+ $101 RIMM gapped down in pre-market and trading a little above my break even price. I placed a cover order below the bid with the intention of following the price down if indicated. Suddenly it got triggered at below the bid for an $18 gain. Extended hours trading is weird, and as a result a tidy $600 profit was left on the table with this one. Watching HSY again today and watched it pull back to the 20-period SMA (3-min chart) every time it rallied too far above. Watched for retracement when it stalled at 40.60, and shorted it at 40.47 (.01 cent below full retracement). Exited at 40.27 for a $100 gain, catching the inside of the move nicely. Later saw it had rallied to new highs and placed a bid just a few pennies too high, missing a stronger downtrend. Tested a small long position in SOHU @ 70.20 when it moved up slightly out of consolidation. It stagnated for 2 more hours before taking me out on the breakdown for a $72 loss. PWR making new highs, stalls @ 34.44, and I shorted @ 34.25 (.01 cent below full retracement of previous barsâ gain). Exited at the first stall in action @ 34.05 for a $100 gain instead of waiting just a minute more for the break below the 20-period SMA, which indeed opened the floodgates all the way down to 33.26. I need a little more patience, but I only started shorting a few weeks ago, and I'm overly conservative, because of those short squeeze bid/ask spreads that seem to appear on any rally. Watched WYNN all morning, analyzing its S/R levels and overall behavior. It was all over the map, but by the time it tried and failed a test of 104.00 resistance, then 103.60, then retraced and broke below the converged 8- and 20-period SMAs (3 min chart), I pulled the short trigger at 103.15 and was told there were no shares available to short! So I slurped the drool of profit anticipation back into my mouth and picked up 5 Aug $95 puts @ 1.30, holding for a pullback to 101.00 or lower. I need to switch to IB soon; E*Trade commissions are killing me on these smaller positions. On my watch list: PNC, coming down off a 52-week high after an analyst downgrade, and broke through its 8-period SMA on the 30-day chart. Looking to short on any significant rally.
+ $295 Used todayâs rally to scale into several short positions, some of which Iâm holding fairly close to my entry prices: PNC, MMC, and PLCM Shorted PWR in the morning @34.80, retracement off the high, stopped out at 34.60 for a gain of $200. FWLT hitting new lows all morning. Went long after a failure to make a new low. Very little movement after that until it failed further and I was stopped out for a $125 loss. Shorted PWR again @ 35.09 when a second rally stalled and retraced. Covered at the 34.84 stall for a $125 gain, catching a very nice piece of the move. Still holding WYNN puts, need a bit of a pullback soon or I'll close for the loss.
Forgot to post one other trade that I closed out today - MDRX short - scaled in at an average price of 15.22 and closed 15.14 for a $160 gain. Again, commissions killing me. Plan to switch to IB by Sept.
NoDoji, Nice going. Good way to end the week with two days in a row of gains. Your lower volume may end up costing you more per share / total commissions but IMHO its way more offset by the much lower risk to ruin that you now have. I bet on big losing days you were not thinking about commissions being a factor.... Have a good weekend and enjoy your gains Bob
take my advice ... go with lightspeed rather than IB! They have a kick ass platform and pretty cheap prices!
-$1647 I exited all three of my overnight shorts at a loss because I did not like the action at all this morning. They all moved significantly higher than my exit prices, so I was glad to be out. Also closed out WYNN puts when the stock rallied from the open. I had planned to go long WYNN if they rallied on open and for some reason I hesitated, then figured Iâd missed my prime entry point. I did the same thing on SPWR, and on shorting RIMM at 134.50. Obviously I neglected my caffeine this morning at a very high cost to my potential profit. Watched FFIV all day and shorted them at 35.60 right after they failed to make a new high. Covered at 35.04 for a $280 gain when the pullback stalled around that very strong support line. Shorted ALKS @ 16.97 and later placed a stop, figuring theyâd continue the downtrend. Got stopped out at 16.88 for a gain of $45. I think closing out all the short positions this morning distracted me, as well as watching too many of my other charts, when I had planned to trade RIMM and WYNN exclusively.
