Don's Opening's Journal....

Okay according to Todays S and P fair value it is 1.20. I guess it's to early in the morning to start the calculations. I would like to do this practice run together. So lets get out our calculators.
 
Originally posted by Htrader
Utilizing this strategy requires the ability to enter market-on-open orders for listed stock. Does anyone know of a retail firm that allows customers to do this?

The problem generally arises when you try (as a customer) to enter both buy and sell orders on the same stock (whether opening only or not).

The retail firms look at this as sort of "double jeopardy" (and calculate double the exposure, as if you were going to get filled on both the buy and sell).

There are firms that have had waivers for customers with quite a bit of money in their accounts....I would just make some calls and ask.

There was a "prohibition" against this at one time, but I am pretty sure it was lifted a while back.
 
Originally posted by mgkrebs
For Don or Edge:

At what time of morning do you do the calculations? 1,5,10 minutes before bell?

Also, would it make more sense to calculate the percentage change in the futures based on their price at NYSE bell time (4:00 pm, rather than the Chicago close, since they sometimes run one direction or the other after the NYSE close?

How soon after the open do you (or the software) cancel the orders. Do you cancel if not filled on the opening print, or give it a minute or so?

Thanks.

I enter my orders after the Globex closes, 15 minutes before the bell. Since the orders are all automated, it only takes a couple of seconds.

Remember all...gettting in is the easy part (we have traders who enter 1,000 orders every morning)...but getting out is harder.

So many stocks will open down, and go down a few ticks (thus triggering all the stop orders placed by the programmers), and then rise back past the opening price. I find that I cannot really watch more than 4 or 5 with any precision (for closing).
 
Originally posted by jem
I would like to thank Don for stimulating this thread and for his contributions and rtharp and mike and edge and the other contributors. I have some backtesting to and programing to do. This thread already forced me to backtest other gap strategies. There has been some good info on this elitetrader lately.

I just had to say "thanks" for comments....:)
 
Not being "cryptic" (as accused prior)...but...please remember that just using the S&P FV (and enveloping the estimated opening price) is not enough. You need to take into consideration the beta of the stock, the sector pre-markets, news, and all of the normal data before submitting orders.
 
Huge problems on my REDI this morning turning profits into losses. REDI went down after I got filled on 4 stocks, couldn't get out until 5 minutes later. That was all it took to double my loss in BBY and turning IBM from profit to loss. Well, anyway here are my plays for today:

MMM, long at 113,95, exit at stop 113,71, looser (exploded up after that:eek:

IBM, long at 123,75, exit at 123,72, looser (tried to get out at 123,90-123,98-123,99 and would probably have been filled except my line went dead.

CI, long at 92,50, exit at 92,65, winner (little early it seems, went straight up to 93)

BBY, long at 74,25, exit at 73,90, looser (should have been out at 74,10, but yet again line was dead)

Back to battle tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Well here are my opening orders today.



Shorted 1000 shares of GPS at 17.00
Covered 500 shares at 16.53
Covered 250 shares at 16.24

Still holding 250 shares will watch



Shorrted 500 shares of HC at 22.51
Covered 250 shares at 22.01

Still holding 250 shares

Covered my 250 KSS overnight leftover shares from yesterday at 68.48
 
elie,
No spreadsheet here.

I just pick a couple of stocks and watch 'em daily...figure out the FV...scratch it out on a piece of paper.

Shortee,
Yep, that's the way I do it.

gluck,
Mike
 
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