 But this doesn't look clean to me, this looks choppy, like sellers obviously came in they're strong and and you know like even this it's like it's got like that wedge look to it, it doesn't have I'm shorting stock losing one art doesn't exist, like this is one thing you have to understand You lost your lockout or you didn't Like as shorter term traders and not investors, like we're just we're in the rental business We're not in we're not in like the the owning business Before getting the video just a quick reminder that this is not financial advice And I'll also link all the tools I personally use to trade down in description So don't forget to check that out sit back relax and enjoy the show One thing that I was thinking that we could talk about is I think the too many retail traders Especially when they go on social media they they try to just emulate Like small cap shorting it just seems like that's what most of retail does because that's Those are the people that you know show the big PNL's and It just it's not a strategy that works for everyone, you know It just like the strategy has to fit your personality Yeah, it has to fit your person like you have to find A trading style that fits your personality, you know, and maybe you could talk about that a little bit Yeah, I'm gonna talk about it because that's something I absolutely did not touch once in the past. I guess four months Yeah, I mean, yeah, we haven't touched in three months How do you feel do you feel stressed because you're you know, you're not fighting you're not fighting the trend You're not going against everyone and like just because like you see people on twitter like Most likely posting fake charts or or whatnot, right? Like we can start there, but I I don't feel stressed. I feel like my stress level definitely went down like drastically And there's just like I still have bad days that I just over trade and those stupid stuff but it just doesn't feel or Not it doesn't feel But I don't Take like massive losses and for me like a shorting stock Like always puts me on tilt even if it's like a large cap or mid cap Like I'm very prone to make massive mistake when I'm on the short side. I don't know why I think it is because the theory goes that the higher it gets the better short it is Because if you were thinking it was a good short that let's see four dollars and now it's at eight It's better because you were thinking it was a short at four now it's at eight so the the reward is it gets bigger but There's this kind of inverse correlation that the higher it goes the higher it keeps on going because now everybody's thinking the same thing and for me I mean, I took I probably gave back roughly half of everything I made in 2023 shorting day one and it was like it wasn't unlike Not just shorting day one just shorting stock that are just going up way too much You know when it looks just so good on on you look at a chart It looks beautiful. It looks like a perfect short But timing it is just so hard and I drew down literally Like 80 percent of my year just trying that specific setup So avoiding it hasn't made me more p&l yet but I think it just avoided me some downside for the moment and Um, I think it came after talking to you when I was in New York That's like or actually talking with a few guys there that it just saw that like people were actually doing other things And you just don't have to do it only that And it was a good it was a good not advice but good thing to see because I did take a step back and just kind of like Take it took everything and just put it in trash I'm not sure if it if it was the right thing to do But I literally went on this thing of like I don't want to trade any setup that I used to trade before and just trying to find a fully new playbook that's I don't have this like this risk of roomed that much And that's was it because I would go on like the three months of like good trading and then one day I would lose literally everything I made even if you have a stop loss You hit One day you're gonna max lock the next day you're gonna hit the same thing Then you're on tilt you trade bad and like it just You're not tilting, but it's just your mindset or your Your brains you lose confidence and it just keeps on doing mistakes and mistakes So this one big loss it just compounds into even more losses until there's like a home run that you hit And then you're able to slowly grind back up a hole and then the next one comes in and it just shoots you back in a hole so So yeah, my stress level went down my canal hasn't increased yet But I haven't had like one day that just Runed like a week or something like that that decent loss, but nothing that Um ruins my day. Let's put it this way. I'll still be frustrated But I won't be like, you know, just going in my bed at 2 p.m. Just saying like, oh, what did I do? Like why did I do that? Yeah, you know, I never really got into this shorting small caps game You know the prop from that I started at when I when I started our Locate system was terrible, you know And a lot of those things just happened to be hard to borrow or restricted You know, it was it just wasn't a game that they Thought that they had edge in uh, you know the older traders So they never really looked into and it wasn't really something that they improved on until Apparently after I left when they when they got more locates um It's just funny. It's funny to me that so many people Seem to find shorting small caps and I don't know if it's because you know, like You're social media personalities. I don't want to name any names, but you know Very prominent social media personality who shorts penny penny stocks and you know, he's told his story and You know, I'm sure everyone can figure out who that is and then From that it just seems that there's more and more short Chat rooms that looking to short small caps And I'm not, you know, there's obviously Chat rooms that go long too, but I think that the ones that seem seeming always Are posting on twitter or social media and you know, you obviously have to take it with a grain of salt because Who knows if it's a paper account. Who knows if it's a demo account. Who knows if they're Who knows if they're short in one account and long in another and then they're only showing one account, right? you know, I These are things that I I've learned to not put past people as I've gotten to know more people in the industry but It's just such a hard strategy. Like I I mean, I understand that people Especially now people are becoming more data centric and they're running numbers and they're trying to figure out Well, it you know, don't short on day one, but you're short on day two or three or day four um I know people that like to go long on day three because that's when like that's when the short that's when it's The shorts all get called in, you know, so they're looking they're looking to go long on day three instead You know, and we talked we touched upon this last week a little bit Just about you asked a question about the failure rate of trading I spent the week thinking about this and I think a lot of people fail because they don't find the strategy that works for the personality and You know, and we've talked about this and as you were just saying Just because a lot of people are successful