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TMFJake (59.48)

Breaking News: CAPS Limit Orders Unleashed!

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May 28, 2009 – Comments (24)

Okay, TSIF scooped me wih this blog post on the Limit Order functionality that we released tonight.

Nuts and Bolts:

You can read all about this new feature on our Help page (scroll down to the Start and Close Limit Orders Section).  For your convenience, here are the specific Help documents:

*  What Are Limit Orders?

* Can I Change My Limit Orders?

* When Are My Limit Orders Active?

* What Price Will My Pick Start/Close At?

* Do I Need To Enter Limit Orders For My Picks?

Simply put, CAPS Limit Orders enable you to Open or Close a CAPS Pick based on a future price target.  Set a price target to open an Outperform or Underperform pick when a company trades at your price target,   Outperform start limits open at a price lower than the one entered, and Underperform start limits open at a price higher than the one you enter.

With Close Limits, you can set an Upper and Lower Close Limit, which will end your CAPS pick if the stock trades above your upper limit or below your lower limit.

Getting Started:

1.  You can create limit orders for potential picks that you would like to make if a company reaches your price target by using the Advanced Pick Utility on your My CAPS page. Look for the "Now with Limit Orders" promo on this tool.

 

Advanced Pick Utilility on your My CAPS page:

 

Creating Limit Orders with the Advanced Pick Utility:

 

2,  Click on the Limiit Orders tab on your My CAPS page Scorecard to set close limits on your existing picks. Click on the "Start Limits" link to see any pending limit orders that you've created for potential new picks.

Screen Shot of Limit Orders Tab

 Rude Q&A

Q: Great, but, ahem, doesn't this just exacerbate the problem with people "banking accuracy"?

A:  Well, we are currently only supporting price limits not score limits.  So, you'd have to be accurate in your call about both the price movement for a stock and the S&P in order to use limits as part of a CAPS banking accuracy strategy.   That's not an easy task, and as most people actual fail miserably when attempting to bank accuracy, this would likely increase the failure rate even more.  

And we feel that the value of providing people with a means to set price targets and trigger CAPS open and close pick actions has many more benefits to our community intelligence than downside.  For example, Limit Orders will help make it easier for you to maintain your scorecard, ensuring that the information that is coming into CAPS is more timely, relevant and reflective of your outlook for any particular company.

Kick the tires on Limit Orders and let us know what you think.  And, as always, thanks for helping us to make CAPS smarter!

24 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On May 28, 2009 at 3:03 AM, RonChapmanJr (98.51) wrote:

Thanks, looking forward to trying it out. 

 

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#2) On May 28, 2009 at 6:07 AM, JonBarleycorn (68.45) wrote:

Wow! Great news. I can't believe my eyes. I've been looking for this and hoping for it, it seems forever.

Having asked for STOP and LIMIT orders for so long now, I guess I will have to step up to the plate and start using them.

Good job.

JB

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#3) On May 28, 2009 at 6:38 AM, JonBarleycorn (68.45) wrote:

Will it be possible to view other players limit and stop orders? This would contribute significantly to community intelligence.

I still haven't figured out yet how to pipe my past trades to a spreadsheet for analysis and optimization.In this connection, will there be any record keeping tools available within CAPS to capture statistical/historical data?

 

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#4) On May 28, 2009 at 7:01 AM, binve (< 20) wrote:

TMFJake and the rest of the Caps team, Well done! Thanks! This looks like a really useful tool, and I am really looking forward to trying it out!

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#5) On May 28, 2009 at 9:49 AM, TMFHelical (99.03) wrote:

Jake,

 

This looks like a nice addition to the CAPS community.  

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#6) On May 28, 2009 at 10:23 AM, madcowmonkey (< 20) wrote:

Sweeeettttt!

BTW- the sectors tab for caps players is a really nice addition. I haven't had the time to really use it the way I want to yet, but I plan to use that tool soon.

Nice work fellas.

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#7) On May 28, 2009 at 12:00 PM, leohaas (93.62) wrote:

Excellent!

