After Months Of Volatile Trading, A Confident Start To March

After two months of somewhat chaotic trading, I’m happy to report that March has gotten off to a stellar beginning. While I’m not quite posting the kind of numbers I was putting up in the final weeks of February, the first week of this month has put me in the green by roughly $170,000.

Even more astounding is that I only had three green days last week since I didn’t take any trades on Monday and ended Thursday with a relatively small loss of a little more than -$3,000.

I think what really helped make last week such a standout so far this year is the fact that my first trade of the month in Communications Systems, Inc. JCS in Tuesday’s premarket quickly provided me with a substantial cushion that I was able to lean on through the remainder of the week.

It was a fairly straightforward setup too. with JCS gapping up about 35%, I just watched it as volume started to pick up and push the stock above its Volume Weighted Average Price. I got in as it broke $9, added at the half dollar mark, scaled my position and repeated all the way up to the high of $14.70. I tagged back up on JCS closer to the open and entered the regular session up $83,000 on JCS alone, with another $9,000 I had gotten trading CHF Solutions, Inc. CHFS.

While I did give up some of that during the daily session, it still put me up early on the month by $74,000 in gross profits.

Wednesday was a bit choppier for my account. While I started the day strong with another solid VWAP trade in KemPharm, Inc. KMPH as well as a strong momentum trade in low-float name Cohen & Company Inc. COHN, I also took a handful of trades in GameStop Corp. GME in my retirement account that wiped out about 80% of my margin account profits. Nevertheless, I was able to claw back a few thousand dollars through the day to end with about $26,000.

Thursday was my red day, with a loss of -$3.3, though I feel like that was a result of a slow market more than anything else.

Friday, on the other hand, saw some big momentum. First in Alset EHome International Inc. AEI, which was gapping up on news and which I was able to trade on the open from the $15.80 level to the high just above $17, starting my day with about $17,700. My big trade that day came as National Vision Holdings, Inc. EYE popped on my high-of-day scanner and I was able to get in quickly for an entry of $2.35. Over the course of an hour, I was able to get in and out of EYE as it dipped and ripped all the way through $4, netting me $52,000 of that day’s $72,000 total.

While last week may look like a fairly banal one when I review my trading statistics, with no trades on Monday and a red day on Thursday, right now I couldn’t be more pleased with this start to the month. Barring those trades in GME on Tuesday, I felt in control and on my game through the whole week. mI was able to find and execute on quality setups without giving up too much profit or feeling as though I left money on the table.

My hope is that this will be a trend through the rest of March and I can improve upon my strong results from January and February without the massive swings from green to red.