What's up everyone? All right, well,
today's day 43 of my small account
challenge of growing a $2,000 account
using Charles Schwab as my broker and it
is a red day recap max loss. I'm
currently trading from inside my mobile
command center. This is a 4x4 Sprinter
with a Starlink mounted on the roof, two
solar panels, and a battery bank right
under this bench, 24-in monitors hanging
right here under the bed so I can
[music] trade from pretty much anywhere
that I can drive to.
Right now, I'm off-grid in northern
Canada. And you know, I've been having a
a good trip. I haven't taken as many
trades in the small account this past
week because the market hasn't been that
strong. And so why did I take a trade
today? Well, I'm asking myself that same
question in fact.
I'll I'll try to answer it as we go
through this recap.
There were there was justification for
the trade that I took. It did not work
out well. I am
down more than $8,000 on this trade,
which is very discouraging considering
that my account was at $99,400,
just $600 shy of crossing over 100
grand. And now I'm back down to, you
know, 91,500 or whatever it is.
So yeah, that's a setback.
Financial setback, sure. Also mental
setback, but that's trading is
constantly getting dealt with these
mental setbacks and then being able to
get back on the horse.
And as you've seen me go through this
challenge, this is certainly not my
first red day and it's not my biggest
red day either. I've had a number of
decent size red days that have each
been,
you know, very discouraging in their own
right and so today's is as well. It's
also a red day in my main account. So
I'm double red today. Oh, bummer. All
right, let's get into it and start
breaking it down. So as always, all the
profits from these small account account
challenges get donated charity
and the red days are even that much more
disappointing because it's less money
that I have in the account that I'll be
able to donate. So, right now we've
raised $494,000 for charity. I've
already donated $495,000,
and we donated 50 children's hospitals
across the country, one for each state,
plus we did Puerto Rico, DC, Guam, and
the US Virgin Islands, which is pretty
special. So, today coming into day 43,
our top gainer scanner was pretty
abysmal. We had MIMI, which is a 75
million share volume stock, as you can
see right here,
trading with a 12 million share float.
But unfortunately, the problem that I
had with MIMI was that
it was just too cheap. So, at a dollar
and 12 cents, I had no interest in it.
So, no trades on that. GELS, same same
issue, it's too cheap. Now, TYT
LYs, this one's kind of interesting.
It's got a 15 million share float. I'll
pull up the chart on it really quickly.
TLYs
And what you can see on this one is that
it had a move after hours, then it
pulled back, then it pops up here, and
then it pulls back again. So, very
volatile, nothing really that I felt
that I could trust on that one.
And then we have GIPR and a few others,
none of which were particularly
interesting. So, all of a sudden at
about 7 9:17, we get a scanner alert of
AEHL. And I had already been watching
AEHL because it had in fact popped up
earlier today. So, AEHL had put in a
squeeze a bit earlier in the morning,
and I sat here patiently not trading it.
And this is the same as yesterday,
sitting patiently, waiting, waiting,
waiting. And yesterday at about 9:15, we
had BIAF
that popped up right here yesterday at
9:15, and then goes from $7 all the way
up to 11. And so, what I I of started
thinking was that maybe we'd have a
repeat of that today. A stock that
suddenly pops up, traders jump on it,
and that becomes the one trade. Because
often traders get into this pattern
where if it works, you know, if a setup
works during this time, then they go for
the next one at the same time, the next
similar stock. And so, as AEHL started
to break through this pivot about um
let's see.
What was it? Seven 750 right right back
in this area. I thought, "Okay, you
know, I think this one uh is going to be
the one." And so, we get this squeeze
here on it all the way up to the high of
uh what was it? Goes up to uh 869.
And then once again, we have a chart
where the stock goes
you know, straight up. Makes a great
move.
And that's it.
That's it. We didn't get any more
opportunities than that. And that makes
it it makes it really hard, and it makes
it really frustrating. And so, the stock
did meet my five pillars of stock
selection based on how much it was up on
the day, the relative volume. It did not
have news, so about four out of the
five. The price was fine, and the float
was fine. And so, I end up um getting a
trade right through here.
