One of the best days of my trading career wasn’t perfect…
It was far from it. I left money on the table, and I did almost everything wrong.
That’s more than I’d ever made in a single month. More than my entire previous year of trading, all wrapped up into one afternoon in front of four computer screens.
And every mistake I made that day, every dollar I left on the table, every moment I second-guessed myself, is all baked into every trade I’ve made since.
Here’s the full story. No revisionist history.
Just the trade, exactly as it happened.
How It Started
It was June 30th, 2020.
Cytodyn Inc (OTC: CYDY) had been on my radar for months. The stock ran from 30 cents, then spent a couple of months consolidating while traders piled on and called it a fraud. And then it just started going…
Seven consecutive green days, pushing from 3 bucks all the way up to $10.
Check out that price action in the chart below:
I’d actually tried to short it earlier in the week and got absolutely chopped up.
The fills were terrible. The stock kept faking out. I took my first-ever five-figure loss, $10k, trying to fight a move that wasn’t ready to roll over yet.
So that Friday, I stepped back, reset, and made a plan.
Be patient. Wait for the right entry. Don’t force it.
The following Tuesday was the day.
The Short
When CYDY started showing signs of exhaustion near $10, I went short, about 15,000 shares from around the mid $9s.
Then it held. Bounced back toward $10. I was down $3 or $4k and seriously considered cutting it.
I had PTSD from getting chopped up earlier in the week.
But I held. And then it started failing.
I watched it tick lower, then lower, and then it crashed, hard, from $10 all the way down toward 5 bucks.
This is where I made my first mistake of the day. I started covering into the crash instead of letting it ride. I got excited watching it fall and started taking profits too early.
By the time I covered everything, I’d made roughly $35,000 to $40,000 on the short.
It’s still a great trade by any measure. But I’d left at least a dollar a share on the table with 15,000 shares.
That’s money I didn’t capture because I lost sight of the bigger picture in the excitement of the moment.
The Dip Buy
Once I covered my short, I immediately flipped long.
I bought 20,000 shares near $5, looking for the bounce.
And it came. The stock ripped back toward $6, and I sold into the move. I made another $17,000 on the dip buy.
But then I watched it keep going, all the way to $8.
I left $2 a share on the table with 20,000 shares. That’s another $40,000 I didn’t make because I took profits too fast.
At the time, I was happy with the win, but looking back, it stings a little.
But that’s the learning. You never know where the bounce ends until it’s over.
The Dead Pump Bounce Short
As the stock pushed back toward the $7 to $8 range, I went short again. This time with about 25,000 shares. That’s more size than I’d ever traded on a single position.
And honestly? That was too much.
I was burnt out from trading this stock all day. I’d been in it through every phase, the short, the crash, the dip buy, the bounce, and my decision-making edge at the end of the day wasn’t as sharp as it had been at the open.
The stock pushed against me to $8. At that point, I was down $10-$15k on the position. And then it started failing.
I covered way too early again. Made about $25,000 on that leg, where I could have made significantly more.
What The Day Actually Taught Me
I went through multiple wins and losses on a single trade, but the final tally was a profit of $75,000. More money than I’d made in any previous month. More than my entire previous year of trading.
And still I knew, even in the moment, that I could have done better.
That’s not a complaint. That’s the lesson.
Every phase of that trade taught me something…
The short taught me about patience and waiting for the real entry. The dip buy taught me about taking profits too fast. The dead pump bounce taught me about trading with too much size when you’re already mentally exhausted.
$75,000, and I still had things to fix.
That’s what keeps me coming back every single day. That’s what keeps me hooked.
The moment you think you’ve figured it all out is the moment the market reminds you that you haven’t.
– Jack Kellogg
*Past performance does not indicate future results, Not typical.
