The Hit List is a look at our current swing trading positions. Stocks we are already in have “triggered”, while those we are considering for plays have not triggered. Click post title to view print-friendly link.
ILMN triggered, FDX & WFMI & ILMN stops tightened
Open Position Notes:
FDX flirted again with the $88 area early on Friday, but by late morning it took a swan dive back down toward $86. Fortunately, my stop was still safe, and by the closing bell the stock had rallied back to take out its morning high (even though the market did not). It’s now very close to Target 2, so I’ve tightened my stop aggressively tonight for remaining shares. This way if it goes a little further, Target 2 will get hit (it traded nearly to that level after hours on Friday in fact). If not, I’m not going to give it much room against me from here.
WFMI started out strong on Friday along with the market, but it was pretty quick to start giving up ground once the market began to roll over. It did stabilize later in the day and overall posted a gain, but it’s not rallying big here with the indexes sitting near highs. I do still like the prospects for this one, but it has been sluggish to move lower, so I’m tightening my stop tonight in order to lock in a small gain should it happen to rally from here. Ideally it stalls out and rolls back over, but thus far it has had chances to do that and simply has not.
ILMN triggered a short sale Friday as it undercut the $28.85 level, moving decisively lower once that level was taken out. The selling pressure was intense, which is good, and it implies this stock just confirmed a lower high after the recent bounce. Volume picked up, which is nice to see on a short sale, but not required. I’m liking the early action for this one so far, and will be looking for follow through these next few days now that this one is again moving south. I’ve also tightened my stop a bit just in case.
Closed Positions:
No closed positions.
Hi Jeff,
Appreciate if you please comments.
We all know Gaps are part of trading. My question is that what is the best way to deal them.
For example.
> sell in pre-market ( not possible for all stocks )
> Use stop loss. ( problem order triggered, and price become normal after few hours )
>Use stop-Limit (problem, order never trigger and price keep moving higher )
Is there any online broker offer Advance order that can be controlled with Stop Loss + Time (say after One hour 10:3- est)?
Thanks,
-Abdul
Hey Abdul,
I’m always happy to help out and I’m glad you asked this. Allow me to take a shot at it, and if I still need to clarify, just let me know.
When it comes to gaps, they are tricky. The way I deal with them is based on the intended timeframe of the trade, so I’ll explain…
Day trades – For such a short trading timeframe, execution becomes far more important. For this reason, I do not wish to day trade stocks which have gapped beyond my intended entry level, unless they’re exhibiting highly unusual activity or momentum (in which case I’ll still require a new pattern to form on the intraday chart). So if a day trade candidate gaps beyond my trigger price, I’ll either skip the trade (if I notice the stock is gapping before my order has been able to fill), or if I am already filled on the entry I will simply turn right around and exit ASAP. If it’s a busy morning with several stop orders, this is likely to happen, but if there are only a couple stocks which are acting like they could go, I’ll usually have a chance to cancel my order ahead of the opening bell (I do not trade premarket or extended hours).
Swing trades – Since my timeframe is days or weeks, and I am trading smaller size than day trades, I can still enter on a gap so long as it does not drastically alter the risk/reward profile of the trade. Please see my Swing Trading Strategy page for details on those parameters.
The brokerage I swing trade through does offer Conditional orders which contain a variety of parameters which can be set, including Time. An example is that you could set up your order and specify that you’d like it to be submitted after a certain time, such as “9:45am ET” and it will go out once that condition has been met. It is sophisticated and a great tool to have at your disposal to be able to specifically control the conditions under which you’re placing trades – even when you’re not even at the PC!
Does this help to clarify some things?