Sold 200 TSRA @ 20.00, Profit: $104.30

So after having re-bought into TSRA another 200 shares on thinkorswim for $19.4285, my trailing stop limit triggered at 20.00.

This is because I was fundamentally misunderstanding the utility of the trailing stop limit, which is to say, simpler than I was making it. Instead of a trailing stop that only triggers once it hits a limit, it's instead a trailing stop that triggers instantly, with an upper limit that will force a sale no matter what. A bit less useful, but basically a hybrid way of placing an order with two levels of protection in a single order.

TOS does allow you to create triggers and rules, though, so the way around this and to get the desired behavior I was talking about yesterday would be to create your basic bracketed OCO with a low stop where you want it and then to create a trailing stop with the MARK - whatever value, and a "AT OR ABOVE" trigger on the mark price.

Fortunately, TSRA swung back down just after hitting 20.00, but not before hitting 20.22, which means my TS would've triggered at 20.12, basically killing $20 in profit. Probably the cheapest form of that mistak I could make; if it had triggered on the next 20.00 touch, where the stock broke out all the way up to 20.70, I would've been much more pissed.

TSRA & PLXS Sold, $74.01 profit...

Both TSRA and PLXS triggered their stops today:

Symbol	Action	Qty	Acct Type	Price	Total
TSRA	SOLD	100	MARGIN	$22.405	$2,233.48
PLXS	SOLD	100	MARGIN	$26.0901	$2,601.99

Seeing as I originally bought PLXS for $2,601.99 total, and TSRA for $2,159.47, that leaves me with a net profit of $74.01 on both.

I am now completely exited from all positions, the first time that's been the case since I've started.

TSRA has been all over the place. Early on, it was trading in a range from $22.42 to $22.60 or so. My trailing stop was set for $22.41 and I watched it come very, very close several times before finally triggering. A bit later, the stock shot up to $22.95, but it's come back down to $22.37-ish. I have a standing limit order to buy back 100 @ $21.55, but it's doubtful it'll drop far enough to hit that today, since it's up on the day and opened at $22.

PLXS ended up costing me all of $5, but it's hovering right around the same point so I'm not too upset.

I'm beginning to formulate strategies for my upcoming trip. I'll be gone for over two weeks and won't have much access to internet. I'm definitely considering just buying two solid shares of BRK/B, especially if it keeps tanking like it has. It's down to $4,360 after having hit $4,466 when I sold it.

Google also looks poised for a breakout. It's hitting $480 right now, but it's been swinging back down as well. We'll see what happens when earnings come up soon.

Safety Stops for TSRA & PLXS...

I've placed two sell orders for TSRA and PLXS.

I bought into TSRA 100 @ 21.455 and it's trading at 21.99 / 22.05 (A.E.). I think it has a lot of potential upward momentum, but if it dips back down, I can use that to my advantage. I've set a trailing stop of 0.26 pts so its floor is 21.73. If it dips below that, I'll reevaluate, but probably buy back in a little lower, instead of taking the hit for the dip. I think we'll hold steady in the upper 21s, but any significant dip will trigger the stop.

Again, this is a stock I'm holding for news on the Amkor arbitration. I think the other pending lawsuits are too far off to make this a short term play, so we'll see what happens, though I'm debating switching it from a trailing stop to a regular stop...

PLXS didn't bounce like I had hoped; the downgrade to "neutral" really hurt it. They finished some proper financing as expected late Friday, but I'm not sure it'll have much of an impact. Either way, it closed at 26.01 / 25.91 (A.E.) after I bought 100 @ 26.00, so I've set a T/S of 0.31 points, but I'm not sure I'll want to see that trigger without a nice spike. I'm looking to exit this position pretty quickly one way or another and I'll probably take a slight loss on it.

Trailing Stop Triggered: So long, Visa

Symbol	Action	Qty	Acct Type	Price	Total
V	SOLD	35	CASH	$61.75	$2,154.23

Visa, I hardly knew ye.

After having bought Visa at its post-IPO glowing peak for 35 @ $64.95 / $2,280.95, it sold today after triggering a 3% trailing stop at $2,154.23, net loss of $126.72. It never pushed past the resistance I regrettably bought at, and while I still expect it to surge into the $100s in the coming months, perhaps after an earnings statement and on strong transactional growth, it wasn't doing it anytime soon.

This was an issue of liquidity—I had wanted in at $55 and got in at $64.95 instead.

This actually represents the first position I've exited at a loss and it's very clearly not going to be the last. It's also a good lesson in momentum and resistance. I had figured it would want to push clear the level I bought it at, but it only spiked an extra few cents and never hit that level again.

Alas. Let's see what happens with TSRA and what I can buy with the liquidity I have from the V and BRK sales. I've got $5,550 available for trading. Time to make some use of it.

