ZM was a small rug pull and I lost $83 on the trade.
A great way to end the week was a nice 2nd move on an IPO MRVI. I was able to get $116 on this trade and close out the week strong. I did miss a bunch of trades, but I’ll hope to catch more next week.
On November 23, 2020, a Monday, I came in knowing I had two bad Mondays in a row. I decided I would be more conservative with my position size, while still pressing the button. We had the same type of Gap up Monday followed by a fade in the market. The EV space was still hot and I really needed to hold on to some share while also taking more trades.
I was able to catch $70 in GP and $115 in BYND, but I missed big moves on BA and ROKU. Also, EV plays like XPEV, DPW, and BLNK were cranking. I couldn’t find my way into these.
At this point, I think I’m missing out, but I’m still remaining cautious while my account grows. I will need to increase size over the coming days.
On November 24, 2020, a Tuesday, I was able to come away from the trading day green. I definitely missed some trades on this day, but catching NKLA for 5 points was super nice. I have to believe in the hold some mentality once I nail a trade. Yes, take some gains, but hold more for even bigger profits. It’s the way you can make a lot more money. On 300 shares, I made $250 off a max move of $1650. This was around 15%. This is not the percentage I want to be at. Assuming I plan to scale out of my shares looking for the bigger move, 30% is my first goal.
I had a high of $267 on the day, but a rug pull on CIIC with a buy stop run took $100 off my gains.
On November 25, 2020, a Wednesday, trading right before Thanksgiving exceeded expectations on several different stocks. While leaving a lot out there and missing a super big one, I was able to walk away from the day with $187. I took an early trade on ZM that failed and followed it up again with a big winner. This brought my losses to the winning side. I was able to find a few other trades in FSR, NBAC, and WORK. Although Pre-Thanksgiving trading isn’t the best, I managed to end on a positive note.
On November 27, 2020, a Friday, I got off to a pretty rough start. In fact, I was totally not focused and I started to throw darts at TSLA. I really liked several setups that I missed and then I started to throw the darts. By around 20 minutes into the short session, I was down $203. I almost walked away from the screens, but deep down inside I knew there was a trade to be had.
NVAX and MRNA were super strong on the day. They both made significant moves and then they started to flag near the highs. I was watching both, but NVAX was more appealing to me. It may have been a little bit of a rangy entry, I was able to pull $456 out of it on 300 shares. I had around 10 total sales with my biggest one at 127. This was 12 points above my entry. I ended the day up 203. Not bad for a really bad start.
On November 30, 2020, a Monday, I told myself I would be patient, but of course, I got overly excited and traded CAAS. Not only did I trade this crappy stock once, but I also traded it a second time. In the first 10 minutes of trading, I was down $170. Not what I had planned coming off a long weekend.
Fortunately, I found QS soon after these other trades were closed. I struggled with this stock last week, but this time around I nailed the entry and got 4 points out of some shares. I only traded this $48 stock with 200 shares. Wow, what 200 shares can do on a move like this. I had a potential total gain of $900, but I walked with $418. It was a great trade to get me back in the green.
I then found NVAX again. Last Friday, I nailed it, but this time the price flushed me down just enough to spook me out. I took a quick $120 loss. Seconds later, NVAX ran up and made a nice run to $137 before retracing and then continuing up to $147.50. Just an insane stock lately. I ended the day up $167. Could it have been better, most definitely?
Summing It Up
I’m looking forward to a good December run and to close the year up strong. If I can hold more longer and manage my risk, I feel like I can do even better than in November. Please let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment below.
