I am not comfortable with totally discretionary exit and the possibility of a major loss in 15 minutes. If somehow there were a sure fire way of limiting losses, then I would probably do it.
Opening orders is a strategy that still works, but it's not a gimme. If you walk in 5 minutes before the bell and just trade with no preparation, you are cruisin' for a bruisin' I've spent over a year trading them every single day and have come to specialize in the strategy, it's my bread and butter. It takes me at least 60 minutes to prepare each morning, and I spend another hour recording and parsing stats. Not to mention hundreds of hours in spreadsheet design and tweaking and macro writing. The strategy has been amazingly consistent for me the entire time, I think I've only had back to back losing weeks once. Last week was my first losing week of the year with openings, and I banked seven grand net for April. I know a couple other traders that put as much time into it as I do and they make regular cash as well. Like anything else in trading, no one hands you results on a platter. It takes work, lots of hard work. And consistency, and perseverence. But above all else, you still have to know how to trade.
When you do find that strategy, the one with a sure fire way to limit losses, please post it here. (Hint- opening orders isn't it)
Lescor - VERY Well Put!! (or said). I've done much the same thing with pairs in terms of time invested, spread sheets and statistically tracking everything. It has paid off, but, it won't unless the work gets done 1st!!
Small opening, 2 fills +$200....... Ran a little late this morning, didn't change my FV, but it was ok. Don
Thanks to posts or PM by Lescor and Pasternak I have tried to keep much more historical detail like they do for my open only trading and I think it has help me a lot. I now track many factors for every OO trade and try analyzing the historical data to mainly avoid being filled in big losers. The open orders have not been as consistent with me like they have for lescor. I first started trading open orders when I read a book back in 1998 that had just one chapter on NYSE open orders. I change to more of a Don Bright method last year and have changed many small details but do an envelope every morning. I was already keeping some historical data on each trade but I want to group it together by results to make it easy to compare. I spent more than 100 hours over about two weeks updating my old historical data for the new factors I thought might me interesting and profitable to track and analyze. I have spent most of my time compiling data on my losers to see what they have in common and hope to avoid any stupid mistakes. I still get the one big loser that wipes out a weeks worth of profits in one trade. but not as often It was just too easy last year so about January I reduce share size and began a long process of looking at my results. I have always written down my ideas or rules I had about the OO in detail. I have changed many of the rules over time. I keep many lists. For every stock I trade open orders I have a list that includes all other stock in the same or similar industry that have in the past have had a big effect my OO stocks when the other company had news. I have list in yahoo and Dow Jones news and read them every morning before the open. I also track the effect some premarket economic data release has on my stocks. I now also calculated the fair value base on historical data. I use a different fair value for up gaps and down gaps. After making very good money last year in April thru fall. Nov. thru Feb was about break even for me. Now I have made some money in March and April. Still I did not make nearly as much as I was last year. I have also increase my share size twice in April after lowering it last winter to avoid any big loses and because I had a fear to many people were trading the open. I Also another thank you to Lescor or Pasternak. I have been paper trading and keeping profit loss info for many stocks that I might want to add to my list. That way I know if a stock trades in a way that my style will be profitable before I start trading it. So if a stock starts sucking too bad I can have some good data to make a change. I have added 3 news stocks off my paper-trading list and had almost 2 months of data on them before I made the change. Also I just started to paper trade large cap nasal stock my using oo limits orders that are canceled after 30 seconds. I think I spend 2 hours or more every day on OO. More during earnings season. I also spend time during the weekend. My advice to someone new to OO would be to trade just 100 shares until you have it down and then increase size. and please don't trade my stocks I am convinced that it does not take to many people trading the same stock with open orders to influence results. Again thanks to everyone that has posted in the past and helped, including of course Don Bright.
Simple morning....... In 3 minutes and 58 seconds, I got filled on 4 stocks, made money on all four, +640 ( 32 cents...)......gotta like it. I hope all you did as well..... Don