Opening Orders - 2008

It seems to me from my limited experience that I have observed three things with the opening orders if I get filled.

1) I get filled very obviously with the "right side" and I have a nice little profit very very fast.

2) I get filled and it hovers around breakeven but I can squeak out a small gain if I offer or bid away, and maybe even it moves in my favor after a minute. This to me is more like trading myself out of a not so good opening order trade.

3) I get filled on what appears to be the "wrong" side and the same thing happens as 1) except I have a fast loss.

Today I was short HD at 24.18 and it popped in such a way as to make it seem like I should've been long.

I know you have to take losses in this, but, any suggestions? Did I miss something? Should I have adjusted the width of my orders to account for the strong premarket futures?
 
chris, you seem to have the 'science' part down. Professor Bright , along with the other Masters on this thread, often mention the hard part...the 'art' of managing multiple positions and exits.

I get steamrolled as well every now and then, you almost develop a six sense for the impending beatings, allowing you to flatten without too much pain.

Some names are just fugly to trade.
 
Well, the "perfesor says" - be sure that you think through the "hard side" - be very sure that your "hard side" prices are well above (sells) or below (buys) the previous days closing price....or simply don't place that side when Spu's are 7 or 8 points above fair value.

Anyway, today 4 fills, net about 18 cents. Had to hold on to WMB for about 10 minutes (working waaaay to hard).....

Another point to ponder after you feel comfortable with your trading.....the day does not end with the initial opening price and "a" covering price. I'm not suggesting adding a bunch to shares that go against you, but our better traders will "trade the action" on stocks that seem to be bouncing all over the place. For example, this morning, TGT was going against me (I covered for my report here), but I traded an additional couple thousdand shares and managed to scalp another 20 cents. Profits are profits.

The opening strategy will get you in with a good chance of success, but it does denote the end of the trading day.

FWIW,

Don
 
I am having trouble figuring out which stocks I should use for opens.

Is it best to have a handful of companies in multiple sectors (in the S&P 500) and then try and determine which company(s) are relatively strong or weak before the open??

As an example, this morning. The eminis were 10 points below fair value. So would my goal be figuring which stocks are relatively strong within a sector to enter a buy opg??

If this is the case, is there a better way to determine which stocks are stronger than others pre-market? I know there's no magic formula, but any suggestions would help.

I'm a newbie, be gentle:)
 
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