There is an art to selling the open. If you sell at 9:30am exactly you’d get good prices. At around 9:35, the dips come and you get shaken out. If napping too long and you wake up at 9:50am, sometimes you’ll get the best prices of the day. If you’re holding past 10am you’re super aggressive and asking for trouble.
Today I sold all around 9:35am and booked a solid 53bps, which was half the gains I would’ve had if I sold in lightening fast speed at 9:30am. Immediately after I sold, we exploded higher. My gains might’ve been 200bps+. But my resolve to not chase was solidified and I vowed never to chase a 9:55am rally for as long as I live.
I have no idea what happens next. All I know is semis, oils and banks lead up while biotech and software plunge daily. Home builders are also strong today and I must admit being jealous of my own quantitative account in Stocklabs this month, which is easily crushing my trading account +400bps vs -275bps. The cold and calculated mechanical investment stratagem of the quant doesn’t care about the superfluous nature of selling at 9:30am vs 9:35am. It doesn’t care. Perhaps I need to mechanize myself and quit being so neurotic. But given the last few months in particular, I am especially risk averse and do not trust the market as far as I could throw it — which I can’t because it’s not a physical item I can pick up and toss.
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