The Morning Gap, Part 2…
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on morning gaps and how to trade them. Last week I happened to be in LA instructing a stock class and on the 19th, a morning opening gap in the US stock markets offered us a very low risk and high reward opportunity. Our morning prep work basically consists of finding stocks that are opening at price levels where supply and demand are out of balance in a large way and then simply trading them back to balance. Once the traders understand the whole supply (resistance)/demand (support) concept and the rules, we use two sources to find these opportunities which typically present themselves right at the open of trading or shortly thereafter. One of our sources offers us the morning broker upgrades and downgrades. An upgrade that jumped out at us was Citigroup who was upgrading shares of Imclone (IMCL) with a "Buy" recommendation. While we are trading real money in class, you might think we would want to listen to this upgrade and do exactly what it is suggesting to do as Citigroup is one of the largest banks in the world and we are just 20 people in a trading class in LA. Well, it really depends on your point of view. Citigroup likely had good fundamental reasons to upgrade the stock and looking at the chart below, MANY people listened with both ears and bought IMCL on the open which is what caused that gap up in price. If your point of view is that of a smart buyer and seller of anything who has an understanding of the laws of supply and demand, not only were you not buying like everyone else was, you were selling to that huge group of buyers (at least we were).
Notice the price action on 3/7. There was a dramatic price decline from the $45-$46 price level. This can only happen because there is much more supply at that level than willing demand. When this happens, price must decline. The dramatic rate of decline suggests a strong supply and demand imbalance at that level. Now, notice what happens the morning of the upgrade on 3/19. Citigroup upgrades the stock and price opens right into that supply level. While the rest of the world is buying in a strong way, we had our plan in place well before the open that told us to sell to anyone who wanted to buy at that level. Why? Because we knew that if we sold to the buyers at that price level on the gap up, we would be selling to novice buyers who likely are consistent losing market speculators. How do we know this? Only a novice would buy AFTER an advance in price and INTO a price level where supply exceeds demand. Our job is to find this novice trader and simply take the other side of his or her trade.
When you enter markets at price levels where supply and demand are out of balance in a big way, especially at or near the open of trading, moves in the market are typically very fast. There were many other stocks this day that did the exact same thing and those who did the 15 minutes of morning prep work that we do each day were rewarded with low risk/high reward gains.
This trade and the thoughts and rules that went with it are not meant to impress you. I mean to impress upon you the importance of looking at markets for what they really are which is simply an ongoing supply and demand equation. Opportunity exists when this simple and straightforward relationship is out of balance. Everything else in and around markets is just "noise" that is meant to invite you into markets at the wrong time and in the wrong direction. As an educator, I say that is unfortunate. As a trader, I love it - the more noise the better!
For those interested in learning and applying this information in the powerful futures markets, I will be instructing at Online Trading Academy Irvine, April 14-18. So you know, Online Trading Academy instructors are not compensated based on the number of people attending the courses so this is not a sales pitch. I mention my schedule in the letters occasionally because I get emails each day with questions regarding schedules.
Have a great day.
- Sam Seiden, sseiden@tradingacademy.com
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Sam brings over 15 years experience of equities, forex, options, and futures trading which began when he was on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has traded equities, futures, interest rate markets, forex, options, and commodities for his personal interests for years and has educated hundreds of traders and investors through seminars and daily advisory services both domestically and internationally. Sam has been involved in the markets since 1991 both on and off the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has served as the Director of Technical Research for two trading firms and regularly contributes articles to industry publications. Sam is known for his trading, technical research, and educational guidance.