Daily Trading Recap - 3/12/26
Thin Liquidity, Halt Downs, and Strong Oil
TLDR
ROMA: Short near $8 on an extended move from $2. Caught multiple halt downs and scaled out from $5 to sub $4.
ACXP: Early ORB short stopped out on a random spike in a thin name. Re-short worked better but liquidity stayed sketchy.
ATPC: Tried a few breakout longs but it never held strength and stayed under VWAP.
USO / Oil: Two short attempts on a news-driven drop, but oil stayed strong and reclaimed VWAP.
Trades I Took
ACXP
ACXP was a multi day runner that gapped down slightly. I shorted the opening range break looking for continuation lower.
The stock went sideways on very light volume and then a candle ripped from about $4.80 to intraday highs and stopped me out. It looked like someone just sent a large market order through the book.
I re-shorted shortly after using pmh as risk, which is what I should have done from the start. The trade behaved better, but another spike hit later (probably another market order) and I covered the rest and moved on.
ROMA
ROMA hit my scanners pushing toward $8. It is a China name with about a 50M float and no news, already extended from about $2 a few days ago.
It pushed into daily resistance and stalled so I took a starter short near $8. The stock rolled over and hit multiple halt downs. I scaled out from around $5 into the sub $4 area. I was only starter size but the huge fade made up for it.
ATPC
ATPC was gapping up over the prev red day highs which can lead to mega squeezes due to T+1 dynamics. I tried going long early looking for that move. The first attempt failed quickly. I tried again but the stock stayed under VWAP and every push higher got sold. After a couple attempts it was clear the move was not there and I left it alone.
USO (Oil)
Oil had been trending higher all day after a big overnight gap. Around 11:40 news hit that mines were not being laid in the Strait of Hormuz, which caused a sharp drop. I used that as the trigger to get short.
The first trade stopped out as USO reclaimed VWAP. I tried again on the next breakdown and caught a quick flush to around 114, but I held looking for a bigger move and even added a little. It V-shaped hard and forced me out again. By the end of the day oil was making new highs and still trending strong.
Swings and Other Notable Mentions
Current holdings: EQT UAMY
Takeaways
ROMA was the clean trade. Extended move into resistance followed by a fast unwind.
ACXP was a reminder to be patient on entries and avoid thin names when the liquidity is dry. On oil the trigger was right but the trend was still clearly up, so quicker profit taking would likely have been the better approach.