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Strategies & Market Trends : From the Trading Desk -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carl H. Gotsch who wrote (2521)	2/5/1998 6:12:00 PM
From: steve goldman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4969

Bad trade - saw a bad trade today by a client....person bot a couple thousand AMAT last week, felt today at the open would be the top for the short term (was dead on right). (forget the fact that he was up about 6 points on the position coming in...thats immaterial...thats the position...we're talking the trade here). Gave me an order to sell 4000 amat at 38 3/8. Never got there...high for the day was 1/4....I blew as hard as I could, couldnt get the ship into dock. Missed it by 1/8 and never got the 4000 off. I proclaim to be good, but not good enough to get AMAT up an 1/8...(lol!) Stock closed about 3 points lower....the 1/8 x 4000 or about $500 dollars cost the person almost 12,000. Now I tried to explain it to him then but he wanted his number, 38 3/8. Look...the point is, you get into a trade..it goes your way or doesnt go your way....when you want out, don't screw around for an extra 1/8...give it a try, but don't be so inflexible that you ride it down for the 1/8 point. You want out...something says you should get out...GET OUT! Kick it out, get the best price and say goodbye. The most more you are going to get, with the exception of a fast pop, is an 1/8 or 1/4 or 3/8 more...thats it...the stock's not getting bought out intra-day! We're not investors, we're traders. We'll make the 1/8 up on the next trade.. A painful lesson I saw someone make today and thought maybe we all could learn from it. Regards, Steve@yamner.com