Trade review: GTIV, MNI

I think I'm getting a little bit mentally screwed up after the series of losing trades in past two weeks. This week I made two trades and made the same mistake on both, raising my stops too early. I really don't want to see any additional loosers, so I tend to raise my stops way before there is even time to do so, which of course is a sign of bad mental state.

The first stock that I closed this week was GTIV. I bought it from absolutely perfect Squat pattern. For a description of all patterns please see Terminology page. Buy point was 6.35, but I got in a little bit late at 6.64, which was the first big mistake. The second was setting initial stop below buy point, but not below of the day of the breakout. The stock then rallied on low volume and I did not take advantage of that breakout above 7, where I should've take some profits, locking in my stop loss risk. Stock then reversed, fell below 7 and I got scared it could go into negative during this low volume pre holiday trading. So I raised my stop and got stopped out on two occasions with just a minor profit.


Looking at a stock at this time it is still acting very well. It is testing its buy point, which is a normal behavior and it is still poised to go up to 8, where I would look to sell. So the biggest mistake behing the GTIV trade was late entry, consequentially illogical stop and a poor position after the pullback, which, taking my bad series in account, made me to raise stops without any need to do so. I also should've locked in some above 7, taking in at least my stop loss risk out, which would allow me to leave my initial stop where it is without any fear of loosing.

Next is MNI with a Launch pattern. The main problem with all these Launches is that they are very hard to buy at exactly the right time. Buy point usually is not clear, because consolidation often happens way below recent high. So I bought it on a breakout above 2.25, a little late entry again at 2.31, but not that late. It was still a good buy and stokc rallied almost immediately. And then again, the exactly same mistake as with GTIV. Stock rallied a little bit and I started to raise my stop in fear of price turning around into a loosing trade. So I naturally got shaken out on first decent pullback, while the stock is still looking just fine and poised to somewhere between 2.75 and 3, where I would look to take profits.

While making just a couple of these trade reviews my bad habits soon started to strike into my eyes. I always seem to be making the same mistakes, which is buying late as I wait for price and volume confirmation of a breakout, consequentally setting illogical stop and then raising stop without any particular reason to do so as price pulls back. I'll make a short review of all these lessons in a separate post as I think they're worthy of taking a closer look.