Summary
A decent Opening Trend Bounce trade on AAPL. Wasn't the cleanest down trend, and bounce wasn't very strong, but was able to get a trade in. Struggled with exits as bounce barely made it past T1, and I really didn't want to take a loss on remaining shares, so sold additional partials into measured move up. However, I did keep my last lot until it was ultimately stopped out for break even, which I'm totally ok with; good much better on my exits here.
Note that I technically should have been stopped out on this trade when the stock spiked to $350.33, as I had my stop at $350.49, but looks like a ton of orders absorbed the fill, or maybe it was done in dark pool. Either way, glad it didn't fill me as it ended up just being a stop run.
Did Right
- Waited for downward trend to form, drew my trend line, and waited for the trend to break before entering a position.
- Set my stop at a more strategic spot, but still close to LOD, which helped avoid a stop run.
- Added to my position once LOD retest confirmed a bounce; it really was a great add.
- Held remaining position until Reason2Exit, but was stopped out for break even. Really happy about the patience here, even though it did cost me money; overall being patient should make me even more money.
Did Wrong
- No reason to take the second trade later in the day; that was a trade without a setup. However, once I acknowledged that I had no reason to be in the trade, I exited it for near break even, so happy about that.
Improvements
- Consider waiting for a first red candle before exiting into measured moves; left $0.50 on the table here.
- When the stock isn't putting in a clean trend off the open, take a step back, and try to trade the trend line on the bigger trend. Could have had a much simpler/stress free trade here, and gotten bigger due to the conviction.