In the after-market I usually try to scalp 10 or 15 decimal points on a fast moving stock. But I do have a weakness of selling too early. I get especially nervous on fast moving volatile stocks. It is the classic struggle of selling early/too late which is in my opinion the hardest part of the market.
I pretty much am at a loss at the moment as far as that goes. I do know I am leaving way too much in a trade and that trades that go my way from the beginning and stay that way, are hard to come by. So I need to stay in those somehow. Just knowing that and I am fighting off my instinct to sell early before a next clear support or resistance level. Even so it's maddening and I have to admit I need to learn more about profit taking and stick with my knowledge not my reactions!
Multiple positions help solve that problem for me. When combined P/L looks good enough, I bag those profits. One stock up .30c, another up .37c and another up .20c (= .87c ), its time to close positions, especially if the indices look like they have topped and are reversing.
and I have jotted down what that total would be and then compared it to what I ended up with. So far it doesn't seem like I really would've made more one way or the other. I'm also trading futures so it's one position. I'm training myself that when I think I'm too exposed with money sitting around in positions, I close the least profitable one first rather then the most profitable. It alleviates the stress and then I can evaluate whether these good trades still maybe have more in them. I think it has to be better then hanging around in weak ones. But, I'm talking about trades I hope will be good for possibly overnight or more. If I think only a daytrade I try to get out at a predetermined target or else breakeven. This is so hard for me I would love to hear about how others manage this profit taking issue. It should be the easy part wtf!?
Uh, I still suck at this (letting winners run that is). My losses are no problem but I set mental profit targets which get in the way of letting a real winner run. But better safe than sorry. Currently, for as many that I got my target from that just kept going after I got out, there are just as many that turned around and took me out BE or a little over. Experience IMO is the best teacher - some ideas I have started to use in my logic: 1. If combo of Nas, Dow, and SP all in solid green = hope that the winner keeps going and maybe stay in overnight. All red = opposite logic for shorts. 2. If combo of Nas, Dow, and SP mixed or no clear red or green area = set targets and use them. Its simple but I am still experimenting w/ how effective it is. Mike
don't be upset if you leave profit on the table ... sometimes electing an entry too early can save you from the trade coming back to you. i ALWAYS have a pre-determined exit strategy ... trading is about batting averages ..not home runs
8:21:13 SellShort 1000 RMBS at 22.02 on ARCA (1000 traded @ 22.1000) Executed 8:53:17 Buy 1000 RMBS at 21.65 on ARCA (1000 traded @ 21.6500) Executed missed the entry over 23 , but i'll take it