I am not very good at that yet. I've moved stops to break even, only to get stopped out, have it not quite hit my original stop, then move very nicely in my favor. It really depends on the trade. If I'm trading something near major support or resistance, I may give a little extra wiggle room and not touch the stop. If only trading near minor S/R, I often move the stop to b/e pretty quickly, figuring if it doesn't go in my favor, I can evaluate and re-enter later if I want to. I am really not very good at letting my profits run because I generally trade moves from overbought to oversold (or vice versa for longs), rather than following a trend, so I'm the wrong person to ask how best to manage this. I've been trading ORLY for a while, so I'm comfortable letting it move loosely around a core price range. 32.72 is very core for me on ORLY. I will hold overnight if it's not profitable, knowing the chance of it retesting the 32.25 - 32.45 range is very high, knowing also if it rallies near highs, I'll add significantly to the position and take profits on the next pull back. So I don't use a physicial stop with ORLY, jsut as I used no stops with APOL at 52-week highs, nor HOTT at 52-week highs. In a bull market I would be far more careful, because 52-weeks highs are simply a reason to buy the next pull back, rather than fizzle the way everything's been doing over the past 5 months.
Win, getting clobbered happens and what don't kill your account makes you stronger. P.S. - the prospectus says the T acts as a bullet-proof vest only if worn 5 days in a row
Bob, thanks That is too funny! It's all relative; I wiped out 20% of my profits end of January in one day, but I trade a fraction of your size, so it doesn't look as scary :eek:
I attached a screen view of Market Depth. I also have a separate Time & Sales view, separate little window that shows the real size that's going down.
+ $420 I participated in the ORBB this morning (Opening Range Bathroom Break), which cost me a superb ORLY short entry above 33.00. Short ORLY at what I thought was 32.85 and got 32.71 slippage on a quick drop. Covered @ 32.39 oversold for a $156 gain. Short AIPC @ 32.93 via IB, only 100 shares filled before it pulled back a bit. Then it moved back up and I moved offer to 33.00 as it looked strong enough to revisit, missed by .03 cents. Shouldâve left it as it was! Cover target of 31.90 filled for a $100 gain on just 100 shares. The $1000+ wouldâve been more gratifying! Offered 32.50 ORLY, missed by .05. Later went in at market @ 32.40 overbought and covered oversold @ 32.21 for a $92 gain. Short ORLY @ 32.51 overbought run up from higher low. Covered @ 32.30 oversold, trend line target spot on. End of day ORLY runs up very nicely and Iâm ready to pull trigger for end of day volatility scalp and it drops over .10 cents as I get ready to go. Didnât want to chase, obviously, but it was a nice quick move. Paper traded GS today and made a mint. Iâm ready to go with this one, as Iâve studied it for a couple days now and feel that I have a solid trading plan for it.
ORBB? LOL Hey nod, did you see some dufus bought in at 33.95 in premarket??? Someone was laughing and someone was crying on that fill. Hahaha I was trying to put a short on way up there, but didn't get filled. Anywho, keep it up.
Frequent participant here. With experience comes wisdom. Thy wisdom...take a laptop with you Congrads on (another) a good day. And thanks for the advice (Hydrogen Peroxide)!
Wow, missed that, the Ask must've scared a noob short to death. And me, in the bathroom without my laptop, what was I thinking??
hi first time poster on your trading log. Nice job. Also following GS and ready to make a move..buy today.
+ $326 Day + $1462 Week Offered 32.80 ORLY, filled, THEN I took my bathroom break and returned to find ORLY down significantly. Covered @ 32.32 based on L2 action for a very quick $240 gain. Looked to short ORLY again as it ran up, but it pulled back before I made the move, then I was hesitant on the next run up, because it had found support at a higher low and I was sure it would retest 32.70 at least. It made new lows all day, proving again that in a down market nothing is too low to short on any overbought rally. Short GFI @ 11.41 on failure to make a new high, stop just above the HOD @ 11.55. Moved stop to 11.45 when it established the strong possibility of a downtrend, figuring a rise back to that price would indicate nothing more than a small bump in the up trend. It eventually hit for a $20 loss. Watched GFI fail to rally significantly and put on the position again @ 11.40 because it failed again to push higher and now really looked weak. Covered @ 11.20 oversold for a $100 gain. Offered 11.30 GFI and missed by .01 cent while I grabbed lunch. Short DISCA @ 14.98, overbought. It stagnated totally and I didnât want to hold overnight so exited near b/e. Just as well, because it rallied with the market. Short ORLY @ 32.04 for end of day scalp. Covered @ 31.92 for a $60 gain, just before a strong rally. Have a great weekend all!