Gap Plays

Quote from tradewiz50:

When you enter your trade do you immediately place your 2% crash stop after your filled or do you use a mental stop and just watch it?

I'm more pragmatic about it --I won't take more than a $200 hit on my account. For RIMM @$75/share, I mentally raised it to $400 - $500 and I almost got stopped out today too! So yea, I watch the "unrealize" Profit/Loss window of my real-time Portfolio stats. And I do try to get out when I'm +$1000 (my profit target - but i'm flexible about it) in that window. I find it easy to click the trade button when I see the portfolio's value moving whichever way.

But, I do keep an eye on the PRICE of the stock as there are natural levels of resistance/support e.g. whole numbers (mainly) and halves (.50's) and to a lesser extent, quarters (.25's).

So while I got the trade underway, I keep shifting my eyes between the Price of the stock and my portfolio's unrealized value. Back and forth, back and forth --until one tells me to hit the buy/sell button to close out my position.

I also found that there are natural time stops that you could use too --perhaps not to actually exit but to at the minimum tighten your stops somewhat or even to add to your position. These time stops happen often times with spooky regularity...


<-gapster->
 
Pre-Market Gap Stock Watchlist for June 10, 2005 FRIDAY:

Gap Downs:

IFIN



Shortable via Alliance. Open up Time and Sales and observe Price movement @ Market Open.


<-gapster->
 
Trading Results June 10, 2005 FRIDAY:

IFIN has a nice drop off the open but I didn't play it...

No trade this morning. Back to sleep!



<-gapster->
 
Quote from gapster:

Trading Results June 10, 2005 FRIDAY:

IFIN has a nice drop off the open but I didn't play it...

No trade this morning. Back to sleep!



<-gapster->


LOL, you make it sound so simple.:D :D :D :D
 
Does anybody know where I can find archive of stocks gapping up or down for backtesting? Anybody knows how to backtest these strategies?
 
Pre-Market Gap Stock Watchlist for June 13, 2005 MONDAY:

Gap Downs:

CNCT
PNRA
BLUD




Shortable via Alliance. Open up Time and Sales and observe Price movement @ Market Open.


<-gapster->
 
Trading Results June 13, 2005 MONDAY:

Trade #1:
09:30:39 SHORT CNCT 2000 shares @ $15.67 (average)
09:32:58 Buy to Cover CNCT 2000 shares @ $15.55

Trade #2:
09:34:55 LONG CNCT 2000 shares @ $15.875 (average)
09:38:17 Sell CNCT 1000 shares @ $16.00
09:41:26 Sell CNCT 1000 shares @ $16.00



Profit/Loss
SHORT Trade #1: +$240
LONG Trade #2: +$250


Total Profit: +$502.10 (I know is should be $490 but $502.10 is what's appearing on my portfolio window as my gain for today. Commissions/fees not taken into account). And yes, I was scalping for 10 to 15 cents which accounts for my larger than 1000 share lot size.

P.S. Please note: Not all my plays are winners. Impossible! Secret is to control your losses which actually means to contol your emotions.

<-gapster->
 
Quote from gapster:

Pre-Market Gap Stock Watchlist for June 13, 2005 MONDAY:

Gap Downs:

CNCT
PNRA
BLUD

BLUD should have been the stock I played this morning. I had it up on my screen too! BLUD was a total SCREAMER off the Morning OPEN as it went -$3 in FIFTEEN MINUTES.

The thing is, I can only watch one stock at a time and I was concentrating on CNCT this morning.

I do have to improve on my ability to watch multiple times and sales windows and act appropriately.

Much of what I am doing is pretty discretionary. I don't want to mess with things too much, but I have in my mind a different way of playing the Open on these Gap Down stocks.

I'm going to experiment with it a bit and won't be posting anything until I see how things pan out, either way.

Till then, good luck to everyone on your Gap Down plays!

<-gapster->
 
Quote from zenith:

Does anybody know where I can find archive of stocks gapping up or down for backtesting? Anybody knows how to backtest these strategies?


Add "backtesting" to one of the Myths I simply don't believe in. Right next to "Funny Mentals" and "T & A's".

The only "backtesting" I actually believe in is one's own Trading Account Blotter! So true, huh?

Scalping the Open of Gap Down Stocks is not a strategy! It is essentially a cash management exit system.

My going LONG or SHORT is based on what/how I see in the Tape i.e. Price / Volume / Velocity. This part is hard to put in words and is therefore as of this point, purely discretionary trading.


<-gapster->
 
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