doing something doesn't mean that you're going to find success doing that same thing right I've found more success slowing down my time frames taking taking away those hfts taking away those little nichey trades, um it's been really hard for me because I know that I still have friends that are finding success in Like very quick success whether it's trading breaking news whether it's trading some sort of imbalance or some sort of Like spike Or like even if it's a scalping strategy where You know, you're looking at your one minute charts and the level two just like every other small cap trader and you're and you're finding that quick move You know today is valentine's day. So, you know, bmr made a quick $2 up move this morning, right if you're things like that where You know, oh if I can just time it right I can get that quick money that you know and That quick profit right but for me As I've gotten older I've realized that I need to be more analytical And thoughtful in my trading and I need to use longer time frames to kind of take away some of that noise And you know just recognizing that for me. I've really learned That the trend is your friend, right? um I'd rather be long something like a They rm arm a couple days ago went from 125 to 160 And I know people that were trying to short it and they lost a lot of money I know people that were trying to short lift yesterday In after hours from 12 to 20 and they lost a bunch of money to me It's it's like you said it's it's so hard finding the top But it's like a male macho ego thing, right like to say like I found I found the top I found the or I found the bottom right if anything I'd rather try to find the bottom Right because at least you know there's at some point there's going to be value to something But on the way up you have no idea how far How far something will go right and I don't care what people say it's always hindsight. Well, I drew this line across the chart Right, you know, I did this right it. Yeah, of course It's so easy to say in hindsight and you're probably trading a hundred shares You know and and you have 27 executions on the chart with your little dash arrows And it's probably 10 share lots You know, maybe it's more or I'm not trying to put anyone down 100 share lots 100 share lots whatever whatever it is, right? It doesn't matter what it is, right everyone You know, but the fact that so many people are pointing out those types of trades like Everyone can't be profitable making all those trades all the time right and to your point Those people that are yeah 95 of the time they're going to be right And that one time blows them up the one time blows out three months worth of profit It's just it's such a dangerous You know double-edged sword that they're they're kind of like, you know teetering on Of a brisco ruin basically in my opinion. Well, I mean I got into trading because I saw a lot of people Shorting stock, but I didn't get access to like boros so I tried a long at first and then I switched to more like a long swing because this was the I mean, I guess it was 2020 2019 And I I just landed on quail Maggie. So I was like, oh this seems so smart and it was a point The moment I found him and the strategy made sense because things were going up and it was just like, you know Things were going up. So I was either trying to swing But I was restricted with buying power margin all that stuff But I was just taking these trades intraday, right like looking for like these simple Strong arms would would have been Uh, a perfect like a setup of something I would have focused on back then And it reminded me of lucid. Um, I can't bring it now on chart on I can't bring the chart now but it was in 2021 or 2020 It's when it broke out of that massive base. It was the exact same chart. I remember it very well, but These are all my biggest trade, but then the strategy kind of faded away So then I found myself just, you know, finding the next thing to do which was shorting and It made sense. It made sense for a bit But it feels I don't know. It's so Strictly cool and you have to be so in tune on which one you can't show it Which one you can't show it and I think that some people are very good at finding these like They're not like They're not special, but these opportunity with like I don't like to call it like outside risk reward, but just the one that has less potential of like, you know, ruining you But over the long run, they still take like massive beating and it's when you're posting just charts on twitter It seems like they're always off on these specific days that you know, everybody gets like, you know Best way to see it is every time there's something that runs a thousand thousand percent is the new average So a thousand percent intraday Nobody lost or people took like a one hour one hour loss. I love you. I only lost one hour How like I only got us one hour Really, but he's like do really size all your trade exactly the same. You never had slippage, you know Like what is this? Unshorting stock losing one art doesn't exist. Like this is one thing you have to understand You lost your lockout or you didn't because if you tried once it keeps on going up You're going to try something or if something else starts running You're going to try that one also because that's your strategy every time something runs. You're supposed to short it I don't know why godfather. I think it's because on twitter. That's really what it is and The point I guess confusing is the chat room now Like the every new chat room is about shorting low float day one or even multi-day Some of them call them there they're specialized traded. I only wait for day two or day three Well, like, you know, but they still trade day one sometimes like it's so I'm like so now There's probably I don't I don't need long chat room. Do you know about How many long chat rooms I know? I'm there's definitely there's definitely a couple. Um On the small a small cap. I mean, yeah, there's there's a couple I mean, there's definitely a couple that I know that I know of that are very good Um You know, I'm not going to mention any names. There's also the what you have to be cautious of though Is that there's also a lot that are just pumpers, right that there's they're blatant pumpers and they're definitely getting long and Selling you selling into Their their members buying right and I think that's that's the dangerous part of all this and that's why then the the short Sellers come out and say well, you know, that's just a blatant pump and dump Yeah, and they're just shorting them right it's a pump and dump chat room, right? There's a You know, um, there's another there was another prominent chat room guru that was in during that 2020 2021 who was You know long only Right who was going on youtube every morning at nine o'clock and he was already long and You know all the short chat rooms that I you know follow or people that I talked to they're like, oh He's he's in it. He's in it, you know, just wait till he wait till he starts dumping to a sheep And then the tops in the shorts in it's it's a liquidity creating event, right? Like you're creating all this extra liquidity when all these other retail people are getting long Extended from a base, right? And or you know up up a thousand percent, right? And then