Monday, June 1, 2009

Addon Buy:(ARST), and Looking for an Exit

The market certainly looked bullish today. (ARST) triggered my second buy order a day after the first purchase. I had this order in at $17.36, 10 cents above the prior high. The stock closed below the buy point at $17.09 but I'm not concerned at this point. My cost basis is well below the buy point from my early purchase at $15.60.

The stock I'm concerned about is (FUQI). It rocketed up today reaching my 20% profit threshold a few minutes before the close. I wasn't really prepared for the stock to gain this much in just one week, and by the time I began to attempt to enter the sell order it had pulled back, closing at $13.85. Now I'm back in an emotional dilemma. On the one hand, the stock is acting extremely well and could be held for eight weeks since it's gained 20% in just one week. On the other hand, it's had a huge move in a short time, is over twice the 200 dma, and is ripe for a pullback.

So what to do? A 5% trailing stop sounds like a reasonable idea, but that's at $13.53 and I wouldn't want to get shaken out in the early morning volatility only to see the stock launch yet higher. Having said this - I've felt the pain of watching almost all my gains in a stock evaporate while I was waiting for it to head higher. Some gains are better than no gains at all.

I will most likely let the first fifteen minutes of the market play out and try to put an order in after that to protect my profits. A 15% gain will be just fine and it's important that I stay on track and continue to log gains on my winners.

The 50 dma should cross the 200 dma on the Nasdaq tomorrow or Wednesday, I'm anxious to see if there are any fireworks.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good job Geoff!

Since you had doubts on what base FUQI was coming out of (if I remember correctly), maybe it is better to take profits. You are doing an excellent job with your stock selection.

Keep it up..

Unknown said...

I think you're right. It certainly was not a pretty base, and the stock has had a massive run.

Hopefully I'll get a good price tomorrow.