Daily Trading Recap - 4/16/26
XNDU MYSE BIRD CAR IONQ AMD RKLB
TLDR
XNDU was the top watch, bad first entry at open but caught it twice for solid moves
MYSE faded cleanly off an AI rebrand narrative, took it from 4.50 down to 3.50
BIRD followed through on the backside with multiple entries throughout the day
CAR did what it does, cut break even;
Macro shorts through IONQ and AMD did not work
Trades I Took
XNDU
Quantum stock in the middle of a big multi-day run, gapping up in premarket, so the short thesis was obvious. Got stopped out on a bad first entry at the open, reshorted the failed breakout, and caught it again in the afternoon off a lower high for two solid moves. Swinging some overnight.
MYSE
AI rebrand narrative gapper, almost identical to what BIRD ran on the day before, but with BIRD already fading hard I did not think the sympathy name had the same fuel. Waited for the break under 4.50, caught it down to 3.50, and left it alone.
BIRD
Yesterday’s name, still fading, and the premarket bounce back into the prior day’s major pivot at 16.30 was a clean level to lean on for the short. Multiple entries throughout the day, all working, and it just kept grinding lower.
CAR
Lower highs into a clean break under 380 looked like a real setup for once. It did its signature V-shaped rebound anyway, cut it near break even, squeezed to new highs, closed at the highs.
IONQ
Tried to use it as a vehicle to express a broader NASDAQ pullback thesis when the market looked shaky around noon. It gave me one quick move to VWAP before instantly reclaiming, so I cut it and moved on.
AMD
Same macro pullback idea, shorting under VWAP anticipating follow-through on what looked like early weakness on the QQQ. Market held up completely, AMD broke out strong, and in hindsight it was a great long setup, not a short.
Swings
Trimmed some RKLB to lock in a piece on this strength.
Current swing holdings: ARM, MU, RKLB, and WULF. RKLB has been one of the better swing trades I’ve caught in a while, and the move is just getting started…
Takeaways
The XNDU and BIRD trades worked because the setups were clear and I respected both entries and exits. The ones that didn’t work, IONQ, AMD, and CAR, either failed to confirm or reversed fast, and I cut all of them without much damage. The market is extended here after a straight-line run to new 52-week highs and I do think it wants to breathe, but expressing that idea through individual names is tricky when the big caps are still holding up. Better to wait for the clean trigger than force it.
Tomorrow’s Focus
Stay patient with quantum names if they stay in play and don’t force a macro pullback trade when the individual setups aren’t confirming it.
Question for Readers
BIRD was on absolutely everyone’s radar yesterday, non-traders included, and that kind of mainstream attention usually signals the move is close to running out. Do you find that extreme public attention on a name makes you more or less aggressive fading it?
Thanks for reading!