My primary focus for the past few years has been making money intraday.  But occasionally I observe a pattern that causes me to take an overnight position.  Around 10:30AM on Friday FNM had a very powerful breakout through $12.  It topped out around $14.  During the afternoon there was some selling and it traded as low at $12.40.  But during the final hour a huge buyer emerged and was pushing the stock towards its high.  I was long around 8000 shares.  I was looking to dump the position at $14 or higher.  But the buyer ran out of time and the stock closed around $13.50 and I was still long around 4,000 shares.  So my dilemna was what to do with the position.  I have found that the pattern that FNM followed on Friday generally leads to a higher stock price the following day.  Looking at the chart there were 1 to 2 points of upside.  The other positive for the stock is that the SEC recently passed a short sale regulation that was going to make it more difficult to short most of the financial stocks.  This rule was scheduled to begin on Monday.  The one major factor weighing against keeping the overnight position is the great uncertainty that exists in the US financial sector right now and the risk of some major negative news being released over the weekend.

 So I decided to compromise.  I sold 3000 in the after hours.  I went out long 1000.  As I write this post the stock is trading up $1.50 in the premarket at $15.  There is a seller dumping stock right below the $15 level.  Maybe it was the large buyer from Friday locking in some profits.

 My trading plan for today is to reload on the long side if after the Open the bid holds above 15.  First resistance is at 16 with potential upside to 18.