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Anatomy of $GDVM – My Weekend Play

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/24/2023 5 min read

No one wants to leave money on the table.

It’s like getting to a concert halfway through and missing your favorite songs.

While I can’t teach you to show up on time, I CAN help you capture more profits on your winners.

Here’s the thing…

Even after years of trading the market, I still pull out of trades early.

But guess what?

I’m totally fine with that, and you should be too.

There’s always another trade around the corner.

I’d rather take small wins more often than worry about huge losses.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t learn from missed opportunities.

Global Development Inc. (OTC: GDVM) is a perfect case study.

I bought shares late Friday into a multi-day run on stellar news.

Come Monday, I exited for a tidy $475 profit (starting stake $7,516.80) at $0.037.

Thing is, had I waited until the end of the day, I could have gotten $0.042!

Now, I prefer to take my exits all at once.

However, there’s an incredible concept that many traders use that lets them have their cake and eat it too.

Here’s how it works…

Why GDVM

I want to start with a daily chart of GDVM.

The arrow points to Friday’s trading.

I bought shares around 3:30 p.m. EST for $0.0348.

Now, check this out.

This is the intraday chart of GDVM. I set a white line at $0.0348 and put an arrow where I bought into the stock.

I know I often talk about this, but panic dip buys are fantastic ways to grow small accounts. While that typically happens in the morning, dips can happen in the afternoon.

Going back to the daily chart, I noticed this stock was in a multi-week uptrend.

Recently, the stock got a huge boost from this headline:

The company saw a massive reduction in the shares outstanding, cutting the float by almost 90%.

Smaller floats mean it takes less volume to move a stock.

Plus, profits are distributed amongst fewer shareholders.

There were a lot of reasons to be bullish.

So, my goal was to hold over the weekend for a gap up on Monday, as simple as that.

Cutting Too Early

When Monday rolled around, this is what the chart looked like.

Shares opened lower and immediately sold off into a morning panic.

Luckily, they bounced right back and I was able to make a nice profit.

However, the stock wasn’t done running and in fact kept going for days.

How could I have played this differently?

For starters, I should have taken a portion of the trade off at Friday’s close, which was roughly where I ultimately took my profits.

Locking in profits early means reduces my risk and lets me give the remaining position more rope.

Had I done that, and sold say 75% of my holdings, I probably would have stopped out back at breakeven on the remainder.

Thankfully, the stock never got back down there.

Once a trade is up nicely, I never want to let it become a loser. At worst, I would stop out at or just above breakeven.

Now, let’s say I had sold 75% of the trade at that point, whether it was on Friday or on Monday.

I could then let the remaining position ride with a stop back at breakeven.

As shares push higher, I can scale out of the remainder in pieces and move up my stop.

For example. Say I had 100,000 shares to start. I sell 75,000 at $0.037.

I would put a stop in for the remaining 25,000 at $0.0348.

Let’s say I decide to shoot for another $0.004.

I sell half of the 25,000, or 12,500 and at $0.0041.

More Breaking News

I can then put a stop for the remaining 12,500 back at breakeven or move it up to the last profit exit, $0.037.

Scale or Scram?

Ultimately, whether you choose to scale out or go one-and-done is a matter of personal preference.

One-and-done’s are easier to manage and free you up from the trade sooner.

But, as GDVM shows, it can leave a LOT on the table.

Context is also important.

As I pointed out in yesterday’s newsletter, macroeconomic events impact penny stocks the same as large caps.

If the market is bullish, then more risk may be appropriate.

If the market is fragile, it’s wise to lock in profits early and often.

—Tim


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* Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. See Terms of Service here

The available research on day trading suggests that most active traders lose money. Fees and overtrading are major contributors to these losses.

A 2000 study called “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors” evaluated 66,465 U.S. households that held stocks from 1991 to 1996. The households that traded most averaged an 11.4% annual return during a period where the overall market gained 17.9%. These lower returns were attributed to overconfidence.

A 2014 paper (revised 2019) titled “Learning Fast or Slow?” analyzed the complete transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange between 1992 and 2006. It looked at the ongoing performance of day traders in this sample, and found that 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading, and more than 90% of all day trading volume can be traced to investors who predictably lose money. Additionally, it tied the behavior of gamblers and drivers who get more speeding tickets to overtrading, and cited studies showing that legalized gambling has an inverse effect on trading volume.

A 2019 research study (revised 2020) called “Day Trading for a Living?” observed 19,646 Brazilian futures contract traders who started day trading from 2013 to 2015, and recorded two years of their trading activity. The study authors found that 97% of traders with more than 300 days actively trading lost money, and only 1.1% earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage ($16 USD per day). They hypothesized that the greater returns shown in previous studies did not differentiate between frequent day traders and those who traded rarely, and that more frequent trading activity decreases the chance of profitability.

These studies show the wide variance of the available data on day trading profitability. One thing that seems clear from the research is that most day traders lose money .

Millionaire Media 66 W Flagler St. Ste. 900 Miami, FL 33130 United States (888) 878-3621 This is for information purposes only as Millionaire Media LLC nor Timothy Sykes is registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser. No information herein is intended as securities brokerage, investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes cannot and does not assess, verify or guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions, should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment, and investigate and fully understand any and all risks before investing. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes in no way warrants the solvency, financial condition, or investment advisability of any of the securities mentioned in communications or websites. In addition, Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes accepts no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. This information is not intended to be used as the sole basis of any investment decision, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the investment needs of any particular investor. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns.

Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: “Day Trading for a Living?”

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636”

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101”