4/24/09 PWRD bought 600@16.39 sold 600@16.74 The bank stress test was scheduled to be announced in the afternoon. This could be viewed as an event similar to a Fed day. During days like this I am extremely cautious due to the volatility and change in volume patterns. Today I saw two stocks that had successful b/os. PWRD and GFA. With PWRD the volume looked good in the morning, was just waiting for the price to go up, with a slow stoh reading of 80+ on the 30min. Once it held steady around the 80+ area, I entered in the position. Made the decision to sell based on the stress test news that was coming out in the afternoon. Also I did not want to risk holding through a retrace during lunch. This combined with a potential huge fall off in price could have dragged me out of a good position. I decided the best thing to do was exit while ahead. With the GFA, I hesitated to pull the trigger on this one. The stock had gaped up, and was starting to run away from the gap. In the early morning it was up around 5%. Throughout the day, it never filled the gap, just kept going upwards, retraced, and then rocketed up again. I have seen this with several stocks now where they gap up/down, and continue their trend. Areas of Improvement: 1. holding longer (several position I am in go up 5-10%+, and only capturing a small portion)(maybe taking 1/4, 1/3 off the top at 2-5% intervals will help increase hold time) 2. Buying more shares on retrace (if I exit early, get back in position on retrace. If I am in the position, and it still looks good consider adding more) 3. Play gap stocks in FRV (stocks that gap and continue with price) 4. Expand the stocks I play (right now I am playing zeros. Lets try some 7s)
Bought SNX 500 @ 19.75 Nice AM breakout, follow through, then a retrace. It started to trend back up but had trouble hitting another new high. Lets see what happens with this one tomorrow.
Bought BBG 500@25.12 sold 25.28 Miss read the chart. After I reviewed the daily I noticed laterals forming which your suppose to hold through. Lets watch this stock to see what happens tomorrow. Holding SNX day 2 Sold 200@19.98 We saw a continuation in volume but not price. Price failed to hit a new high. Waited until the close to give price time to improve. Still no price improvement so I began to sell, partial fill. I am currently holding 300 shares. Tomorrow morning I will be looking to exit unless Price hits new highs with sustained volume.