Trading Review: 03-30-2015

Intraday Trading: -$423. Even though it was a decent losing day, I'm reasonably happy with how I traded. There were a few things I'd change (mentioned below), but the biggest loser was something I had reasonable conviction on, didn't get overboard with size, and allowed myself to be wrong. For ease of reference in the future I have listed the mistakes below (in no particular order), but again, I'm not too worried, it was a solid, moderately well disciplined day.
(1) BDSI: Entry was an acceptable chase but didn't manage any into a 1.5R spike.
(2) AAL: Counter trend scalp against high of day needs to be established minimal distance from hod.
(3) KRFT: Shorted retracement to vwap too early in the day when it wasn't reliable (pre 9:45am or 10am).

BIOC: This stock caught a solid run during the GENE madness earlier this year. It's not quite a direct sympathy (like say LAKE, VSR, APT), but it is reasonably, so not anywhere near as good as picking up those cheap while LAKE has a dead-cat bounce, but still good. Got the idea off twitter, bit disappointed I didn't think of it, but acted appropriately.

BDSI: This would have been a great trade if I had seen it earlier. Classic, big gap down, then grind and over vwap. I came to the party a little late, but conveniently it offered a spot to get in as a slight chase. Was looking to manage 10c higher than it actually went... Normally that would be fine, but because this was a slight chase it's more important to manage quickly.

AWAY: Strong consistent downtrend, a hold below 30.00 is a nice breakdown. Just tried to join. Had I been paying attention was a clear exit at 30.11 rather than 30.21 but not too bigger deal. Probably continues tomorrow so keep in radar.

AAL: Entered short near the high of day in the afternoon. Stop above the high. If this was a bigger picture idea (e.g. big technical breakout on daily) then it wouldn't have been a chase shorting 15c below the high, but because by definition it is a counter-trend scalp (without even any parabolic) risk needs to be a lot tighter than that and only should have had 5c of risk. Aka, short exactly at the high.

SPY: A very basic gap up and hold after 11am so join the trend. Would have actually been a better trade via the stock (better RR and ultimate payoff), which is quite interesting.

REFR: Was a pure short scalp against the high after chatroom buy. Nothing worth writing up about, small size.

NVGN: Got an amazing entry off the open with really small size, but then bought more into high looking for r/g move. Unsure if it was a mistake or not. Think I probably just got a little too large.

KRFT: Shorted this on the open (approx 9:34) on a retracement to vwap. Obviously had the right idea as it came off solidly after that. It retraced back to the high and stopped me out. I think that shorting retracements to vwap too early in the day (pre 9:45am) can go in my anti-playbook. Instead just offer up with risk to highs.
Looked at it in the afternoon for a short if it broke down but it didn't. Would have been a great long off tight consolidations!!

HZNP: This was the killer for the day. But I'm actually okay with it. Was looking for a hold below $25 to get short with potential $2 reward. Gave it a go 3 times in total, so clearly risk was well contained etc. Also I probably wouldn't have taken the third trade because I had already noticed that it wasn't acting how it should from the first two, but then it made a decisive down move below the low on volume.

GENE: This was a big slipup for the day. And believe it or not I actually made money long this. Being the first day of an upmove any counter-trend positions (shorts) should have been established at the high of the day, but I established it short after a chat-room alerted long and basically got squeezed. This was in the morning, when no change of character had occurred etc.
There was some decent scalping opportunities that I missed, and I missed the midday long because I was sleeping, but then caught it as a slight chase.
When this turns into a short it will be an amazing conviction trade, so I need to prepare and exact checklist to hammer in the size on it.

Swing Trades: -$112. Handled a CRMD news squeeze pretty well today I thought, so pretty happy with that.

CRMD: As mentioned prior my risk is based off the $9 level, but I can't get squeezed out on the open at the high of day. I shorted nicely on the open into the $9 level but I'm not sure why I didn't anticipate it flushing over $9 and get some nice entries there... Didn't quite get back to breakeven to get some size off, but took it off anyway and plan to re-add it on the open. Risk still off $9, but it won't be closed in the first 30 minutes of the day.
Daily looks ready to roll, just needs the one more peak out day.

AXN: Quite large in back account. Looking at the daily this thing is toast, so will hold for 5 days from here. It released news after hours which may cause some issues but I would expect any gap to be sold into. All volume etc is gone.

LL: Sold 2 options, and will sell the other two soon. Still like the way the daily looks though.

ADXS: Had a massive gap up and made new all-time highs in the premarket. unfortunately I had been anticipating higher for an intraday trade (some of which would have turned into a swing). 3 tests of the highs doesn't make me a little nervous about the options though. Still plenty of time at the moment, but just food for though.