Day Trading Rocks, aka Gotta Love This Solar Volatility
Posted by Timothy Sykes on Mon 7th of Jan, 2008 09:32:15 AM
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Just when I was getting sick and tired of being sick and tired, the volatility in the solar stocks comes back to remind me why I love trading. I went into today short (Nasdaq: DSTI) and I was a bit nervous considering its strong Friday close and the morning strength we had today. But, as you saw in my last post, I was determined to hold it for a few days because I really think the company is a POS and the recent strength was a gift to short into. Bingo! After trying to hold positive in the $6.70 range, a gradual downtrend turned into a freefall, dropping all the way down to $5.60. But, as been my habit and probly will continue to be so, I covered early at $6.20, for a nice $200+ gain. Bad bad early cover, but now that the stock has already rebounded to $6.25ish, not so bad in the grand scheme of things.
The ideal time to short would’ve been this morning when it cracked Friday’s low at $6.45, as that would’ve protected you from having to hold over the weekend and risk a morning spike. But I didn’t know if the stock would gap below that level and freefalling immediately, so overall, it wasn’t a bad trade. It also helped that the overall market and the rest of the solars got taken out and shot from 10am-10:20am.
Since I covered DSTI early and saw the solars tanking, I decided to try to get in on the action by shorting 300 of the incredibly strong (Nasdaq: AKNS) at $15.57. It’d already tanked $1 or so off its highs, but I felt the solar panic coming on strong and other plays like SOLF, CSUN and CSIQ were all down $2-$5. AKNS didn’t crash like the others, so when it went barely negative on the day under $15, I decided to cover and did so at $14.82, another $200ish profit. Just as morning spikes scare me, so do morning crashes. It’s a long day and when a stock tanks $2+, it can easily come back and smack short sellers who try to take more than $1-$2/share. AKNS is now at $15.86, after dropping to $14, this is a solid rebound and is yet another example of how my poor timing still yielded a solid profit and is rather good in the grand scheme of things.
This pushed my account to an all-time high past $14,500 and I wanted to stop, but I felt the need to profit more from all this volatility. So, I decided to buy some of these solars on the crash. The message boards didn’t know why anything was cracking, so I took that as a sign of a potential rebound. SOLF was down $6, but at $31ish, what was I gonna buy 100 shares (couldn’t have a big position since the stock would probly only bounce a bit, aka respect crashes)? Potential upside of $100 or $200 (if I was patient and daring) or so, but it seemed to be leading the pack down, so maybe there was negative news?!?! Couldn’t risk it, I decided to buy (Nasdaq: CSUN) as it was down $2, a near 15% drop, buying 200 shares at $13.86, a nice safe bet to hold overnight, or so I thought. When the crash continued, and it took out $13, I cursed myself for not waiting until the afternoon. Other solars started to come back, as did the market, so I doubled up, buying 200 more shares at $13.10.
Screw the day trading rules, there was money to be made!
I’d worry about getting restricted later. Average of $13.46 came in handy as it started to rebound, although very slowly, so slowly that it made me worry. I was thinking I should holding this overnight and not risk getting in trouble with yet another day trade, but this quick crash and lack of a quick rebound scared me. After all, I’m better at shorting. Screw it, I sold my 400 shares at $13.55, a pathetic gain, but I secured my account at $14,552, a big $475 up day. Stock now at $14, yet another bad timer, but I hope I’m making my point that even with bad timing, I protect my account (and I obviously more comfortable shorting than longing)
God, I love this game!
No positions right now, I’ll be looking to short these solars overnight…maybe AKNS if it closes negative, but gotta be very careful there.
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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%)
