The QQQ (Nasdaq 100 ETF) short swing trade has hit the suggested stop of 168.91 for a 2.4% loss. While I still very much like this trade, remain short personally & will most likely QQQ back as another official short trade very soon, at this point it would only be prudent to wait for AMZN’s earnings to be out of the way (Amazon reports after the market close today).
QQQ 60-min Jan 31st
You might recall that in the past I would set the stops on many of the official trades based on either a daily close or a 60-minute candlestick close above a particular level, which was strategically selected. Stops on a daily or an intraday candlestick close do take a hands-on approach to compare to the more commonly used “set-it-and-forget-it” good until canceled stop loss orders. Using those end-of-day or -candle stops results in a lot of questions & confusion from members & as such, I will include some details on how to manage those type of stops with a new entry on the FAQ page, under Trading Related Questions as I will likely go back to using those conditional stops on certain trade ideas.
It appears to me that the market is in the final stages of an (at least) near-term buying climax and as such, it is not unusual to see intraday spikes through resistance levels & what might have normally been (but not in hindsight) well-placed stop levels such as we had with both QQQ & XRX today with both briefly popping above their stops, only to immediately fall back & remain below those level since. Again, let’s wait to see the market’s initial & subsequent reactions to Amazon’s earnings & then I’ll make a decision as to add back QQQ & XRX as official trades or not.