Daily Journal

July 31, 2026: FCUV chopped me up — but KPTI's crash closed the gap

By James · Friday, July 31, 2026 · ~3 min read

#premarket #FCUV #KPTI #SPCE #lessons

-$184 realized today · running day-trade P&L below

Red day, and it's the kind that annoys me more than the number does, because I know exactly where I gave it away. Total damage: -$184. It should have been worse, and it would have been if a beaten-down biotech hadn't handed me a clean setup into the close.

FCUV: right about the name, wrong about myself

In the pre-market FCUV — Focus Universal — was starting to lift, so I did my usual thing: scalp it, take a bite, step aside. Early on that worked and I was up a couple hundred dollars. Then I made the mistake that defined the day. I got in at a price that felt too high, it ticked against me, and I bailed for a small loss — correct so far. But instead of leaving it alone, I kept going back to it. FCUV launched an AI forms-engine product, hit the Nasdaq top-gainers list, and ran from under $2 into the mid-teens, tagging around $17. I sat there frozen with no position while it went vertical, then kept poking at it. Sixty prints later — in around $10.16, out around $10.07 on roughly 4,700 shares of churn — FCUV had netted me about -$410.

Cutting a bad entry fast is correct. Flipping to revenge scalps on the same name while it's exploding is how a small, disciplined loss turns into a $400 one. When a stock is going vertical and I have no position, the right trade is almost always no trade.

The trades that saved it: KPTI and SPCE

The one I'm actually proud of. KPTI — Karyopharm — was down about 72% after its Phase 3 selinexor trial in endometrial cancer failed its primary endpoint, on top of governance noise and a legal probe. A drop that violent usually gets a bounce, so about 30 minutes before the close I bought into the flush around $1.86 on 2,400 shares. It ticked up into and after the bell, and I took +$163 off it. I also caught a clean +$50 in SPCE and a small +$13 in SKHZ — the calm trades I should be making more of.

Net it out and it's a -$184 day: FCUV giving back everything and then some, rescued most of the way by the KPTI close-out and the two small scalps. That nudges my running total to about -$962 for the stretch. I don't love losing, but a small red day where I can name the exact mistake — the revenge scalping on FCUV, full stop — is one I can actually fix. I'll do better on Monday.

Disclaimer: This is a personal trading journal documenting my own trades and opinions. It is not financial or investment advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Day trading, especially in micro-caps and beaten-down biotech names, carries a high risk of loss, and most active traders lose money. Figures are reconstructed from my brokerage statement, net of fees. See the full disclaimer.