From Red To Green: Managing Risk As Momentum Makes A Comeback

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After more than a month of struggle and strife in my trading accounts, momentum has finally started to reappear. Last week kicked off my first substantial green-streak since I returned from Italy way back in early July!

Not only am I green over the past six days, but I’m green by nearly $25,000. That’s an average of more than $4,000 a day, twice my daily goal. Needless to say, I’m excited by the prospect of a profitable end to August —traditionally one of the toughest months to trade—and heading into autumn with enough ammunition to really be aggressive.

However, I’m also not trying to fall back into a rut. To that end, I’ve attempted to keep the amount of time I spend trading low. I want to get in, log a profit and get out. While that may mean I’m only making $1,000 before walking away, as was the case this past Tuesday, so be it. That same approach also helped me retain $8,000 in profit on Thursday.

I’m also trying to keep my risk low as was the case on Friday in Plus Therapeutics Inc PSTV. I entered my first position in PSTV with a reasonable share size on the break of a bull flag setup from premarket. I took profit as the stock squeezed up and added shares sparingly. Ultimately, the stock went all the way from an open of $8.60 all the way to a high of $15.50 in less than an hour.

Could I have made more than the $4,000 I logged that day by mashing my hotkeys? Most likely, but more often than not, relying on sheer buying power will result in bad entries, huge losses and burnout. 

You don’t have to look any further than my trades the following Monday in DPW Holdings Inc.  DPW, which was following the same bull flag setup in premarket and also surged by double-digit percentage. However, DPW was far more choppy than the parabolic moves in PSTV. 

However, I still made about $900 on DPW on a few scalp trades. Had I stepped on the gas and gotten stopped out, I could have lost twice that amount.

The takeaway from all of this is to enjoy those periods when you find solid footing and take every precaution to make sure those green streaks last. Trading as a career is a marathon, not a sprint., and having stable growth in your trading account will always be more valuable than getting lucky once every 10 trades you make.