***Official*** 2014 Stock Market Thread

[Imp]

Crashy crashy... Dow down 300 points.

Didn't affect me too much.

 

[JEDI]

Crashy crashy... Dow down 300 points.

Didn't affect me too much.

a stock I was speculating on was within 1penny of my auto-buy order.
it went up today of all days.

given my luck, that stock will now double in 12months.

 

[brianmanahan]

lol, i remember when i used to get upset if my portfolio closed down a few hundred $

its a good thing i dont get that way any more, cuz i would feel really bad today

 

[Corporate Thug]

a stock I was speculating on was within 1penny of my auto-buy order.
it went up today of all days.

given my luck, that stock will now double in 12months.

if you're confident it will double, buying it for a few more cents is no biggie!

 

[Hacp]

Markets down, time to buy! Nvm, I'm out of cash and ACH payments take 3 days.

 

[Imp]

Markets down, time to buy! Nvm, I'm out of cash and ACH payments take 3 days.

I bought in a day too early to make an ex-div. Oh well.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I bought in a day too early to make an ex-div. Oh well.

Why would you do this?

 

[Imp]

Why would you do this?

Because I was going to buy in anyways, didn't know when it'd go down, so may as well.


On an unrelated note, uh ohs for the Blackberry shareholder:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...a-probed-for-insider-trading/article19886366/

 

[flunky nassau]

I bought shares of Zeltiq Aesthetics (ZLTQ) a few days before earnings report at $15.50, and it shot up to $22 after earnings. It ended the day at $21.34.
I set a stop-limit sell order for $21.25 (stop) and $21.00 (limit), yet the next morning, the stock price was sitting at $19.83 and did not trigger a sell.

Anyone know why? Is it because the price shot through $21.25 - $21.00 during afterhours so that didn't trigger the sell?
If that's the case, how can limit orders protect you from flash crashes?

 

[KB]

I bought shares of Zeltiq Aesthetics (ZLTQ) a few days before earnings report at $15.50, and it shot up to $22 after earnings. It ended the day at $21.34.
I set a stop-limit sell order for $21.25 (stop) and $21.00 (limit), yet the next morning, the stock price was sitting at $19.83 and did not trigger a sell.

Anyone know why? Is it because the price shot through $21.25 - $21.00 during afterhours so that didn't trigger the sell?
If that's the case, how can limit orders protect you from flash crashes?

Yes Likely it created the sell order but since your limit price is 21$ no one wants to buy at that price when it shot through to 19.83 so fast.

 

[Hacp]

I bought shares of Zeltiq Aesthetics (ZLTQ) a few days before earnings report at $15.50, and it shot up to $22 after earnings. It ended the day at $21.34.
I set a stop-limit sell order for $21.25 (stop) and $21.00 (limit), yet the next morning, the stock price was sitting at $19.83 and did not trigger a sell.

Anyone know why? Is it because the price shot through $21.25 - $21.00 during afterhours so that didn't trigger the sell?
If that's the case, how can limit orders protect you from flash crashes?

What you're talking about is a stop loss order, which will NOT protect you against a flash crash. The only protection you can get is if you purchase a put option on your stock. Basically, it is a contract between you and another party where for a fee, they will promise to buy your shares for a certain price before a certain day.

For example, you can buy a put option for Zeltiq that expires at the end of this year for $20. It may cost 2 dollars a share in fees but before the end of the year, you can force the other party to buy your shares for 20 dollars no matter what(unless that other party files for bankruptcy). Lets say Zeltiq drops to 1 dollar in October. You can exercise your option and still sell your shares for 20 dollars.

 

[Kwatt]

I bought shares of Zeltiq Aesthetics (ZLTQ) a few days before earnings report at $15.50, and it shot up to $22 after earnings. It ended the day at $21.34.
I set a stop-limit sell order for $21.25 (stop) and $21.00 (limit), yet the next morning, the stock price was sitting at $19.83 and did not trigger a sell.

Anyone know why? Is it because the price shot through $21.25 - $21.00 during afterhours so that didn't trigger the sell?
If that's the case, how can limit orders protect you from flash crashes?

That is the problem with selling in a fast/widespread selloff. Who is going to buy?

.

 

[manly]

I bought shares of Zeltiq Aesthetics (ZLTQ) a few days before earnings report at $15.50, and it shot up to $22 after earnings. It ended the day at $21.34.
I set a stop-limit sell order for $21.25 (stop) and $21.00 (limit), yet the next morning, the stock price was sitting at $19.83 and did not trigger a sell.

Anyone know why? Is it because the price shot through $21.25 - $21.00 during afterhours so that didn't trigger the sell?
If that's the case, how can limit orders protect you from flash crashes?

Someone else can correct me, but isn't after hours trading completely separate from normal trading?

So whatever price it opened at the next day would have come into play.

 

[flunky nassau]

That is the problem with selling in a fast/widespread selloff. Who is going to buy?

.

So what was Cramer talking about on Friday when he said use limit orders to protect yourself from these selloffs?

1) A stop loss guarantees a sell, but not a price.
2) A stop limit guarantees a price, but might not sell if it can't get the limit price.

