- $192
Opened IB this morning and freaked out. I was long 200 shares NTES @ 37.61 and it was already down to 36.32 in pre-market, so I offered 36.39 and started the day in the red before the opening bell. Later in the day it climbed back up into the 37.50âs before falling again, but with it being so overbought on the daily, insiders selling huge shares, and the last oversold support level at 31.40, I did not want to take a chance by holding into the open, and it was at my $250 loss per trade limit.
I had set up a hot key combo the other day to cancel all orders and at the dayâs end yesterday I hit my hotkey combo, checked my positions (only SYNA open). Also I thought all my orders were day orders, not GTCs. So I ended the day yesterday happy as a clam with my cross-check.
After this morningâs issue, I did some detective work, because yesterday when I initially shorted NTES @ 37.91, and it stagnated forever, I placed target @ 37.61 and stop @ 38.01. When I was stopped out, I clicked the C on the DOM for âcancelâ, thinking I was canceling my target order. All I can think of is that the C for the lifted order stays active for a few moments after the order closes and I mustâve clicked that C instead of the one for the target buy order. So I had a buy order sitting there for 37.61 and this morning when NTES gapped down in pre-market, the order was lifted. I looked up my hotkey settings and the âcancel all ordersâ combo Iâd created was not there! Aaargh.
So I spent much of the morning messing around with IB trying to figure out methods of making sure each day truly ends in the clear.
I did offer 41.00 SYNA on open to add to my short and it was not lifted. Later in the day it broke down and I covered my small position oversold @ 40.10 for +$34. And of course instead of giving me an oversold bounce, it basically fell off a cliff.
Then another order entry issue happened. STEC set up for a nice short and I opened STEC in a DOM window with my default quantity of 200 displayed. I shorted it @ 20.26, it dropped quickly to 20.15 and my P/L looked a bit high. Then I saw I was 400 shares short! No idea whatsoever how this could happen, because my qty field was still 200. I mustâve double-clicked! So I put in a temp stop at 20.20 while I checked things out and that wily Market reached up, snared my stop to the penny for +$20 and then proceed to drive STEC down nicely without me. Shoulda just put the stop at b/e. Another aaargh.
I then decided not to trade anymore today. I just played with IB, learning all its wonderful nuances.
Once the market closed, I decided to take the MENSA exam to determine if growing up in the 70âs had indeed removed most of my brain cells.
After reading the first question on the exam (âSally likes 225 but not 224; she likes 900 but not 800; she likes 144 but not 145. Which does she like?â) I decided Sally was a real âsquareâ, and so Iâm off to the local cinema for some real intellectual stimulation in the form of âUpâ in 3-D.
