All right guys, so let's do a midday Market Recap on today: Day 26 of the Small Account Challenge formerly known as the Small Account Challenge. Now uh, we'll just call this the 100K challenge because uh, that's the goal. So as you guys know, yesterday was my first day trading in speed Trader and uh I moved my money out of sh Trader put it in speed Trader And you know, opening a new account has been a little bit of a pain in the middle of the day. Yesterday I got uh, logged out and I couldn't log back in until I had all these agreements signed and something kind of weird happened where the trade I took in the morning, got cleared off my balance and the trade I took in the afternoon basically was starting from a zero balance and then this morning.

uh, when I logged in, My Equity was only showing the profit from the trade in the morning, not from the trade in the afternoon. So I called them and they said they're going to fix it. The trade trade was recorded, but it just wasn't on my account because of the switch. So I started this morning with Equity of $ 42,3 which is about $2,800 or $2,600 lower than uh, it's supposed to be.

So tomorrow, if I didn't trade at all tomorrow, my account would most likely be opening around 44,800 Uh, which is uh, reflects the gains from yesterday and now today I've made 10,000 5 $853 which means tomorrow my account will be actually closer to $55,000 So I'm 55% of the way there to the 100K Mark and uh, this is the account that I started on January 1st with $583 15. So the strategy now that the account is getting bigger is, uh, pedal to the metal and being aggressive. Now the aggression today was fueled ALS also by frustration. Uh, I was feeling very frustrated this morning and uh, this is something we talked about a little bit on.

Friday uh when we talk about some of the psychological challenges that Traders um, you know that the Traders have and that I've certainly had this morning I was frustrated I was frustrated that my account balance was screwed up. um I was, uh, frustrated that there were, um, you know, just I was having Tech issues my connection wasn't stable. the dogs were barking, uh, the black dog knocked over a glass this morning broke a glass everywhere. so I was just kind of got up on the wrong side of the bed.

I was feeling agitated I was really feeling quite annoyed I put on my lucky sweatshirt I Hope you know things would come together with the lucky sweatshirt. Um, but I Couldn't help but feel as I was sitting here that my blood pressure was like rising and that I was just feeling agitated. You have to be careful when you're trading in that mindset because you can be overly aggressive and you can get, um, just kind of into this into this state where you know you're just kind of like swinging it things really hard and you could just you know Miss again and again and again and just drive yourself kind of nuts. I've definitely had that happen before on days where I was frustrated.

Uh, fortunately, today, Um, I was able to, you know, channel that frustration into some good and positive trading. Uh, the trades I took today apop dffn both of them excuse me on the Gap Scanner with a headline and then A and Xgti on the highay momentum scanner. So one loser uh, and three winning, three winners on those out of those four stocks. commissions are just about $400 mostly generated by my Ecn fees.

All right. So uh, we'll go over the trades from today. Uh, by far the best trade of the day was Aehr $3,500 and the reason this was a good trade was because we were able to get really clean five minute setups. First entry was right here 268 and then the second trade was right here.

Enter entering at 316 selling on this push I Sold a little early. um in the 40s because we got a 10, 20,000 share seller. Uh, at 340 ended up going as high as 369. But you know Green is good and I'm walking away with profit on the name.

I Would be tempted to trade this third pullback simply because it looks so clean. But let's you know, remember that Number one: it's the lunch hour number two trading. Uh, the third pullback is always riskier. First pullback and second pullback are the safest.

so this was would be a risky entry both because it's the third and the time of the day. So you know I would watch for the first five minute candle to make a new high and that would probably at this point be over 360. So 360 you'd expect an immediate break at 369. Target would be $4 Now on this one here.

I Traded 15,000 shares on my first entry and I traded 10,000 on my second so a little less size on the second trade. I didn't want to give up profit and on both of them I was aggressive with share size again. kind of I guess because I was feeling a little agitated. the fear of loss was, um, non-existent I was just like, you know what? I See, this is already a pretty annoying day, so what the heck, let's just see what we can do.

