Last Day of 2007, Still Lessons To Be Learned
Posted by Timothy Sykes on Tue 1st of Jan, 2008 06:35:29 PM
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December 31st, 2007 Review:
TIM $14,327 (down $68 on the day, up $179 or 1.26% on the month)
Covered 200 CSUN @ $17.06, Re-shorted 300 @ $16.55 ($15ish Gain, Holding Overnight)
Shorted 700 JADE @ $5.75, Covered @$5.80 ($55 Loss)
I’ll get into my monthly, probly even a yearly review in another post; for now, I’m just gonna review today because these trades serves as yet another great lesson.
Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t wait for normal market hours to cover my (Nasdaq: CSUN) short, covering within 10 minutes of pre-market trading at $17.06. Liquidity was tight and there were some big buy orders, so I said screw it, let’s play it safe – I knew I still had one day trade left if it proved itself to be a good short later in the day.
At the market open, CSUN dropped quickly to $16.50, but held it and it was straight up from there, all the way to $18, although late in the day, there was a good shorting opportunity (but by that time I’d used up my day trade) cracking some perfect sideways price action at $17.30 (not an afternoon fade, more like an afternoon tumble off the cliff, but the lesson being it waited until the afternoon), dropping within minutes to $16.75 and nearly taking out the magical $16.50, making it a good overnight short (so, I dove back in shorting 300 shares afterhours at $16.55). I’ll watch it closely Wednesday morning – freaken market’s closed tomorrow!?!?!? – for a possible crack of the big one at $16…could try to bounce pre-market and scare me out for a $75 loss or so, but the chart (below) shows how last Wednesday, it went straight up from $14.5 to $15.5 in the last hour before gapping to $18 in the first hour on Thursday. Now, we have the exact same setup, but from the bearish side since the stock dropped $1 in the last hour, I’d love to get a gap down to $14.5, but that’s dreaming, I’ll take $15.50…
You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…it’s gonna be interesting to see if all the recent solar strength can last into the New Year or if it’s just a case of window dressing by fund who want to be able to tell their clients they’re invested in “the hottest technology around” (which I’m counting on) LOL, you gotta love these stupid Wall Street games!
(Nasdaq: ASTI) – nice $2 plummet from $27 to $25 right at the open, only to be followed by a $3 spike to $28 within 10 minutes, gotta love the volatility at the open! Settled into being slightly negative all day before a late day crack brought it to close right under the morning support at $25. Could be a good overnight short, but it is a breakout play, so you gotta give it some respect…that’s why I’m not short.
(Nasdaq: JADE) – earnings/SEC filing (finally) mover, this was my one day trade today and even though I lost a little, I’d do it again because not only was it a good risk-reward trade, but I also closed it out perfectly when the trade started to get away from me. See, I shorted 700 shares at $5.75 in the afternoon, right into0 sideways price action, after a gradual drop from the low $6s and a quick bounce up from $5.40. The stock had two choices, gradually break the sideways price action (like I like) and retest the $5.40 morning low or gradually uptrend – spiking down was also a slim possibility, but any spike up was met by short sellers and sellers who wanted another crack at $5.40. So, I was protected. Unfortunately, the stock started rising gradually, and even though it finished right near my entry point, I got out with a 5 cent loss before the 40 cent spike. Back in the ‘ole days of free trading, I woulda covered and bought and the loss on my short woulda paled in comparison to the gain on my long, but since I can’t trade freely, that was out of the question. Probable Gap Wednesday, I’ll short if it cracks $5.40, although not very aggressively since it’s somewhat of an earnings mover.
(NYSE: GA) – keeps moving gradually higher, no reason to short just yet.
(NYSE: NG) – still downtrending, although waaaay too boring, off my watchlist soon.
(Nasdaq: BIDU) – not down as much as I thought/hoped, boooooring, what a waste, turns out it was a car accident that killed the CFO, murder still a possibility, but very slim.
(Nasdaq: SWIM) – down 2% for now reason, little volume, aka why the reason I don’t hold these stocks for very long, they take too long to work out.
(Nasdaq: DSTI) – the solar winner du jour, if the run continues, I might just have to short it!
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Appesat
TIM Trades
View All| Date | Stock | Buy | Sell | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 19 | AENY | $2.80 | $3.02 | $1148 |
| Nov 18 | NLST | $4.16 | $4.40 | $947 |
| Nov 18 | IMGG | $1.42 | $1.64 | $2094 |
| Nov 17 | NLST | $5.04 | $5.59 | $2195 |
| Nov 13 | VRMLQ | $21.50 | $22.97 | $2901 |
| Nov 11 | EONC | $2.61 | $2.80 | $687 |
| Nov 10 | EONC | $2.74 | $3.36 | $9784 |
| Nov 6 | QXM | $4.31 | $4.80 | $1936 |
| Nov 4 | COT | $8.66 | $8.88 | $642 |
| Nov 4 | QXM | $4.61 | $4.89 | $822 |
| Oct 30 | DDRX | $25.70 | $26.53 | $812 |
| Oct 29 | CTDC | $4.00 | $4.42 | $781 |
| Oct 26 | AWSL | $3.24 | $4.10 | $2516 |
| Oct 23 | RODM | $5.27 | $5.23 | $301 |
| Oct 22 | AMLM | $2.69 | $2.97 | $820 |
| Oct 22 | USEG | $6.12 | $6.09 | $85 |
| Oct 20 | CBOU | $8.93 | $9.06 | $243 |
| Oct 16 | VRMLQ | $16.79 | $18.65 | $2773 |
| Oct 13 | YONG | $11.05 | $11.66 | $1202 |
| Oct 13 | NPHC | $0.59 | $0.71 | $583 |
| Oct 12 | IMGG | $0.60 | $0.70 | $682 |
| Oct 9 | ZAGG | $5.50 | $6.10 | $2380 |
| Oct 7 | GVBP | $0.03 | $0.27 | $702 |
| Oct 1 | NPHC | $0.70 | $0.85 | $1482 |
Total: $98,094 (681%)
