The Market Slows Down As Q1 Closes Out

As we close in on the final days of March and the end of the first quarter of 2021, we’re starting to see some of the crazy action that has characterized the market in the past few months taper off as the weather warms up. We will have to wait and see whether this will be a new trend in the market or if momentum will pick up again as the spring and summer months roll in.

From the perspective of my trading accounts, I’m experiencing a bit of churn from the slowing action in stocks. While last week was another respectable green week at about $30,000 net profit over five trading days, that profit masks about -$80,000 in attrition.

Monday ended up being the worst instance of losing money from the top, after starting the day up more than $15,000 in the premarket on Check-Cap Ltd. CHEK, I took a trade into the bell and lost -$10,000 of that. Tagging back up a second time, I lost an additional -$15,000, which should have been my cue to walk away. Unfortunately, it was still early in the day and I wanted to see if I could turn things around. I couldn’t. I ended up hitting my max loss and finally exercised some discipline by calling it a day.

Tuesday started off similarly, again with about $15,000 in premarket profit on Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. CANF. Unlike Monday, I was able to carry that success into the regular market, adding about $30,000 through the first hour of the day before losing about -$15,000 off the top.

Wednesday was fairly calm, with only a handful of trades in American Resources Corporation AREC and Zhongchao Inc. ZCMD. But, again, I took off about a third of my early gains through the morning market hours.

My big green day for the week ended up being Thursday with trades in Takung Art Co., Ltd. TKAT and Oriental Culture Holding LTD OCG through the premarket for about $30,000 in gross profit followed by a handful of follow up throughout the day for a total of $45,000.

Unfortunately, I gave up that much in a single trade on TKAT on Friday. Although I was able to claw about half of that back through the day, I still ended the day in the red by -$23,000.

So while not the $100,000 swings I was seeing earlier in the year, I’m still ping-ponging between green and red. While March has been markedly more stable in terms of P/L, I’m hoping momentum makes an appearance the final few days of the month and I can head into the second quarter with the wind at my back.