I was away from my desk for most of the day today, and I didn’t really like most of what I saw. Yesterday, just about every stock I saw looked tradeable. Today, none did. I bit on Juniper (Nasdaq: JNPR) making new highs. Just like yesterday, the TICK’s immediately went against me, and the breakout failed. I mean, immediately after my order filled. It’s uncanny. Anyway, I decided last night that it’s not the right market to hold onto stalled trades. So, for the forseeable future, either a trade has an initial pop that works right away, or I’m getting out half.
So, that’s what I did… I got out half at breakeven. I then had to leave for a few hours, so I put a stop in the market and left. While out, I was stopped out for the other half (so, -0.5 R), but before that, the darn thing reached about my 1R profit point. It’s another case of a stock rising rising, and then falling sharply. Seeing a lot of that! I’m certain that I would have salvaged at least 0.5R had I been around, and that’s assuming that I wouldn’t have caved and taken my 1R when I had it.
So, I finally picked a trade that turned out to be a winner, and I lost money on it! What an unlucky week I’ve had…
At the end of the day, I was watching the markets, and was eyeing Slumberger (NYSE: SLB) for a long breakout. But, it waited until the last 15 minutes of trading to move. I couldn’t make myself jump in that late, though I have noticed in many recent trading sessions that buying pressure has been high right at the close. So, I missed out on some profit there.
| Stocks Mentioned In This Article | |
|---|---|
| Stock | Links |
| JNPR |  |  |  |
| SLB | | | |
October 19th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Hi Richard,
If I have to leave, I issue a limit order to buy or cover at x profit and then I set my stop. I don’t know if many platforms can do this or not, my stop is platform held.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
yeah, not an option on my platform, or I definitely would have done this. In fact I’d be tempted to do it even when I am watching the trade.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Glenn,
What platform do you use?
Richard,
It was a typical tough chop chop day before options day. None of my trades made their profit target, but since I was expecting that I did manage to take a page out of your book and scalp a couple… managing a hard won but teeny tiny profit.
October 19th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Laser. I usually always have a live order to sell or cover in place.