the core position begins by identifying a trend. as don says, i have my "children" stocks and sectors that i follow day in and day out and i know their trend. unfortunately, stocks do not move up or down in a straight line. so one can hold on to a core position and trade around, adding and subracting according to intraday market fluctuations, occasionally going opposite the trend as the stock may pause and naturally correct. by having exposure with your core position, one can maximize profitability whilst lowering a whole slew of things that can damage your p&l, ie slippage and commission churn. a significant amount of price change also occurs on a morning gap up. by retaining a core position on an overnight, one maximizes his gains even further. a sector that is in an uptrend has many more overnight gap ups than gap downs. so why not just hold a position and not daytrade? because there are so many intraday fluctuations that trading around creates significantly more profit than merely holding. also, there is an insurance policy by actively trading.
Quote from fatrat:
Can you post a sample of some core position management, or maybe discuss the rules behind how you like to manage your core position?
I attempted to do this in SSP today, when I shorted underneath $47. I kept offloading shares 5-10 cents away, partially. Then when it came back up, I'd short again. Repeat, over and over. It was just a "go with the flow" kind of thing. But, I still think I can do it better than I did. Some examples would be great.