I mean it's not going to get even if I take a loss, it's not going to get that much worse. Um and again. I'm not saying that that's the best mentality to trade in typically. I would suggest beginner Traders really walk away when they're feeling emotional like that.

but I think when you've been doing this for as long as I have you can, uh, kind of channel that extra aggression to help you have a good day. and uh, you know how to moderate it and you still are in control. You still know your max loss, you know you still know your risk tolerances, and um, by the time I took this trade, I was already up $7,000 on the day so I had a pretty big cushion. I Didn't really think I was going to lose money today after this trade, so that was Aehr best trade of the day.

Um, now the two trades out of the gates are both kind of interesting. Dffn and Apop. Both of these were on Gap scanner so let me pull this back here. Um, let's see.

I'm put that over there. so look at the Gap scanner. Uh, each morning starts the same way. uh, scanning for the stocks that are hitting uh, that are looking like they're going to Gap up and open higher for those of you watching on.

uh Facebook I'll show you. um, there's my P&l for the day 10,000 Uh, this actually shows slightly lower than my other one, but $1,571 .7 It's kind of interesting when you log out and log back in your commissions. change it. It moves the Ecn and NASDAQ fees into commissions and usually get like a little bit of a change by a couple dollars.

I'm not sure why that is, but anyway, so um, I took this screenshot before I logged out I logged out and logged back in to see if I could get my balance to update. but it didn't. All right. So here's Dfn: Uh, leading the Gap scanner gapping up 46% on news AP Op: gapping up 31% on news Both of these with 150 160,000 shares of pre-market volume.

All right. So these are stocks that, uh, were gapping up. They were our leading gappers and they were worth watching. We knew that they would be in play.

Um, you know the fact that they were on the top of the Gap scan that they had this news? we knew Traders would jump on them. And so it's not a surprise then that uh, Dfn and Apop are our two leading relative volume leaders today. in the entire Market uh, DF FFN is the highest, Apop is the second highest and then below that, we've got AMC and then wcst. uh ahr not sure where that is actually on here.

um maybe down a little bit further. Um, or I may be just overlooking it and xgti I'm not sure where that is either. but uh, the two trades right out of the gates on the Gap and go stocks. You know, Basically on both of those these are stocks dffn and and Apop that have been crazy parabolic.

within the last month Dffn went from $ 250 up to $15.50 Uh, that was one of our first trades of the year. a big win on that. uh on January 10th and this morning I looked at this and I was like this looks to me per this this is perfect because you know what this looks like. it looks like a pullback.

Now the thing I maybe didn't Um, didn't realize at the time was this was our first pullback. this was our second and this was actually our third and I'm usually pretty cautious about trading the third pullback up here. um I think I kind of just looked at this as being one pullback and I was so focused on this being the type of stock that could have home run potential that I didn't fully recognize I was buying the third. So I bought the third candled to make a new high.

The high of that candle was 621. As soon as the bell rang and I saw volume coming in, I got in, squeezed up to a high of 689 and on this one I was looking for the break of $7 I knew that we needed to hold over this purple line on the two on the daily chart. uh, 658 because that was the 200 moving average. Was looking for $7 Thinking above seven, we've got room on the daily.

No resistance until $15 Unfortunately, it didn't hold those levels and what could have been easily uh, $10,000 or $20,000 winner ended up uh, being only $4,700 Not to say that that's not a good trade trade, but it's certainly less than uh, what I was looking for. So on that trade I started with 2500 share orders and I added until I was holding. um I think it was 17,500 shares. so I was being pretty aggressive on this I was really thinking this had home run potential and I wanted to position myself for the big win and I probably had $10,000 unrealized profit at one point.

but I certainly didn't lock up that much so didn't hold the the gains disappointing on that one apop. same kind of thing. it started popping out of the gates and on this one because I was trading dffn right out of the gates I kind of missed the right entry and I ended up chasing it uh with an entry at I think it was 575 and six 615 and then I added as high which is kind of ridiculous. I added another 2500 shares as high as 663.

so I was really thinking again this one potential on The Daily to go go up maybe to no resistance until 878 and I was just you know, pedal to the metal being aggressive on that one. I think I had 10 or maybe 12,000 shares so you know I was up quite a bit on it, but I was only able to lock up $22,900 it didn't hold those levels and then when I tried to mark it out, not Market but get out the the level two just kind of dropped so that's kind of disappointing. I mean $7,500 a profit on Gap and go trades using the one minute chart. So a win is a win.

but on both of those trades, I was sort of aligning myself for potentially 10 to $20,000 winners if it worked and I had a $22,000 winning day last Thursday So I knew that that would that. this is possible in this market if you position yourself aggressively and you get into the right stock at the right time. Unfortunately, these two, uh, didn't give me that win so that's okay. You know I'll keep stepping up to the plate.

