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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jkb who wrote (7446)	4/9/1998 11:08:00 PM
From: LastShadow	Respond to of 120523

Stops: Almost always, yes, because other than timing entries and exits intraday, my usual method is to postion trade end of day. I move the stops as the stock moves. Take ASND - when it gapped open Thursday, I place the buy stop around 11 am at the morning high, and it fills about 3 pm ($39.25). That night I set the sell stop at 39.50, since it went well past that and that amount covers my trading costs. I also set a limit sell at 41.25 (figuring if it crosses 40 it will go past 41), which filled near open at around 41.50 - had it gapped down at open, though, I would have gotten filled at a loss, and my immediate reaction would be to short and set a covering buy for at least the previous (Wednesday's) close of around 38. So either way I make a buck. All this presumes the market is going to bounce around, which during a pre-holiday period it historically does. With a less volatile stock, like Ford (F), and the buy on Wednesday at the open with the spinoff, I would go out about 11 and set the stop at my entry point (not much chance of that one dropping anyway), and then at end of day reset it to 44, which was the crossover point pre-noon. Tonight I will raise it to 46 based on the movement. If that stop fills, I am still up 2.75, and can rebuy on the dip, if any. If its up Monday, I will move it again to be below the significant rise of the day. My guess is 47. My suggestion is to always set stops for solid tickers, especially on NYSE for heavily traded stocks, as they trend evenly. NASDAQ is tougher, but if we look at IOM, I can set a stop and let it fill when it drifts down, and rebuy the day after it looks like it has stabilized. For IOM and CPU I waited a day, and even in CPU's cas that was still too early. The caveat is that I do use TA and the net and other info to decide which ones to enter and when, but for the most part the idea is to protect profits when you can't or don't want to watch them. On the other hand, even if I am running the ticker, how many stocks can one actually watch simultaneously? 12? not more than that for me, I'm afraid, and usually 8-10 if I want to do any work. If the trading range is $1 every day, and it moves up in a trending channel of 50 cents a day on average, once you are over your buy point, move them up in a line parallel to what the stock is doing (trendline the intraday). Stocks like PWAV and PNF have a larger trading range (due to selloffs) once they move, so you have to expect to relax the stop a little to prevent from getting out too early. Thats the big problem with IIT - if i could deterine the pattern and it didn't gap up and down, it could have been much more profitable. So I just never set a stop for it after the first time. lastshadow