Tips on setting up for swing trades in the evening?

[Ben Ogden]

Hey friends,

I'm trying to do all my trading at night, with swing trades. I don't have access to a trading platform during the day. Not ideal, but it's what I have to work with right now.

I ran into an issue this week where I was up a nice percentage on a swing trade that had broken out. That evening, I tried to cancel my initial stop order so that I could place a new order and take some profits. I was pretty frustrated to see that when I cancelled the stop order, my broker set the status of the existing stop order to "Cancel Requested" and it remained in that state overnight until just before the market open the next day. At the point the order was finally cancelled, since I'm commuting to work at that time of day, it was too late for me to get my order in for that day and I lost out on some nice gains.

Hoping to tap into the collective experience of the group... Has anyone run into this problem with cancelled trades not clearing out immediately or sitting in "Cancel Requested" overnight? Wondering if this is common or if it is an issue with my broker?

Happy trading,

Ben

[Stephan Richard]

Lost a lot of money 2 weeks ago on GMCR because it gaped overnight below my stop loss.  I assumed my position would be sold at the stop loss price but it wasn't.  Part of the learning curve. Do you have a smart phone?  Have you looked at a broker that offers a mobile version of their trading platform so you ca trade while you are commuting or taking a break at work?

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[Ben Ogden]

Good suggestion. Yes, it may be time for a smart phone and irritable bowel syndrome! Today I helplessly watched my position in EDMC jump 10% on the intraday and couldn't take profits...

I still would like to understand if this would be a problem at all brokers. Here's what ETRADE is telling me-

"Requests to cancel an order are not processed immediately. The market maker holding the order on their books must confirm that the order has been cancelled before the funds or securities are released for use back to the customer's account. This commonly occurs with cancellations requested after the market is closed since the market makers will often not have an opportunity to review and remove the order from their books until the next day. The order status will show as Cancel Requested until we receive confirmation that the order is cancelled."

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[Attila]

Hi,
looking at the message from E-trade, I am guessing that your problem wasn't the order cancellation but the lack of funds for the next setup, since your funds weren't released instantly.
One way to avoid this would be to keep cash in reserve for the next opportunity. Bet all your money on one horse only if you know for sure it is a winner (maybe when it's the only horse in the race??).
If you don't bet all your money on a trade and it turns out that you were right, I know you might feel that you lost money, but you still made money, just a little less.
But if you put all your money in the trade and it goes the wrong way and you have a small account, you will never be able to recover your losses.

About not being able to protect your gain, I would suggest to use trailing orders as soon as you are in the money if you cannot keep an eye on your trades during the day. They might screw you if the market is choppy, but it would still be better than being terrified the whole day.

With gaps and stop loss, the best way would be to reconsider all your stops in the morning when the market opens, but if it is not possible you can always use stop loss limit orders. This way you know the minimum price. The problem with them is if the price keeps falling, you lose more. Like everything in trading, there is no perfect solution for any problem, otherways we all would be millionaires.

A good solution for most of the daily issues is a smartphone as suggested before.

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[Ben Ogden]

Hey thanks Attila, the problem in this particular case was the lack of shares, not the lack of funds. They wouldn't allow a new stop order until the previous one was cancelled and it just takes them soooo long to cancel the order =)

Good day in the market today! What's everybody watching this week?

Ben

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[Steffan Benamou]

You should be able to edit your sell stop loss order and change it to a sell limit order (or riskier a sell market order) instead of canceling it altogether and waiting til the market opens to put in a new sell order.  Assuming the market opens above your sell limit order it should go through and you don't have to be in front of your account to put it in once the market is open. 

But definitely no orders will be changed or processed until the market is open I would expect from any broker. 

Steffan

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[kunal desai]

Ben you might have to do it in the morning? maybe it cancelled the stop order for that particular day and that 12.01 am its a new day so i have to re in put a new stop

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Kunal Desai
www.bullsonwallstreet.com

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[kunal desai]

stephan the stop loss is just a trigger so when it goes below that trigger the stop is triggered.

ameritrade, thinkorswim,lakestreet all have mobile platofrms

iphones/androids are both great for stock app's

On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 11:39 PM, Stephan Richard <srich...@gmail.com> wrote:

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