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Confessions of a Day Trader: Buy Now, Pray Later
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Each Monday, Stockhead’s resident day trader gives us a peek at the highs and lows of his trading diary and hints at what might be coming this week.
Platform used: Marketech
Round Trip: A round trip is $10 up to $25,000 and then above $25,000, commission is at 0.02% in and at 0.02% out.
Rules of engagement: Never hold any positions overnight (unless forced) and try to avoid any suspensions (if possible). No shorting.
Monday December 13
You can feel the volumes falling as schools break up and families get ready to get into holiday mode. In the first few hours of trading most stocks were moving around with volumes very low.
Managed to score a small trade in 500 APT and that was about it. CBA took off around 10.30am and put on a $1.00 and BHP copied putting on 60c in a 10.30ish move.
APT reached a high of $95.99 and had a day range of $1.39 on a total volume of only 700,000. That’s the kind of day it was. Plus $90 for the day.
Recap:
Bought 500 APT @ 95.19
Sold 500 APT @ 95.37 ($90.00 profit)
Tuesday December 14
WOW came out of the gates down about 9% after a COVID trading update. I waited till 11.00am before getting involved.
Normally, when they are marked down like this, the news is out and with the 11.00am timing I thought they may bounce.
Also brought 500 APT at the same time and blow me down, had to then buy 1000 at $1.14 lower than the 500! Topped up swear jar and put them on a limit to sell the 1500 at $90.50.
They went up above $90.00 and then slipped back before shooting through my limit. They end the day with a trading range of over $3.00. Amazing stuff.
Plus $965. Pretty chuffed about that.
Recap:
Bought 1,000 WOW @ 36.58
Sold 1,000 WOW @ 36.93 ($350.00 profit)
Bought 500 APT @ 90.85
Bought 1,000 APT @ 89.71
Sold 1,500 APT @ 90.50 ($615.00 profit)
Wednesday December 15
A mixed day today. Made money on CBA and lost money on Z1P.
CBA just kept on giving (see chart) and Z1P was the day’s biggest faller out of the major stocks. They finished the day down 6.9% compared to APT, who were down 3.12%.
CBA’s range today was $98.00 to $96.51, APT’s range was $89.20 to $87.31 and Z1P’s was $4.81 to $4.43 and my punt on them was right towards the close, whereas CBA was from 11.00am onwards.
So, I lost $200 on Z1P but up $1125 on CBA, to give a plus $925 from just two stocks today and now wait to see what happens overnight and how my tomorrow will be.
Seems the new COVID variant is being shrugged off by financial markets so far.
Recap:
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 97.38
Sold 1,000 CBA @ 97.56 ($180.00 profit)
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 97.05
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 96.84
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 96.56
Sold 3,000 CBA @ 97.04 ($670.00 profit)
Bought 1,000 CBA @ 96.62
Sold 1,000 CBA @ 96.89 ($275.00 profit)
Bought 4,000 Z1P @ 4.48
Bought 4,000 Z1P @ 4.45
Sold 8,000 Z1P @ 4.44 (-$200.00 loss)
Thursday December 16
Wall Street up and Australia starting to wind down on their bond buying, plus jobs numbers in Australia, are the headlines that I see today.
Keep searching around for something to have a go at.
After a few hours of watching (volumes are not that big), APT seems to be finding a level.
I buy only 750 of them. Then have to buy another 750. Then I have to really get the gear lever down to another level and buy another 1500. At this point I feel it will go one way or the other.
Down another dollar or rally? Hopefully, they are finding a bounce soon as I’m not going to chase them down any more.
Down about $900 at one point and thinking that I’m about to wipe out a few of my trading profits over the last few days, when they do rally and I’m out.
Had a higher limit to sell the 3000 at and kept adjusting down and ended up putting it on at about 20c above my average buy.
So I sat and waited and kept checking, till I checked and saw that I now have no positions.
Phew.
So it goes like this
Bought 750 APT @ 89.83
Bought 750 APT @ 89.45
Bought 1,500 APT @ 89.01
Sold 3,000 APT @ 89.50 ($525.00 profit)
At $89.83, I thought they could bounce back above $90.
At $89.45, I thought they could rally back to $89.00
At $$89.01, I give it my last shot.
In the end I book a profit, which is a relief to my head.
One share, few grey hairs and up $525 today.
Friday December 16
An early interest rate rise in the UK, plus USA looking into how BNPL companies operate over there, will knock the Z1Ps and APTs today.
Sure enough, APT open down at $84.50 and Z1P open up at $4.10, with a low of $4.05. On Wednesday, they were $4.44.
Had a dabble in both of them and came away without a bloodied nose, but was all very gingerly done.
Picked up 1000 APT at $82.14 and out at $82.30 and 1000 Z1P at $4.08 and out 13c later. Everything else was just too hard for me.
CBA closed at $99.12 meaning the gap between them and APT has now grown to $15.45, in CBA’s favour. Amazing!
Tally for the week came in at plus $2,795 gross or $2,419 net. Now got to try and stay COVID safe. Bye.
Recap:
Bought 1000 APT @ 82.14
Sold 1,000 APT @ 82.30 ($160.00 profit)
Bought 1,000 Z1P @ 4.08
Sold 1,000 Z1P @ 4.21 ($130.00 profit)
