Jul 21 – Jul 25, 2025
Nick SchmidtJuly 26, 2025SPY+1.52%QQQ+0.91%
Seven trades in five days and the portfolio looks completely different than it did Monday morning. Tuesday was a full defensive move to cash after Monday's weak close, sold ALAB, RUM, SOUN, and QUBT because the pressure was overwhelmingly down and I didn't want to give back progress. Then spent the rest of the week selectively re-entering names that proved they deserved capital.
TSLA was the big move of the week. Bought it Thursday pre-market after the -5% earnings gap with a $299 stop against the major $300 level. By Friday it was working and that positive feedback feeds into pushing harder if it continues. SMCI was the rockstar all week, held strong through everything without being too volatile.
Defensive Tuesday cleared out most positions. Re-entered selectively. SMCI held through everything.
Full defensive move to cash. Sold ALAB, RUM, SOUN, and QUBT.
Re-entered QUBT on the 10-week with quantum group, using week's low for risk.
Bought TSLA pre-market on -5% earnings gap with $299 stop against the $300 level.
Being defensive protects progress and confidence at the same time. If you're too slow to get defensive you give back gains and then you're too nervous to get aggressive when the opportunity shows up. Tuesday's defensive move is what allowed me to buy TSLA Thursday without hesitation. A late exit leads to a late re-entry and then you miss the move entirely.
In an uptrend, weak opens are usually an opportunity and all that matters is the close. So when I have cushion on a position I always give the market benefit of the doubt in the first hour for the position to hold. I don't want to be reacting to noise at 9:35 when the close is what actually matters. But this only applies to positions with cushion. If it's a new position that doesn't have cushion yet I would never move my initial stops and open myself up to more risk than I planned. The distinction is important because one is patience, the other is recklessness.
Using the weekly low as a stop is something I keep coming back to because when a stock has real momentum the lows of each week continually stay above the previous week. It's a natural trailing stop that gives the position room to breathe while protecting against a real trend change. SOUN was a clean example this week of that staircase pattern.