- $84
Went to short DNDN pre-market @ 25.00. I hit the order key with a big grin on my face, when suddenly my vision of taking the rest of the day off and enjoying a delightful hike in the mountains was dashed against the rocks by NO SHARES AVAILABLE TO SHORT!
This had to be the gap-up of the century, aaaargh!
10:28 a.m.: APOL establishes strong support just below 60.00 and I go long @ 60.47 when it bounces off a higher low. Closed @ 61.01 pull back from overbought for a $108 gain, expecting to re-enter on the completion of the pull back, but it then shot to the moon right after I exited and never looked back.
11:49 a.m.: Very nice short setup on CREE and no shares available. (I have to wonder if I'd been able to short CREE @ 27.65 at this time, would I have had the patience to stay in the trade as it remained below the intraday moving averages all the way to 26.64.)
11:55 a.m.: Short POT @ 89.74, stop @ 90.10, pullback from double top. Covered @ 89.90 for a $35 loss when the chart pattern changed and I did not feel the trade remained valid. My original stop wouldâve kept me in a very profitable move.
12:15 p.m.: Short ESRX @ 60.59 pull back from overbought, stop @ 60.86 above HOD. It moved very close to my stop, then pulled back where I considered scratching the trade for a small profit because the L2 action appeared troubling, but every trade today I was exiting too soon, so I stayed in and my stop was hit on a hard move through 61.00 for a $135 loss.
1:35 p.m.: ESRX running up hard with the price and the spread insane, and I placed an "oh shit" limit order @ 61.50 which was actually touched for a second but no fill for me!
2:17 p.m.: Small short on MYGN @ 44.90, stop @ 45.20, looking for a retest of the LOD. Price just ranged around there forever, so I exited near the close @ 45.01 to end the day flat.
2:35 p.m.: Short BDX @ 68.88, overbought, failure to make a significant new high; covered @ 68.77 for a $50 gain when there was a huge volume of buy orders parked at 68.75, stochastics were already oversold, and price was on the 20-period SMA. There was quite a bit more down move eventually after several attempts to resume an uptrend, and this was yet another case where leaving my original stop wouldâve kept me in for significantly more profits.
Iâm having difficulty deciding the best way to manage stops. I exited three very profitable trades too soon as a result of not leaving original stops in place. When I select a stop, itâs because I am willing to accept that level of loss, but once the trade moves in my favor Iâm torn between moving the stop to break even/locking in a small profit or leaving it in place until my target setup is reached. Three of my trades today wouldâve been very profitable if original stops left in place (APOL, POT, & BDX). The fourth trade I had but to replay for a nice profit and I tried, but missed the fill and was not confident enough to chase this one as it was quite strong on the runs and displayed huge price spreads.
Though I wasnât pleased with the money left on the table today, I did adhere to strict discipline on setting a hard stop for all trades. I will do some backtesting on leaving initial stops vs. moving them mid-trade, and determine if today was simply an anomaly, or if this is really the better way to trade.
Geez, geez, geez, you are so good at this, enlighten me!
