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Got my .0019 fill on PDMI a few moments ago. :)
I'm bearish. Alcoa Earnings tomorrow evening is my catalyst.
Chartinator, do you ever trade FOREX?
The rally monkey is high on extasy!
Heavy NOV 17.5 call volume today; looks ready to run.
Yeah; all my action happened in the first two hours.
Very nice, $heff! Keep up the good work!
Asia taking a pounding right now.
Shave and a haircut?
I've got EVPH still also.
See something you like, Professor?
It really has been - this market doesn't want to give up!
I'm closing my shorts on FTR tomorrow and going long. Aside from a pair trade I have on that's long RIG and short SLB, and a few SPY puts I have as my hedge against the general market crapping on my head, it'll be closing my last specific short.
Spencer,
Sounds like you're trading too large in your positions if the volatility is shaking you like that. Here's the turtle-trader methodology for sizing a trade based on volatility and account size:
- Take 1 or 2% of your account size. That's your "account risk". This is the amount you're willing to completely flush goodbye.. that's why it's a low percent - you can always pyramid a position as it works in your favor.
- Get the ATR Wilder (or ATR) for the stock, eg for ETFC it is .118. This is the average movement of the stock in dollars per day for the period of the ATRWilder study (usually 14 days is used). In the turtle system, this is called N.
- Turtles usually used 2N stop when getting in. So a loss in ETFC if it went against you would be .236 a share. Using the guideline of account risk, this would give you your trade size.
Example 25K account, 1% risk: $250 max risk for trade.
250 / (.118 * 2) = 1050
So, you could buy 1,050 shares ($1,943 of stock) and stop out at 1.61 (2 times the average true range) and you've only lost 1% of your total account value.. AND you've also given the stock room to breathe. And if it works in your favor, add on.
(Turtles added on every 1/2N the stock moved for up to 3 or 4 total units. Each addition, they'd move up their stop to 2N below the most recent add - note that it could result in them getting stopped out earlier than if they didn't pyramid or move the stop.)
I strongly recommend the book The Complete Turtle Trader if you want some really good reading on risk and money management. The book really changed the way I look at trading.
Hope this helps. And yeah, sometimes a breather does wonders. Just watching instead of trading.
Mail me a check made out to 'Cash'
Sector movement for last 4 market days ending 2009-09-11
XLU ( Utilities) 29.14 - 28.94 chg -0.20 (-0.69%)
XLB ( Materials) 30.58 - 30.79 chg 0.21 ( 0.69%)
XLF (Financials) 14.43 - 14.53 chg 0.10 ( 0.69%)
XLV (Healthcare) 28.60 - 28.92 chg 0.32 ( 1.12%)
XLP (C. Staples) 24.97 - 25.33 chg 0.36 ( 1.44%)
XLY (C. Discret) 26.54 - 27.08 chg 0.54 ( 2.03%)
XLK (Technology) 20.19 - 20.69 chg 0.50 ( 2.48%)
XLI (Industrial) 25.68 - 26.35 chg 0.67 ( 2.61%)
XLE ( Energy) 52.00 - 53.60 chg 1.60 ( 3.08%)
Yeah - reading is definitely smart. In fact, I recently spent some coin at amazon for the following. All the stuff in the picture costed $277. Sounds like a lot until you consider that it's the same price as a single .SWGXS Dec 97 SPY put... and the payoff keeps on giving.
.. not to mention books have theta measured in years, not days. :)
GGWPQ is really gaining momentum +16%
GGWPQ going gangbusters lately. Today it's made a new 52wk high.
Sayeth NITE: "HALP! BALLS CAUGHT IN SHORT SQUEEZZZEEE!"
EWRC / Scottrade
Called in -- decided I wanted a piece of EWRC if I could snag some at .0015 or better. They said it was on the "Unsecured List" as opposed to the usual "Risk Management" list (when a stock has insane volume or who knows what criteria).
They said the stock was having settlement issues, and that they were only taking sell orders at this time.
To me this sounds like some of the penny MM's have been trading phantom issues, kinda like naked shorting, where shares appear out of nowhere.
Oh, tons go through all the time. Shell or small companies bought out at 50-200% premium and turned into functioning companies -- it's a lot cheaper to buy a company than form a whole new one, depending on what you're doing.
I just think the EWRC premium is too high and unrealistic. There was news about some product and social blogging site, but I saw so few details I can't put much weight behind that as a reason for the premium. Indeed it is a pinky, after all.
I think a lot of people are thinking "too good to be real" - .0013 open to .019 is 1462% premium. Otherwise, I think this thing would've rocketed up a lot higher on that volume. Technically, anyone can offer to buy out a company, regardless of their ability or willingness to really do so.
Hope for everyone here though that the deal's legit, goes through, and all WU pulls a huge payday!
Nice trade. Amazing how far that comes. I remember flipping that in the 2's and 3's. Sheesh.
There is an omnibus pre-trial hearing on the WaMu BK case today.
support at 1.43, 1.28. heavy resistance at 1.98.
I fired it at 2.07.
dollar strengthening - not good for stocks.
Indeed. I got intimately familiar with the calculations in mid February when that fine (ahem) plunge had me scraping right against the margin maintenance requirements. Wrote a program to daily tell me how much my stocks could fall before I'd run against margin calls and also if the price of a stock was within 5% of moving into a cost with a higher maint requirement (which means less margin buying power thus less wiggle-room.)
To that last point, an example is if you have a $2K of a stock that's 6.30.. and it falls to 5.99. Well, suddenly that holding which provided 65% of its value to margin buying power ($1.3K) now only provides 50% MBP ($1K). If your margin BP ceiling is already low from weeks of beating.. well you might only have $500-$1k headroom left as it is! Can be rough.
Please take my advice - either only use margin in a bull market (and rein it in VERY PROMPTLY if the tape starts turning) or make sure you leave yourself a lot of headroom, like 50%, in turbulent times.
Most brokerages all your stocks go into one big pool. When you exceed 100% cash, the firm allows you to use buying power to the sum of what *is* marginable. So yeah, the cheap holdings do nothing for margin buying power, but the big ones contribute quite a lot.
high beta name on a day with a red tape in a sector that's taking it on the chin
Posted by: Chartinator
Date: Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:53:58 AM
In reply to: None Post # 104196 of 104328
University Alert
Out all CRDC now because of earnings AH today
I swapped my shares for options yesterday, sold half those options today to lock in upside, sitting on the other half in case we get an earnings surprise!
Great day for WU!
Throw a tortilla around your chimichanga before you serve it up?
Fired AI. Put money into AMFI.
RICK surging in power-hour
RICK earnings TOMORROW. Good pre-news though:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/rickrsquos-cabaret-international-inc-reports,922920.shtml
Chart, thanks for RICK, that stock has been a ready-steady performer. Going to add if it dips tomorrow morning.
Chart, I'm going to start calling you NORAD, finding all these rockets in flight!
My ONT exploded!
Market's rolling over. Hold on to your hats.
FTK: Tell me about it! She's been a strange one.