The Opening Orders Thread

nitro -

I have a small list of low volatility stocks, mostly Dow 30. Sometimes none are cancelled & sometimes half or more are cancelled. A lot of times I get no fills because I am conservative & would rather cancel than take a 50/50 gamble, plus my list is small to begin with.
Most of my stocks are between $20 - $50 & I avoid high volatility/priced stocks like oils, brokers, home builders, IBM, CAT, MMM, etc to name a few & others like those types which I have been burned on (many many times).

News is not the only reason I cancel...I might cancel based on pre-market trading or on the opening indication, both of which might happen right up until the open or just after the open, when I also consider what is going on within the sector & with the overall market. So a stock might be cancelled on no news, but on these other factors & I can't really post my complete list of cancels before the open, since I might cancel up until & just after the open, and/or adjust the prices.

For example...today I was thinking to cancel DOW, HD, & WMT. I put in all the orders at 9:00, and then I decided to immediately cancel DOW, and to decide whether or not to cancel HD & WMT when/if I see the opening indications a couple minutes prior to the open & also seeing the pre-market trades. HD & WMT had no opening indications (maybe WMT did I can't remember) & no significant pre-market trades, so I ended up leaving them in & not getting filled.

This is only my personal way to trade the OPG & everyone is different. To try & keep some anonymity & privacy on here, different people post different info as they please. I post here to share & learn, that's all.

1 fill short today PG for a small win

Good weekend to all :cool:
 
Quote from nitro:

Don,

I realize that this is very difficult for you because it creates a conflict of interest. But of all the OO posters, you are probably the most likely to open up your list of filters for say one week.

Is there a chance that you can post your list of stocks that you are filtering for that day, before 8:30 AM CST? In theory, if you have say fifty stocks of potential plays each day, I would gather that no more than five to ten of those are being filtered, because of news or otherwise. This would take you all of 30 seconds to post at say 8:25 AM CST .

The post would, e.g., look like this:

=====
Filtering:

WMT
BA
IBM
XOM
CAT
====

I would suggest that to everyone. Otherwise, imo, it is all smoke and mirrors.

nitro
More...

I use basically the same list each day, so I know how the stocks trade, and it makes it easy to filter for news, etc.

I simply go here: www.stocktrading.com/Tradinginfo.htm and match earnings with my stock list. I check the up/downgrades here as well. Then my program automatically goes out to find news items, by headlines, and I quickly scan anything that looks like it might cause trouble (like merger news, selling of subsidiaries, etc.).

I keep my list in alpha order for simplicity, and all I do is place an "x" in the column that says "no buy" and "no sell". The program tracks all the trades, can send in stop loss orders (I don't use that feature), automatically searches for beta's on each stock, calculates FV premium/discount automatically as well.

I then simply click "send orders" - it sends in as many layers as I want to send that particular day (normally 2,000 shares on one layer, then 1,000 on layer 2 and 3 with wider envelopes). As soon as I am filled on any single stock, it sends in a retracement order for half of whatever I'm filled with within a couple of seconds.....you can, of course, set any of these parameters to whatever level you like (I choose to automate what I have done manually all these years)...

If I knew an easy way to show the main page here, I would do it. It has about 50 columns on each tab....hmmmm?

Still, even with all this, all we're doing is matching the Specialist at the opening when we "want" to - when gaps occur.

I submitted 43 of 46 today, 6 fills, 5 winners, one loser (RSH) made $520.

I took out ABT, BMY, RTN...too much Pharm news, and Raytheon was upgraded by Cowen.

edit: I missed another point you asked for. (from today)

CAT=B 2000 75.37, sold 1000 at 75.43 (auto retrace at 6 cents for half of the shares), sold 500 at 75.55 ten seconds later, sold the last 500 at 75.67 another 10 seconds later. +$300. PG, CPB, HAL, KO were "winners" - RSH was loser.

Don
 
Imo, both of the posts above by eastside and Don are outstanding posts. I applaud both of you. The explanations go a long way to helping people understand how a mathematical system used by professionals is modified to fit personality, and is an example of how art enters into the science of trading. It takes tons of effort to dedicate this kind of effort to a post. Someone out there appreciates it, even though you may never hear about it.

That link you gave is useful Don. Is that normally accessible?

nitro
 
i normally pull news and/or upgrade/downgrade stocks...

sometimes i make a judgement call...discretion... as to pull or not...

sometimes i just miss the news completely...

i saw BA up premarket but misjudged the impact...

i put a stop in as i was busy and got stopped out 20 cents over my stop trigger...

my list starts with 98 stocks and gets chopped down by news...etc...

the most i have blocked has been between 16 and 20 of them...that leaves 70+ stocks to work...

i scour the news and have multiple feeds...but sometimes i just miss them...

as time goes on my bad days are less and less painful and my good days are....good...

i started with 100 shares and about 10 stocks...if have been watching this thread i have improved over time...

every now and then i get crushed but the long term results work...

hell...i even wrote my own opening spreadsheet that has multiple levels...

the more i do this the more i learn...
 
Quote from nitro:

Imo, both of the posts above by eastside and Don are outstanding posts. I applaud both of you. The explanations go a long way to helping people understand how a mathematical system used by professionals is modified to fit personality. It takes tons of effort to dedicate this kind of effort to a post. Someone out there appreciates it, even though you may never hear about it.

That link you gave is useful Don. Is that normally accessible?

nitro
More...

Thanks Nitro! Sure, feel free to use it...I get up extra early each morning (4:15AM pacific) to put this page together. My traders use it religiously for their openings and daily items to discuss during our Pre-market "Paltalk" voice room. I have my analysts from NY, Vancouver, and even North Carolina provide input (and I chat a bit as well)....being part of a group with daily interaction is vital to a trader's success, IMO.

I realize that some people think I'm just being open to bring in traders (which is fine), but I also realize that I have dozens of traders from other Firm's on my Instant message every day, and I do my best to answer their questions as well. Regardless of "competition" - we are all part of a very small Fraternity of traders.

In our business, you never know "who's going to be working for/with whom" - and who may end up in your office.

All the best,

Don
 
I'm trying to attach a sample page (hopefully without my exact stock list, not that I really care too much).

Seems like it worked. Keep in mind that this is just the top tab/page.. there are several more tabs for charts and record keeping, etc. I tried to block the formulas out of respect to the people who worked so hard to create it for us.

Don
 

Attachments

1 long win, 2 long losses, 1 short win, -249 on 6500 shares

There are less than five people who post here every day, all of whom have been doing this a while, so the thread has evolved into more of a friendly "how did you do on opens today" forum, similar to the Trader P/L thread. That's why there is not much detail given, not to mention how much extra time and effort it takes to give more detail on a daily basis.

Tons of people read the thread, many of whom use the opening strategy but never post, so if anyone wants more info, just ask a question. Someone will answer it.
 
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