I decided to lock in half of my gains in my long ISRG position today at $382. Here is the original buy timestamp inside the 12631 Trading Service, where members receive instant email alerts for all trades and posts too.
chessNwine
New Long: $ISRG 3/4 position @ $349.39. Stop: Below $337 Looks to be breaking out from multi-month falling wedge. Will post chart in a moment.11:29:46am EST on Fri, Jun 17, 2011
I then added the final 1/4 to my position 06/28 @ $363.19.
I want to discuss this position here to discern between daily and weekly timeframes. In other words, this is not the old “Siskel & Ebert” film critic show with a thumbs up or thumbs down view of stocks. Frequently, there are shades of gray. In the case of Intuitive Surgical, the daily chart (first one below) is telling me that the stock is stretched in the short-term and is far extended from its most recent base. It is also clearly past a high probability entry point. Beyond that, I am up over 30 points from my original purchase. So, for the sake of discipline and as the probabilities tilt away from me short-term, I decided to lock in some gains.
However, it is important to keep perspective on the trade. Looking at the weekly chart (second below), the overall picture remains decidedly bullish, with ISRG attacking 2010 and this year’s highs today, while breaking out of a cup and handle pattern and springing off of the 20 period weekly moving average.
Hence, I will look to stick with this thesis going forward, without being blinded by greed in the short run.
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