To Short Sell Or Not To Short Sell, That Is The Question
There are a great many microcraps surging—some look to be potential shorts, while others, you just gotta sit back and watch them play out:
As I’ve repeatedly posted, I’m short (EDEN) cuz it’s the perfect mix: failing company, quick spike followed by gradual fade and most importantly, the spike was caused by erroneous reporting. Forget about guessing games, TheStreet.com handed this to us on a silver platter!
TIGR’s still great to short, but good luck finding shares!
PDO and MXC Two little oil plays that are spiking, be very careful, remember, they’re not pure pumps as they are tied to that strongly performing commodity (that ain’t easy to short…remember the KOG…which itself is breaking above recent highs aka not a short!)
ENT is another small energy outfit trying to spike here, although its spike is rather gradual as it’s seemingly going for a cup and handle breakout…not a short!

Speaking of not shorts, FEED, WSCI and UFPT can never seem to go down—when stocks go up 4, 5, 6, 7 days in a row, they’re obviously not one time pump and dumps and they can go a lot further than you’d ever expect—take a look at this GENC chart below to see what I mean!

If you really insist on shorting higher priced stocks, at least go with one that’s in a nice death spiral like COIN. The agri sector is booming and along with fellow probable fraudster SEED, all it can do is watch…people already know to expect little from SEED, but COIN’s chart looks to be a multi-month breakdown…

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| Date | Stock | Buy | Sell | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 23 | MKTY | $4.73 | $5.40 | $187 |
| July 22 | MKTY | $4.10 | $4.28 | $240 |
| July 21 | ZYXI | $3.03 | $3.18 | $130 |
| July 15 | MNLU | $6.37 | $6.73 | $340 |
| July 11 | IDAE | $2.27 | $2.49 | $630 |
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| July 3 | TGC | $2.14 | $2.39 | $471 |
| July 2 | HYGS | $2.15 | $2.29 | $260 |
| July 2 | TGC | $3.44 | $3.49 | $80 |
Total: $22,457 (
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1timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
EDEN acting perrrrrrfectly, only a few hundred buys at the ask, the rest all at the bid
2Michael Goode
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hey Tim, I joined you on EDEN; IB finally has a ton of shares to short.
3timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
awesome!
4Mike
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
I don’t know if it is my crappy luck or E*Trade’s crappy borrowable shares, but I was never able to find any shares to short for EDEN. Oh well, good luck to you both - looks like it is behaving NICEly.
5bdog
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
What happened to all the stop losses at 2?
6GabeC
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 am
Hey Tim, question. some of the charts i look at seem to triple in a month, sort of gradually, but on a 6 month chart it looks like it went vertical, would u still short it on a second down day? or do u only really look for 5 day pumpers.
7ViciousChicken
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
Ameritrade is killing me lately- I’ve not been able to short TIGR or EDEN!
8timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
thats why u gotta get away from eturd!
turned out there werent many stop losses at $2, u can never be sure until they get taken out or not
9timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
gabe no way to make generalities, give me some tickers
10timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
uh oh solars ar eheating up, nice 10+ days of consolidation/luring in longer term short sellers
11be-the-ball
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
tim,
solars are heating up cause oil is $1000/barrel
12GabeC
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
Here are a couple Tim i am looking at. Trying to do my own research but not sure if im looking at the wrong thing.. seems to fit the profile. CDY, BCST, PESI, RNIN ?
13GabeC
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
PESI looks ripe to short now, 2nd down day?
14timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:37 am
those are all on my watchlist but they’re waaaay too gradual/non-voltile for me, experiences tells me i have lower odds of success there
15Brian
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
hey tim,
what are you thinking about dgly. i know you said their chart looked pretty strong at the end of last week but it has been pretty stagnant in past 2 days with fairly low volume. do you think this is something to short?
16timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:41 am
wheres it gonna go brian? it’s a perfect breakout at $8…meaning that most likely becomes support now…$1 of downside, $1-2 of upside, no thanks
17Tony Ellis
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Head and shoulders bottoms forming in POS solars?
18timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
TE whaaaaaaaaaaaaat solars looking strong, aybe inverse head and shoulders
Covered EDEN at $2.01, got a meeting, not liking the way its not breaking down, ferret-like impatience kicking in, not worth risk of spike iho, another $250ish profit
19GabeC
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 am
Thanks Tim, so stick to 5-10 day pumpers. Cool.. how about NVGN.
20GabeC
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
NVGN 6 month chart looks ridiculous, 3 day pump, 2nd down day.
21timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
nvgn is barely up and its a gradual riser and biotech, avoid
22InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
FEED I took a short position - going to see how it plays out
23Tony Ellis
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:53 am
I didn’t say any looked strong. Just noticed the pattern, may play out may not. The pattern means nothing unless they break out which none of them have.
24Tony Ellis
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Thanks for crediting me with the ASIA pick…lol
25Jeff C
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
SCA anyone?
26timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
I f$#@!en hate when traders say “lets see how it plays out” yes, you might profit, you may not, but there is NOTHING in that chart to warrant shorting, its trades like those that give trading and more specifically shorting a bad name, random random random, u learn nothing, go to the casino!
27InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
GENC I had been monitoring for the short.. nice find - FEED I have a nickel cushion .. has to lose 19.85 then 19.65 to get into any downward spin and scare anyone long out… but I’ll take my chances and cover for a dime loss if need be
28timsykes
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
nice cover on EDEN, now 2.10 x 2.19. off to my meeting, be back in an hour
29InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Ha, I wouldn’t be picking it if I didn’t have a reasoning for it.. or see something that makes me feel like its beginning to a) lose volume, b) make lower highs, and c) stay under a very important area of $20.
I could say I want to cover at 19.51 or 19.25 instead of “lets see how it plays out” but just like you if it jumps up such as KOG, the real deal is.. you really don’t know how it could play out - it is a casino, odds we hope are in our favor but either way still a gamble
30bdog
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
nice cover 2.20 now good nose for it
31Steve
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Tim, check out PPC…has had a big move, is it a short?
32InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
FEED played out as expected covered most for .80 cent profit :) :) :) 19.31 quick $510
33Dan-O
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am
Hilarious
34InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 am
To cover the rest or not to.. that is the question, sweet tank guys! I only have 200 left I covered most of it before
35Dan-O
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
I double dog dare you to hold it for a week
36monkiman
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
made over 1000 shorting TITN, but took a loss on EDEN, its stuck at around the low 2’s, it did go to 1.97 for a while.
37InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Ha yea right I’d expect this to test mid 18s maybe 19 but nothing more.. they did do that raise at 16 so its in someone’s best interest to support it above that… but you never know..
Did you short? if so nice play looked like people were getting bored with it and $20 is one of those numbers that it either holds it.. or tops at it..
38Mike
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
what’s up with EDEN right now?
39bdog
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
This might be a stupid question but if anyone can answer it I would appreciate it….when EDEN bounce up to 2.20 was that from everyone covering their shorts?
40InvestorsLive
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
It could be - could be someone stupidly buying at market (not a limit order) could be shorts getting scared that it was going to bounce and wanted to cut their losses quickly or it could just be traders buying in thinking it was going to $2.50
41Dan-O
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Is ANYONE watching VISN?
42Mike
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
Placing “market orders” has to be the biggest mistake made by beginner investors. Yowsa.
43Dan-O
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Sweet lord UAUA is getting crushed. 1Q loss on high fuel prices.
44ExcelTrader
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
IB (for the moment) has TIGR available for shorting.