Finally.
Finally, OPTR cracked today. Did my patience paid up? Did I make profit? Here’s what happened:
OPTR Trade 20th Nov
In morning, I was holding 1300 shares at an average price of 7.63. As I had to leave for work at 11, I put a LIMIT order to cover 400 shares at 7.30, trying to lock in some gains. When I reached office, stock was still going down and before I could move my price down, my position was filled. After that, I decided to wait with my remaining shares for OPTR to go further down. OPTR touched LOD of 7.16, down by 1.13$ (13%) for the day! After touching LOD, OPTR was trading sideways between 8.20 to 8.40. I was feeling comfortable with my position.
Everything changed in the last 1 hour. OPTR started picking up volume and was mostly going red, I put LIMIT order of 7.01 for my remaining positions. Suddenly, OPTR did a u-turn and started moving higher. I moved my price to 7.10, 7.20, 7.30, 7.40. OPTR was moving faster and faster and finally closed at 7.88. I was very mad at myself. I had the opportunity to cover OPTR at 7.20 and 7.30 during the day and I did not cover.
The last 30 minutes of price action did not make any sense to me. Market was touching all time lows and OPTR moved up by 50 cents! I no longer trust OPTR to behave in a predictable way and wanted to get out. I decided to try my luck in after market hours. I put in order to buy 900 shares of OPTR at 7.50. I got filled for 300 shares. As of now, I am still holding 600 shares short at avg. price of 7.63.
Overall, OPTR has taught me a lot. It forced me to develop patience. It taught me how important it is for a trader to control their greed. When I originally shorted OPTR last Wednesday, I was up by 384$ by shorting 400 shares. Today, with 1300 shares short at decent price, I am still down on my position. Had I not been greedy and covered all of my position at 8.30, I would be up by 429$. Even if I turn up profit on OPTR tomorrow, I am not happy how I executed this trade.
So what’s the plan for tomorrow? I am nervous about what’s going to happen tomorrow. Dow was touching historical lows today and tomorrow being Friday, it’s quite possible that market will do a small or huge rally. If market will rally, I am going to get screwed on OPTR. I am hoping that OPTR will gap down tomorrow and give me a chance to close my position without taking a loss. Wish me luck.
Happy Trading.
RJ.
7 responses so far ↓
1 iL Torello // Nov 21, 2008 at 1:29 am
Wishing you lots of luck Ramta. I’ve been working on moving my blog to my very very own personal website…because I liked yours so much!I hope to get it all done soon.
2 RJ // Nov 21, 2008 at 1:35 am
Thanks Torello. I am glad that you like my website. I have put in decent effort to make it look the way I like. I am looking forward to what you come up with.
RJ
3 zheng // Nov 21, 2008 at 10:06 am
Don’t you think betting 60% of your entire portfolio one just one stock might not be the best money and risk management strategy?
Do you have any stop loss (even a mental one) in place? What if Dow or SPX rallies big today and OPTR goes to $10?
4 skm // Nov 21, 2008 at 3:02 pm
2 hours ’till close it’s at 7.45 – hope you covered. I am also a bit curious on what made you put that large of a stake on this, without getting out – and without accepting the face that may get hit, and to do so while the hit is as minor. I know you were confident in this – but still…? it’s a pennystock you know..
5 RJ // Nov 21, 2008 at 3:47 pm
zheng,
I agree that it was not a good idea for me to risk 60% of my capital on one trade. Though I knew that OPTR’s current prices are un-sustainable. And I kept holding on.
skm,
Yes, I did cover today. And the reason for large stake on OPTR? I was trying to ‘fix’ my position. Never a good idea. Overall, it was a very poor trade. I am lucky to come out of OPTR with a little profit.
RJ
6 skm // Nov 21, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Thought I’d catch you while you’re here, so here’s a question:
what software do you use to trade? I mean do you use a broker + analysis software? do you rely on your broker’s software only and such?
Thanks!!
7 RJ // Nov 21, 2008 at 4:44 pm
skm,
I currently use TOS (ThinkOrSwim) as my broker and their software thinkDesktop to execute my trades.
RJ
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