Hola, folks!
Happy… end of Thursday/welcome to Friday. 😊
Been a pretty nutty day today, again. Seems like all the days lately have been crazy, especially since I started day trading. It’s still high stress as I try to hone my strategy and learn everything. Today was decent day. I didn’t make any issues that were caused by a misunderstanding in how trading works, so that was a plus today. I was able to trade and have it be just… straightforward.
Was it perfect today?
Not by any means whatsoever, but I learned some good things. I was up early again to watch the stocks in an effort to learn and work to be prepared–and hopefully the effort now will lead to a significantly decreased amount of time in the future.
I spent some time learning the strategy taught by Ross from Warrior Trading. I watched his morning show, and I was interested to see that he felt the same way about the market this morning that I was feeling. There were no stocks that I was excited about. Fortunately, when the market opened, there was a lot of movement on the stocks in my watch list. I bought three stocks this morning. I made $299 on the sell with the first one (maybe only a minute after buying). The second stock I bought went up right after I bought it, just like the first one, but I was too greedy, watching it go up and stall. I hoped the stall was just a small hesitancy before going up more.
I was wrong. I was wrong for both that one and stock number 3. I was decently into the green on both of them, $200 on one and $175 on the other, but I wanted to wait just a little longer to see if it would go up a little more. The stocks stalled with hesitation for a decently little moment, but then both of them plummeted after that. I didn’t have much time to decide whether to sell at a lesser profit or to hold and hope/wait for it go back up. Unfortunately, I guess you could say I got a little greedy. With the one that was up about $175, it dropped to like $160, and instead of selling, I wanted to wait for the hesitation to see if it would go up more. When it didn’t, it crashed, and fast. Usually, when stocks crash super fast and super far in the morning, they come back a good bit later in the day. It’s happened multiple times that I buy on the crash, it crashes more after my buy, I go into the red quite a bit, only to have the stock rebound enough, not to get back to the original price but still enough to get back to my buy point, go past it, and net me a good profit.
So… instead of selling on the crash and making like $80 or something, I let it slide further. But ouch, it slid and slid and slid and slid and slid. I bought stock two when it was down like 4% (ish), but it kept going down and down and down and down until it was over 6% down, I think.
So I was in the read on that one–a lot. What to do? Hmmm… Well, like i mentioned, it’s been really common for the stock to rebound. So… that’s what I settled on, expecting it to go back up near the end of the day, like my stocks every other time I’ve had this experience.
The third stock was similar. I bought the crash (I did that on all three). Then it went back up, and I was up $200 (if I sold), but right about the same time (I had purchased both stocks about the same time), I again waited for the hesitation to hopefully break up again, but nope, just like stock #2, it dropped, and quickly. This one also went down significantly, and I was down hundreds of dollars.
Enter the stress. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a stock go down significantly after buying a drop. Pretty much every time, I have. I just have to wait (rather nervously) for the stock to rebound and get me into the green. That’s happened probably half the time. The other half the time, I make my money back plus a decent profit.
Well, I was up on these two stocks before they crashed. But having made that choice not to sell but to hold out just a little longer in the hopes I’d squeeze some extra out of them.
In the second stock experience, that meant I’d be (Because I haven’t managed to overcome it yet), I’d end up anxious pretty much all day. I’d held out for a penny. A penny. I was waiting for it to get to 21.56. I could have sold a 21.55 and made about $175.
I held out for a penny, and it bit me hard. Like I said, it crashed fast, and all my potential profit got blown. And because I waited to sell, and then couldn’t sell for prices I wanted, I ended up watching the two stocks crash terribly.
At the worst point, I was down nearly $1200 in those two stocks (not including the $300 I’d just made from selling the first stock. 😬 I wasn’t surprised to be down a bit, but nearly $1200 was 😬😬😬
At that point, I left the house for the morning, and because I wanted to squeeze just a handful of extra dollars out of the trades (also hoping it would climb even more), I brought my computer with me and spent the day anxious because I was way down instead of done, having bought three stocks and sold three stocks and been up and done for the day.
So that’s one lesson (but I’m so tired I can’t really think, so I’m not sure exactly what I’m writing). Anyway, lessons learned. Don’t hold out for a penny. There’s too much downside, not the least of which is feeling mildly anxious all the rest of the day.