Exits Completed: Red Hat

Sold Red Hat, completing my roundtrip with about my commission lost. Stupidly, I had made two initial purchase orders, tacking on another $7 unnecessarily.

It didn't move much more than its initial spike so I think I sold at a loss of $19 or some such.

Berkshire made a big move, my trailing stop is still in effect and that should lock in a tiny profit.

Looking for some new things to play with. We'll see what happens with Berkshire on Monday.

Exits all around... (RHT, BRK/B, V)

Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)
As I feared, Red Hat is a bit too low in volume to really push past a 5% gain. I bought pretty much at market open, and pretty much at its peak thus far of $18.58 and worse still, after it had made its biggest move in after hours yesterday. It's showing strong resistance at $18.80-ish, and I don't think we'll see it move past that. Trailing stop set: 57 @ 1% / $18.4734.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B)
Berkshire is having it's daily spike up, as high as $4,450 when I started writing this. It's at $4,432, with me having bought in at $4,374.50. Trailing stop set: 1 @ 1% / $4,393.55, guaranteed profit of all of $20. (After commission.) Hopefully we can squeeze out just a little more, but I want some big liquidity back. I'll probably keep my eye on it and watch for it to fall to $4,200 to buy in again. It's moving up almost no matter what; buying on the dip of the range is a good call.

Visa (V)
This stock just won't settle down. Everyone expects it to perform exactly like Mastercard—to take off and break out in the next couple of months and skyrocket into the $200s. It took MA four months to move and MA had a lackluster first few months at best, opening at $44 like V, and only hitting the $50s until month 4, when it broke out in a big way:


In the meantime, nothing's moving on it and today, it's taking a bit of a hit, trending downwards and unable to gain any ground on its rallies. We'll see where it lands. Trailing stop set: 35 @ 5% / $60.268

Trailing stops triggered: GOOG & AAPL sold

SELL	1	AAPL	$141.47	$134.46			3/27/2008	1:38:28 PM	4/1/2008
SELL	1	GOOG	$446.00	$438.99			3/27/2008	9:30:01 AM	4/1/2008

The trailing stops I had established for both Google and Apple triggered today, at $446.00 and $141.47 (or $438.99 / $134.45 after commission.) I had purchased GOOG at $435.94, leaving a whopping profit of $3.05, and AAPL at $130.35 leaving a profit of $134.46. I specifically set the trailing stops to trigger once I had hit my near-breakeven point, after commissions.

In the end, Scottrade made more on these than I, with $28 in total profit. This is why I need to be entering in at more than one share a trade volume.

Visa's next on its way out and then we'll see what happens with Berkshire. My extra, boosted deposit cleared its withdrawal after settlement, putting me firmly at $7,687.24 / $7,500.00 or up about $187.24 or nearly 2.5% in about two weeks. Not bad. Need more plays like Bear Stearns. In. Out. Quick turnaround. Closer to day trading. But that also brings a lot more risk with it. We'll see what happens.

And I'll make an AAPL/GOOG play before their earnings calls later next month. Which way I'll bet is anyone's guess. Hearing some scary things about Google's Q1 results, but AAPL might be hot. On a day with exceeded expectations, you can always expect a 5%+ gain. Likewise a loss on failed expectations, for certain.

Preparing my exits...

Symbol	Last price	Change	Shares	Cost basis	Mkt value	Gain	Gain %	Day's gain
AAPL	140.98	1.45	1	123.35	140.98	17.63	14.29	1.45
GOOG	450.78	-9.78	1	428.94	450.78	21.84	5.09	-9.78
BRK.B	4300	-41	1	4367.5	4300	-67.5	-1.55	-41
V	63.1	3.37	35	2273.95	2208.5	-65.45	-2.88	117.95
				$7,193.74	$7,100.26	($93.48)	-1.30%	$68.62

Someday, I'll figure out how to accurately represent my performance in the market. The above Google Finance output, for instance, doesn't much care about my BSC deal which netted me $280, instead highlighting that I've lost on V and BRK.B.

Visa had a decent day today and didn't hit my STOP for it. I've established 3% trailing stops for both GOOG and AAPL, which will put me at an extremely meager profit for each of them; it's stupid to be playing with that cost with such low volume. The commissions make it completely inefficient. Lesson learned.

I'm also considering pulling out of BRK.B. It's not underperforming or anything; I expect in a year or less it'll be breaking $5,000 or more. It's just boring and I think tying up that much capital is a bit of a pain when I have such little to work with. It's a decent hedge though, and keeps me from blowing everything at once. But if I play smart and keep my eggs in separate enough baskets at all times, I'll be fine. I may exit once it pushes past my commission-break even. Meh.