I'll Stand Tall I'll take that big uh position and uh, you know I do that enough times and I will have some really good siiz winners this year. Um, you know it's also inevitable that I'll take 15,000 shares, lose 30 cents like that, and be down 4500 bucks. That can happen and that's the risk. and I know that risk coming into it and I'm prepared for that loss and I can handle it.

You know if I lose five grand in a day, I can handle it and I'll bounce back I don't want it to happen, but you know this is just the way it is when you're being aggressive and I'm definitely being aggressive with this account. Uh, trying to grow it as quickly as I can. There will be a point where I may feel like I can, kind, of, uh, take my foot off the gas a little bit and put on cruise control and just kind of, you know, just Cruise you know with $1,000 a day or something like that. But for me I get really, um, really motivated like tunnel vision when I have a goal and so my first goal is 25,000 and I just was like hustling to that goal.

Now my goal is 100 grand and I'm just going to hustle to that goal. so as soon as I get there I'll I'll put out another goal I don't see really the point in uh, easing off the throttle I mean I feel like I might as well continue to be aggressive and just make sure that uh, every trade I take is you know, mindful of the risk and that I'm not positioning myself to you know, potentially lose 20 or $30,000 in a single day. That's what I really want to certainly avoid so you know and as you start to take bigger and bigger share size, it can, uh, there is some risk for that type of loss if you're chasing so you know that's kind of what I have to think about and it means that every trade I take has to be calculated and I do have to think about the risk risk before I get into the trade. uh I may decide I don't care if I lose 5 grand I'm going to take the trade, but uh, at the same time I at least need to have that thought process So Currently, my account still has a $1,000 Max loss which means if I'm down more than $1,000 I can't take any more trades.

um the way I'm trading right now, that seems a little too tight. but I also don't know if I want to change it because I don't want to allow myself to I'm not sure exactly how I will react if I'm in a trade where I lose, you know 1,00 bucks or500 bucks if I really will be in the right mindset to keep trading. um I'm not totally sure. so for right now I'm going to leave it if I have a day where I hit my Max loss and I feel like you know I want to call my broker and say hey, can you lift that off my account I can do it but um, for right now I'll just let it be there and I didn't actually ever ask sh Trader to add that to my account.

Um, the only day that I lost that that much was the day I lost 5,500 and I just threw in the towel I was like it's no, you know no point in continuing to trade today. it's been a bad day. so in any case, um, let's look at the stocks that hit the high day scanner. So the first one was xgti, um hitting the highay scans.

Um, let's see what time was this. Um, so would have been right around 10 55 1055 Let's see. actually this might not have hit the scans. this might have been someone calling it out in the chat room saying hey, look, Xgti is spiking up so on this one I I Waited for the pullback and bought the first 5minute candle to make a new high which was right here.

and actually yeah, that was right there. Yeah we no no no no no sorry, sorry, sorry. um I got in this on the one minute time frame I was on the one minute chart I saw it Spike up it pulled back here at 215 and I got in at 215. We popped up to 220 and then immediately rolled over.

couldn't hold that level so took the loss lost. uh with 3,000 shares like8 cents $211 So uh I thought maybe we'd get continuation, get a move and I was wrong. but I was trying get in that what appeared to be a very strong stock as quickly as possible. Back in my mind Target you know 225 and then 250? uh for you know potential And then we had a Aehr popping up and again I was like okay here we go.

This is something we might be able to work with and I was impressed with how it spiked from 220 all the way up to 297. I Mean that's a that's a big move, you know that really is quite something. So we got the pullback. uh and I was like okay, my target will be a move back to $3 So I got in right here 270 15,000 shares Target was $3 We popped up to a high of 295 and then in this candle, we dropped down to 278.

