Subscribe Now

Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter Your Name
Enter Your E-Mail

Sponsors

Internet Marketing
Business Letter
Nursing job opportunities


Categories




Sign Up Here

Home / Finance


Print | Send To Friends | Add To Favorites | Comment

How To Buy Stocks That Are Hot With No Effort

By: David Jenyns

Article Word Count: 878 words  [Comments (0)]
Total Views: 12 Views





Even traders want to be trendy when they buy stocks. Many


traders make trades because of public opinion, not because the


trade itself makes sense. When a particular stock seems popular,


they rush in so they don`t feel they`ve missed an opportunity.


As a result they end up buying at a price point where the trade


can`t possibly work out. You should always avoid the emotion of


the HOT stock.





Here`s an example of what not to do when you buy stocks: Let`s


say you`ve been following a particular stock which is in a HOT


sector, and it just announced a stock split. The stock is now at


$18, and you calculate it could get to $25 or more by the time


of the split. The market is currently bullish, and it looks like


a great trade.





The problem is that the stock has been rising for the past four


days. It started at $12, but you didn`t notice it until it hit


$18, and it`s still rising. The stock split is a month away, and


you know it`s likely to fall in price somewhat between now and


the split. Still, everyone is talking about this stock. What if


it continues to rise and becomes the next blockbuster? You


become afraid that if you don`t make a trade you`ll miss a great


opportunity. (And besides, you want to be able to tell people


that you hold a position in this stock, because it makes you


seem smart.) So you buy 1,000 shares at $18.50.





During the next two weeks, the stock goes to $19, then levels


off, loses momentum, and drifts down to $17. Then a couple of


leading NASDAQ companies give earnings warnings, the market


drops, and the stock slides to $15, triggering the stop you`d


set at $16 on half your holdings. The stock trades in that range


for a week, and then begins to rise slightly going into the


split. Your plan is to sell a day or two after the split. The


stock rises a little beyond $20.50 by the second day after the


split, and then the volume dries up and you sell it for a $2


profit. But since you stopped out of half your shares at $16,


you lost $2.50 per share on that half, with a net loss of $.50


on 500 shares. What went wrong?





What went wrong was that you didn`t let the stock come to you.


Instead, you chased it as its price rose, knowing perfectly well


that, following the stock split trend, it would probably pull


back before running up again. It was more likely to pull back


than it was to continue on an uninterrupted run to $25, and you


knew that if you bought at $18 or higher you were probably


paying too much. You ignored what you knew was more likely in


favor of what might happen.





You should have given the stock a chance to come to you, at a


price you felt was reasonable. If the stock had pulled a


surprise and never gotten down to where you thought it would,


that would be okay. There were many other stocks to trade, and


some of them would have come down to your price. You didn`t have


to own this particular stock.





What was the right way to play this particular scenario? When


the market is bullish, it`s very likely for a stock to rise when


a split is announced, drift down after a few days` rally, and


then begin to rise again a week or so before the split. If


that`s the trend and there`s no solid reason to think the stock


will rise immediately, wait a few days for the stock to drift


down and stabilize before buying it. If you had done so in this


case, you could have bought it at $16.50 and then sold it for


$20.50 for a $4.00 profit on the entire 1,000 shares.





If you had a solid reason to think the stock might continue to


rally, you could have bought half the total number of shares you


wanted at a price that might have turned out to be too high, and


waited for a lower price to buy the other half. If it had turned


out to be too high, it would only have reduced your profit. (No


stock goes up or down in a straight line. Wait for a pullback


before buying.)





There is a good way and a bad way to buy stocks or trade a HOT


stock. The good way requires discipline and careful market


evaluation. The bad way is to trade from your feelings. As you


can see from this example, it`s always more profitable to trade


the good way.


Grab this articles

Related articles


Newest Articles

Most Popular Articles