It’s been mixed bag today with various positions stopping in and out. I very much look forward to a sustained bull market when I can sit back and do nothing while watching my account balance go up and up. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth…
Admiral Ahoy!
Just before the London close-of-play yesterday, and I mean just before, Admiral “stopped-in” to take me long for £1-per-point at 803p. You will remember that I last stopped-out at 819.9p for a profit of £16.90 which was just shy of my previous £12 loss. With my newly stopped-in position I could now have a second bite of the cherry.
In a fit of panic, with literally one minute to spare before the market closed and I would no longer be able to do so, I applied a guaranteed stop order at 761p. It’s wasn’t as close as I would have liked, and it cost me £4.02, but I simply couldn’t afford any devastating overnight shenanigans with this high-priced stock. Today I managed to trail the guaranteed order to a more reasonable 783.3p for a potential maximum loss of £19.70.
I could have banked the £20.50 profit, so that over all I had made money on Admiral, but this is not the profit I’m looking for.
Ooh La La
French Connection was on my Stop-Out List at a last selling price of 73p, and this morning I was able to buy back at a much lower 56.4p. My current stop order gives me a larger-than-ideal risk of £14.40, but at least I missed that big opening fall!
A Commerzial Decision
I made a commercial decision to re-enter Commerzbank at price of 1.51, which is exactly the price it last stopped out at. Obviously this is tantamount to having simply held it all along, while actually lowering my stop order; but it’s no worse than that, in the sense that I haven’t bought at a higher whipsaw price than my last selling price.
Stop-Outs and Re-Entries
Mothercare stopped out for a loss of £0.40 at 147.6p and later I bought it back 5% cheaper at 141p. It stopped out again at 131p and I re-bought at 130.6p. Well, it was cheaper!
Pace stopped out for a much bigger loss of £10.40 at 52.4p, and I re-purchased at 49.1p. It stopped out again at 45p.
My position in Cape stopped out at 337p for a profit of £22, and this freed up an amazing £100-or-so of trading funds for me to deploy elsewhere.
One of my Indian stocks, Suzlon Energy, stopped out at 26p for a loss of £3.54.
Opening Orders
I placed an opening order to buy Redrow if it ever falls back to 101p, and a previous order to buy Balfour Beatty took me into position at 231p.
Averaging Down
I averaged down on Wincanton at 70.6p, having purchased my original position at 75.6p.
That’s all today!
Tony Loton is a private trader, and author of the book “Position Trading” (Second Edition) published by LOTONtech.
Tags: market commentary
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Trading Trail #15: A Mixed Bag
Nov 17, 2011 at 6:38 pm in Trading Diary by
It’s been mixed bag today with various positions stopping in and out. I very much look forward to a sustained bull market when I can sit back and do nothing while watching my account balance go up and up. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth…
Admiral Ahoy!
Just before the London close-of-play yesterday, and I mean just before, Admiral “stopped-in” to take me long for £1-per-point at 803p. You will remember that I last stopped-out at 819.9p for a profit of £16.90 which was just shy of my previous £12 loss. With my newly stopped-in position I could now have a second bite of the cherry.
In a fit of panic, with literally one minute to spare before the market closed and I would no longer be able to do so, I applied a guaranteed stop order at 761p. It’s wasn’t as close as I would have liked, and it cost me £4.02, but I simply couldn’t afford any devastating overnight shenanigans with this high-priced stock. Today I managed to trail the guaranteed order to a more reasonable 783.3p for a potential maximum loss of £19.70.
I could have banked the £20.50 profit, so that over all I had made money on Admiral, but this is not the profit I’m looking for.
Ooh La La
French Connection was on my Stop-Out List at a last selling price of 73p, and this morning I was able to buy back at a much lower 56.4p. My current stop order gives me a larger-than-ideal risk of £14.40, but at least I missed that big opening fall!
A Commerzial Decision
I made a commercial decision to re-enter Commerzbank at price of 1.51, which is exactly the price it last stopped out at. Obviously this is tantamount to having simply held it all along, while actually lowering my stop order; but it’s no worse than that, in the sense that I haven’t bought at a higher whipsaw price than my last selling price.
Stop-Outs and Re-Entries
Mothercare stopped out for a loss of £0.40 at 147.6p and later I bought it back 5% cheaper at 141p. It stopped out again at 131p and I re-bought at 130.6p. Well, it was cheaper!
Pace stopped out for a much bigger loss of £10.40 at 52.4p, and I re-purchased at 49.1p. It stopped out again at 45p.
My position in Cape stopped out at 337p for a profit of £22, and this freed up an amazing £100-or-so of trading funds for me to deploy elsewhere.
One of my Indian stocks, Suzlon Energy, stopped out at 26p for a loss of £3.54.
Opening Orders
I placed an opening order to buy Redrow if it ever falls back to 101p, and a previous order to buy Balfour Beatty took me into position at 231p.
Averaging Down
I averaged down on Wincanton at 70.6p, having purchased my original position at 75.6p.
That’s all today!
Tony Loton is a private trader, and author of the book “Position Trading” (Second Edition) published by LOTONtech.
Tags: market commentary