Could someone do me the favor of answering this question for me?
I am fairly new to the whole personal investing world. I started handling my own investments a little over a year ago and I think I have done fairly well even with my limited but steadily growing knowledge of the markets. I still make mistakes of course, but I try to learn from each one and try not to make the same one twice. Well, today I made a mistake which cost me some good dough and I don't want to make it again, the mistake that is. I have been pretty heavy (for me) into SIRI since $1.19, and want to hold long for a while. Well, it has been going crazy the last couple of days, almost up 100%, today especially, testing new 52 week highs, breaking resistance, all kinds of stuff.
I watched it jump up to 2.82 this morning. I wasn't quite sure what it would do from there- retrace or keep running because after breaking the 2.68 mark it was in uncharted territory. I decided to put a stop-limit up it at 2.75 thinking if it retraced as it has done before I would want to get out at the this price and get back in lower. If it kept running (as it did) then my stop limit wouldn't matter.
Anyway, soon after (15-20 min.) I checked back and saw my order eaten up, I thought "good, profit taking, retrace, etc. happening, glad I put the Stop-limit on" Then soon after they ate up my shares I saw it take off again refused to by high skipping the 10 cents and saw it go up .30 more cents. Anyway, this ended up costing me 3-4k.
Now I feel it will eventually retrace back down somewhere into those levels again where I can buy it back up and continue my position in it. But, man I am kicking myself in the paants right now.
So I guess these are my questions-
What mistake did I make? Was the stop-limit price I set too close? Should I have used a stop instead of a stop limit? Can someone please help me out and explain this to me?
I am pretty sure I would be a little less anxious tonight if I still was holding the position.
thanks in advance,
Mike