So I tried to put in a limit order for GM. It failed because GM's price is currently below $1.50, making GM not a valid pick. However, I should be able to create a limit order for $1.50, right?

Same for all stocks below the $1.50 limit!

Or am I missing something here...

PS. Who is still buying GM at more than $1? It isn't even worth a penny...

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#8) On May 28, 2009 at 12:53 PM, TMFJake (59.48) wrote:

leohaas:  

We should fix this.  You should be able to enter a limit for a stock that trades below our 1.50 price, as long as the limit is 1.50 or above...  

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#9) On May 28, 2009 at 2:42 PM, tonylogan1 (28.64) wrote:

I think this is a great feature, but the people it will help most are those that trade the .OB and .PK stocks.

Now you will not have to worry about an errant trade throwing you off.

That said, is it time to get rid of .OB and .PK trading? At least set up a limit where a few hundred thousand dollars worth of stock must trade for a stock to be eligible?

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#10) On May 28, 2009 at 3:09 PM, chk999 (99.98) wrote:

Excellent!

You guys totally rock.

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#11) On May 28, 2009 at 3:14 PM, mikecart1 (99.40) wrote:

This feature although sound great is 2 things:

1) Late by years to the system

2) Overrated in that the system is scored against the S&P500 and not to the overall profit/loss to the stock itself.

A real improvement would be removing the 20 minute lag time between buying and closing picks. That 'upgrade' will probably happen around 2013-14 LOL!

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#12) On May 28, 2009 at 3:49 PM, TSIF (99.96) wrote:

Sorry I scooped you.....but your screen shot instructions are much prettier than my quick attempt to get some converstation going and some help trying to figure it out.  :)

We just can't be trusted not to play with new toys!  :)

Was I also one of the first to enter the bug reports?  Kudo's for the change, and the quick bug fixes this morning!   Cool Fool Award to you and your team!

Now when can we get the Buffett Tic Tacs with the stock symbols on the back side.  I can think of several games we could play with those!   Maybe some Fool's Valentine candy as well.

TSIF

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#13) On May 28, 2009 at 5:26 PM, BravoBevo (99.97) wrote:

Jake:  Perhaps this is a bug (if not, then I need more explanation):  This morning I set my red-thumb targets on a half-dozen of my red-thumb picks under the column titled "Lower Close Limit".  Those targets were never reached today, but I saw where those picks closed out (incurring losses to me) on the open.  After I told TMF, my closed out positions were restored, but there is still a bug (IMO) that needs to be fixed.

I think the titled of the two columns "upper close limit" and "lower close limit" are reversed. In other words, please check to see whether the column titles should be as shown in the example from TSIF's blog.

Thank you.  Also, I tried the start limit once today. I do have a question about the "start limit" but I've got to run to an appointment right now ... so I'll ask you another time. 

Thanks!

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#14) On May 28, 2009 at 7:10 PM, TMFJake (59.48) wrote:

BravoBevo: there was a bug that was resolved at market open this morning.  Let me know if you see any other limit trigger misfires.

TSIF:  You were one of the first bug reporters.  We've asked the factory to make up a batch of the Buffett Tic Tacs.

Thanks!

jk 

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#15) On May 28, 2009 at 8:01 PM, BravoBevo (99.97) wrote:

Are you saying that the left column actually is correct to say "upper close limit" and the right column is correct to say "lower close limit"?  Then - using your Google example above - 450 should be inserted into the left "upper close limit" column and 390 should be inserted into the right "lower close limit" column.

If the example in TSIF's blog is correct, then the "lower close limit" is in the left column and - using your Google example - 390 should be inserted into the left column and 450 should be inserted into the right column.

 

-->  JAKE:  Under the "limit orders" tab on the member page, can you verify that the titles of the column headings are correct? 

Thank you! 

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#16) On May 28, 2009 at 10:00 PM, TMFJake (59.48) wrote:

BravoBevo, the help text referenced in TSIF's blog has the columns reversed.  On the Limit Orders tab, the left column is "Lower Close Limit" and right column is "Upper Close Limit."  Hope that helps!