+739 I closed out a single FLR put I bought yesterday pre-earnings when I saw over 2 million shares sell of in a single swoop. I took a $66 loss on it after they reported a triple play earnings hit and opened higher after trading quite high in extended hours. Well, what happens in extended hours trading stays in extended hours trading, because they inexplicably tanked all day. That little put wouldâve been worth $200 after all! My hot pick of the morning was to short BLK. However, after the rally it backed off 234 resistance so fast that I was then hesitant to short it in the 230 price range because I donât really âknowâ the stock and have never traded it before. Turns out the break below the periodic SMAs wouldâve made for a great short. Iâll be keeping this one on my watch list for a while, because I like the way it moves. So FLR finally found some support at 67.10 and I watched them consolidate around the 68 level for a while. They broke to the upside and I waited until the breakout was confirmed by a retracement of the first tiny pullback and I went long @ 69.70. It was smooth sailing after that and I set a very loose stop to lock in $280 in profit and intended to ride it a while. The rally found resistance at 71.80 and pulled back a bit. I moved the stop to 71.00, had second thoughts about it being too close to fully give profits a chance to run and was just about to move the stop to 70.75 and I got stopped out with some crazy action before the rally resumed. It was a very quick $670 gain, but a full $2000 on the run wouldâve been much nicer. I scaled into a CNQR short for an average price of 47.84, because the 30-day chart indicated a pullback coming off the 52-week highs. Toward the end of the day I placed a limit order at 47.65 and got only a fractional fill for a small gain. Holding the remaining shares overnight.
Forgot to post one of my unusual trades from last week, not a day trade, rather a very long term position. After hours last Thursday, I saw hundreds of thousands of shares of NVAX being purchased by about a dozen company insiders at an average price of 2.85. I looked them up and found them to be a very interesting little biotech company, developing vaccines for SARS, avian flu, and shingles. Their initial results have been favorable and their vaccines are developed using insects instead of chicken eggs. It looked like any real action with this company would come in 2009. I picked up shares after hours in three different accounts (my trading account and two IRAs) at an average price of 2.55/share, with a look to the far future, either positive results on their vaccines or as a possible buyout candidate. Interestingly, the stock is up 8% already
+ $1522 My 47.65 limit order on the remaining shares of CNQR filled early this morning for an additional gain of $216. Saw FWLT hit the hi ticker this morning and sure enough it found major support and broke out. I decided to purchase it in our IRAs for a long term holding: Great fundamentals, unwarranted selloff over the retirement of their CEO. Bought 900 shares altogether at an average price of 47.80 and am now holding a quite unexpected unrealized gain of over $2200 already. Noticed ICE hitting lows all morning and I was watching for a failure to make a new low. The minute they did and broke through the 8-period SMA on the 3-min chart, I bought 500 shares @ 81.05 and set the stop at Julyâs low of 80.20. I considered this a very high probability trade and wanted to give it time to work. That was my original plan. Can you tell whatâs coming? After several little ups and downs, I began to doubt the strength of the trade and set a stop at a small profit. I was shaken out for a $60 profit and then ICE commenced with its real breakout all the way above 84, taking my additional $1500 profit with it. Not to be discouraged, I watched AMED hitting new lows all day. Itâs been hitting new lows for a couple days now and itâs inexplicable. Upside guidance a few weeks back, excellent earnings report, and all of sudden everyone whoâs ever owned them sells off in a 2-day frenzy. Normally I wait for failure to make a new low before considering a trade off a downturn, but when I saw AMED very close to the mighty 200-day MA, I made an exception and bought 500 shares the minute it retraced to the 8-period SMA on the 3-min chart @ 49.90. This was near the low of the day, but I felt that I could comfortably pick a bottom here and I set my stop just below Juneâs low at 48.20. I also put on 10 Sept $55 calls @ 2.60. The breakout was quick and massive. I exited the trade @ 52.45 following the shooting star and continued selling for a gain of $1275. I am holding calls long term as I expect a good portion of this down turn will be retraced before September. The calls ended the day with an unrealized gain of $700.