Fun with BIDU

I took two trades in BIDU today. The first ended with a small gain and the second was a 3.8R winner. Neither of these trades was what I’d consider one of my core setups. I entered the first trade because the market was weakening and I noticed that BIDU was heading towards its lows. I just found the nearest support in order to calculate my position size and shorted it at 110.58 (@10:44). I was up 2R pretty quick so I pushed my stop far enough so that my gain would cover my commissions and provide lunch money. That stop got hit at 11:41 at the price of 110.43.

Then, as you can see, BIDU went ballistic. This was another case where I quickly went from being a little disgusted that I let 2R of profit slip away to being glad that I locked something in — such an emotional roller coaster. Then of course I was kicking myself for not getting long and catching that 12+ point move higher as the market caught that 2:00 bid.

The market started rolling over (again) around 2:30 but BIDU kept lingering. I was actually downstairs eating lunch from about 2:15 to 3. I came back up here and saw the Naz tanking and that BIDU had printed two bearish candlesticks in a row. The high of those candles was just over a point away from where it was trading so I said ‘what the heck’ and shorted it again (with a stop at the high of the day). Normally I wouldn’t try a counter-trend move like this and if I did I would have waited for confirmation by waiting for the stock to trade under the bearish candles. But given how this stock can move and that it’s tough to short a stock when it’s already dropping I just pulled the trigger and shorted it at 121.16 at 3:15. So I pretty much jumped in as soon as it completed that second bearish candle.

Turns out that I lucked up and timed that entry perfectly because the stock pretty much fell apart right after I got in. Once again I found myself with a quick profit — this time about 3R. I had already pushed my stop down a bit but I decided to buy half of the position back and let the rest ride with a trailing stop. So I ended up buying at 118.47 and 116.19. I still ended up leaving a few points on the table but I felt pretty good with the results of that second trade. One thing’s for sure BIDU isn’t for the faint of heart!