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To: Appleby who wrote (2450)	1/5/1999 2:02:00 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 118717

Gap trading is a sucker's game for the very agile from what I have seen. That's why I sat on my hands yesterday after seeing so many gaps. Today I will have a market sell order in for NSOL which TAKES AWAY THE ELEMENT OF EMOTION. Otherwise while I am trying to decide where to sell, the price could drop 5 - 10 points. Not a game for amateurs - which is all I claim to be. My trade was for a later runup and opening gap the next day. By 0931 I will already be watching a few other Internuts. I will post a watch list later. Have to go to work. SI spell-checker doesn't seem to be working.

To: Appleby who wrote (2450)	1/5/1999 7:25:00 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 118717

I was thinking about what could go wrong if I tried to play NSOL without an "automatic pilot" today. Assume it gaps open at 161 and runs to 165 in a few minutes. While I am chuckling, patting myself on the back and trying to put a sell order through all at the same time, the bid drops like a rock to 157. Hmmmmm. Is it stopping there before another run? I mean, a few minutes ago I was up 6 - 10 points for the day and 13 - 17 for the trade overall. Now I'm only up 2 points for the day and 9 for the trade. While I'm thinking about that the bid suddenly drops to 153. Damn. Now it's DOWN 2 for the day and only up 5 for the trade. Bound to find a bottom here. If I sell, I might miss the runup. Next stop is the bid hitting 150 (this is about 10 minutes into the trading day). Now I am down 5 for the day and only up 2 for the trade. I push through a market sell order on E*Trade which takes 2 - 3 minutes. The sale goes off at 149 1/2. End result: down 5 1/2 for the day, up 1 1/2 for the whole trade and 10 1/2 points below where I would have sold if I had just sold at the open. Naturally NSOL moves back up to 155 soon afterward. With 100 shares that's $1000 LESS after commissions - a significant chunk of change in my account. I have no idea if NSOL will play that way today or not. But I have seen the scenario more than a few times. You and I aren't in the league that can play that game and win most of the time. Good luck today.