We had been waiting for BRK.B to hold above 80 for a Trade2Hold to perhaps 82.  Friday we almost had the hold above 80 but ran out of time.  80.10 became the new hurdle to clear before BRK.B knocked on the door of 82.

Today during one of those times Steve always warns that stocks can move, lunch time, BRK.B cleared 80.10.  I was doing something partner related and missed the first ticks above the level.  I made it back onto our trading floor and a few traders were chirping that BRK.B was above the level. SPY had cleared all important intraday resistance levels with 113 the next most likely stop.  So we had a very strong market on our side as well.  We had another check in our favor.  BRK.B was 80.25 bid, I sat down, bid 80.25, and  got hit.

GMan has some dopey meeting he wanted me in, so I set a stop for below the fig and exited the floor.  There was nothing really for me to do.  80.10 was a huge level so I didn’t need to do much other than stay long.  Periodically I checked in on my positions and reset my stops higher for BRK.B.  But I wanted to be in this trade.

Now certainly if I would have had more time I would have wanted to add here and there and increase my size.  But I didn’t have the time so I just stuck with my Trade2Hold from above 80.10.  Into the Close I added some size here and there, but not much.  Before the close I scaled out of 2/3 of my position at 81.90.  The only reason I lighted up was I was not interested in much overnight risk.

When we review our best Trades2Hold it is important to decode why they worked.  We cannot discount how strong the market was.  We cannot overlook that the market was strong AND it trended smoothly higher.  There were no moments when we wondered whether the uptrend in SPY would break and thus cause our stocks to break their uptrend.  We do not get days often like this as mostly the market provides us some moments of indecision and surprise.  But today was not one of them.  BRK.B did not offer moments of indecision.

We talk about needing a Reason2Sell when we enter a Trade2Hold.  Sometimes that reason is simply the bell is about to ring.

Best of luck with your trading!

Long 1/3 of a lot for BRK.B