I need a drink after a day like this ! On monday the market had a nice trend all day. So I had fun just buying all day. I decided to carry the position overnight because I was ahead on all of my entries. Let your winners run, right. If things turn dump the kA shares. Now this is a Listed stock that trades about 8 mil shares a day. I knew the Consumer Confidence Report was coming out at 10:00. So when things started to drop I knew it must have been a bad number. Do you think I could sell my shares ? No way. I slammed two orders at the inside bid. That didn't work. I then tried to lead the market two levels. That didn't work. Another thing that bothers me is the delay for a listed stock. Its not near as fast as the Nas. Good thing the market bailed me out by bouncing. What can I do to better handle the same situation better next time? Should I short another stock in the same sector right before the report to hedge my position. Or should I load up a sell order for all the shares but have it set five or six levels down in price. In this case .10 to .15 cents below best bid ? Or should I even just unload my entire position and wait to see what the report is ? Any other suggestions are welcome. Just maybe you can help me keep from pulling out all of my hair.
holding a position before any major eco. # is death. chalk it off as agood learning lesson. also did you realize that most of the selloff was due to a rumor we had troops in iraQ. good luck in the future, mike
FloridaTrader .... welcome to trading We all try this. One time I hold over night and it gaps against me. Next time I decide to sell on the close and the position gaps in my favor next am. Trading is a game of statistics. Take some of the money off the table on the close, and trail the rest. The real trick is to keep losses and drawdown to where you don't need too many drinks. Also, remember that no one trade is important ... it's the sum of all trades that matter.
You could short the futures, as they are easier to get in and out of, or you could use options to protect your position if you want to let it ride. Just remember that an at the money option has a delta of about .5, meaning you have to buy puts on twice your stock position to be hedged one for one.
Trade Nasdaq, in a stock that trades 8mil a day you probably would have gotten out with minimal slippage if you were fast.
I often have "problems" unloading NYSE stocks. I will enter an order at the bid or a penny below and the order will be ignored or overlooked or whatever for a half a minute or so, and then the bid will drop a penny or two. I'll wait a few minutes and nothing will happen so I'll cancel and re-enter the sell order at a lower price and the bid will then drop another few cents (below my asking price). Often I have the distinct impression I'm trading with a single person, probably the specialist. Last week I played this game for ten minutes and ended up loosing 75 bucks before I was finally able to get out. The guy worked the price on my 500 shares down 15 cents/share, leap-frogging my offers with lower bids every time I entered a new sell order before he finally accepted my asking price. He was using a bait-and-switch tactic. "I'll buy them for $10.25, no, I changed my mind, I'll buy them for $10.22, no, I changed my mind, I'll give you $10.19 for them". And so it went. It was like throwing baseballs at metal milk bottles at a carnival, or buying a used car from a smiling guy in a plaid leisure suit. Same sort of a deal. Real slippery. "Step right up folks and trrryyy yerrr lucckkk!". If the stock is moving I don't seem to have a problem. If it's moving they don't have time to play games, they just fill the orders. I don't have problems selling NASDAQ stocks. I think there is more competition there.
This one NXS.TO has formed a Hammer (a Japanese Candlestick bullish reversal pattern) and is probably heading towards 0.1250-0.1400. Go long now and place your stops below 0.0800. Good Luck !
NXS yesterdays volume 6,300 Little on the light side isn't it? I would hate to be stuck in this one on the way down
I guess u were looking at the wrong stock. It's NXS.TO and it executes 1 million shares on a very illiquid day. By the way, the stock indeed hit its target range 2 days after my initial posting.