Avoidable Chopfest?

[Peter S 3]

So it turned out that CPE was controlled today by a limited number of large players.  I was wondering if there is any additional way to screen stocks in advance as there's always a shortage of time in the first 15 minutes of trading for following niceties like watching Time and Sales for a while to judge the tempo.  But looking at the chart again maybe 1 million volume in the first minute with only a 6 cent range should be read as a warning that this will stock will struggle to go anywhere?

 

Fwiw todays price action is sandwiched between the 200 sma and 200 ema on the daily chart

 

 

[Robert H 453]

Peter, very good points! Sometimes you have to trade a stock once to really know how it behaves. CPE is NYSE so that's the first red flag.

 

I keep a list of 'not tradeable', or choppy stocks in my memory bank. AMD, X, AA, etc. CPE just earned itself a spot.

[Peter S 3]

Robert, thanks for the comment about the NYSE.  It's reminded me of previous acerbic comments I've heard about the NYSE boys.

 

I've added the 'Exchange' column in to my market viewer and started compiling a list.

[kkoskela 2]

Hey Peter!

 

Robert hit it right on the nail. I have noticed myself getting chopped up by some of these NYSE stocks. They often take awhile to make a big move to the up or downside, which can, psychologically, be difficult to sit through.

 

When you're going through "stocks in play" in the morning, pay close attention to which stocks are NYSE stocks. Perhaps, let these stocks develop a clear pattern before jumping in. As Andrew went over this morning, Time and Sales can be a great way to judge which types of investors are playing the stock for the day. We saw that FL had a much better order flow than CPE, telling us that FL was still very much in play. Unless a very clear opportunity exists, such as a stock that has good order flow and volume, I would avoid trading NYSE stocks. I wouldn't totally avoid trading them. But, if you get stopped out on your first trade, sit back and watch the stock for awhile and observe the order flow and price action.

 

PBR, FL, CPE, and HLF were all NYSE stocks on the Gappers watchlist in the morning. All of them were relatively choppy in the first 15-30 minutes. I got stopped out on CPE twice in the first 15 minutes. Both on the long and short side. I was down about $250 dollars on CPE. However, after the first 30 minutes, some good opportunities presented themselves on these stocks, especially FL. I was able to make all my money back and eventually finished the day up $600 on FL, MU, and PBR.

[Peter S 3]

Thanks for underlining the point about caution early on in the session.

 

A mnemonic to help my poor memory -

 

beware New York Sharks Early in the session

 

 

 

No insult to New Yorkers in general intended

[Ryan W 76]

LOL Hey, hey hey! I'm a NY'er! But yes, we are all sharks.

 

One thing you guys may want to consider, is watching the $ADD (NYSE Advance/Decline line) which shows the overall strength of the ~2000 stocks that trade on the NYSE. This helps give an idea of the overall 'market health'. It's considered a 'market internal' and can definitely be helpful in determining overall market strength (especially among NYSE stocks).

 

I like to see if a stock goes sideways early on. That's usually a sign of weakness or control by big players. A larger move may ensue, but it will take time to break out of this 'balance' area. I use Market Profile in my analysis, but that's a 'whole 'nother ball game!

[daniel lindegren 27]

On 5/25/2018 at 3:29 AM, Robert H said:

Peter, very good points! Sometimes you have to trade a stock once to really know how it behaves. CPE is NYSE so that's the first red flag.

 

I keep a list of 'not tradeable', or choppy stocks in my memory bank. AMD, X, AA, etc. CPE just earned itself a spot.

Robert,

I believe I saw in another post that you use Tradervue as well? I started tagging NYSE stocks for this reason. An easy filter of the "NYSE" tag shows them all. Some of my biggest losers are NYSE stocks

[Robert H 453]

33 minutes ago, onosendi said:

Robert,

I believe I saw in another post that you use Tradervue as well? I started tagging NYSE stocks for this reason. An easy filter of the "NYSE" tag shows them all. Some of my biggest losers are NYSE stocks

I don't use Tradervue; I'm using a custom journal in Excel.

Great idea to tag NYSE stocks, though! I can't say that I've lost more money on them. In fact, some of my biggest winners have been trades on $PBR, $CAG, etc. when they were in play. I think the key is to watch the price action and order flow in the first 5-10 minutes. On certain days/catalysts, they can move indistinguishable from NASDAQs.