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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lind who wrote (3030)	8/18/1999 1:03:00 PM
From: marketbrief.com	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

hi dave, I'm a huge fan of trailing stops, but I work off the 5 minute chart exclusively and am rarely able to sit in a trade for a couple of days.... ~Smart$

To: David Lind who wrote (3030)	8/18/1999 1:08:00 PM
From: Eric P	Respond to of 18137

David: I found with the longer term trades such as you describe, I like to exit part or all of the position anytime I have a +20% profit. Most stocks making good advances tend to run into problems after a 20% gain. Before implementing this profit objective strategy, I would often enter a position, watch it go up 20-30% and then see it drop all of the way back to my entry price as my profits evaporated. As a trader, you must have some sort of method to take profits, or you will sit on your profitable positions too long and simply tie up capital that could be better invested elsewhere. Good luck, -Eric

To: David Lind who wrote (3030)	8/18/1999 1:31:00 PM
From: RC Stein	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 18137

David, I agree with Eric P. Whenever I reach a 20% profit or a 5% loss I put my finger on the trigger. I don't necessarily sell at that point but I watch it real close. Depending on what the market as a whole is doing and the stock, I make a decision. Sometimes that decision is to sell for the profit, or cut my losses quickly, and on occasion, I have even added to my position. Last year I was using +25 or -8 and it worked pretty well, but you just have to keep adjusting according to conditions. The key is to decide on a strategy and stick with it. What to buy is not the hard part, when to SELL is the killer. Right now, anytime I can get 20%, I'm happy,happy,happy. The other hard part is deciding to hold overnight or not, the morning gap can make you or break you. Good Luck, 8-)

To: David Lind who wrote (3030)	8/18/1999 5:11:00 PM
From: Dominick	Respond to of 18137

David: The way I figure, during day trading you take numerous small losses plus a stock needs room for pullbacks when it does move. This means I would have to use trailing stops to ride the wave as long as I can plus give it 1/2 to 3/4 play once it shows a profit. If it goes against me suddenly, my stop is already in line. Once out I could always decide to get back in without the pressure. Dominick

To: David Lind who wrote (3030)	8/19/1999 3:05:00 AM
From: bajasurf	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

David: I also use Elders triple screen. I am curious if you are entering on Elders signal of a breakout above the previous days high after pullbacks of a few days on uptrending stocks. On exit strategy, are you talking about intraday or 1-5 days as the time period? If it is multiday, it seems logical to trail the stop under each succeeding days higher low. Randie