Aside the scant volume SVN sees, I followed my trading rules. I got stopped out today and bought back the short sale (sold for $6.73 on 10/9) for $6.708. You must be wondering why I'm excited about getting a mere 0.18% gain (after Cost of Trade). Take a look at this single-day 2-minute interval chart on SVN for today:
The black line is where my stop was located at $6.70 (3 cents better than break-even). And, yes I could have been justified in lowering my stop a couple more pennies based on this intraday chart and bailed once it violated the previous high after all that consolidation/no movement. I actually put some limit orders in to scale out of the position yesterday and today, but I was a little too optimistic and set the price too low to execute. There's a ton of what-ifs. I chose to set my stop at $6.70 and was waiting until I saw today's closing price to adjust from there. Anyway, let's move on...Notice the volume, it is appalling. I did say I may live to regret this trade because of the thin volume. Given the complete lack of volume when the stock crossed the black line (my stop) I was convinced my order would be filled for a loss and I'd be buying back the stock at the blue line for ~$6.80. However, when I pulled up my Interactive Brokers account, I could see that IB filled my order for an average price of $6.708 (it executed across 3 exchanges, one at $6.70, and two at $6.71) which turned what I was certain was a loss into a gain.
Once again, I'm asking myself: What have I learned? ... Liquidity is good, learn to love it and don't be sucked in my a low volume stock just because it has a few higher-volume days under it's belt. Turn up the volume! The other thing I learned is that Interactive Brokers has terrific execution. Any questions?
1 comment:
Mark,
I am very excited to come across your post.
It's really what I'm looking for: A first hand account by an impartial person who is aggresively and intelligently trying to make money in the stock market.
My uncle introduced me to TMTT a few months ago. If it had come from anyone other than him I would have thought it was B.S. The reason I believed my uncle is I know he makes a lot of money in the market. He's also a retired psychiatrist and in government work overseas shall we say. He does not play around.
He told me it was not uncommon for him to make 50% or more on trades. My background is in financial sales, mostly focused on life insurance, annuties, and fixed rate instruments. Yet, I was always scared of the stock market. We thought 8% was fantastic. So, nonetheless I was intrigued. It just so happened that TMTT was having a free seminar where I live in TN the next week and I attended.
What they were saying made sense, especially backed up by Uncle's experience with TMTT. I didn't have the money or time to invest in the 3 day class at that time, but am going to crawl through broken glass to make the next one in this region.
I look forward to reading about your experiences. Any suggestions, suprises, advice, that you may wish to share with me are very welcome.
Thanks Mark!
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