Daily Market Recap - 1/20/26
Small Cap Fades and How I Plan to Start the Week Going Forward
TLDR
Rough start, but I stayed engaged and adjusted.
IBRX finally transitioned to the backside later in the day and paid.
IVF was choppy early, but the afternoon breakdown gave me clean entries and exits.
The real edge showed up later in the session, reinforcing the value of waiting for structure.
Trades I Took
ImmunityBio IBRX 0.00%↑
Multi day runner that was in play on Friday, gapping up more today making the setup even better. It pushed up toward the 7 level premarket (overnight session high was 7.5), which gave me my first 1-minute short signal. I started in there, added on the VWAP breakdown, and got full size on a bounce right before the open. I locked some profits in on the opening washout.
The open was messy and aggressive. I locked in some profits before it pushed, chopped around 7, and stopped me out. I took a couple more attempts that I didn’t need to take, which just added to the damage. Not great execution and definitely forced.
Later in the day, the character finally changed. IBRX pushed up toward 8, stalled, and then put in a clear lower high and lower low. That was the first time all day it actually felt heavy. I got short into the bounce and this time it cracked hard under premarket highs and VWAP. That’s the start of the backside move I was waiting for.
I covered some into prior support, got a clean bounce to add that size back, and then managed it more patiently. I covered more into the close locking in a nice gain and holding the rest overnight for more downside.
INVO Fertility IVF 0.00%↑
IVF was one of several morning gappers, but up on no news. Conference presentation plus some loose speculation around fertility policy. Nothing concrete. That usually puts it on my short radar.
I started short on a bounce premarket and planned to add on further pops. At the open, it pushed over 4.20 and stopped me out. I re-entered when it stuffed, risking 4.50, and got stopped again. Same theme as IBRX: aggressive bids, no immediate downside follow-through. Just following my system.
That push gassed out just under pmh and IVF finally broke its intraday trend. That’s when I got interested again. I shorted the breakdown, added on bounces, and covered into the washes. We got a clean dip under 2.50 near the end of the day, which let me close the position at lows.
Swings
Current holdings: ALAB BE IREN LEU RDW
Other Notable Mentions
TWG ended up being the easy fade of the day, which is ironic given how many red flags it had.
Worth digging into Mondays and post-holiday sessions. The first hour has been brutal lately, and it might make sense to let things settle before engaging. A simple rule is to wait 1 hour and let price settle.
Takeaways
All I can do is follow my system and let the probabilities play out. It’s easy to want to shut down when things aren’t going well. Being able to continue putting on risk after a string of losses is a skill you must embody as a system trader. Going forward, I want to seriously consider sitting out the first hour on Mondays and focusing on clean, confirmed setups only. I will go through my data to see if this has any validity or if it’s just recency bias rearing up.
Nice job, ideally FRD on IBRX tomorrow 🤞