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.
LLL Target 1 hit & stop tightened, PLCM stopped, INTU added
Open Position Notes:
LLL fell further this morning to hit Target 1 at $68.80, allowing me to close out 1/2 my position for a fair gain of 3.7%. The stock has come under persistent pressure for the past several sessions, so to see today’s rebound kick in is not surprising. It was rewarding to see Target 1 hit right on the nose today, as that did mark the low for the session, and I also liked the fact that this one didn’t rally much beyond the flat line. Volume was light as well. That points to a continued presence of some sellers, and a lack of buyers, plus this stock is still technically broken. I’m going to stick with remaining shares with an adjusted stop loss of breakeven. If it can move further in my direction, I’ll continue to adjust my stop.
Closed Positions:
PLCM was a setup I really liked the looks of a couple nights ago, as it had broken support and bounced back up to test that zone without reclaiming it. There was also a well-defined wedge pattern, and I had intended to initiate a short sale upon a break of the lower wedge trend line. The difficulty in setting up a swing trade in a gap-prone market like this is that sometimes an intended entry and an actual entry can greatly differ. That can be offset by reducing position size, which I did by 1/2, but it still results in inferior entry prices and a change in the risk/reward profile of the trade. So when PLCM triggered an entry on Tuesday by way of gapping through my intended trigger price, that was a known risk. I aggressively tightened my stop last night as another way to offset the initial risk (in addition to the reduced position size), and with today’s market reversal back up I was stopped out of this position for a manageable 2.3% loss. The reduced position size and limited loss definitely minimized the pain, but the fact remains that a true trigger through an intended entry will still offer the best scenario for swing trading. I’ll stand aside from this one for now, as it doesn’t seem ready to roll over for a secondary move just yet.
