Active day and swing traders

[Euro_d]

Hmm, missed that one! Could also be the hurricane Wilma upgrade.
Nayway, as I write both th eFTSE and DAX support levels have held and the DOW (with several hours to go) is back up to where it closed.
Lets see where we end up!

good evening all.
Dave

Amother day with no golf due to rain! Bah!!!

 

[Splitlink]

I got fed up with the long BARC trade I opened yesterday and closed at 1241hours for a loss of 2.6 points.

Split

 

[theblackmamba]

this am shorted ici, nxt. currently short full positions hbos ici nxt dsgi, and part profits taken on rr. hns. no longs

 

[Euro_d]

Morning all,
not surprisingly my LMI long opened last week at 1294 got stopped at 1292. Stop was 1300 but the answer from my SB co was that the price fell immediately on the open. Checked the lev 2 order book and I have to (grudgingly) accept their point.
I should have closed yesterday at 1310!

Still short on PRU from 490.75.
Another day for care!

Good trading to all
Dave

 

[marben]

'morning all,

Am I glad I closed those longs last night! Am watching for possible bounces off support for RIO, GUS & ULVR. If I'm satisfied that there is a genuine bounce, I'll be using standard trade sizes but v. tight stops.

I'm expecting to exit MRW short today, as results are due tomorrow. Will stay in, though, whilst current intraday downtrend continues. Will also exit CPI short if this appears to be recovering (probably also before EOD), as the trade really hasn't behaved as I'd hoped - at least it's in profit at the moment though.

Be careful out there!

Mark

 

[barjon]

mornin' all

stopped out of sab (painful ) but dge still surprisingly blue - lifted stop on this in case it succumbs with the rest.

good trading

jon

 

[marben]

Well, GUS seems to have bounced off 1 year support level of 824, so went long @ 829 with stop at 820, in case of further downward lurch.

 

[barjon]

Well, GUS seems to have bounced off 1 year support level of 824, so went long @ 829 with stop at 820, in case of further downward lurch.

mornin' mark,

interestingly (as usual ) i'm waiting for a short. as you can see gus did give a short signal which i didn't take because of the nearby support you mention and the gap opening.

it's all a bit hairy at the moment (unless your carrying shorts ) and if ftse closes below 5228 and holds below i'll be joining the bears.

good trading

jon

 

[marben]

Hi Jon,

My reasons for the GUS long (besides hitting the support level) are a) overall it does not display a long term trend, hence a "swing" candidiate; b) displaying short-term +ve MACD divergence, suggesting sellers are getting tired; c) GUS actually has pretty strong fundamentals (I hold it as an investment) ; d) risk reward ratio is good (<10 pts downside) but could quite easily bounce by 40pts over the next few days, if Wall Street bottoms out (even temporarily).

The last one is the real clincher for me. Of course, if it does break through the support could be a good short.

Good trading,

Mark

 

[barjon]

mark

can't argue with that except for a question - what are you considering a "long term trend"?

cheers

jon

 

[Splitlink]

Well, GUS seems to have bounced off 1 year support level of 824, so went long @ 829 with stop at 820, in case of further downward lurch.

I've been watching GUS and a couple of others that have had nasty spikes . GUS had one in July that went to 782. With a 9 point stop, you obvously don't expect a reoccurrence. Why is that?

Split

 

[barjon]

split

i think the july one was the london bombings day

jon

 

[marben]

Well, after all that, my theories not supported by subsequent price moves, so closed trade @ 822 for a 7pt loss. Price now below support & there still seem to be plenty of sellers in the order book. Next support looks like 805 to me.

 

[marben]

I've been watching GUS and a couple of others that have had nasty spikes . GUS had one in July that went to 782. With a 9 point stop, you obvously don't expect a reoccurrence. Why is that?

Split

Hi Split,

The reason I don't need to worry about spikes is that d4f's stops (rolling cash bets) seem to operate in rather a good manner: a trade only gets stopped out if shares in the underlying market actually trade at or beyond the stop price. When a spike occurs, it usually involves the spread widening and it is rare for stocks to trade at the spike price. If OTOH they do, then the spike is "real" and I'd rather be stopped out!

Best regards,

Mark

 

[Splitlink]

split

i think the july one was the london bombings day

jon

Of course, I'd forgotten that.

Split

 

[Euro_d]

Hi Split,

The reason I don't need to worry about spikes is that d4f's stops (rolling cash bets) seem to operate in rather a good manner: a trade only gets stopped out if shares in the underlying market actually trade at or beyond the stop price. When a spike occurs, it usually involves the spread widening and it is rare for stocks to trade at the spike price. If OTOH they do, then the spike is "real" and I'd rather be stopped out!

Best regards,

Mark

Hi Mark,
You are right. I had an issue with them this morning and if you are long they will close you ar market bid price, vicky verky for shorts.
I checked the level 2 bid offer spread and confirmed this is exactly what happened.
Furthermore, they stated that sometimes it happens (presumably early session) that they fill actual orders before stops so you could have a situation where you manually close a position then cancel a stop only to find that it got filled, not a clever scenario.
I am thinking that it is probably better to judge the entry exit positions from level 2 and then trade on D4F removing stops if appropriate.
Generally D4F are superb with stops, order fills and spreads compared to level 2 for major stocks, for minor stocks (which I do not trade) they are less accurate.
For me they remain the best of the bunch. For perfection one needs to go CFD which I am seriously considering.

Good trading to all in these hairy times.

Dave

 

[theblackmamba]

closed half short positions on hbos 820.45, and ici 279.82

 

[marben]

mark

can't argue with that except for a question - what are you considering a "long term trend"?

cheers

jon

Sorry for late reply Jon: didn't spot your post earlier. Answer: > 4 months. It's certainly been in a downtrend for the last month but it's right at the bottom of the longer term trading range now.

Perhaps stupidly, I'm seriously considering getting back into this one, as it looks like it's recovering but I'll want the recovery to be more solid (timewise) before entering.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[marben]

Well, GUS looks like it's holding back above support level & above intraday EMAs, so long again @ 826 - ready to exit again rapidly if we get a drop as US opens.

 

[marben]

Oh well, gave away another 3 pts on GUS. Closed again @ 823. At least the CPI & MRW shorts are going great guns. US market seems to be plunging deeper than expected, so I guess that's triggering more UK selloffs.