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#17) On May 29, 2009 at 12:09 AM, BravoBevo (99.97) wrote:

I'm sorry to be dense, but what you describe is not what I see on my "My CAPS Page"

On the "My CAPS Page" at tab "Limit Orders" there are eleven columns from Left to Right  titled (1) Start Date; (2) Ticker; (3) Call; (4) Start Price; (5) Today Change; (6) Stock Gain; (7) S&P Gain; (8) Score; (9) Upper Close Limit; (10) Lower Close Limit; and (11) Limit Actions.  My "Upper Close Limit" column is immediately to the left of my "Lower Close Limit" column. 

 

Jake, according to your comment #16 above, it sounds like your columns for (9) and for (10) are the opposite of what the My CAPS Page shows at tab "Limit Orders". 

Your description makes sense, but the columns on my page are either (i) reversed or (ii) mislabeled.  And if it's true for my page, then it is probably true for other Fools, too. Thank you for looking into this.  

 

 

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#18) On May 29, 2009 at 9:38 AM, TMFJake (59.48) wrote:

BravoBevo, your not being dense, I was responding to quickly and made a mistake.  The help text Does reverse the order of Upper and Lower Close limit.  However, I should have said:

On the Limit Orders tab, the left column is "Uper Close Limit" and right column is "Lower Close Limit." 

The order of all the columns that you describe above on your My CAPS page, is correct--and is refelected in the screenshot I provide in the original post above.

This is the proper order and you should enter your data accordingly.

Sorry for the confusion!

--jk 

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#19) On June 04, 2009 at 4:22 PM, TSIF (99.96) wrote:

Okay, maybe I'm dense now. I had a few limit orders set on some stocks that I had down thumbed that had been cycling in and out of +3 to -3. I calculated what I would need to get at least +6 (leaving myself some margin if the S&P dove at the same time).

Morgans Hotel Group Co. (MHGC), down thumb.  Sell if below $3.83.  Today's range:  3.93 to 4.18.  IT closed itself at $4.13 near the peak of the day for a MINUS 4.03.  I don't much care about the points, but I'm at a crucial area on my accuracy. You can't see the limits after one closes, but even if I mis-set it, it should have tripped yesterday, or this morning, etc.  Not near the peak of the day.  What did I do wrong???

Thanks!

TSIF

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#20) On June 04, 2009 at 4:53 PM, BravoBevo (99.97) wrote:

tsif:  I think the limit program malfunctioned again. It sounds just like the same glitch that I discussed with Jake at comments #13 and #14 above.

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#21) On June 04, 2009 at 9:55 PM, caterpillar10 wrote:

DEFINITELY MALFUNCTIONING UP TO TODAY'S CLOSE - TEST PERIODICALLY W/INCONSEQUENTIAL SAMPLING OR AVOID UNTIL MGMT COMES CLEAN:)

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#22) On June 04, 2009 at 10:46 PM, TSIF (99.96) wrote:

http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/ViewPost.aspx?bpid=206663&t=01004482220192916388

Thanks, here's another blog running where a few  more people got hit.  I really thought I misunderstood how to use them, but where it picked to kick in at made no sense no matter how you interpret the boxes....near the high of the trading day....?

Yes, I agree we need more testing!  I even offered to BETA test. I do that for a living.  A free trip to the digs in DC or a subscription to something and I'd bang away for hours!  :)

 Thanks, a little sanity returns since it apparently "wasn't me".

 TSIF

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#23) On June 05, 2009 at 9:51 AM, TMFJake (59.48) wrote:

TSIF, I believe your MHGC was corrected as well.

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#24) On June 05, 2009 at 9:58 AM, TSIF (99.96) wrote:

Thanks!  The team is on the job as always.

I did notice the bug that a limit order overrode a manual. I figured it out when a manual close didn't close!  Thanks for fixing that one as well.

Great job!!!

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