IAAPA, Cygnus and the iPhone of Ticketing

Tags: CYGT, Expos, Pictures

IAAPA is no ordinary expo. This year over 27,000 people attended, not only because it’s the attraction industry’s largest annual event, but because it’s hella fun! After all, the 1,000 exhibitors trying to sell their products by showing you how fun they are. Check out the pics:

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Yup, that’sme in that crazy inflatable futuristic sumo suit—right before I got taken down hardcore by my fifteen year-old opponent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I definitely need to bring a real camera next time instead of relying on my alleged 3 megapixel camera on my phone (no way this is even 1 megapixel!). Anyway, in addition to having the hottest models of any exhibitor, Sega showcased their 3-D Theater which really rocked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh yes, the reason for me attending the expo in the first place—Cygnus (Other OTC: CYGT.PK) was debuting their new ticketing platform aka my only hope at salvaging my “investment” in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a word: incredible.

 

Not only did I get a chance to have a long chat with their new CEO—Steve Brown, a somewhat confident yet conservative man—but I got to see how excited everyone—and I do mean everyone: Six Flags, Hershey, assorted zoo and museum directors—was about this new software. As Steve Brown says, “it’s the iPhone of ticketing”.

 

To give you a little background, Cygnus has always had an amazing online ticketing platform—how else could this tiny company win the contracts to handle the entire online ticketing operations of industry leaders like Six Flags, Universal Studios, Hershey Park and Cedar Fair—but they never had a front-gate solution and this lack of a comprehensive package hurt them when bidding on contracts.

 

 

Long story short, this new platform handles everything: online, front gate, kiosk, mobile (now through a deal with Shoptext, Cygnus sells tickets by text messages). It’s a clean-looking feature-rich checkout platform that should really win everyone over, attractions and consumers alike. Attraction execs love it because it upsells customers with add-ons (decreasing the need for expensive-to-train seasonal employees and not unlike companies that have had massive success with this: Vistaprint (Nasdaq: VPRT) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN). Think, you’re buying 3 day passes and the software asks you if you’d like to upgrade to 3 season passes for $25 more.

 

Perhaps more importantly, no longer will consumers have to keep navigating back to their shopping cart page—now, after an attraction (or dare I say any company) inserts a few lines of code into their website, the shopping cart will appear on the right hand side of every page. This simple innovation could be huge for ticketing sales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, yeah, I’m excited. Maybe even moreso because the new CEO seems deadest on cutting costs, controlling expenses and growing this company only after this new platform has been tested extensively and all the bugs worked out. It’s going to be a long journey, but I’m encouraged by news that they will be handling all the ticketing for the Columbus Zoo (while it’s just a stupid zoo, like the animals they house, these zoos move in herds, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see further customer wins). Of course, the stock probly won’t benefit unless they start getting a lot of small contracts or one big one. Financing definitely wouldn’t hurt either!

Warning: Timothy Sykes and the Easter Bunny have positions in CYGT.

 

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Day Trades Today and More Potential Plays

Tags: CYGT, Expos

TIM $13,980 (down $70 on the day)

Overall market today—boring , lifeless, not worth detailing.

IAAPA /
ance.yahoo.com/q?s=cygt.pk”>CYGT —After trying out Sega’s 3D theater (which rocks!) and going on some cool rides, I got to see CYGT’s new ticketing technology firsthand. It’s amazing. Stock performance aside (barely any trading volume today), they’ve spent a year working on this new software and it shows—I’ll have a detailed post this weekend when I can attach some screenshots and pics from the expo.

CSIQ —decent pre-market strength (up 50 cents or so), no gap-up whatsoever though, early morning spike ($2!), but then a gradual fade throughout the rest of the day. The spikes are nice, but before I go long, I want the stock to show me that it can hold its gains! Still watching it, but highly doubtful I’ll do anything.

QSC —I short sold 500 shares at $4.09 right near the market open because, after opening down 10%, I thought it might crack the technically important $4 barrier and then panic selling would bring it down to the $3.50-$3.75 range, at which point I’d cover for a quick $150-$250 in profits. I was right about the stock cracking $4, but it only got down to the $3.85 range and I decided to hold for larger gains. I liked the afternoon action (stayed negative, fading trading volume), but became worried when the stock closed strongly into the close (breaking past the mid-day spike price of $4.20). Considering Friday is the worst day of the week to be short and my 7am flight back to NYC means I’ll miss the market open—I covered my 500 shares after hours at $4.35 for a nasty little $140 loss (including commissions). It’s too early to tell if this was just a fakeout to scare shorts like me, but I can’t risk an early morning spike when I’m not gonna be around to do anything about it! Tough trade, but a good exit, no matter what happens tomorrow.

SMRT —glad I didn’t short it as I was 100% right that after a pretty decent drop, there’s not much downside left right now. Still on my watchlist, but probably won’t touch it.

XRM —very nice bearish price action all day (each bounce met with selling, finished near the lows)—still have my 300 shares short from $5.82, I expect further weakness, even if the trading volume will most likely remain minimal. Ideally, I’ll buy to cover my short position in the low $5 range ($200ish profit) And, guys stop worrying about that one insider buy—you’ve been brainwashed—insider buys are usually meaningless , especially when the resulting price action increases a company’s marketcap by $50 million!

JRJC —Damn! Perfect technical crack off the resistance (former support) in the $31-$32 range, now back down to $28ish. Shoulda woulda coulda shorted 100 shares yesterday for an easy $300 profit today. Def. won’t be the last trade I miss–just a part of trading.

