Dear Bella,

My name is (name deleted) and I am a twenty year old student at University of Florida. I have been following smbcapital on twitter ever since I saw you guys on Wall Street Warriors. I am more of a currency trader but recently I have been reading your morning rundowns and trying to trade the stock like how your firm teaches. I figured this would be a good start. Today I got long TSL at around the 28 level after seeing some good buying. After rallying up to the 28.50 area it pulled back all the way to 27.85. Here is where I got stuck and didn’t know if I should cut my losses or add more at this lower level? I decided to add more with a 10 cent stop. TSL now at 28.30 as I am going to lunch. My question is, even though I made money on this trade, would this be an acceptable trade for someone to make on your desk? Yes this trade worked out for me and I made money but I dont really care about that, I care more about making the trade for the right reasons. Look forward to hearing back from you! thanks

Bella Responds

I love how you are reviewing your work here. I love how you are most interested in whether your process was correct as opposed to your results. Right out of One Good Trade. This is excellent work working on your game.

If you were long because 28 is a big level and you are playing that level then I am not a buyer below 28.  You don’t double down below the level. One you should not double down ever as an intraday trader. You double up. You double up when TSL holds above 28.50. When TSL dips below 28 the market is telling you that you are wrong.

So if I would have bought TSL today because the of the 28 level, I would have gotten stopped out at 27.89. I may have decided to rebuy when it was holding above 28 again. I would be looking for TSL to hold above 28.50 to double up.

Having said all of that I prefer to trade stocks with a news catalyst.  Without fresh news you are more likely to get that blow off through 28 like you saw.  That is one tough move.

Keep getting better everyday. Keep working on your game.  Very well done starting in college.  Great job doing that with this trade!

Mike Bellafiore
Author, One Good Trade