someone's thinking the same thing like or what you're saying I it's up it's up 800 percent, but a thousand percent's the new the new thing I can make that next 200 percent, right? Like and and then the same thing to the shorts, right like then Well, it can't go a thousand percent again, right? Another one's going to go to a thousand percent It's it's going to do that again. No way. You know, it's a short. Yeah, it's a really interesting dynamic But you know It's still just really strange to me that all those guys seem to win all the time because all the prop traders I know They don't win all the time. Like they're not winning all the time I don't win all the time like my my win rate is abysmal, right? My win rates below 50 percent But as long as I'm keeping my risk to reward In line, you know, I try to keep it above two to three two or three to one Making sure that I have leave room for that five to ten to 20 our trade You know, the these people on twitter just showing that they're constant winners is just it's it's mind-boggling And it's just it's it's frustrating and right and even as a prop trader You know, it really weighs on your confidence of who you are and like what you're doing and how you're doing things Just like well, should I be doing that? You know, is that what I should be doing? Is that how I should be doing these things? Like, you know, what am I doing wrong that I'm not doing it That way and it's seemingly cool, you know, so easy for them to do it that way, right? but You know back to my original point of this whole talk is that It just doesn't fit my personality and it took me a long time to realize that You know, it took me a long time to realize that I it just not for me, you know And that's and I lost so much money trying to figure out Figure that out and learn that but you know and now I and now I just I know to stay away, right? And then I found strategies that speak to me that for you like you'll figure out and then you can add that p&l back You know, you know add the gains that you did have back to to like your overall p&l I mean when I did the transition before we move out a topic To like not shorting anymore. It's My best trade were always the day two gap ups like something that I ran so much and then you know Ideally gapping up had like a strong push And then I would look you know to get on the back side just before you mix a new high and then you sort the new back side but this but the issue that I had with that is this strategy used to be like a frequency of Um, I would say Twice a month three times a month. So I would technically flat line the whole month Or like, you know, they want shorting. I would make a bit of money Then I would lose it the next day I would make a bit the next day then I would lose it again And then when these came around I was able to bet big and like you know had a good month just on these But the turning point was really that these just stopped happening for For a long, I guess a long time a few months But that's enough for you to start just grinding shares and and be quickly in a drawdown And and then like, you know a few months and then another couple months and it just never came back We're starting to have these like, you know, they want that that went up I think with tpsd is something like 2,500 On it just went up so much And but they all died on day one So even if they went up a lot, they never gapped up and continued so So it's just there's Still wanted to click because i'm someone that's always been fighting over trading and I think it's rare that some It's rare that traders don't have this like itch of trading because you're just sitting at your screen There's so much stimulation. There's news. You hear this clock. There's a chart There's something hitting your scanner. Something's getting halted I'd like to just be there and not trade anything Like it was just it was hard. So I was just, you know getting That's why I was just getting out of my playbook and I was like I was debating at this point now If I should bring it back But the frequency is so low that maybe it's worth it Maybe not and I could still move along from all the other strategy But i'm scared that if I go back to kind of this one It's gonna just put me back in that game of really tracking all these runners all these movers And then it's like oh, but maybe it's gonna go up because now i'm more long biased So not conflicting between oh, should I look for short? Should I look for a long? So i'm like it's like a pandora bugs that you open up like you think it's just you're just gonna put back This setup in your playbook But it's a whole pandora bugs of problem that you bring along with that that setup It's so emotional one of the things One of the things that I really struggled with in my old firm is you know I was taught to trade anything and everything right if something's moving you should be looking to find a trade in it because But it's take it took me a long long time to realize that that All volatility isn't created equal right? So just because something's volatile and moving doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to find something where you can manage your risk based on your personality right and To your point like I I would be long short long short You see that like one little that one minute range right the one little range It's like it's it's say it's put in the lower high right so it's up down and it's kind of going sideways now And and it's putting in the lower high like oh well This could break out or this could be the stuff back side back side move So all of a sudden and i'm you're watching the level too you're seeing bids come in and offers come in and people paying and hitting and And i'm doing both of it right trying to go with what I think is the the next Momentum move And all of a sudden i'm down three five six seven thousand dollars and the stock's still in the same 50 cent range You know and it's and i'm the one paying and hitting the spreads because i'm trying to play momentum And I didn't have a strategy for it right like i'm it's it was moving it was in play and it's It's extended from the one that it moving averages and it's above b-wap So yeah, it could retrace down to those areas, but it could also break out and could make the next that 100% move on the upside right And then half the time I finally catch that move Only just to become back back to break even and like well that was like a waste of a day and now my Stress levels through the roof and now I need to go have a couple beers with my buddies And it's just like you know, and it's it's the whole the whole day was a waste, right? Yeah, like that that just style of trading is like you said it just it's so stressful And like I you know and I know people that still do it and some people do really well and some people It caught in like zj yl I think that game is just for me. It's just changed a lot because now there's all these volatility halts limit up limit down halts And it just changes like before all those halts came into play It was easier because you didn't have to worry about those halts be stuck in a hall and then you have to Sit there and wait for the halt to reopen Well, is it going to halt and open up or is it going to halt and open down? You know, they tend to go in the same direction