4/24/09
PWRD bought 600@16.39
sold 600@16.74
The bank stress test was scheduled to be announced in the afternoon. This could be viewed as an event similar to a Fed day. During days like this I am extremely cautious due to the volatility and change in volume patterns.
Today I saw two stocks that had successful b/os. PWRD and GFA. With PWRD the volume looked good in the morning, was just waiting for the price to go up, with a slow stoh reading of 80+ on the 30min. Once it held steady around the 80+ area, I entered in the position. Made the decision to sell based on the stress test news that was coming out in the afternoon. Also I did not want to risk holding through a retrace during lunch. This combined with a potential huge fall off in price could have dragged me out of a good position. I decided the best thing to do was exit while ahead. With the GFA, I hesitated to pull the trigger on this one. The stock had gaped up, and was starting to run away from the gap. In the early morning it was up around 5%. Throughout the day, it never filled the gap, just kept going upwards, retraced, and then rocketed up again. I have seen this with several stocks now where they gap up/down, and continue their trend.
Areas of Improvement:
1. holding longer (several position I am in go up 5-10%+, and only capturing a small portion)(maybe taking 1/4, 1/3 off the top at 2-5% intervals will help increase hold time)
2. Buying more shares on retrace (if I exit early, get back in position on retrace. If I am in the position, and it still looks good consider adding more)
3. Play gap stocks in FRV (stocks that gap and continue with price)
4. Expand the stocks I play (right now I am playing zeros. Lets try some 7s)