ALTR vs ANGO Trade Comparison 032807

My morning routine of preparing for the day’s trading battle, incorporates looking for stocks that are gapping up, or down overnight. There’s a few services on the internet that offer this. Briefing.com has it. I think realtick has an option for it through some brokers. There’s probably some free areas to find it too.

So this morning I ran through the list. I put the ones I found interesting on my watchlist, and a seperate 5-minute chart for each. They included BLKB, INFY, ALTR, ANGO, EQIZ, and BZH. I mentioned last night, homebuilder stocks would be on the list, with the bad BZH news. One of the stocks, ANGO, had a trading pattern I really like. I refer to it as a BS1 trading pattern (ex. on the trading patterns page) . It was front and center. I shorted both ALTR – Altera Corp., and ANGO – AngioDynamics Inc. Let’s compare both trades.

First, on the daily chart of ALTR, the stock is gapping down. I see that bears have been in control for the past four trading sessions. ALTR is gapping below the 50 dma. The weekly chart is just breaking down through a strong trendline. The stock doesn’t have a huge trading range. I wait for a trading pattern on the 5-minute chart. On the sixth candlestick, I short the stock. It’s bounced three bars, and then put in a lower low with the sixth bar. Because the stock isnt volatile, I place a stop above the fifth candlestick. I end up filling my order at 20.31 with a stop at 20.42. So with the .10 I risk, if I have a stop of $300 I’m risking, I’ll short 3,000 shares. If I chose to Risk (R) $500, I’d short 5,000 shares. This stock has plenty of volume, so getting filled isn’t too bad. Then I play pivot stops, and set targets. I set a target of 2R to cover 1/3, 4R for another 1/3, and then play the chart with the rest. As of now, 1/3 was covered near 20.11 for 2R, with the stock closing at the low.

I trade the pivot stop like this. I mark P1 after it develops. Mark P2 after it develops. When P1 is broken, the stop moves to P2. Mark P3 after it develops. Mark P4. P3 breaks near the close. Stop moves a penny above P4.

Now let’s peek at ANGO. I really like the trading pattern on ANGO, because unlike ALTR, this stock closed strong yesterday. Bulls were in control. Those bulls woke up this morning to an unpleasant surprise though. ANGO was gapping below the low of yesterday’s green candlestick. People in the stock are now in pain, and want out. A big difference between ALTR which was already down four successive days. There’s quite a drop, and it will probably be volatile, so I choose to focus on the 15-minute chart. The fifth candlestick is taken short after a bounce of three bars, and the lower low. Pivot stops are used.

Stock charts give many clues as to the emotions of traders. Use them, and not news, to help take trades.