Daily Market Recap - 1/21/26
Metals Resilient, Gappers Fade
TLDR
Took profits on IBRX swing short but couldn’t get the re-adds to work.
Active morning with multiple small-cap gappers; easiest win came from PAPL.
GLD was a main focus: shorted strength twice and caught the wash both times.
Afternoon news flipped the tape fast and crushed gold and silver into the close before a rebound.
Trades I Took
IBRX 0.00%↑
I came in with an overnight swing short and got a clean gap down, which let me take some profits right away. At the open it washed again and I covered more, but I kept a core because I wanted to see if I could rebuild on a bounce for a bigger move.
We got a small bounce, and I started scaling back in with more of a higher-timeframe mindset. That part just never really worked. The stock couldn’t gain downside momentum and kept grinding instead of breaking down. I ended up covering a good chunk around the 6.40 area and was left with just a small remainder from the original swing. This one just hasn’t been clean at all, most likely due to the more legitimate market cap, news, and upcoming data announcement.
Lesson: Taking profits has been the right move lately. The longer holds for deeper fades just hasn’t been showing up in this market.
BOXL 0.00%↑
I started nibbling short in premarket on a pop, nothing aggressive. At the open, volume surged and the price action reminded me a lot of IVF from yesterday, where it looked like it wanted to squeeze back toward premarket highs. I decided to cut the position early to avoid getting trapped.
Ironically, it failed a few minutes after the cut. I put the trade back on, but now with a worse average. I covered the whole thing on premarket low level and moved on.
PAPL 0.00%↑
This was my cleanest trade of the morning. I shorted the pop into VWAP at the open. I didn’t get full size because I wanted slightly higher prices, but it immediately failed and washed out.
I covered into that flush and locked it in. Simple setup, quick execution, no waiting around with grindy price action.
GLD 0.00%↑
Gold was in play. It had gapped up big for the second day in a row, so I was interested in fading strength. I shorted GLD right off the open, risking premarket highs. I trimmed a couple times early to stay flexible, then added back once it really cracked.
That move turned into a solid washout, and I covered into it. Later, it bounced again and gave another add spot. Same process: add into strength, cover into weakness. I took gains on the next leg down and stopped out the small leftover piece at breakeven.
Later in the afternoon, around 2:30pm ET, news hit about a productive Trump meeting tied to Greenland and tariffs being delayed. The market ripped higher, and gold and silver plummeted. I was already done trading it by then but that would have been a great breaking news play. However it still bounced all the back up to unchanged prices by the close. These metals are resilient.
Swings
Stopped out of ALAB, but it was just a big undercut and reclaim of the 10/20 MA’s so will watch for a re-entry
LEU failed breakout and then closed under the 10MA so I sold
RDW got stopped out as well.
Current holdings: BE IREN
Takeaways
The morning scans have been full of gappers this week and we continue to see them fade off after some initial momentum. What was the biggest red flag ticker, SLGB, ended up fading all day. Even PAVM faded deep into the close after the morning squeeze. Will keep this in mind going forward the rest of the week. The bigger overextended daily charts haven’t been clean and when they give a clean wash its best to just take it. No need to force when they aren’t playing out accordingly.