hey Orion, As far as cutting losers fast, I agree in a stop loss. The stop loss I talk of is if the combined group of 6 results in a loss of $1800, sell it all off and call it a day. Some days have resulted in bigger losses and virtually no days that were down that figure ever recovered. Setting individual stop losses does not work for this method though. I had toyed with the idea of individual stop losses for each of the 6 stocks AND one for the collective group to cover both sides. The individual stop loss ends up cutting out some very big winners. One recent example is VOL. Look at VOL on Jan. 9th. It went up, was a top 6 at 10am, but then dropped down. If I had any kind of reasonable stop on it, I'd have sold it at a loss. VOL ended up a huge winner and carried the group. I will have to give some thought to your other point about the volume and price filters. I have noticed that the lower priced stocks tend to be duds and obviously I do not trade the stock if it has less than 100k shares traded by 10am. I would like to research what effect the results would be if I raised the bar to a minimum of 200k shares traded.
traderich, Price often jumps up the first 1/2 hour, then retraces. I think it is best to put a trend line on the top of the retracement prices and then buy when price breaks through. I am no expert in this method, but I have seen other day-traders do it. Rick
sounds good mys! I am trying to find an effective way to pan through my list and decifer if there is a way to improve my results to date. I like your idea. Today the stocks are: FRC ABY BOW TSN CF BMY CF is the only winner so far today. BOW is the real dud. So, if I understand your method, I would only have bought CF when it broke through its high. At least with your method, I would not have ever bought BOW today!
FRC gapped 40% because Merrill Lynch is buying them for $55 a share. FRC is not going to move much today at all, so this is a case where it would do some good to research why a stock gapped before buying it.
This is why it's important to zero everything to the opening bell price. This way, the gap information gets filtered out... Regards
If I understand, you are looking at highest percentage gainers from each stocks opening print? So if a stock gaps up 5% you would not buy unless in moved an additional 5%...or whatever it takes to meet your up criteria? Thanks for your help. Jim
PM me if you want the spreadsheet data on this trading approach. Today is a down day. Happens 50% of the time. I dare say that is why I can post this method and not be the least bit concerned that it would affect me because very few if any of you would be able to stomach the down days! lol.
Even fewer would objectively research this as a viable method. Maybe you can get a few ideas here: (like watching the first minute of trading). www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50184 Good luck
I'm a bit confused. At the opening you said you've been using this method for a few months. Later in the thread you said over two years. Are there two methods, then?