Rookie error last week brought my trading to a stop .
I bought CARR (the rights stock) and I had no intention of taking up those rights. My 1st error was buying high. My 2nd error, was not selling on Friday (the day I had bought them). By Monday, my account was heavily in the negative, as the broker then allowed for the takeup of those rights. I sold on Monday, but then by Tuesday was calling the broker to fix up my balances as I couldn't trade. Ideally with this stock, Tuesday was the better day to trade it. But it was too late, I had already sold for a loss, and didn't want to go near it again.
This was the 1st time I had traded this type of stock, and did very little research (another error). I thought it would trade till June, but then found in the documentation that it would be removed from the ASX on Wed 26th May.
So I guess I have a question for the HC gurus out there. With this type of "rights" stock, can it go into a trading halt during the short time its available to trade? This is not the type of stock you want to be left holding.
I just sort of watched the market for the rest of the week, and got my account sorted by Thursday, but by then the momentum of trading had been lost, and I only bought GBR on Friday for an overnight hold. I was a bit cheeky and on my other trading account I went and traded AMC (NYSE) for a profit. But I was not confident with this highly volatile stock, so I took a small profit. Having seen that it was on the upward trajectory, I kept trading during the week. In at 14.40 out 15.70 (1 week hold) In at 19.5 out 21 (D/T). Meanwhile, the stock went to 30. In at 31 out at 35. (D/T) And my final trade was a loss that wiped out my gains. In at 35 out at 26 (D/T). I kept wishing it would go up, but then I bit the bullet.
Historically, my bad trading always seems to come apart on the 3rd D/T. I also have a bad habit of not allowing a stock to gather its momentum over a week, but this stock was too risky, and I'm no professional.
Lessons for me: 1. Research and read documentation carefully (especially when you're unsure what is being announced) 2. After 2 D/Ts on same stock .... move onto another stock. (unless you're prepared to lose that capital).
Looking forward to Monday, now that I have a bit of cash.
