Just sharing some psychology/discipline insight. This morning this was 1 of 2 tickers that was on my immediate watchlist from a pre-market gap scan. (I use a free site called thestockmarketwatch.com for PM gappers)
$AUPH: Pros: had news, had a history of spiking, low float, lots of premarket activity. Cons: Very crowded 500k+ shares traded premarket. Other overcrowded, big gappers this past week have had a tendency to sell off from very early morning highs. I've observed and used a 'gap &go' strategy in the past and it worked. The PM high of A
UPH was 3.62. My plan was to enter if the PM high broke. The stock tanked to 3.30 just before market open, and instead of trading my plan, my mindset was to jump in at the open and try to bank on the .32 deficit...uhhh no, bad idea, haha. I thought to myself..well, this is overcrowded, 700k shares.. and its really down off of its highs which might mean that it had lost some momentum. Well I got in at 3.35, saw a spike to 3.45 but then a quick sell-off. The 1st 1M candle was green, and the 2nd was red and just about as big as the 1st. THis typically is an indicator that you really need increasing volume and green candles to get the price back up to a profitable area. The stock went sideways and dipped pretty quickly to 3.25. I sold at 3.26 taking a small loss. The main issue here was that I had a plan and I didn't stick to it, I was trying to predict instead of reacting. Do not try to outsmart the market, you might be able to get lucky sometimes, but pro traders do not predict, they react. They cut losses early and stick to their rules and are disciplined. I hope that some of you can maybe save yourself from a loss or at least save yourself a wasted trade. I analyze every win and every loss and try to learn from my mistakes, identify what I did wrong, and if I could have been smarter. Good luck traders.
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