Watchlist for July 30 and Today's Recap

ELRN on watch for long, had some good drug news (though not huge). ELRN might be a good buy on early morning strength, particularly on the cross of $7. It was nice today when it hit $7 and popped above $8. On second thought, ELRN probably will not be a buy, considering that it faded gradually all day today after its morning spike.

INO is on watch, I am not bullish or bearish, but considering its huge move today and strong close, it will likely move a lot tomorrow.

OHB remains on short watch. Today I shorted OHB following a certain famous trader’s alert service. I had been watching it all day but missed the entry at $3; my average price ended up being $2.86 on 3,000 shares. I covered at the end of the day for a $390 loss when the stock popped back green. As Yngvai noted on the Tim Alerts blog, I should not have been so concerned about that little spike because small spikes into the close are not necessarily meaningful with illiquid stocks.

I made a couple mistakes: I got in a little too large (a habit I seem to have*) and then my mental stop was too tight. With an illiquid stock like OHB it is smarter to have a looser stop, especially considering how much downside remains.

*I remember I took a multi-thousand-dollar loss last September when shorting WRSP. I had had a huge winning streak and got cocky; my position was something like 5% of the daily volume; I drove the stock up 10% by myself while trying to cover during a short squeeze. I took little comfort from the fact that one month later the company was bankrupt and the stock worthless.

Disclosure: No positions. I am a customer of Tim Sykes and an affiliate of his. I have a disclosure policy that gives details on those relationships.