I only wanted to make one trade today, and I couldn’t take it, due to lack of shares available to short. Sigh… It was Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (Nasdaq: LEND). I had a case that I have often, when a narrow bar shows up: the bar was too narrow, for my tastes, meaning I wouldn’t be comfortable with a stop that small. Any amount of noise could stop me out. To me, it doesn’t represent consolidation so much as a lack of trading activity. So, I waited a couple bars until I saw an entry I was happier with.
So, I am thrilled to see a trade I actually like, in yet another bland market day (or was I just watching the wrong stocks?). And, I enter my order, and get this message back saying “there are only 1000 shares available to short.” One of the joys of scottrade is that you can’t check for shortable shares before you just try to execute your order. Anyway, I thought, fine, 1000 shares. I send a second order, and for some reason I get the same response: “You have requested a short sale of 1000 shares, but there are only 1000 shares available to short.” WTF? By now, the price has gone down a bit from my desired entry at 24.85, and I’m disgusted with it, so I let the trade go.
It would have worked out okay, though… 3 R or so against my stop at 25.00, exiting after the hammer-shoped candle.
Oh well.
| Stocks Mentioned In This Article | |
|---|---|
| Stock | Links |
| LEND |  |  |  |
February 13th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Help! LOL!
I was wondering if you could help me out with a stock - TNH? I just wanted to know what you think the trading will be like today based on the weekly chart using candlesticks?
I see the black candle on Monday and am truly unclear where this is headed.
Thanks in advance for ANY opinion!
February 13th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Well, no one can be certain where it’s headed, really. In January, it has been rising faster than it did at the end of last year, on higher volume. So, it wouldn’t be surprising if it ran out of steam soon, but until it breaks its trend in a convincing way, there’s no reason to think it’s going down yet, that I can see. Trends are innocent until proven guilty. The gap on Monday closed, which is what gaps like to do.
From another standpoint, the fact that you are worried about it probably means others are as well, which makes this the worst possible time to sell if you have a long-term perspective.
February 13th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your response and analysis!
I guess I was not very clear on my original question.
As you know, I am a long who swingtrades on the side. Although I am not a daytrader, I am very interested in daytrading strategies as well, and trying to see if some aspects of it can be adopted into my own “investing” style.
Basically, is the normal tendency for a candle (i.e. a hammer) to do the same thing whether it be on a daily, weekly or monthly chart?
TIA
February 13th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Yeah, you can believe a hammer on any timeframe the same amount. In fact, I think they are more believable on longer timeframes than intraday (because there’s an actual time-gap between the close of one daily candle and the open of the next).
February 13th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Hi again!
I was using the “hammer” as an example…. would you say the same for all the other “sticks” with regard to the timeframe of charts (in general)?
And yes, I am being serious.
TIA
February 13th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Yeah, everything works on the long time frames. Most stuff on candles I’ve seen has actually been about daily charts. People believe in them for intraday as well.
February 14th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Thank you for your reply, as well as your experienced opinion.
And I do agree with you that there are no certainties about where a stock is headed, and there are no guarantees as well, but I do like to “see” things clearly, and this may help me in my investing style.
Thanks again!