I had a bunch of cars on the schedule, so I had to go out and work with my stocks in the cliffhanger. I had my computer tethered to my phone’s internet and had it in my work van to watch.
1st car was a car that was dying after starting. 2008 Acura TL. Turned out it had a bad alternator. I’d called AutoZone at 9:42 a.m. and asked them to deliver the parts to me. I was home at the time but driving away. I was hoping we’d both get to my 1st job location about the same time. They said they had a driver available and would head out and see me soon.
Nope. I started working on the car, pulled the alternator out, but no parts had arrived. I called again, and they hadn’t even left yet. They assured me the driver was about to leave.
Another 30-45 minutes later, I called again. The driver still hadn’t left to go to me. Grrr. I was pretty frustrated at that point. I don’t know how many times I’ve begged them to just give me an accurate delivery time. If you say you have a driver next to you who can head right out to you, that means you’re going to be here soon. If you’re too busy, or something else is crazy, just let me know that, so I can plan accordingly. The worst of the worst is sitting waiting, especially when I keep calling and keep getting strung along.
Eventually, I called and talked to the commercial manager and expressed my frustrations. I don’t care if they say they can’t deliver to me promptly: Just tell me. Expectations, that’s what this is about. I don’t want to drive to pick up the parts, but if that’s the fastest way I get the parts, then heck yeah, I’ll go get them. But sitting around waiting (though I’m always productive and don’t just sit around. There’s far too much to do).
Anyway, they finally came. I got the alternator in (not without adventure. I realized that they’d broken a bolt off in the engine block when they tried to do some of the car stuff themselves. 😬
I explained the issues, but the customer just wanted to have the alternator put in without fixing anything else (which was good for me because I’m super busy). So… I put in the alternator, even though it was only being held on by one bolt and by the tension of the belt.
Lovely.
But that’s what he wanted, so that’s what I gave him.
2nd car was a no start in a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder. Turned out to be a starter. Third job was a no start on a newer truck. He said he didn’t think it was the battery, as they had a new one, and he was right: It was just super nasty battery cables.
It was nice, and I was grateful to have it be an easy one with such a busy day. Fourth car was that Subaru from yesterday. I put plugs and wires in it, and it was all set. It did do something a bit weird–after replacing the plugs and wires (after replacing the coil yesterday), it would start, but it would die right away. ?!?!?!?!
🤦♂️
Got me. I still don’t know what happened. I just know it happened. Fortunately, the car started acting better, and I sent him on his way. I’m guessing it’ll be just fine, perhaps the fuel/air mixtures getting messed up when I accidentally had him begin to start the car while the MAF was off.
Fifth car was a Land Rover I worked on a month or two ago. He thought it had the same issue as before (more coil packs going bad), but that wasn’t it. It was some other stuff. Interestingly, he called his mechanic, and his mechanic said he’d take care of it and wouldn’t charge him (there’s a big back story to that, not just out of the kindness of his heart.
Then it was on to a 98 Ford Expedition that wasn’t starting. Another dead battery, and accompanying awful battery cables. Man, that’s such a common cause of car no starts.
Buy the goo, put it on your terminals, that should help a good bit, I think.
Last car was a car that couldn’t stay running. I got there (middle of nowhere north of Farmington), and his oil was so nasty, I’m guessing that was the whole problem. His engine was just full of sludge. So… after changing his oil and still having the same issue, I gave him instructions on what to do from there. You can get it fixed often times on those cars simply by changing the oil. The oil can be dirty enough that it clogs the VVT solenoids, and then you get what we were getting today.
Well, that was late, and that was the last car. Seven cars. Long day. If I didn’t already mention it, the third stock crawled back, and I made $200 on it before it went back down a fair bit. The second car came back into the green, only briefly, and only about $7 in the green. I thought that the stock would keep going up later in the day, but it didn’t, and not only did it not, it crashed super far, such that I’m down a good bit overnight tonight (adding to the nervousness).
It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, but right now, I’m going to bed. I’m falling asleep all over the place, and I’m a slow writer. I don’t even go back and re-read. I’m just really tired.
So… lest I fall asleep so deeply that I don’t get this post published, I’m signing off.
Sorry it’s not much of a meaningful post, just so so so tired. More than yesterday.
Love to you all.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 