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The big Gappers Rate this Topic:
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ChrissiDaniels
Posted : Monday, March 26, 2007 9:53:39 PM
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Joined: 9/3/2005
Posts: 7
Hi Worden Bros,

Please could you give me some insight into how you find the big Gappers technically right before they happen? For example BSTE last night (your Monday). Thanks and all the best ... Chrissi
Bruce_L
Posted : Tuesday, March 27, 2007 8:55:28 AM


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Joined: 10/7/2004
Posts: 65,138
We cannot scan for what will happen, only what has happened. If there are specific conditions that you believe occur prior to such a gap, we can help you create a Personal Criteria Formula or EasyScan for those conditions. That said, the trainers cannot give settings, interpretation or investment advice (meaning the trainers will not be speculating about what those conditions might be). I will move this topic to the Stock and Market Talk forum where other traders are more likely to see it and comment.

-Bruce
Personal Criteria Formulas
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scottnlena
Posted : Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:36:04 AM

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Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
you don't


I havn't checked the new on this but I would be willing to bet it is merger or buyout. The clue is thatprice gapped HUGE and then didn't do anything..... if this is the case, a merger or buyout, you would find a change of ticker in your brokerage and change of shares... I happened to me once and I wend from owning 300 shares of the stocks to ownign 10 shares and got a bit of cash.... the trade made me $10.00 or so.

If it is not a mergore or something of that nature... it was pure news and aparently was one of those rare suprises to smart money. The time to get in this would have been early january as it broke over the december high. Later valleys would have been tough becasue the indicators are basically flatlining. Infact if you check Macd and Macd histogram there was some negative divergency going on .. which is also barely visable in TSV.

It is possible to catch huge moves that look similar. Check out MAMA in October. What is the major characteristic that slaps you in the face when you open that chart? BLASTING bop for months on end with not price change of any real amount. Check TSV and MS in the end of September... gave some subtle bullish signals. It would have been hard to know what was coming in terms of the magnitude we got........ There are other examples. I loke to look for pressure builing.
scottnlena
Posted : Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:44:13 AM

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Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
Incidentally if you are new to trading... most newbies get this idea that they are going to find all these gold mine trades and make big bucks quick. you're headed for trouble. for me, and based on my observation of those who'm I percieve to be the most proffitable traders i know... the bulk of the money is in nibbling a bit of proffit here and there consistantly. It is hard to win the lottery in the market. Winning big usually comes from making a well informed and educated decision on a fundamentally storong company before it is aparent that it is fundamentally strong and hanging on for a while.

AKAM made me a NICE chunk of change... but I held it fore several months at a time... got to know it intimately and traded it several times through the year and then shorted it when I thought apropriate. I traded it twenty times last year...only got it wrong 6. but my bigggest money came from accumulating it over the course of several months.
StockGuy
Posted : Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:48:42 AM

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Joined: 9/30/2004
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BSTE is being bought out by BEC.

Beckman Coulter To Acquire Diagnostic Product Maker Biosite For $1.55 Billion
3/27/2007 12:32:00 AM  - Investrend
scottnlena
Posted : Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:17:00 PM

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Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
ONe way you might find big gappers is to check if your brokerage has any stock screeners. Interactive brokers has a few. I tried for a while checking the premarket gaps... which I found to be no guarentee that a stock would gap but often they did.... then I had no gurantee they would move up and all that was while tryig to rush around and find out if they were pink slips or bigboards.... and calculate and entry.... It didn't provide me with much in terms of proffit and a plethura of stress, didn't work for me buy may for you.

If I feel like day trading I find a verry volitile stock that I think is poised to move the next day and focus on that ... watch 5 min charts for good entries and exits...and sometimes watch them go by.
ChrissiDaniels
Posted : Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:05:23 PM
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Joined: 9/3/2005
Posts: 7
Thank you for your comments - I've never been able to work it out from the techs but just wondered. All the best ... Chrissi
mbbcat
Posted : Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:59:57 PM
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Joined: 11/21/2005
Posts: 45
on a similar vein, has anyone found characteristics that can be scanned for to identify probable overnight gappers?
scottnlena
Posted : Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:28:06 PM

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Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
I like to look for "pressure patterns" I call them. Start by understanding they different types of gap. News Gaps are hard to catch... Running gaps, measure gaps, and runaway gaps are a bit different. I consider a good gap as a little extra cream on a stock i'm already in.

Eventualy it will hapen to you. Solid selections are probably the best key. However there can be allot of momentum and velocity coming out of bottoms and at tops. Back to the pressure patterns there are probably pretty good odds of getting into future gappers by using some version of HNC's method (search this forum for " a proffitable method For the beginner or not so beginner" by Have No Cents" in combination with bottoming stock strategies. The prevailing market conditions make a difference also. Some markets are more conducive to gaps of different natures than other markets. I would bet most of these are news oriented.

another method would be to look for stocks that are consolidating over various timeframes and showing really strong indicators, tsv, MS, BOP, MACHD, whatever other indicators you use and get in a bit early. Or stocks that are retracing on on strong indicators.

Market timing might also play a factor.... I alwayse amazed at the huge gappers and irritated that I never seem to get into those so maybee I'm not the greatest authority... but I dont' look for them specifficaly any more, they happen sometimes and it's a extra bonus, or kick in the pants if the gap is down. My first two gap experiences were down.
scottnlena
Posted : Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:31:07 PM

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Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
Start a watch list of all the gappers you come across each day and look for the common thread. Sort some of your bullish scans by price percent change today... that brings them right to the top.
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