During a flash crash, #1 would guarantee execution of the sell, but you might sell at a really low price.
#2 might not sell at all if it can't guarentee the price, hence, you are still holding the stock after the crash.

Neither of which helps you. Am I missing a concept here?

 

[Kwatt]

So what was Cramer talking about on Friday when he said use limit orders to protect yourself from these selloffs?

1) A stop loss guarantees a sell, but not a price.
2) A stop limit guarantees a price, but might not sell if it can't get the limit price.

During a flash crash, #1 would guarantee execution of the sell, but you might sell at a really low price.
#2 might not sell at all if it can't guarentee the price, hence, you are still holding the stock after the crash.

Neither of which helps you. Am I missing a concept here?

In theory that is how it is supposed to happen.

The retail trader is like the steerage passenger on the Titantic.
You can board the lifeboats after the first class (market makers) and the second class (large institutional investers) have left the ship.

The market makers and large institutional investers are going to respond faster and their computers are faster and closer.
After they are done mine and your orders will go through. If anyone is still buying.

Nothing to be done about it. Just be aware and try to be among the first of the third class. The last off the boat winds up the same as those who don't get off at all...

.

 

[Kwatt]

1) A stop loss guarantees a sell, but not a price.

Nothing guarantees a sell. Anyone who believes it does should try selling an Eskimo a snowball in January in Barrow,AK.

It will sell only if there is a buyer.

.

 

[Hacp]

So what was Cramer talking about on Friday when he said use limit orders to protect yourself from these selloffs?

1) A stop loss guarantees a sell, but not a price.
2) A stop limit guarantees a price, but might not sell if it can't get the limit price.

During a flash crash, #1 would guarantee execution of the sell, but you might sell at a really low price.
#2 might not sell at all if it can't guarentee the price, hence, you are still holding the stock after the crash.

Neither of which helps you. Am I missing a concept here?

Don't listen to Cramer. He is a TV personality.

 

[sm625]

1) A stop loss guarantees a sell, but not a price.
2) A stop limit guarantees a price, but might not sell if it can't get the limit price.

Those really arent very precise terms for trading. What you are calling a stop loss is simply a market sell order set to trigger when a stock reaches the target price. It is more commonly referred to as a stop market order.

A stop limit is a totally invalid term. Limits and stops are logically incompatible. If you are setting stops then they should only be used to trigger a market order. It makes very little sense to trigger a limit order off a stop, for the purposes of protection anyway.

I set a stop-limit sell order for $21.25 (stop) and $21.00 (limit), yet the next morning, the stock price was sitting at $19.83 and did not trigger a sell.

That could happen very easily, any time there is a gap down starting above your stop and ending below your limit. That's why you use market stop orders.

Am I missing a concept here?

The concept you might be missing is that there is no way to guarantee a price.

 

[baydude]

How do these traders get the good/bad news of certain stocks so quick? What's the best way to monitor good/bad news for stock pops and drops?

Whenever I see a good/bad news reported of a stock, it's always "xx stock skyrocket on news that... " Well, how do people become the one see the news before the news about the stock skyrocketing or falling?

 

[jpiniero]

How do these traders get the good/bad news of certain stocks so quick?

Either:
A: The bots.
B: They knew about it beforehand, and magically traded the millisecond they could to avoid insider trading.

 

[SunnyD]

The courts giveith, the courts takeith away.

 

[BoT]

what trading platform is everybody on?
I am on ML but looking to move to something more flexible.
I was looking at speedtrader, lightspeed and e-trade. any no no's?

anybody investing in bio/ pharma?

 

[sm625]

B: They knew about it beforehand, and magically traded the millisecond they could to avoid insider trading.

I dont have any proof to back this up, but I too have suspected it for a long time now. It just makes too much sense. Imagine you get news of an impending merger. It's a sure thing. Let's say you had a frickin spy camera on a golf cart or something. Whatever, however, doesnt really matter. The point is it's inside info, it's clearly illegal. And if you trade on it, you're gonna get hosed eventually. But.... if you write an algo, one that waits until someone else puts in a big order, and then use your floor full of HFT computers to front run that order.... well that's a guaranteed win, and its perfectly legal. And because its a guaranteed win, you can apply massive amounts of leverage to it.

 

[JTsyo]

I dont have any proof to back this up, but I too have suspected it for a long time now. It just makes too much sense. Imagine you get news of an impending merger. It's a sure thing. Let's say you had a frickin spy camera on a golf cart or something. Whatever, however, doesnt really matter. The point is it's inside info, it's clearly illegal. And if you trade on it, you're gonna get hosed eventually. But.... if you write an algo, one that waits until someone else puts in a big order, and then use your floor full of HFT computers to front run that order.... well that's a guaranteed win, and its perfectly legal. And because its a guaranteed win, you can apply massive amounts of leverage to it.

Problem is that there's no risk. Even if you get caught, if you're big enough, you just pay a fine that's probably only a fraction of the money you made of your illegal order.

 

[BoT]

Problem is that there's no risk. Even if you get caught, if you're big enough, you just pay a fine that's probably only a fraction of the money you made of your illegal order.

not always. this guy didn't even trade on it. he just sold the information and got jail time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/23/disney-insider-trading-ca_n_691242.html