But not all the time sometimes, you know, there was one the other day that I was watching maybe h o l o and where it has limit up and then I don't I don't I think it I think it was h o l and then and then it went through its five minute halt ban But say it halted at like 20 Just for I don't know the numbers. I don't want to misspeak But just say it was 20 and then opened up at 1850 right? So it was a limit up halt so if you're long right if you're longing to that limit up halt all of a sudden it opens up and So you just lost a dollar 50 without even trying to lose a dollar 50, right? Like if you had sized into that halt trying to risk your 50 cents right your 500 dollars right a thousand thousand shares 500 dollars and now all of a sudden you took a 3 r loss just because of the people playing games with the halt and the imbalance and trying to really screw with people, you know screw with retail traders or You know even prop traders because my friends are trading these things just screw with traders whoever's Controlling the stock is screwing with screwing with everyone at that point And now now everyone has to try to figure out like well Is this just a buy opportunity because it's where it broke out from or is this like Well, that was like a big ol f u and now this is like this is a short opportunity And now you just like you said just you're getting conflicting singles again And it's just like all right. Why am I even bothering doing why am I even doing this anymore? You know, why am I why am I in this for the stress of not being able to control the risk that I want to control, right? Yeah, that's that could actually bring out the next subject Which was a trade I took on vz i o so I got an at literally the top. I saw the news headline I tried to get in on the news because You know the headline was really good It was like a company looking to get bought out by walmart or walmart looking to buy out this company so I knew it was Like it came from a legit source And all of that but the thing on my news feed it came with the ticker amazon So for some reason it so the headline was walmart looking to buy this company But then I had to open the filing quickly just to see the ticker And then it put me just you know a little bit on the back side of the trade because I wasn't fast enough to get In into the halt I was I tried but it was just it was getting halted. So I couldn't do anything and then Because it opened up so fast like the one minute candle we saw we see after the halt It didn't look or feel like actually print it for one minute It looked like it just flashed And then the stock tried to go the next limit up And this is where I technically try to get in because I was like, oh if Like I'm sure if there's funds off guard and just looking to get a buy out I'm like it could help twice in a row I mean with the the gap that it did I'm like I wouldn't be surprised that there would be a more more squeeze or something like that But if fake halted And talking about halt it just slumped back down like right away So I try to I just had to exit on this like on this down move and I try to buy it again and again and again Do you think after the halt? There's any edge left or you think that the halt was the trade Um, so so I think there's a couple things that you're missing here And and maybe you thought about these things and just didn't say them yet. Um, okay So I looked up the headline just because I didn't I didn't see this trade and and the headline that I see on my news My news scanner Visio surges on a report that walmart isn't talks to buy them for more than two billion All right, and that came out at 309 So so during this halt you can kind of see All right now, you know, so if you don't have a bloomberg terminal, right? So people have bloomberg terminals or news scrapers or whatever it is whoever got this right people at my old firm Are very very good at this. I'm sure that people got involved Into this halt, you know, and and then they're kind of kicking it out kicking it out here The headline right, but the headline. Yeah two billion, right? And if you look at the market cap of this stock It's it was 1.4 billion before that news. Yeah Yeah, so and so two billion is not that big of a move usually You know Usually it's gonna be a massive a massive premium, right? Like yeah in terms of dollar value the premium is big But in terms of like market cap it wasn't that big a move, right? So now and I think now the market cap wherever it's trading now is like 1.85 or 1.9 billion All right, so so Now you're just thinking to yourself well You have to think to yourself. Well, what what are the probabilities that? This is really going to get bought out for 2.5 billion or 3 billion. So so who's going to come who is going to come in and buy visio, right? They just they make discount cheap TVs, right and a lot of them are sold at target or excuse me Walmart or sams clubs or Costco, right Like, you know, and that's where like when you see news plays that kind of like Yeah, limit up and then up again and then they start trading it's because the smart people the whales know or think that Well, that's undervaluing the company because usually within these first five minutes You know, you can get you get a bunch of press releases. You get some analysts coming out and saying something So so so you know if you search twitter or if you subscribe to some new services Like you can find something Where someone's in the compound and say something like all right, they should take this right and and what else is going to come in What else is going to factor into this? um You know, yeah, the market kept me be 1.5 billion 1.8 billion, but do they have let's see, uh, what's the Sorry, let me see I think they might have a lot of you know, I'm just trying to find I'm trying to find the numbers real quick I just didn't prepare for this this part of it But other things that you know, I know that people when they trade these merger and acquisition type things Like is there a lot of debt involved, right? Like so they get just because the market caps 2 billion They might have 500 million in debt, right? So That's going to depress the price as well. Um I don't know. I mean for me I for me those the other factors and I'm thinking I'm thinking about and then when When I'm if I'm say I miss this trade and I you know, I'm I'm kind of kind of think of it from from your perspective, right? And you know, because I'm a little more technical like you Um, all right up that you know, and you tried here. I get that I probably would have tried here too You know, if I wasn't really in tune with like, all right, what's the market cap? What's the offer? um In all those things like, you know Up in 11 11 seems like a whole number breakout. Maybe you could maybe you can get that next dollar move, right? That's what I was kind of But because this that's what I was uh because this candle is so wide, right? So it's you know Say this candle was actually, you know actual full candle, but I see the volumes low. So maybe maybe it opened at like 3 11 50 so really only traded for 12 seconds, you know what I mean or 10 seconds before the next candle started trading Does that make sense? Yeah, that was something like that. It wasn't very fast. Yeah, so For me, like I don't like