El cazador, that climb in the last hour was the specialist pushing this monster up. He's very long like me. (3 times he showed 100k to buy and was hit while trying to gun it. That move up was made possible b/c that seller is all done. 11 mil shares is a ton on this one.)I like to be on the same side as the specialist. He's gonna gun it to 16 to sell all that he bought at 14.3 Besides the 4500 I have from the high 18's, my average is like 14.4. Im very confident on this one cause the seller is done. The reason I'm fighting this fight in the first place is that I'm long 4500 from thurs unfortunately. I am definately trying not to have a monster gain. I'm just using the god rule to get out. (the trading gods give you ONE and ONLY ONE chace to get out flat, and you MUST use that opportunity) The specialist is also very long from there. I rarely hold overnights lately, and 4500 was way too much. Rather than take the 20k loss. I decided to try and get enough shares to make an average that gets me out EVEN or with a small loss. I know it's not a good Idea, but the green candle on friday makes it a great new pattern trade anyway. It opened at 15, and closed at 15.1 or so. Ignore all the trades before the open. I agree that 19k is a lot of shares to hold overnight, and it will be quite a dent if it opens 5 points lower, but I think that all (most) of the bad news is out of this company by now. Mgregor, I really don't think I'm taking that much risk on this trade. My stop is like 14 on most of the shares. Risking .4 to make 2 points is a risk im willing to take on any number of shares really. .4 risk is only really 8k anyway. My account is really not that large, and yours is probably larger, but I think that risk managment is fine on this trade. I never try and shoot the lights out, I just try and make lots of high probability trades. The speciailist is VERY long, so I am as well. He was long on thurs, so I went long there too.
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As for the heat that rtharp is taking on lh, I also tried this short. I lost 400 bucks, and called it quits. I honestly think that it's going higher. Friday looked like the breakout of consolidation before a much larger move continues. As long as rtharp continues to only risk a point though, his position is fine in theory. I oftne take 5-25k positions in a stock and risk a dime or so when I think it has bottomed. When i'm wrong, I lose a few k, when right, I make a ton. Consider USG. I wrongly called 3 bottoms before I did get my move. I made 2k on my first one, and lost 5k on my second 2 "bottom" calls together. On each one I did it with 15k shares. On the last one, the one I posted on this board, I did it with 21k shares finally, and I made 11k on it. Had I sold more near the top rather than being stopped out, I would have made a lot more. The point is that as long as you consider your risk, and are persistant in something you believe will work, you'll be fine. For the record, I think lh goes a lot higher, but I think that this pattern is ok for shorting blowoff moves. It is definately not a "great new pattern" play though.
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I'm sorry that this post is long and meandering. This board has gotten 2 pages more posts, and I'm trying to respond to all (most) in one long one.
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Mgregor. I think I said earlier, but I think that this is an ELY bottom. I hate taking risk. My trading style is all about not taking risk, but making lots of small plays for high probability gains. As long as my risk is very defined (.4 on most of my position which is the 14 stop) you can take as many shares as you feel that the liquidity of the stock will allow. I know I can move 19k shares like buttah in this one. I bailed on a long on ELY around 2 pm and I knocked it down a nickle to bail on 12k shares at market. I am pretty confident that the 14 bid will be huge and I can get out of all if I want to right there.
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I'm sure tha this is not going to answer everyone's questions, though I tried. Please quote me on any part, and I'll respond to that particular section. As far as rtharp's lh play, maybe we should make a thread for shorting massively overbought stocks, cause that really doesn't follow the particular pattern I'm playing in "great new pattern" trades.