And in my small account, I bought this
little pullback. Well, actually, I
bought um more like right up here where
I thought it was about to break and push
higher. And it didn't happen. It just
stalled out and went sideways. And then
I I actually stopped out um right at the
open right here into this big red
candle. I wanted to wait to the open cuz
I thought maybe this would pop here
through 850. And of course, it didn't.
And so, this is just a classic one pop.
That's it. And then sideways, which is
very hard to manage risk on, it's very
hard to trade. And so, down 8,200 in my
big account, down 8,400 in the small
account. And it's discouraging. It's a
setback, you know, it
I mean, look, obviously you guys have
seen me have some incredible green days.
Of course, I can make this back in one
good day. That's
it's not a
a loss where I'm like, "Oh gosh, will I
ever recover?" It's nothing like that,
but
it's discouraging. And it's frustrating.
I think one of the hardest parts about
trading, obviously, are red days. And
during And then the second hardest part
is trading through colder markets.
Because during a colder market, you feel
like
I'm doing all the things that worked so
well last month.
What's going on? Why are these pullbacks
not working? Why are they not going
higher? And the shift is that there's it
is is bigger than you. It's not that
there's anything wrong with those
patterns, exactly. It's that sentiment
across the board
has softened.
And that's the reality. Sentiment has
softened. And um typically, what I do
during these periods is I take money out
of my account. You know, I just say,
"You know what? I'm I'm not messing with
this. I'm just I'm taking money out of
my account. I'm going to drop it down to
a smaller account balance."
That way, if I get frustrated or
stubborn, I really don't have the buying
power to go that heavy anyways.
Um and I haven't done that. You know,
I've been letting the account grow so I
have the buying power to continue
trading, um sort of increasingly
aggressively.
And that works as long as the market
continues to be pretty strong.
But we're now having our first real cold
stretch um since
Well, jeez, I guess probably since the
spring. Uh and even though it's only
been like a week and a half, we don't
know how long it'll last. It might be
several weeks. It might only be, you
know, a couple more days, but it could
be longer. So, in the meantime, I don't
want to continue to bleed red days like
this day after day after day. That's not
going to work so well. You know, I'm
just going to deplete my account. So, my
options are
sit on the sidelines
and be patient knowing that I had some
great profit from when the market was
hot and those profits can tide me over
while it's colder and no doubt things
will pick up again. Um trade with very
small size just to kind of keep myself
in the mindset of being active.
Uh but I can still that can still lead
to frustration and and you know,
disappointment and then sometimes a
bigger loss is the result because once
you break the ice then next thing you
know, it's like I'll just keep trading
and you go from being down 600 to being
down 8,500 or 10,000 or whatever it is.
So, the safer thing is to sit on the
sidelines and to wait it out. And once
you see see stocks starting to go up,
you know, 80 100 150% again, you know,
then that's the cue that okay, the
sentiment has shifted back to the buy
side. Now we are seeing a tailwind. And
that's exactly what it feels like. It
feels right now like swimming against
the current. There's just this
resistance on you know, everything it
feels like. And when it's hot, it feels
like you're swimming with the current.
It just everything is going in your
direction, which is a great feeling. But
um you know, that doesn't last forever,
but neither does this. So,
uh being able to adjust to these shifts
in the market is one of the most
important skills to learn and I'm
grateful that I've been able to, you
know, keep my risk in check as much as I
have uh but
I still feel like I have room for
improvement here. This is a bigger red
day than I would have liked to have
taken, especially with the account being
so close to crossing over $100,000. Mm,
bummer. All right, well, looks like I'm
going to be uh still at this challenge
for a little while longer. So, that's it
for me and I'll remind you guys um for
those of you who haven't already checked
out our two-week trial, you can actually
watch over my shoulder as I'm trading.
You see the ups, but you also see the
downs. I make mistakes. I'm human. There
are days where, you know, things don't
work out the way I'd like them to and
it's a red day. But you get to see that
and you get to learn from it. So, I hope
you guys check out the 2-week trial. The
link's pinned at the top of the
comments. And I'll remind you as always
that trading is risky. My results aren't
typical and there is no guarantee I'll
find success whether you trade with me
or you learn on your own. So, your best
bet is to always practice in a simulator
before putting real money on the line.
With that, I'll see you guys back at it
bright and early for day 44 tomorrow.