trading out of these first minute halts anymore just because I don't really know how what am I risking here? Like, you know, and we've talked about this before on the side Like if you say you buy 11 I think you really have to risk 10 because that's the prior that's the whole candle, right? How can you risk 11? And then stop yourself out at 10 90 or 1080 or 10 70 Like without really seeing that or have having any evidence that there was support or buyers there You know, right? You're trying to just play pure momentum unless you're really going to play a pure momentum and scalp it where All right, I'm going to look for pure momentum through 11 it went to 11 30 ish, right And as soon as it comes back through 11 though, I have to be out because I'm just trying to play the quick price action momentum You know and you could have done it that way and then after that, you know Maybe I'm looking for a candlestick setup, but like but this doesn't look clean to me this looks choppy like sellers obviously came in they're strong And and you know like even this it's like it's got like that wedge look to it It doesn't have like a you know a kind of a rounding bottom or like any kind of strength to it For me, I I'd almost prefer to kind of go up a little bit higher and kind of flag So you can kind of see more price action and kind of just get a feel for what are people really Playing in trying to do here as soon as it as soon as it breaks below this opening price though It's kind of like a no no trade for me just because That means the sellers to me post this Very small quick gap up on smaller volume are now in control, right? So as you know as we just talk about this like so 10 25 is kind of my inflection point point in the sand Where I'd where I'd want to consider long or short and you know and then you're watching this You know maybe you're seeing this all right, you know one little one minute flag where you can risk 15 20 cents but Again because I have that 10 25 line in the sand And now at this point now the stock's traded for 20 30 minutes and you know we're approaching the close Like is it really going to squeeze more like obviously now all the merger arbitrage people all the algorithms all the hpt's They're coming they're coming in and really kind of futzing around with this the options of market makers whoever's involved like you know It's more likely than not that it's probably going to just stay at 10 right and then so so this would be no trade for me now to So it would be And avoid for me at this point for the rest of the day Yeah I think I got it just yeah, no it does make sense. I think I got attached to the trade Um after I missed it I mean I stopped out of the first trade at Something like around 10. Yeah exactly the bottom of that one minute candle Because I I knew it was wide, but I knew if I just Didn't stop out before that if I stopped out before that I'm like technically I'm like I'm in no man's land So I need to at least give it that but I think all the trades after Didn't really need to to happen It was just about uh just trying because I was like I was really leaning into the level two and it seems like they were somebody like no Like you know when you you start focusing too much On something you see what you want to see and that was just mainly it so yeah, you get you get that You get that tunnel vision, you know, you and then you you you create the setup out of nothing You're you're creating the setup because you want the setup to be there Um, you know, you're looking for you're looking for your own confirmation bias, basically pretty much So I found it and I was able to take some more losses on it So welcome to trading that's okay, you know, it's yeah to welcome the trading That's that's the reality of trading people take losses, you know, people don't people don't win all the time um, you know people People don't win and we don't I don't have a lambo. So and I don't think you do either yet Not yet. I don't think it's gonna ever come like trading like that, but it's fine So, uh Maybe maybe if you get maybe maybe if you catch a pre-haul, you know, then you can get the lambo Yeah, I mean it would have been a really really nice trade. I think I was It wasn't hard to be yet That was really into the hall trying to get in and I couldn't get like a feel or something like that And then I sent you the imbalance showing like such a high price on it Like whatever clearing price it was I was like them and I think I even more fumbled into it because I was waiting the whole day or like even more than that Like months to finally trade like a good breaking news. It happened and I missed it. So I was like so frustrated Nope. Yeah, the biggest thing about breaking news is that people are putting out piers all the time, right? There's always news And as long as you stay focused on it if it's something, you know, a trade that You know, a lot of people like to make yeah, because you can get these quick massive moves um You know, it's just something you have to keep keep at and keep watching keep set people set alerts news alerts for Certain market caps certain floats certain highest short interests On purpose knowing that those things are are going to tend to make the biggest moves Sorry for the quick interruption But if you have question that you'd like us to answer for the next show Don't forget to leave them down in the comment section and I'll also link all the best tools for day trading in the description So don't forget to check that out. Let's get back to it So like I mentioned, uh I haven't traded like the breaking news really except for a couple pre market pr because I was on vacation or holiday trading whatever you want to call it for about a month and a half and I was in a laptop And I kind of figured out that traveling and trading wasn't really for me I mean if it's only for a day or two, I could limit myself to only trading the best setup or what would have the best odds But I just couldn't get myself really focused or Or the loss hurt even more for some reason like on vacation taking losses really ruined my day compared to taking losses when I'm home And I decided after I guess the second week of being on vacation to just Just not even trade like don't even like I always don't come in and like no do my thing check a few things But I was like really about not clicking not taking a trade I couldn't get myself focused. I couldn't be in the zone like Wi-Fi was good But it was just I was like sketch out about something now working out and done and so forth. So I decided to Give up on that and the next time I'll travel. I'll just accept that I'll time it for a moment that I just don't want to trade like so um Because I know you've been on holidays also and were you trading or you decided to actually put it aside Either or right? I think that that's it's still the answer is gonna be personal for everyone like I know people that they like to go on vacation and Like me I I prefer to log in every single day like you you know I'd prefer to log in every day and still have some pulse on the market Like even if I'm not trading at least spend 20 30 40 an hour Like monitoring a couple positions that I have right and and you know, we're gonna talk about a couple things right now Like if are you a day trader? Are you a swing