I don’t know who reads my blog these days but if you do read, you may have noticed I did not put up a watch list before the trading session. As I wrote yesterday, Muddy thinks that pre market gainers/losers are the best stocks for that particular day and beats the pants off any other watch list.
So instead of staying up in the night preparing watch list, I decided to get up early and was watching pre-market action from 8AM. There were lot of stocks moving up/down based on drug news or earnings news. I decided to play the drug news stocks and set my mind on POZN and ANPI.
As soon as the market opened, I went LONG on ANPI. Because I didn’t want to miss the upswing, instead of doing LIMIT order, I placed a market order. So while Muddy got in at 0.44, I got filled for 5000 shares at 0.491. Once I entered the trade, I got nervous and I wasn’t sure if it would go much higher. I got out at 0.52, making 117$ after comissions. Not bad.
Because I was hasty about trading ANPI, I entered bit late on POZN at 8$. It dropped momentarily and I thought may be it won’t go higher than 8$ and I was afraid that I bought it at peak. I got out at 8.08 making 14$ after commissions. POZN did manage to touch HOD of 8.39$. 
From today’s experience, I definitely feel that one can play right at the open. To do that, I must learn to use Trader Workstation effectively. I should have my orders all setup before the market open and should just hit one button to open any position. I am going to investigate in to how I can make my order entry more effective.
Finally, I traded FAZ. When FAZ was rising in the morning, I went long at 45.10$. Well, that was the peak and FAZ started tanking after that peak. It went as low as 42$ and then back to 45$. It went down and touched 45$ again. I thought may be it won’t break past 45$ mark, so I got out at my original entry price of 45.10$, losing 10$ in commission. FAZ went on to hit 47.58, closing just under 47$! Well, I couldn’t have figured that out while I was at job, so I am not too upset about this trade.
All in all, I felt that pre-list is all you need to trade these days when market is showing extreme volatility. Anyway, I will still try to study charts and post my watches. I think one of Muddy’s advantages is that he has studied thousands of charts which gives him the edge when it comes to trading a fast moving stock.
Right now, my money is on hold at IB, so won’t be able to trade till Tuesday. I will be puttig up my watches for next week over the weekend.
Trade Well,
RJ.
Status as of end of Jan 29th:
Positions closed for Gain: ANPI (117$), POZN (14$)
Positions closed for Loss: FAZ (-10$)
Open Positions: None
4 responses so far ↓
1 Yngvai // Jan 30, 2009 at 12:40 am
Nice job, RJ! You’ve got guts jumping in those pres right at the open! I still have to keep my 5 minute rule as I’ve gotten burned a few times on hitting some of the pres at the open
2 RJ // Jan 30, 2009 at 12:43 am
Well James, I just took the plunge. I found that if I wait after the open, I am missing the move and start questioning whether it’s too late to enter. We will see how this goes.
RJ
3 tim // Jan 30, 2009 at 1:20 am
I am going to investigate in to how I can make my order entry more effective
>>>>>>>>>>>
u can setup hotkeys:)
4 pavtrader // Feb 6, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Couple of things to look for on pre-hits is consolidation after the open. I think IL talked about how he usually does not play them right at the open and just waits for consolidation and gets them on the other push higher. Also Muddy talked about waiting for the the ones that fail and go red to short into. Great trading, cheers.
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