Solitaire Trader

Snoopy Dance: NVEC

Every time a stock in my portfolio goes up 10% or more in a single day, I do a Snoopy Dance!

NVEC was up +11.09% today!

This is its 3rd Snoopy Dance since I bought it.  See the first one with my entry here.  It is now up +54% since I purchased it on October 13th.

Monday 10/30 Trades

Monday's trades:

Buys: MFRI, XNR, CYB, CLEC (2nd lot).

Sells: none.

Unfortunately only got a partial fill on my limit order for MFRI before it launched.

Portfolio Status

I haven't been having good results in completed trades lately, but the portfolio is in decent shape:

Of 31 stocks, 10 are up more than 10% (and thus, barring disasters that unfortunately keep happening, should be gainers).  Only 6 are down.  The big winners are NVEC +39%, MIKR +26%, TIE +23%, SVVS +20%, HWCC +17%, ICOC +16%, ANGN +14%,  FMD +11%, IDEV +10%, NUVA +10%.

Snoopy Dance: ANGN

Every time a stock in my portfolio goes up 10% or more in a single day, I do a Snoopy Dance!

ANGN was up +11.12% on Friday.  Also, MIKR was up +9.52%, just missing another one.

Friday 10/27 Trades

Friday's Trades:

Buys: GERN, ALXN, RWC.

Sells:

MA - stop hit for -2.99% loss.
BVX - stop hit for +0.77% gain.
TRT - stop hit for -0.33% loss.
EGY - stop hit for -5.02% loss.

OK, this continual stop hitting is really getting annoying.  The proper placement of stops is to me the hardest part of trading.  I am clearly picking good stocks and pretty decent entry points, but I'm getting killed on some of these stops.  I've been setting my stops in close because I've been nervous about this market, but clearly that's been a stupid thing to do.  I'm not giving them enough room to run.

MA on Friday, for example, was a complete screw up in stop placement.  Price opened and dropped and made a beeline to my stop, hit it, and then the stock went straight up and turned in a nice day.  My stop simply should not have been that close.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.

BVX was a somewhat different case.  I placed my stop just above my entry price because BVX went up more than 10%.  Any time a stock goes up more than 10% from my buy price, I place my stop just above my buy price to protect me from losing money.  TRT did the same thing.  I don't want to change that rule because it usually protects me, it's just annoying that it keeps happening.  I need to get some gains out of those winners.

Thursday 10/26 Trades

Thursday's Trades:

Buys: EGY, NGAS, FTO. 
(Looks like energy was the theme of the day).

Sells:

BEAV - stop hit for -3.18% loss.
ILE - stop hit for -7.19% loss.

Wednesday 10/25 Trades

Wednesday's Trades:

Buys: AUXL, IEDU, AIQ, ANSW.

Sells:

SVNT - stop hit for -1.43% loss.
PMTR - sold for +0.32% gain (discovered the company is being acquired, so it will not be going up much).

Snoopy Dance: BVX

Every time a stock in my portfolio goes up 10% or more in a single day, I do a Snoopy Dance!

BVX was up +10.77% today.  It was just purchased last Thursday as yet another range compression (narrow range 7) play.  Those kinds of trades are really, really working in this market.

Another portfolio stock, TIE, just missed a Snoopy Dance with over a 9% gain.

Tuesday 10/24 Trades

Tuesday's Trades:

Buys: FMD (2nd lot), RMTR, ANGN.

Sells:

ISIG - stop hit for -4.69% loss.
ALTH - stop hit for -9.03% loss.
OPLK - stop hit for -1.37% loss.
ISIS - stop hit for -2.53% loss.
ALGN - stop hit for -3.52% loss.

Still way too many stops getting hit for losses.  The good news is that with the small position size and close stops, these 5 losses are about equivalent dollar wise to what just one regular loss was last spring.  The other good news is there are now 10 stocks in the portfolio racking up double digit gains, with BVX and TIE becoming the latest nice winners.

I bought a 2nd lot of FMD.  The chart is showing nice range compression, indicating a breakout in one direction or the other is coming soon.  Earnings are reported on Thursday, so I'm betting that the move will be up.  With this purchase, FMD is now once again by far the largest position in the portfolio, 10 times larger than some of the smallest positions.

Snoopy Dance: NGA

Every time a stock in my portfolio goes up 10% or more in a single day, I do a Snoopy Dance!

NGA was up +11.57% today.  This was just purchased last Wednesday on a range compression (narrow range day).