trader? Are you it? You know, what's your trading style? and The trading style like that scalper one minute where you have to focus mentality for me. It doesn't work on a laptop You know and obviously you see those social media warriors who are out there trading on the laptops So go just paid from a vacation on this quick scout for 15 minutes and then I'm done right like Okay, it works. It works for some people, right? It just it just works for some people But I think that the reason that you have vacation And the people need to go on vacation is so that you can disconnect, right? Everyone needs that disconnect And recently I was in traveling in Asia And the market was opening at 10 o'clock at night and it was just you know, I would try I I logged in But I and I did my thing I I watched for 30 minutes and kind of just went to bed And I missed a lot of things and I missed a lot of the breakout move that happened in early january and you know For a while it really bothered me, you know, it still bothers me that I missed those not seemingly easy breakouts, but As someone who prefers to go with the trend and it was A sector that I was watching and focusing on to miss that really was frustrating you know, but I have to live with it I made my decisions and Um, I got to go on a go. I have a great holiday I eventually just stopped logging in because what was the point at that point? I didn't want to chase I didn't want to feel those emotions that we talk about um And it have it affect my trading basically, but I'm all for logging in, you know Am I old firm? I didn't have the ability to trade You know abroad like and it gave me and people Such FOMO, right? Oh my gosh, like I can never go on vacation because what if something happens? Right and that's how we were kind of I don't know talk to think but that was like the mentality of the floor Like what if something else happens and someone makes $50,000 or $100,000 or million dollars for whatever the number is like and then here I was on vacation, right? And and then I I missed that amazing opportunity that everyone else capitalized capitalized on Um, just because I was on vacation at this time and it made you not want to take vacation you know and There was no remote access, you know, they wanted everyone to come in on onto the trading floor and you know the cove had changed that for my friends and some Have gone, you know to other places besides new york city, but Now for me like when I left one of the things I wanted to do was be able to trade I wanted to be able to go on vacation and really kind of see like all right if my setup happens you know now that I Have been able to really define my setups if I if my setup happens And it happens within the third the first 30 minutes or an hour of the day based on where I'm located Right. So for me like if I go to the west coast to go skiing for example You know on the market opens at 6 30, but the mountain doesn't open until 9 30 You know, I great. I can trade the morning, you know, I can trade the morning and I can kind of You know before everyone else is awake have some coffee At least monitor something happens. Great. I take it if not. All right I shut it down. I'm going to go skiing for the day the other thing that You know to what you were just saying about how it ruining your day on vacation Whenever I trade on vacation. I always decrease my risk size, right us trading on vacation is our own Degenerate nature to just be polite about it Right, we're you know, we were looking for action, right? Like everyone wants to pay for the vacation while they're away Especially if you're trading for penal income if it's your main source of income You know, you don't you don't want to feel like you're going on vacation and then you're also missing another opportunity It's not like I we get vacation days um You know, do you try to try to time your vacations around slower periods, but you never know, right? So I think that you know, if you go on vacation You know, I just lower my risk and then and if I make what would normally be like a half hour or a quarter hour Great, you know, who cares like it that's fine It's it's always better to make something than nothing is my thought And it's always better. It's also always better to be flat than down a lot and then have it really ruin your day or your Your whole vacation unnecessarily. Yeah, so I guess I guess it's the time for how long you're on vacation and also the time frame the time zone The strategy because I'm trying to really focus more on like news trade You're just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting until something, you know, the with news comes out And while on vacation, it was just so painful versus If you know, your setup comes around a certain time you can kind of manage I guess, yeah, it's very dependent on your style. I didn't think of it like that If yeah, if you're focused on more Friend trading or whatever you want to call it swing trading day trading, but it's very like setup based You know, what kind these setup are gonna come so you know, you're gonna at least be done by by noon So you have the rest of your day really to to enjoy at least if you don't want to sit around Yeah, I mean and even for news trading, you know, like you you know And as you if it's something that you start to focus more on like you'll realize that You know, take away like the that breaking news traded in during the day in the VZ IO yesterday A lot of the best news trades happen in the pre-market, right? And if even if you're on vacation, you just set yourself up for 6 a.m 7 a.m 8 a.m, right And like that's when all the PRs come out like almost all PRs if you look at the timing they come out On the hour on the Quarter hour and on the bottom of the hour, right 7 7 15 7 30 7 45 Not so much 7 45 or 8 o'clock 8 o'clock, right? So All right And what and you don't have to worry about things like VZ IO getting halted, right? So you can you can have a little more leeway to chase a little bit, right? Wait Not that I'm advocating chasing make sure you size your trade properly to your own risk parameters But right like you like you don't have to worry about missing You know like you were saying you were trying to figure out the ticker symbol And then but if VZ IO was still trading in the pre-market, maybe it was at maybe it would have been the 850 And you could have bought a smaller size because you were buying a little bit higher, but you could still have participated um in that right You know, so I would say that those are some of the things and then you get your whole day, right? Because the news trade during the day is such a specific trade And then you might miss it because it got halted because it's so fast And then what like you said like you just you wasted your whole day missing missing that news trade anyway You know on you know unnecessarily or just just because it was too fast for you to react to right because it got halted So I I guess I could have really focused on the the pre and then maybe the post if I was there for the post market Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and then and then you you still get to enjoy your vacation and and you still get to enjoy your time and You know, you don't you're not feeling like you're spending the whole day there um and