Stop Shorting Penny Stocks Randomly, This Isn’t CNBC, I Want You To Profit!

I’m seeing a lot of comments/emails from people re-shorting these pump and dumps waaaay late in the game, just because they missed profiting from the initial dump. Here’s a tip—STOP!

Yes, these companies are all crap (okay, okay 99.9%, but this is the last time I’ll ever qualify that), but you gotta understand crap companies can and do rise faster than quality companies for several reasons:

a.) there’s no pesky actual businesses to get in the way of hyping / putting out fraudulent / exaggerated press releases so investors must only be convinced of the dream, not the execution of the dream, which is helpful considering the harsh reality / inevitable failure of these companies

b.) no pesky morals or ethics instilled in those who manage such companies / promote such stocks  

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I Had A Rough Day aka No Playboy Centerfolds For Me :(

COIN’s $1 spike at the open makes me feel better about covering too early last week, gotta be careful with momo plays in this sneakily-emerging bull market. MALL and VVTV displayed the exact same kind of forced buying Thursday into the close, same dip afterhours, so I awoke early to reserve shares of each, fully expecting big drops growing bigger throughout the day (return to normalcy). No MALL available so my focus was on VVTV. Shorted 600 shares at $5.90-ish pre-market, didn’t want to take a full position in case of morning spike…at the open there was a wall of sellers at $5.90 so I doubled up, shorting 400 shares more at $5.87…20 min in, looking good at $5.70, but instead of taking my $175-ish in profits, I got greedy, rationalizing this should retrace all the way down to $5-$5.25…mistake #1

Overall market exploded upwards, stock held that important $5.70 level (mini-support from Thursday), broke through the wall at $5.90 (bad for shorts like me!), spiked to $6…I still held, thinking it was a multi-day holder—especially with earnings coming up and their tendency to screw up…back down to $5.90, but held…gotta cover when former resistance becomes support…I didn’t…mistake #2  

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Yup, Even A $12 Loss Offers Important Trading Lessons

Why bother detailing a $12 loss? Because every trade matters, the good, the bad and the scratches. Important lessons are everywhere…

Shorting 400 COIN at $8.78 right before the market close on Wednesday turned out to be a good idea. I shorted because the stock was breaking down over multiple time frames, intraday, multi-day and multi-week, failing to hold keep support at $9 that I’d expected to put up more of a fight. And the daily wall of sellers have entered. Oh yeah and the company is a true POS—no pumpers or Garty the faux guru—can change that. Only problem was I had a Thursday morning meeting so it’d have to tank quickly or I’d have to risk it while I was away from the computer.

Since TIM is so tiny (must protect every $ to get the magical $25k SEC freedom hump), I’ve never used stop losses and COIN is known for squeezing shorts, holding was out of the question. In after-hours action Wednesday night, I tried taking a $100ish gain at $8.51, but discovered Thinkorswim closes after-hours action at 6:30pm. Wasn’t that pissed until the next day when the stock gapped higher to the low $9s.  

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Timothy Sykes Is Sssssssso Ssssssstupid!

TIM $15,688, Down $140, You Can Do So Much Better Than Me!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh what a stupid, stupid, stupid loss, I feel like this guy:

The beautiful thing about PennyStocking is that you don’t have to scan through thousands of stocks every day, looking for the latest and greatest. No, it’s best to trade stocks that have been in play for the past few days so plenty of fickle day traders are involved. That way they’ll be volatile and liquid, two qualities most needed to give you the best odds of profiting 5-20% on a trade, long or short. Read some past blog posts and you can see me transitioning from one stock to another, whatever fits the patterns I’m comfortable playing.  

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