Alerts vs Buy Stop orders

    Posted by rojoch on 12th of Mar 2018 at 01:44 pm

    Alerts vs Buy Stop orders for entries?

    Great video on position sizing.  I notice on the Trade Ideas page that there are "Alarm Prices" that will be hit before the desired entry price so that we can watch it more closely before entering.  Problem is, I can't see much on my tiny phone when the Alerts trigger and certainly can't see my trend lines, annotation, etc.

    So,  for those of us who aren't around throughout the entire trading day, what's a good strategy for entering these positions?  Placing a Buy Stop (Market?  Limit?) order in the pre-market?  Something else?  

    Similar question about entering the initial stops: Given that (with my broker at least) we can't enter Sell Stop orders until we have successfully filled the Buy order, how do people manage that who aren't around throughout the entire trading day?  Run without a stop on Day 1 and then enter a Sell Stop after-hours on the day the Buy order fills?  Something else?

    Appreciate any tips you can share on how to manage these entries and stops for those of us who aren't anchored at a trading desk all day.

    Thanks!
    .../john

    John,  Place a conditional order,

    Posted by bk1976 on 12th of Mar 2018 at 10:41 pm

    John,  Place a conditional order, order triggers order as it is called at Fidelity.  Place a buy order with a condition "stop price" at the trigger price (meaning it won't buy unless the price moves up to that price). On the same order you place another order that only is triggered or comes into play if the first order is filled, on this order you place a sell order with a stop price. It could be a trailing stop as well so if it goes up and reverses during the day you could lock in some gains.

    Sounds like a great feature.

    Posted by rojoch on 13th of Mar 2018 at 02:47 am

    Sounds like a great feature. Unfortunately iTrade Canada does not appear to offer conditional orders. :-(

    paint dry is not that

    Posted by matt on 12th of Mar 2018 at 01:57 pm

    paint dry is not that kind of system, it's basically just a 401K non-trader,  that says we are still in a bull market, or no we are possibly starting a bear market get to safety kind of thing, better than buy and hold forever and simply riding bear market's down - the market stair steps higher over the long term, but attempts to take the down steps out

    as far as those of you who work busy day jobs or too busy one thing I used to do in the past, and still do from time to time, is set buy stop limit's on long positions.  If a stock has a breakout at 50, maybe I set a buy stop limit at 50.01 - 50.05 or .1, depends on the spread.  Stocks that trade with penny spread you can set your buy stop and limit very tight, for others you need to widen it some.  You need the limit because sometimes our long ideas might gap way over the resistance on some news etc and you don't want to chase and get bad fills, so that's where the limit comes in.  Again this is not as ideal as being able to set alerts and look at it before you enter, but it's one way if you can't do that.  Also I suggest being pickier about the setups, if there's 10 setups, try to pick the best 3 - 5, I know that's subjective but again that's just trading, however over time after looking at enough charts you get a feel for charts that stand out

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