anything that does happen you can Journal it playbook it and you can kind of replay what's happening and what's going on and and and you know and really Still feel like you have a pulse on what's happening versus just totally being blind When you get back. Yeah, because that's definitely the case this week Even with that pr on bmr. It was a really good pr pre market they announced that they were going to partner with nvidia and That was like a really like it was a massive trade And I do have alerts for that But I was just so so lost trying to figure out my my hotkey on that keyboard Trying to figure out where to put my platform now like all on my screen It was just uh, yeah So that was a trade so it came on over here so much time to actually buy that pr And for sure you can expect them big of a move But it never got back to kind of the the reference price or any close to it It just popped and it went sideways sideways sideways. So if you And I have a few examples of of this specific trade of I had cgen it was like this one was a biotech But it announced that it partnered with jillad, which was like a massive biotech So micro cap partnering with a massive biotech on an exclusive licensing deal that was good there was uh ccc cc which was a they announced Uh Another licensing deal with murk, which was something like similar to that there was also I don't have a couple example. There was fr gt another small cap that announced that They put it funny on the pr this one as I remember it was that they signed a deal for their trucking business with amazon mexico, but Technically it was just that the they just renewed the contract like it was it was like not a new thing It was just like uh, they're extending it for like one year, which and they made sugo like another 200 percent, but Like the finding that news was just easy Look for pr on small cap that are partnering with like a major company and I have that please look And then I like I saw it like by the time I figured out that stock or side It was probably like already up 500. I was like goddamn. What was I? so maybe if I I did trade a bit I would have been at least a moin tune with With the market I I think that's probably the benefit of at least still logging in clock You know a couple hours instead of not even looking, but you know and everyone's different right everyone's going to be different Everyone has to find their balance right like if you do you have a family? Do you have you know, are you going by yourself are you with your friends? You know, what are you what do you have scheduled for the day or the vacation? Are you just is it a beach vacation or is it something where you're doing a lot of? Uh touring and exploring right like everyone's You know every vacation is different. So I everything has to have different parameters Kind of set, you know your own parameter set to it Yeah makes a makes total sense and that's going to bring it to the next topic, which is Yesterday I sent you a ticker that made a big move And it was on a pr that happened during the date like it wasn't like this crazy pr like this Visio, but it was a Like I thought the pr was vs and I didn't have any alert Create because it's not something that I thought would make something move But I didn't have a lot of formal because I missed the trade because it was a news trade And when I when I went to set up some alerts on it that I was talking with you He said like be careful when you're trying to play book these things because sometimes Maybe this one did make a big move But was it like was it because of the news? It was just something that you know They had in mind or if this news comes out again Is it going to make the ticker move like this or not right? So that's like the news was about um, they cancelled and offering or I repurchase repurchase some shares like something very None non-special like okay, so it looks like the news actually was they anticipate Utilizing a previously authorized repurchase plan Even if the pr is bs, would you still consider taking the trade because the setup seemed to be Really good on the technical side. I think you know and this is what I was saying to you right You know my point yesterday was sometimes there's a lot of fluffy prs, right? And I think this this might come down to you know knowing the company, right? There's There's a lot of companies out there that are always putting out fluffy prs. They're always posting fluffy things on twitter And sometimes depending on the market that you're in they run and sometimes they don't and and it's kind of random You know, are you in a bull market? Are are there a lot of people on twitter that all of a sudden seem to be Pumping it and hyping it and talking about it. Um, I think that the reason that this ran is because it's float when I look is 2.8 million and The it's 13 short you know But looking at the pr as I read it now, they're only we're purchasing Well, I guess the repurchase I guess they're repurchasing 680,000 Um, probably plan the plan too. They're not doing it. They plan to which which would which is what 20 25 of the float Based on the numbers I just mentioned Okay, I mean I I guess I guess that you can you know, it's it's it's essentially a self fulfilling short squeeze, right like they they they created their own short squeeze by You know putting out a pr that they're going to repurchase their shares or maybe be purchasing their shares You know and and like I was saying to you is like do you have evidence that other people Putting this out on the small cap. Is it definitely going to is it definitely going to go up? Is it definitely go up a you know 100% like that was that was you know You were mentioning that that was like really your FOMO about it. It went up 100% Right again, everything is just everything has to be kind of relative to like what you were seeing at the time You know and it's it's so easy to like Look in hindsight and say this was so easy, right? This was so easy Like oh my gosh, look at this little cup and flag cup and handle flag blah blah blah And it just went up 100 from there but like people I mean, this is this should be a topic for another another day, but people need to start really Focusing on what was your mindset like here, right? Like what was your mindset here before it even happened, right? Like okay, you get like a 10 cent move 25 percentage, right? It's my math right there 20 percentage You get a 20 percent move here Okay, and then and then it retraces 50 percent And then and then it kind of you know, it starts to curl back up Okay, you know and and I'm just using five minute candles just is a it's a bigger proxy here instead of just the one minute but You know as a say you're trading on five minute candlesticks If you're getting along here 55 cents 54 and a half Are you really risking like five cents? Are you are you risking 10 percent here? right if you're risking 10 percent here five cents like What's your three four five hour trade? You know, I guess you're looking for 75 cent move the move to 75 80 cents Maybe a dollar just you get that dollar holler move You know, it all comes down to like, you know, it all comes down to like really understanding the fundamentals like seeing seeing that there's only 2.8 million in shares and float seeing that they're By max 600,000 