| azureflames |
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| Friday, November 14, 2008 |
| Friday, October 8, 2010 6:21:07 PM |
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I formally used Zillow. IB's interface is a little tough but once you do your homework, you can do almost anything. I have been playing with protection by making my orders double bid/ask so I am not the only guy buying at X price (somebody is doing the same thing at the same price), this will hopefully reduce the scenario you laid out above.
Today's lesson: Placed a stop buy for PARD at 1.21. It executed from 1.21 all the way to 1.29, I presume dut to being thinly traded. IB offers a stop/limit order where once a stop is hit, it only buys/sells at a limit price you decide. Would have saved me this morning.
Been an expensive year learning. To the more advanced..........
ANY HELP WITH ORDER GUIDANCE WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!!! :)
Thanks
Azure
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azureflames
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OK, after January I think I am a believer. I have been getting killed by placing buy stops a penny or two above the previous days close just to have it spike and have the floor drop out. I think there may be something to this "hidden order" and "conditional buy order" theory.
I think (hope) more money management and more control of how/when orders are executed are going to make a big impact on making better trades. I am moving my accounts this weekend to an unnamed broker that gives more control on how my orders are executed.
TD - I saw where you were going with the scenario above (making sure YOU were not the only person buying at X price, making sure the QQQQ was moving in a particular direction so you don't fight the tape and get faked out and there is an amount of volume you are looking for). Great stuff, I had a total e
piphany when I looked at yoru example.
There are so many choices. I would be be very greatful if you could share some basic stratigies for order execution like the one above. Thanks so much!
Azure
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OK, I just did my taxes (Schedule D) and looked at my profits and losses. Although I did pretty darn good last year (mostly between March and August), I have been pretty much treding water the remainder of the year.
Memory of and close examination of my trades makes me realize that I am trying to take profits like I did in the second quarter of last year (i.e. bagging whales where you wait for a 10% pop or more to take money off the table). I have had many many decent trades that hit 4-5% and quickly went back down (I was waiting for the BIG POP).
My question to the more experienced traders......
How do you take your profits?
- Hit X% and take Y% off table, setting a stop on the remainder and letting the rest of the position ride
- Hits 5% (example) and take profits
- Hits target exit and place a tight tight stop
- Time limit for proifts
- Set a low resistence point and just wait and let ride until stopped out or hit some profit target (see above)
- Use different money management and exit techniques per goal of stock (long term vs. short term holdings)
I believe I have can pick some decent stocks so my picker for my ticker is not broke, I just don't think I am taking my money off the table soon enough (maybe being greedy, I don't know).
Any insights on the above would help. Money management is not as sexy as picking winners but is just as important and usually overlooked.
Thanks a million (hopefully my million in few years)!
Azureflames
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Since the forum seems light I will throw my hat in the ring.
Over the past few months I have been doing pretty well jumping from small caps to small caps (e.g. biotech, small oil/gas, regional banks, small shipping, etc.). This has served me pretty well and BANG! We are in a bull and all these small companies either ran out of steam or dropped through the floor during this bullish period.
So....... I think I may be done trying to bag whales and look for some more steady (and slow) gains. This board was full of smaller recommended companies (and really great advice) and I would like this to continue. Has the market changed? Do we need to start looking a little more at the fundementals (just a little) and not just the technicals? Trading more established companies for smaller more speculative ones?
What I am getting at as a fairly new trader (1 year) is it looks like the market is in a material shift from what it was just a few weeks ago. I caught quite a few waves before but it looks like surf is up and I am paddling in circles.
Any ideas from some of the more senior members (or anybody with a good idea) on how to play this next phase of the market?
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Yep, thanks rlschapman for the advice. I love "only losing traders turn into investors". While I am waiting around I am seeing better opportunities slip by. Who am I? Warren Buffet?.... I don't have that kind of time or patience.
No, I am a trader and need to lick my wounds take my remaing chips to a different table. I just needed to hear it.
Great advice all around, I hope this helps others who have been reading this post. Always learning, now time to get back in an make some more money!
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Guys, not looking for a pity party but thanks for the sympathy just the same. Hey, it happens and the good news is that with the help of this forum I am still well into playing with the house's money after a good first year and looking forward to keep learning.
The previous posts were spot on (THANKYOU!). I still feel good about removing my blown out stop for tomorrow and at market open I will place a new tight stop. If it closes the gap some…. good for me. If it still tanks…… take an additional very very small hit and move on.
All in all great advice and makes me thankful that I am not a “kid from Bangladesh” (LOL, Realitycheck).
Good luck to all tomorrow!
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OK, here is a good test case for us to learn from. Many of us were in SQNM at high 5's or 6's looking for a little consolidation and a pop. The stock looked like it was recovering regularly after a drop from the 14's in late April to the high 3's based on some bad test results. Most of us thought the news was baked into the price and the stock would recover over the next weeks/months which it looked like it was.
Today after hours the stock lost approximately 50% of its value after hours after announcing that a bunch of Sr. Staff was let go for the test that was mishandled months earlier (remember..... wasn't this already priced in?).
So......... if you are like me, the stock gapped right though my stop loss (big time) and I am looking at a hefty loss. I went ahead and cancelled my stop so it would not get filled first thing in the morning hoping that some of this gap would be filled. In the meantime, looks like I will be holding onto SQNM for longer than anticipated in order to not take a big hit.
I am looking to the wisdom of the discussion forum to chime in on any advice when this type of thing happens and any suggestions. I think cancelling out my stop was prudent but any other thoughts would be appreciated as I know this has happened (in some form) to all of us.
Thanks!
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Here Here! TD, I love the "in play" watch list concept and will adopt it starting today. I got stopped out on BEAT as well with a nice run up (thank you for the lead!).
I just wanted to say I really appreciate hearing the entry and exit strategies out there with all the detail you care to share. It is apparent that buying a stock that will pop it not easy but not too hard. The really hard part is what to do with it when it goes up and keeps going up or goes up and swings back down. You will make a little, a lot or no money with the same winning stock depending on what you do and how vigilant you are (learned this the hard way too many times).
So again, this is a thank you note and a humble request to keep picks coming as well as how you handle the trade while it is "in play". Very enlightening and very appreciated.
Azure
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Thank you all. This is very informative and picking the right broker with the right tools really seems to be a necessary component to money management. I did not get burned on this one but I was really disappointed in how the system worked.
I may have to change my brokers based on the information below. Tobydad, would you mind sharing some thoughts on your favorite conditional buy orders (if you did not already) so we can trip over a few less hurdles along our journey.
Again, love this forum... thanks folks.
Azure
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