So I went from being you know, up three grand or whatever it was and I actually kept adding I added at 90 and I added again at 96. So my average was 280. even though I got in first at 270, my average was 280. So I dropped here from being up 20 cents to Down 2 cents.

and then when it came back up uh and and broke through three and hit 309, that's when I was like all right, I'm just going to sell this, take the profit. that was a little scary. so I took the profit on that. ended up continuing to run up to 334.

So I was like all right, well hey, that's good, that's strong I'll wait for the next pullback. next pullback forms right here and as soon as that candle closed with a high of 316 within like 2 seconds, Uh, the next candle broke the high at 316. I jumped in with 7500 shares at 318 and then I added another 2500 at 334 333. Uh, because that was high of day, high of day was 334.

So I added at high of day for the squeeze through Target was 350. We popped up to a high of 340 and then we saw a 20,000 share seller sitting at 340 and kind of like you see this guy here, 25,000 shares at 325 We keep seeing this type of order and that kind of felt like as we popped up through the highs and then we saw that I was like I don't know this this feels a little risky. It's extended I I'm as of right now breaking over $10,000 in profit on the day, which was kind of my goal when I was sitting at 9,000 or 9500. So I was like, you know what? let's just take it, we're coming into lunch I'm going to take the profit and I'm going to be going to be happy with that.

So um, you know that's that's where we stand today. Four stocks aehr, apop, dffn, xgti, four momentum names Uh, three solid, three solid winners. Um I guess actually four four trades total because I traded a Aehr twice. So total of uh, five trades today and four winners $400 in commission.

but uh, it was. It was worth it. So uh, tomorrow, I'll open. Hopefully my account will be updated.

I'll open around $55,000 and that will put me, uh, 55% of the way to the $100,000 goal. So you know I don't know really when um I'm going to hit 100 Grand uh when I started this challenge, I started with $583 and my goal was to hit $100,000 by the end of 2017. I was going to give myself this entire year to hit 100 Grand and I wasn't even sure I mean I really wasn't sure what I'd be able to do. The hardest part of the challenge was the first two weeks going from $500 to 5,000 Once I had $5,000 it was really smooth sailing because I was able to use my margin with sure Trader six times margin.

So five time6 is $30,000 So I had $30,000 to trade with and it was really like, well, this is just how I always trade and I've been making you know 25 $30,000 a month pretty consistently. So at that rate, as soon as I got above 5,000 I figured Well, at this point it seems like I'll be able to get there within a couple months. You know, three months if I'm doing 35,000 a month, maybe four months if it's a little slower. And so far, uh, this year I'm up.

um I think around. Well, I'm up in this account 55,000 plus I was trading in my other account at the beginning of the year. so you know I'm close to 85,000 or so on the year total, which is pretty darn good considering it's it's February 8th so we'll see. Um, you know this is shaping up to be by far the best month that I've ever had.

Uh, I would have to beat $55,000 for this to be the best month ever since that was my uh, that was my high in the middle of or at the end of January before I gave back 13,000 and closed with just um, 32,000 so or 42,000 So um, you know, hopefully can beat 55,000 this month. That would be a really nice way to bounce back and um, you know, really keep myself. uh, keep the momentum going and just keep pushing hard. So first quarter 2017 feeling pretty strong and I'm just going to really, um, you know, keep keep after it and see how aggressive I can be.

Um, at some point I'll hit a limit where I got to taper back and it'll probably be a big loss or something like that. That kind of tells me I got to, um, you know, slow it down. but until then, I'll just be aggressive and uh, if I can keep having three four $5,000 days on a regular basis, then I'll take it. You know, an occasional $10,000 day or $20,000 day That just adds to the month.

So that's where we're at today. Um, those of you watching on Facebook you can feel free to add comments and I'll answer them. Those of you watching on YouTube you can comment and I'll answer those. Um, I'm going to answer some questions here.