shares like all right That's significant where like you you could get a strong move, but then to that right like obviously You know and this is where people to a used idolution tracker and look at A lot of sec forms that are a lot smarter than I am because It's not something that I could I really wanted to kind of figure out and put into my playbook right either people thought it was bs or Or They just didn't Believe it whatever whatever it is or there's something else about an offering or atm or something else out there Otherwise it would it would have stayed right like why why would it go all the way up and then all the way back down and like fully round trip if it wasn't really significant right and and I and I can't remember who said it, but you know There's someone on I want to say social media social, you know fin twit that I followed it I can't remember who or maybe wasn't a mentor but Like we're only renting them. We're only renting the names, right? We're like as shorter term traders and not investors Like we're just we're in the rental business. We're not and we're not in like the the owning business so, you know And this is kind of where like Volume and and technicals you this is where you can kind of get your edge Right, you can take a trade here but like you know, again Don't let don't let the hindsight of just seeing it happen Give you the expectation that the next time that exact same pr comes out for another company That you're going to see that same move, right? You you still want to make sure you see some sort of you know proper risk to reward Um set for a trade Yeah, so I guess I could have still took the trade as a trade like a technical trade But I can't take really that trade on the news except i'm just saying oh, there's We're in a hot market There's a lot of momentum. Maybe this one can have like a push but Like, you know, it's it's a big move that it did but I can't really game plan for finding news that make this I guess on this one I think if there's a way for you to kind of Look back and kind of see like that similar pr that's come out I'm not sure, you know, you have that ability to reverse engineer it and just you know, look at float under I don't make it big and just make it big make float under a hundred million share share repurchase program um, and and then just You know, then you reverse engineer the moves that way and see all right No, maybe the maybe that's the bigger thing that I thought it was right Maybe stocks are actually making 10 to 100 percent moves Um, especially when the stock's under 20 right or under 10 Um, and that in that particular pr cut seems to come out. Um, you know, I that was like a kind of like you said a unique pr that That I hadn't really seen before, you know, they're re initiating a repurchase plan, but You know, maybe they got some funding and and maybe people were worried that they were going to drop an offering right, you know Again, things that are probably all in the filings that I just don't know the answers to Just because that that particular trades not in my playbook All right. No, I think it makes sense. Um, because I'm there's so many moves like this when I look back at like pre market like Um, pre market stocks that are moving are making like 100 percent moves. Sometimes there's just No news a lot of tenders no news. So I'm like, well How am I supposed to find these things? I could yeah, I can find it on a scanner, but Why like I always have a hard time buying stock with no news Because I'm like, why is something up 100% on new news like no filings like really nothing no tweet like zero and it's always like, uh I mean the setup is nice the stock looks and it's something it does move higher And I think it's probably because people are shorting it Just because there's no news and it's up a lot, which would be an ideal short, right? Like, you know, it's gonna go down at some point Like because there's no news. Well, that's that's what you're assuming, right? Like you you never know, you know and and As I you know what what I've learned over the years Someone always knows or someone always knows something or something's always happening, right? A lot of those things are paid pump paid pumps, right? Like you can you know, are they is there a paid promotion going on is is You know, if you look at the filings there may not be a filing now But was there a previous filing that said that they had to um Get their share price over a certain level for a certain number of days So that they can drop an offering right or so so then insider can can sell right? So those are other things that you know Yeah, there's not going to be a pr an offering that day, but there are little rules like If a ceo wants to share sell like 10 of the of his holdings, right? He the average volume needs to be big enough that he's not more than like 20 of the volume for the day or something like that There's some kind of rule like that Yeah, so so if there's If there's a small cap that's only averaging 50 000 shares a day and the guy wants to dump 50 000 shares a day That means some market maker or some promotion or whoever it is Like they're it's probably most likely a market maker an underwriter, right? Where they're offering they're going to offer shares this people like a penny or five pennies it's like put pump up the stock volume to 250 000 shares a day for the next 10 days So that I can sell my 50k shares, you know, and then them will exercise your warrants or rights or whatever like that and then you can and you dump it, right? Like there's that whole game with those small caps like that and I think that that's why sometimes they they run and then and then they eventually roll over once that You know manipulation or wherever you want to call it it's kind of done Are you familiar with market making and like how these contract works out of curiosity because I don't know if they can Do they hire actually market makers to just generate volume on their stock or Or it's like they do it through promotion and like whatever they want to do it I'm not an expert on this by any means. Um, you know, just from This is just from talking to some people and and some of it's listened. There's a there's actually a really good podcast Confessions of a market maker and the guy the one guy always talks about how He was a market maker and he was paid to keep The rsi of the stock and the price of the stock Up for so long and he said he was holding so many shares, but because they were trying to Insiders were trying to sell it And he was just holding it up. He was holding it up. He's never mentioned what The stock is or anything like that or But You know, but he's talked about how he talks about how he had to do that So people could literally do this this exact process. Yeah, I listened to that podcast section pretty good I don't know if they had any reason to one, but yeah, he He uses I know you use it a lot like VWAP or And I can't some kind of be what because he sees like market in different structure because he was a market maker I'm an interesting thought on this, but This really applied to my training Yeah, me either So thanks for watching this episode if you enjoyed like and subscribe Also, if you have any question that you'd like us to answer on the next episode leave them down below