As you know a while back I bough 15 shares of Bidu (BIDU), it then went down and I was left wondering if I was really that bad at picking stocks. Then it started to go back up and sure enough it started to make me money. This past Wednesday I was checking how much and it was over $200 dollars.

I then started to look into a way to protect those profits and that is when I read about a Sell Trail Stop Order and did some research about it. Here is how that order works, lets say that you buy one share of Captain Edwin stock at $20 dollars. The next day it goes up to $40 dollars and just like that you already made a profit. To realize that profit you can sell it now or if you want to see just how high it can go you can hold on to it but if you are a busy guy like me then you can’t be checking your stocks every second of the trading day. Your best friend then is the Sell Trail Stop Order. You can choose either a set amount, $1, $2 or $3 dollars, I don’t know what is the highest amount you can have or an average, 5%, 10% or 15% up to 99%. Lets say you choose a percentage, 10% of $40 dollars is $4 dollars. A note, if the price keeps going up the 10% will re-adjust to show that, so if the stock goes up to $50 dollars, 10% of $50 is $5 dollars. Another very, very important note, and one that I learned real fast, the percentage will re-adjust based on the high of the day, so lets say the high of the day is $52 dollars for that Captain Edwin stock, 10% of that is $5.20, got it?. Anyway, lets say now that the stock starts to head south and then it hits $46.80 dollars, that is when your order would be triggered and your share would be sold and you would be left with a profit of $26.80 dollars which is what we are all looking for, right?.

On Thursday morning I set the Sell Trail Stop Order, at the time Bidu (BIDU) was trading at about $143 dollars. I chose 5% which is about $7 dollars, turned off Sunshine and went and did what I had to do. At about 3pm I was checking to see how my investments had fared and to my surprise Bidu (BIDU) had been sold. I then checked the day’s chart and I found the reason why it had happened. It seems that the day’s high was $152 so the 5% readjusted and that meant that as soon as the stock started to go south and reached about $145 my order was triggered and I was left with a $252.53 profit.

Anytime you make a profit it’s a good thing but to be honest I didn’t want to sell Bidu (BIDU) not yet anyway and that is when I realized that if I had set the Sell Trail Stop Order at 10% I would still own the stock. What did we learn today?, if you have a good stock that is going up up and away remember to put a Sell Trail Stop Order to protect your profits, I know I will. Finally, if there are any pros reading this and I am wrong on anything please feel free to let me know so I can fix it.

As we all know things are very tough right now, I am glad that I am still employed but you can’t never be sure nowadays. I work five days and I get weekends offs and you know how much I enjoy that. Anyway, I think that I am going to look for a part time job on weekends. I could use the extra money to fatten my Scottrade account and have some cash ready just in case I see a stock I like. I could use it to pay off my debt that much faster and I could always save a bit more. I am going to have to think about this one long and hard, preferably during the weekend.

There are no holidays this week and so we have a full week of trading ahead. Not much happened last week for me at least. My account was up, yes up, $1.55 for the week and even though I wish it had been a lot more I will take that over a loss. Hopefully this week will be better.

I had no trades last week.

My investments, 15 Bidu Inc (BIDU) shares, 50 Dow Chemical Co (DOW) shares and 100 Allied Irish Banks PLC (AIB) shares.

Can you believe that February is almost over, pretty soon March will be here and just like that we will be three months into the new year. Anyway, my account was down this time around and if I was a betting man I would bet that, never mind here is the report.

The beginning of the new week but because today it’s a holiday the markets are closed, I think. Now lets move on to the good stuff, my account was down $124.65 for the week and that is not what I expected.

I had no trades last week.

My investments, 15 Bidu Inc (BIDU) shares, 50 Dow Chemical Co (DOW) shares and 100 Allied Irish Banks PLC (AIB) shares.