What's the best way to sell at the open?

C

catmango

Although I understand that people advise against such a strategy, I'm trying to come up with the best way to exit long equity positions at the open. I'm trying to devise a way that would, on average, get me the best price possible, or, at worse, as close to the opening price as possible. Some ideas I've come up with so far:

1) Trailing stop with a very tight (5c-10c) trail.
2) Sell limit order at the opening ask, modifying downward if the ask drops. Shore up with a fixed stop at a) the entry price if it looks like a gap up, b) 1% below the entry price if it doesn't.
3) OCA order with a sell limit order at the opening ask, bracketed on the other end with a 5c-10c trailing stop.
4) Sell market order at the open.

I manage upwards of 7 positions at any one time, so it would be difficult to execute a strategy that requires I make too many on-the-fly modifications. Are there traders out there who have implemented a good method of exiting at the open that they are willing to share? Also, I use IB. Is there any software that I can use (NinjaTrader, Bullet Trader), that would help me with this issue? For example, I know that NinjaTrader can perform simulated stops. Can they also do simulated trailing stops?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Quote from rolegario:



I'm trying to exit long positions in multiple stocks at the open.
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well if they are nyse routed just put in a sell limit a little under where you think it will open. you are guaranteed the open price on the nyse exchange. if they are naz stocks ib also has an opg only fill for them. i have never used it but i understand it gives you the average price at the market open time.
 
Quote from vhehn:



well if they are nyse routed just put in a sell limit a little under where you think it will open. you are guaranteed the open price on the nyse exchange. if they are naz stocks ib also has an opg only fill for them. i have never used it but i understand it gives you the average price at the market open time.
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If I have an on opening limit order to buy a stock at $26.00 and the opening print on the NYSE is exactly $26.00, am I guaranteed to be a part of the opening print? The reason I ask is that this happened to me about a week ago - the opening print was equal to my limit price and I did not get filled.
 
are you trying to get out of listed or nas stocks??

why could you possibly want to exit long positions at the craziest, most erratic time of the day??

You'll most likely get bumped out of just about every position with a 5-10c trailing stop

Does IB have a exit all positions feature that you could use??
 
Quote from sprstpd:



If I have an on opening limit order to buy a stock at $26.00 and the opening print on the NYSE is exactly $26.00, am I guaranteed to be a part of the opening print? The reason I ask is that this happened to me about a week ago - the opening print was equal to my limit price and I did not get filled.
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yes you are if you routed directly to the nyse and had the order prior to the open. what stock and date? we can check t&s.
 
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