Failure to cut losses

I was up around $80 in the morning and slowly traded my winnings again. Around 2:15 I lost my discipline. I saw CMI having a blow off top at around 88.19. It sold off to 86 and I kept thinking what about that incredible drop. Why didn't I have the guts to short it. I decided to wait for bounce to a Fib level so I drew some lines. The first bounce hit the 38.2% retracement level and sold off. I missed that because I was checking out Youtube. I decided to draw a trendline and short the stock when it bounces of the trendline.

Here are my trades:

I shorted 200 shares at 85.73 and covered at 86.24. I lost $51

I saw the stock sell of quickly and I put out a market order to short. I got filled again at 85.73. I covered at 85.98 and lost $25.

I watched it rally to 86.50 and sell off from there. I put out a market short and got filled at 86.31. The stock went up to 87.45 and I was getting squeezed. When it came down to 86.78 I covered . I lost $95.

What I learned from this series of bad trades:

I missed that $1 drop after the 1st bounce so I thought the stock owed me some money. I anticipated a breakdown when the stock hit the trendline. The stock broke through the trendline instead. I hesitated in cutting my losses when they were small.


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17600 shares