Saturday, April 7, 2018

Lessons Learned and QLD 50% Long for Monday....04.07.18

Below are the performance metrics for the VIXEN TF on the QLD.....without the benefit of our risk management rules which have actually produced a 4% higher return over the past 5 days and a 10% higher return over the past 30 days. 
FYI..note below the accelerating ATR and OC volatility charts...and the "best limit odds" have now risen to 3.2 % ...up 50% in 10 days.
Let's review these simple risk management tools to safeguard our capital >>>>
1.  Never let a gain at the open become an intraday loss.  If the position opens up in the green then immediately cancel the limit stop and place a fixed stop loss at the zero line (or higher) or place a trailing stop at 25-50% of the limit stop % to preserve those gains.
This assumes you are able to monitor and trade the open for any active positions..
2.  Trade in the aftermarket hours (1-5 PM PST).   This works for liquid stocks and ETFs that have relatively narrow spreads.  All brokers require that any afterhours trades must be entered as limit orders (not market orders) and this is to prevent you the trader from being scalped by afterhours market makers. A lot of news happens afterhours (like earnings and govt. policy news) which can move the markets dramatically in either direction. In this high volatility market environment where 500+ point swings are not uncommon having a better heads up about the following opening dynamics can be a real money maker/saver.  This was certainty the situation in the Thursday afterhours session where both VIXEN and PVOL had signaled new long positions at the close.  THEN, mid afternoon Trump announced another $50B in trade tariffs with China and the DOW immediately dropped 400 points with the other indices following suit.  This was our cue to not enter the QLD on Thursday...thus saving us a quick 2% or more. This was a gift and I often delay entering or closing positions until 4:30. or later.
BTW...most platforms allow you to chart and monitor afterhours momentum using technical tools.