I Can’t Believe I Missed This…

Hey everyone, Ross Cameron here! Today was a tough day in the day trading world. I started off with two rough trades, both losses, which put me at 0% accuracy right out the gate. A bit frustrating, but it’s part of the game. It got a bit better when I had a win on the third trade, bringing my accuracy up to 33% and giving me $200 in profit. But let’s be real⁠—that’s not much. In fact, it felt like I was getting nowhere.

It didn’t take long for things to take a dive again. I took another trade and lost $2,000. Ouch. This wasn’t how I imagined starting my day. After that, I took a trade that won back $2,200, pulling me out of the hole with a small $400 gain. From there, I methodically clawed my way to an $1,100 profit. It sounds good now, but believe me, getting there was like walking on a tightrope.

Struggling Through FOMO

While I’m sitting here with $1,100 in profit, there is still a huge part of me feeling the fear of missing out (FOMO). There’s a stock, WHLR, that’s been on my watchlist for about a week and a half, and it finally squeezed today. The real kicker? It hit that movement at 10:30 a.m., a little too late for me to feel comfortable jumping in with meaningful risk.

I ended up taking some small trades on WHLR, but I didn’t use my usual share size. That decision kept me from making more money, but also kept me from taking on unnecessary risk. But the FOMO is real⁠—seeing that stock move, knowing I’m not fully in it, makes you wonder what could have been.

Anytime that feeling creeps in, I remind myself to be grateful for what I do have. Right now, I’m up over $1100 on the day. When I start wishing I had more, I’m overlooking the fact that I’m walking away with real money in my account that wasn’t there a few hours ago. FOMO is dangerous like that⁠—it makes you lose sight of what’s important.

Temptation to Overtrade

Day trading is a mental game more than anything else, and the biggest danger is falling into overtrading when you don’t have a good cushion. Today is only the second day of October, and I aim to build slow, steady gains. I want to bank some profits before throwing too much risk into the market. The only way to do that is by staying calm, cool, and collected⁠—something that feels pretty hard when you’re staring at a stock like WHLR, halted up and showing all the signs of a potential move.

WHLR today showed a resumption price around $14.62 after it got halted. I was watching it closely. Earlier this morning, it popped from $8 to $8.34. It had spread of 30-plus cents, which told me to take a step back and breathe. When you’ve already gone red on the day, diving headfirst into a risky stock can get ugly, fast.

Risk vs. Reward: What’s the Price?

One big lesson from today: when you’re in recovery mode after a loss, you have to be careful about piling back in with too much size. What if I had jumped into WHLR right at the top, grabbing 4,500 shares at $9? The moment it dropped, I’d be down a couple of thousand dollars, right back in the red. And sure, maybe after that dip, it would have come back up, but that’s a dangerous game. You take too big a hit, too fast, and it’s game over.

Today WHLR ended up being a choppy ride. There were moments it spiked, but there were tricky moments where big sellers started bailing and dropping the stock in a second. The biggest takeaway for me here is that when the risk outweighs the reward, you’ve got to know when to stay out. I took four small trades on WHLR, made about $650, and called it a day on that stock. Could I have made more? Sure. But I also could’ve lost big. And that’s what gets me through those FOMO moments⁠—realizing that managing risk is what keeps me in the game day after day.

First Half of the Day: Managing Losses

Now, let me take you through the earlier part of my trading day. Honestly, it wasn’t pretty. My first two trades on DUO were total duds. They cost me about $500, not crazy but not the ideal way to start the morning. Trading with red numbers on your screen right out of the gate can knock your confidence. DUO showed signs of strength, and I tried to dip-buy off ascending support, but it didn’t play out, and I got stopped out twice in a row.

After DUO, I moved on to NCI. This stock had shown some after-hours strength, so when it spiked in the morning, I went in and grabbed $700 in gains. That pulled me from $500 red to just $250 green on the day. Little by little, I started recovering.

The API Losses That Stung

Then came API, and let me tell you, this stock messed me up. Initially, I wasn’t even going to trade it. It had too high of a float for my taste⁠—I usually avoid those. But the thing was moving so clean, I couldn’t help myself. I hopped in at $7, dip-bought, and then watched it flush straight down to $6.80, taking a $2,700 loss.

Looking back, I broke my own rule by getting involved in a lower-quality setup and paid the price. After those losses, I emotionally stepped back and realized I needed to wait for something better before I dug myself into a hole out of desperation.

Bouncing Back with XIN

Finally, things started to look up when I traded XIN. I bought into a breakout off a mini pullback, and the stock surged, netting me $3,000. That was enough to make me feel whole again, more or less. By that point, I stood about $500 green on the day, and suddenly things didn’t look so bad anymore. I followed that with a tiny $31 gain on ADTX and knew it was time to cool off.

The WHLR Stock Squeeze and Why I Didn’t Go Big

Then, around 10:30 a.m., WHLR started going crazy. This stock was halted, and I had been eyeing it all week, so the temptation was huge. But I only took small-size trades on it, walked away with a modest profit, and sat on my hands. In these moments, it’s easy to think, “I could have made $20,000 if I just bought 10,000 shares!” But that’s a dangerous mindset. If WHLR had suddenly dropped a dollar or two, I didn’t have enough of a cushion to take that hit.

I saw some big orders come through on WHLR, but for a stock with low float and a big spread, the risk was just too high. It’s tempting when you see a stock explode upward, but you have to be wary of sudden dumps. In this type of setup, I was more focused on protecting my gains rather than chasing more profits at the cost of massive risk.

Conclusion: Grateful but Cautious

At the end of the day, I’m walking away with $1100 in profit. It’s easy to look back and think “what if” I had taken those bigger trades, but in reality, I don’t regret playing it safe. I have more in my account now than I did a few hours ago, and that’s not something to take for granted.

For those of you stepping into the day trading world, take it slow. It’s tempting to try and knock it out of the park every day, but those home-run swings can backfire. Focus on high-quality setups, stay disciplined, and above all, learn to be grateful for the small wins. 

Thanks for reading, and catch you next time!

I can’t believe I missed this…

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Disclaimer: The results shared are based on my personal trading experiences and are not typical. Trading involves significant risk, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Always practice in a simulator before trading with real money.