With gaps higher it is a tough one. You hate to jump in on the gap up, but if you cannot watch the moves, how do you determine the best time to get in? When using a real time service you can look before the open and see where Nasdaq and some other stocks are trading, and you can adjust any order to that point. If you use a ‘live’ broker, he or she can tell you where stocks are indicating at the open. Market orders are so tough because you often get close to the high right before the pullback and are trying to make up the difference on the session. If it is a breakout from a good pattern and we are planning on holding long term, we don’t care as much. On option plays, we care a lot more. On powerful days such as today your best choices are (1) figure out the trading prices from your broker in the morning and put in an order there; (2) put in a buy stop order ahead of the price, (3) get an alert on the first pullback. With option 2 you can put in that order ahead of the price and it is triggered if the stock hits it. You can also put in a limit order and let the stock come back to you after it has gapped higher.
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