Now before we get too excited, this is from paper trading (virtual money) as I am now just waiting for my money to be transferred into my brokerage account which takes up to 3 working days to process. So trading with reel money should commence on Thursday 3rd December 2015 if all goes to plan!
In the mean time I shall continue studying and paper trading to gain more experience on how to trade consistently good trades.
Before I started paper trading I was doing mental trades which is good to do. However, I quickly realised that I needed to get to grips with how fast trading can be as well as knowing how my OptionsXpress account works by getting use to where all the navigation buttons are and how the trading process operates with them, as every broker is slightly different.
One thing I have got to get better at and fine tune is my set up with my brokerage account and the various tools that I use, so that when I place a trade it gets executed as quickly as possible without me fumbling around typing in the numbers behind the market action.
Best of all, even though the $433.22 profit I made is virtual money, how I place my trades will be exactly the same as when I trade with reel money. I have trained myself to make consistent good trades with selective criteria on every stock that I pick, so how much money I make is irrelevant.
Of course the more money I make the better, but if was to go into every trade I make with a plan to make “X” amount of money, I would most likely end up losing big time like I did on my first ever penny stock trade back in August!
So lets take a look at how the week went and the 4 paper trades I banked on…
These 4 Trades Made Me $433.22 in Paper Money!
So just to start with here’s a screen shot of actual proof that I placed these trades, exactly as I’ve explained below!…
My first paper trade was that of $AEZS which I know is NOT a penny stock, but with the same kind of set up I can still make money trading stocks under $20 with a small sized account.
You can see my evaluation on this trade in the previous post, as I don’t need to write about it again. All I will say is that my first paper trade wasn’t the best trade to shout about, but I learnt a lot from it and got a good experience on executing this trade with all the new knowledge that I’ve learnt from Timothy Sykes.
Trading stocks and shares is more of an art than an exact science, but with the right information in front of you, you can take advantage of it and trade with the odds in your favour quite considerably.
My First Paper Trade Chart ($257 Profit)
After getting the experience of $AEZS under my belt, I was actually a little less prepared the next day which should NEVER happen if your going to trade that same day!
Again I have explained this trade in my previous post, so I won”t go into too much detail here.
One very important lesson I learnt from my second paper trade, was that in order to be prepared and trade consistently well you MUST be ahead of the market action and not chasing it one step behind, or you won’t be so sure or as confident placing your trades which is what happened here!
Minus $17.90 for the commission fees, I ended up breaking even on this trade with even more knowledge gained 🙂
My Second Paper Trade Chart (Broke Even)
So now we get onto my third paper trade which was on the Friday, as the market was closed on the Thursday due to Thanks Giving holidays.
My third trade was the same stock pick again which of course is $MCUR.
There was movement and plenty of price action on this stock to make it tradable, and although my execution was a bit better I still exited rather quickly due to it struggling to break past the $2.70 area.
I exited with a tiny profit of $2.10 after commissions, but best of all I stuck to my plan and also exited at the right time.
Sometimes it’s hard to judge which way the price will go when you get certain candles appear that give you signals of what could happen next. Very similar to the first time I traded $MCUR, this stock moved in a similar way, but with less conviction due to slightly less volume.
I still wasn’t that convinced or that happy with the conflicting red candles appearing with long wicks, but when the volume picked up some more I was more confident to place the trade I did even though I got out very quickly again!
$MCUR was still very tradable due to the increase in volume as well as some good price action, and as it was the best stock to trade at that particular moment I made the trade. Best of all I stuck to my plan and made a trade that I am pleased about!
My Third Paper Trade Chart ($2.10 Profit)
Ok moving on to my fourth paper trade, which is my best trade so far only banked me $192, but again it is how I traded it that’s most important.
So my fourth trade is that of $RPRX which is NOT on my watch list, but I was prepared and ready for the market.
After spotting the movement on this stock and missing the break out at $2.16 I remembered to wait for the potential dip buy this time. Before I considered trading this stock I quickly took a look at it’s credentials and everything fitted in with my selection criteria.
I quickly put $RPRX up on my level 2 screen and watched the price action, while ready and waiting to place a trade in my virtual account. As soon as the price dipped down from $2.39, I was eagerly watching to see where the support could be. It went as low as $2.27, but hovered around that area which was a good sign of support as there was also a tonne of buyers on board which I could see by simply looking at my level 2 screen and the live chart in front of me.
I quickly entered my long position of 1000 shares at a limit price of $2.30 which got executed almost right away.
Within the space of the next two minutes it shot up to $2.50 and slipped back down a little bit, but hung around $2.50 area for a couple of minutes.
While watching the level 2 screen I could see that selling volume was starting to take over, so I knew that I had to exit right away and so I entered my sell trade at $2.50 which got executed at $2.51 🙂
Without using the level 2 software, there is no way that I would have been able to trade this like this and see where all the buyers and sellers are.
Overall I am very happy with how I traded this one, and this is my best trade so far which has given me more experience and confidence in how I trade as well as what to look for with price action.
My Fourth Paper Trade Chart ($192 Profit)
It’s meant to say “I waited for the Dip Buy this time” on the chart above. Just to prove that I’m human and make typos too!
So there we have it, these four paper trades would have netted me a total of $433.22 if was trading with reel money!
Remember it is how you trade that is MOST important and NOT how much money you make, as profitability will happen consistently when you trade consistently well with a precise strategy.
There were also a couple of other stocks that I had my eye on, one being that of $NCTY, but as the volume was rather weak on all of them I could not place a trade on any of them as that would be breaking my rules!
Here’s What I learnt This Week
- Be prepared for the market BEFORE it Opens
- ALWAYS Trade with a plan
- Price Action & Volume Makes a Stock Tradable
- ALWAYS Be prepared to cut losses
- Fine Tune what you’ve learnt along the way where you can (Make Trading Set Up More Efficient)
So with 4 trades under way, 3 of them being profitable and one breaking even I would say that after working very hard by studying Timothy Sykes’s trading methods, I can satisfyingly say that his strategy seriously works best!
Looking at my first EVER penny stock trade chart below with reel money back in August, BEFORE I started learning from Timothy Sykes says it all really! The “Before” & “After” effect of learning from someone that knows what they’re talking about, and best of all explains it better than anyone else out there PERIOD! 🙂
So a great week it’s been while trading penny stocks with a virtual paper account. After doing this myself, I can highly recommend trading with paper money first by testing out any strategy before you put reel money on the line!
While waiting for my reel money to be transferred into my account, I will continue to paper trade quality trades that fit my criteria with the strategies that I have learnt if the market has anything worth while to trade.
It has taken me months to get to this point, and I think the old “Hare and the Turtle” story is a classic description of how many stock trading wannabe’s go about wanting to succeed at trading the stock market. They hope to make fast profits without wanting to do any work! In other words, these types of people just want so called hot stock picks and can’t be bothered to learn and study how to trade precisely and consistently well!
The Turtle always wins in the end!!
Trading Stocks and Shares is a marathon and NOT a sprint race!
So until next time, study hard, enjoy what you do and be fascinated to learn and improve all the time. Besides that, spend time with your family and friends and enjoy life 😉 ……