Um, yeah, and that's what I was saying yesterday. Allan I mean essentially, just keep it running and we'll see. We'll see where I go. Uh, dfn no I didn't use a buy stop I don't use buy stop orders I only use um, limit orders to get in trade.

so I don't use any buy stops. Um, it's not that they don't work I just personally don't use them. um, the indicators for the hot Keys Like for me when I saw that 20,000 share seller, that's when I said all right I'm just going to bail out, hit the bid hotkey control Z pressing those two buttons I'm out of the trade like that I mean it's that fast. It really is.

So you hock keys are just a fantastic tool to help you trade faster. I mean they really are really great. So uh, that helped me get out of that trade. Uh, quickly.

lock up the profit getting in the trade, shift one by 2 200 shares I can press it four times I'll have 10,000 That's what I do sometimes I'm not always sure how many shares I want to take of a of a stock until I kind of get in and start to feel the you know if it's got good momentum, if it's moving, or if it's kind of sluggish if there's a hidden seller stuff like that. So um, yeah, you definitely want to practice the hot keys and it's something that it takes some muscle memory to get good at them them. but once you've got it, it's It's pretty easy. And AJ the reason that my entries are precise is because I'm looking for the Apex point.

So like on Ahr, my entry was supposed to be at 316 because that was the first candle to make a new high. That was the Apex point of that pattern. That's where I had to get in stop at 308 8 cent stop. you know? 20 30 Cent Target That's a two to1 profit loss ratio.

You know that works and you do that four or five times in a row. If you've got 60 70% accuracy, you're going to do really well. So it was just. these patterns have a very specific entry.

There are some patterns that don't have a specific entry um, you know that are kind of like, well, you take a little here, you sort of get started and then add a little more and those have never been as good at. just because. they feel, um, you know, they feel vague. they feel a little bit more fuzzy and and that kind of thing thing.

I mean the first candle to break the high of the previous candle and I don't wait for it to close I just as soon as it breaks the high, that's when I get in. and Thomas I Don't trade pink sheets I Don't trade OTC I Only trade Um NYSC NASDAQ listed stocks If your commissions are $10 per trade, $10 in $10 out I You know? yeah, I would manage risk a little bit differently. You wouldn't be able probably to trade with anything less than a thousand shares because just the commissions are going to become such an issue. So I would probably be looking for stocks that I felt comfortable taking 1,000 to 2,000 shares 10cent stop 20 cent profit Target commissions are going to be about 10% of it if you enter once and exit once.

So it's not ideal, but as you build up your account, it it may be um, you know something that you're able to cope with. Obviously, commissions were not cheap at sure Trader but I was able to just um, you know I was just able to push through it and deal with it. Yeah, these hot Keys Sarah work in speed Trader and Sh Trader and also on interactive brokers. If you're using Dash Trader on my hot keys I don't have to press enter Because I I program them so I don't but you program them either to load the order and then you preview it and you press enter or you you program it to send the order to load it and send.

so you choose whichever one you want. So yeah, I know E Trade and am Merit trade. Some of those are $10 per trade and it's definitely a little bit more expensive, which is tricky. Well, here's the thing: Chris on Apop and Dffn both of those were the leading gappers so they'd be watched by uh, really, all traders that trade gaps.

Anyone trading Gap stocks would be watching those so you've got a lot of people watching them. Uh, both of them were gapping up with a catalyst. They had news and for that reason, they were worth watching as soon as the market opened. If they started to get volume as soon as the bell R rang or was going to ring, that's was going to be my entry to get in and that's what we saw in both of them.

So I use the trade ideas momentum and GAP scanner. Yep, the Gap scanner is what I use in the morning for putting together my watch list. That's how I got Apop and Dffn and then the Um highay scanners for how I find stocks that have momentum after the Bell Rings Sometimes the gappers are on that scanner and Dffn and Apop were both on it early this morning. dffn apop Uh, other times my my watch list doesn't play out and so I'm waiting for something else to start moving.

uh and I can see what's moving just by watching the scanner. David Uh, sometimes I'll manually type in the price that I want to buy at and other times I just press shift one to use the hotkey really depends on whether or not I have time. If I've got time to enter the order manually, I will. If I don't then I just press the hotkey And yes, E signal is the tool that I use for charting.

so you know I Obviously there are Brokers that have scanners, charts, and trading all in one platform. uh and that's fine, that's you know that's nice for me. I wanted to have a discount broker where my commissions are really low because commissions are such a big uh part of trading. I mean I have $400 in commissions today and if I was at e trade or Merit trade, it would probably be closer to a th000 bucks.

