A Day Of Near Misses, Welcome to Stock Trading 101

Tags: Podcasts

TIM $14,152 (down $291 on the day)

Lots of Near Misses, Long 1,200 Shares of ZVUE @ $2.25 Overnight

What a mess. No other way to put it. After getting screwed over by that old guy’s over

night news, I, along with many other short sellers, awoke to find a rather strong market open—our dreams of glorious panic smashed. It was ugly; it was uglier than an old man returning cold soup in a deli. And, then it got worse…

JMBA —down a bunch, near perfect chart pattern…after covering my 500 shares at $5.21 (losing $80 or so and counting myself lucky the stock didn’t spike as much as some other momentum plays), I tried re-shorting when the stock cracked the $5 support just a few minutes later. Nope, missed the crack and within seconds the stock tanked to $4.86. I watched it go all the way down to $4.40 in disgust, but I hate shorting morning gap and trappers due to their propensity to spike. What a waste of a perfectly good chart pattern. At least some of my readers are better traders than me! Now JMBA is solidly off its recent highs AND lows, in no man’s land, again. AVOID until it breaks out one way or the other…

BIDZ —up a bit on rumors of a NILE takeover…thought about buying some overnight for possible pop after company’s presentation going on now, but too risky. Management confirmed how horrible they are at speaking about their business during their last conference call.

ZVUE—up some on some solid financing news this morning (that was made to look like they acquired popular video website eBaum’s World today (nice touch!), nice market reaction, daily/weekly/yearly chart pattern, intraday spikes (count ‘em two, not one) and even though I think the company is a total dog, it’s a proven spiker, so today’s volume could signal good things to come…I bought 1,200 shares right before the close at $2.25, crappy timing, shoulda waited ‘til 3:59 (instead of 3:58) and I coulda woulda shoulda saved $100 or so (instead I’m down $100 on it). Ideally, it’ll gap and spike a bit—maybe I’ll breakeven or make some, but I’m not sure how long I’ll hold this guy.

AMPX —up a ton over the past few days, probly in anticipation of the big meeting in a few days where hedge funds will battle management blah blah blah—this is a solid uptrend and some shorts are already in. I was thinking of shorting, but it’s a low floater, $30 million marketcap and a gradual riser. So, I decided to buy it on the breakout at $7 in the mid-afternoon—buying 400 shares at $7, thinking a breakout would scare shorts and lead to a nice gap up. Close, but no cigar—after failing to break $7 for 2 hours, the stock broke the intraday support in the $6.90 range and feel to $6.75. I wasn’t about to risk a further drop—considering there’s $3 or so of potential downside—so I sold out and sucked up a $70 loss. Wouldn’t have been that painful, but the stock did breakout right before the market close to finish at $7.25, and will probly gap higher tomorrow. Welcome to trading—weak hands get shaken out, sometimes enabling the breakout to occur. This is why it’s much easier to buy AFTER the breakout, even though it might move too fast and you’ll miss getting in.

SPABD —up some on contract news that discusses some big numbers (probly BS). After it spiked nearly 70%, I tried shorting 1,000 shares at $3.15, but barely missed getting an execution. I didn’t want to risk chasing it down. Considering a finish in the $2.40 range, I probly should have, but I also hate shorting first day spikers. This stock is dead to me now, it’s more dead to me than your dead mother.

Today just was not my day. But here’s something to cheer us all up—listen to my latest near hourlong interview on the Gabriel Wisdom Show on Business Talk Radio!

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