GSOL —Wow! I knew this company had run up on Alibaba hype and that it looked a little pricey, but I had no idea how pathetic their earnings would be! I mean c’mon—you’re a Chinese e-commerce/B2B play and your revenues are only growing around 15% annually??!?! Please, even my crappy little CYGT is growing faster than you guys! And, what’s worse, they still haven’t figured out how not to sound defensive in their PR “…management still expects revenues to be up…” Even after the drop today, this is a company trading with a forward PE of 30! Hint: only premium companies deserve premium valuations. I’d short this if I had patience, but it’s now a fundamental play and TIM doesn’t have the assets to wait for a 20-30% move that could take months to play out.

Friday’s Potential Plays—Local.com (Nasdaq: LOCM ) look interesting for a potential short (on some puffy licensing news today ), but it’s too early to take a position (this one can really run). I’ve got 2 media interviews tomorrow afternoon so my trading will be slim to non-existent. But I’m not missing much as I just spent a few hours looking for interesting plays and nothing popped up—this tends to happen in bear markets.

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IAAPA Expo, Stock Picks and An American Hedge Fund Book Review

Tags: Book Reviews, CYGT, Expos

TIM $14,050 (down $28 on the day, up $1,635 or 13.17% in 9 days)

IAAPA —Spent the morning and early afternoon at this expo and I’m going back again tomorrow. I thought it’d be boring, but I underestimated those
392.jpg”>crazy bastards who work in the attractions industry—there’s rides, games and fun for everyone—if you’re in Orlando this week, come on down! (Just wait ‘til you see some pictures)

Overall Market/Economic Numbers/ News from Corporate Giants—Irrelevant! (I just love how people think they need to digest all this crap in order to trade successfully)

CSIQ —Solar play (that was in contention to be part of my Solar’s Eleven ) reported blowout earnings…managed to breakout to an all-time high (and sloppy cup and handle chart pattern) in the early afternoon, but couldn’t hold on. I thought about buying some into the close for the probable gap up, but I’m going to see a demo of CYGT’s new technology tomorrow morning, making gap up plays—especially on volatile stocks like this—too risky for my blood.

CYGT —nosed around their exhibit today—lots of Six Flags, Hershey and other people milling about (me gusto mucho). Stock showed some nice buying at 12 cents today, but the spread is ridiculous and makes me glad that I sold out TIM out at 11 cents. Probable further upside, simply because it’s so cheap and there’s so little dollar trading volume. Even though TIM is out, I, along with practically everyone else I’ve ever met still has a ton of shares so here’s to the slim chance of the comeback of the century!

QSC —biotech play continues their exponential run-up… I love it! I thought about shorting it into the close, but I don’t like shorting exponential plays until they go negative (or in this case, crack $4/share). Probable short tomorrow, but it’s gotta be confirmed by the price action first. (This blog is helping me become more disciplined!)

SMRT —textbook reversal and I reallyyyyyyy wanted to short this sucker into the close, but I procrastinated (not wanting to risk a late day bounce) and by the end of the trading day, it was already down a ton. Stock probly will fall another 50 cents pretty easily, but, it could bounce just as quickly and with my IAAPA schedule booked for tomorrow, this isn’t something I want to be in.

EDA —lack of trading volume / confirmation of breakout makes me happy I wrote this off as too boring for TIM and basically anybody with a pulse.

XRM —the one stock I took a position in today (short sold 300 shares at $5.82 right before the close). I highlighted this one yesterday as a play that I think will soon reverse. This is just a small position (12% of TIM assets) and I’m willing to add into strength, but I fully expect a drop of 50 cents or more from the current $5.88 closing price in the coming days as the stock showed particular afternoon weakness, nearly finishing negative on the day.

JRJC —incredible bounce right back to near where the old support (now resistance) sits in the $31-$32 range. Since this is a textbook bounce that will probably fail, I was thinking of shorting 100 shares to scalp it for $2-3/share to the downside—but earnings are next week and I’m expecting blowout numbers so shorting is extra-risky here. Watching form the sidelines.

DTV —has gotten crushed due to DISH’s pathetic earnings report. I’m still interested—since I still love DTV fundamentally—but I hate stocks that fakeout breakout, so I’m just watching and waiting here.

INOD —great earnings today, should continue to be strong, put on my watchlist for possible buy.

And, definitely, definitely most importantly, I just got another glowing book review from Richard Wilson, a hedge fund consultant, who calls my book a “Great read for a trader, or anyone aspiring to be a trader or start their own hedge fund…”

I’m getting a ton of emails from people who think I should focus 100% of my time on trading “to get my credibility back”—to you people, I say, “Screw you! ” As much as I want to make $1.65 million as quickly as possible, I’ve learned to live a more balanced life (somewhat) as I think it helps my trading (not to mention my sanity). So, instead of devoting 18 hours/day to the market, I’ll probably devote 15 or so—the rest of the time, I’ll be enjoying fun events (like IAAPA), writing this blog, doing any and all interviews (gotta spread the word about responsible financial speculation!), speaking (I’m available—get ready University of Arizona Investment Club!) and replying to emails. Ideally, I’ll show that you don’t have to watch the markets 24/7 since—and I really believe this—the greatest opportunities stand far above the typical market noise.

Warning: TIM has a position in XRM…Timothy Sykes and the Easter Bunny have positions in CYGT.

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider some of these stocks to be small-cap stocks. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

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