So you know that. Let's just say I saved $600 today. Well that more than pays for E signal and trade ideas to Standalone Platforms in just one day. So that's why I kind of feel like I would rather just use the broker I want to use even if they don't have the charts I like or the scanners I like I'll just buy those separately.

It's a better deal to me if I was going to take Apop as soon as the market opened I was a little unsure because of the fact that uh, it kind of squeezed up a little bit here and so I was like well, it looks good over 550 but I thought dffn looked a little bit safer. so I went with dffn and yeah, um I got in dffn for the break of the pre-market bull flag. hak key is to sell on the bid. Yeah and that's the thing when I had the $500 in my account.

my first two trades were a th000 shares and I only got like 8 to 10 cents on them. So I think the first day I only made uh, what was it $140 or something like that? $124 you know. But second day I got a little of a little bit, uh, more buying power I got a couple trades $187 I was able to slowly uh, build up until I had the uh Capital to take larger positions. it just took a little bit longer and that's why the first couple weeks were the hardest and I was genuinely concerned that I may have to add money to that account because you know I I'm the minimum balance is 500 bucks and I had 583.

So really one loss with 1,000 shares? if I lost 100 bucks, I'd have to go put money in and start over so you know that's that was a real concern. and I think I got I Was fortunate that we had good trading in the first two weeks and I was able to build up the account but we didn't have parabolic movers I was only getting base hits I didn't get a really good winner until this the end of the second week and then into the third week and then that's when I was really able to start building up the account. So um, you know it's it's. been a a crazy 26 days here Day 26 from $583 up to over $55,000 Um, and all of these trades you know I mean it's it's impressive I I'm I didn't expect to be able to hit this target I was actually hoping that I said this um earlier in the challenge.

my goal was to be at the uh $25,000 spot by um February 17th by by President's Day weekend. So I could enjoy the long weekend and I've doubled that um, that goal. So we'll see what uh I can do next week. you know? obviously we've got still Thursday Friday and then we'll see you know between now and and the end of next week what I can do by that uh, kind of uh Milestone mark that I had on the calendar.

Maybe I'll be in the 60s. um, but just keep grinding and and I think I could potentially hit the 100K goal by the end of March um I think that's possible I'm not I'm not sure and I'm not. Um, you know we'll just kind of see how we finish uh February but I think by the end of the mar by the end of March I could be at 100K and then we'll just kind of set the new you know, set the new Target 200k and 300 and 400 and just see how far uh how far I can go this year. So I did $222,000 last year and here we are in the first 26 days.

Uh, I'm up about 88,000 So you know that's about a third of, um, a third of last year in 26 days. So definitely building up the cushion. and uh, hopefully we continue to have good trading. Things may slow down.

we may get some slow periods where there's nothing moving. and um, because I've got this cushion. I'll probably be inclined just to sit tight and not trade very much. but um, yeah, $100,000 is the goal.

So to keep my focus on that, that's kind of thing. You if you keep focusing on short-term goals, it's easy to stay motivated Because you're You're always kind of close. You know it's like you're just always like, almost there. You just keep doing that.

keep doing that. Next thing you know, you've gone this far, so it's always going to be. You know, I'm not going to put the intention I mean I'll set the intention that sure, maybe I'd like to get to a million, you know, at some point someday, but that's too big of a Target got to start small because then, even even when you start small, you know, like if you have a little bit of a setback, you still feel Within Reach because it's still pretty close. You know, maybe you set back a little bit, but it's still close.

it's still Within Reach and it keeps you motivated, keeps you working hard, and that's what that's what I'm going to be doing all right guys. So uh, we'll upload this to uh the podcast to YouTube YouTube Facebook Uh, you guys can watch it later If you have questions, uh, put them in the comments I love to get the uh, the thumbs up and uh, the hearts so hopefully uh, you guys enjoyed this video. All right I'll see you all first thing tomorrow. Thanks guys! Let's be honest, if you made it this far, you must have really enjoyed that video.

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