August 4th recap and watchlist for August 5th

I received some positive comments on yesterday’s video. In the future I will post trade recaps and watchlists in either video or text, whichever seems most appropriate for the job at hand.

Today was an all GGC day. I messed up my first trades, going long GGC (as I suggested in my watchlist from last night) on its cross of $27 (breaking yesterday’s highs). Besides messing up by having too tight of a stop (about 50 cents for my mental stop), I was unlucky.

BOT    200    GGC    false    Stock    27.3300    USD    SMART    09:31:35        1.00
+    SLD    200    GGC    false    Stock    26.870    USD    SMART    09:32:22        1.00

After my first attempt at buying I got back in and was stopped out again a mere 12 cents above the day’s low. Luck plays a critical role in trading.

BOT    200    GGC    false    Stock    27.1600    USD    NYSE    09:34:17        1.00
+    SLD    200    GGC    false    Stock    26.615    USD    ARCA    09:34:57        1.00

But no matter, that was only a $205 loss on the pair of trades. When GGC spiked to $47.19 (up almost 100%) I looked to short as it faded. While Interactive Brokers had no shares, Penson did:

GGC 200 shares shorted 39.8189 covered 35.81

I got almost exactly $4 per share on 200 shares, netting +$801.77. Overall, not a great day but not bad either.

+$596.77 for the day.

While I missed playing it, NLS from last night’s watchlist behaved nicely and would’ve made a nice short. VHC was down a little more. FRNTQ was up big.

Watchlist

GGC – Could be a nice short on green/red action.

FRNTQ.pk – Will be a good short on green/red action someday soon. Currently there are shares at IB.

WUHN – Up 60% on no news with huge volume? This thing will very likely be up big tomorrow too. Buying it when it breaks today’s high of $3.51 would probably work. Short on breaking below today’s close (but it is unlikely to do so).

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

0 thoughts on “August 4th recap and watchlist for August 5th”

  1. You have a small typo in your update, 25.81 should read 35.81.
    That was a great trade after you loss twice on it, I guess you have to stay focused all day, not just part of the day. Opportunities are always there in some shape or form.
    Thanks for the advice about round numbers. I made some mistakes today as usual but I do understand what they were so I will learn.
    I am going to start following your watchlist and trying to see how and what you look for and your setups after you post your updates that evening.

    I’m really enjoying what you have going on here, short, simple and direct.
    The strategies you have here, are they yours, fat finger and pre-leader, is that something your developing.

  2. Al – I am using a small introducing broker. They cater to high-frequency traders and those with large accounts. My broker there (I trade online, but I have an account representative) was Tim Sykes’ broker when Sykes had his hedge fund. Sometimes having more money / influence doesn’t mean much — I would be just as happy with SpeedTrader and their lower commissions (and clearing through Penson as well). I originally went with this broker so I could clear through Goldman (they do that as well) and get their borrows, but I was unimpressed with Goldman over the last year. IB is the best and Sogo is second best, bar none.

  3. Preston – thanks for the note on the typo. A key lesson from today is a good trader will not let a loss or two get in the way of continuing to trade. Stocks like GGC quite rare, so as long as I am not emotionally messed up from the loss I am going to look to trade it if I can predict it.

    Read Tim Sykes’ book if you haven’t. He often would lose money shorting stocks early but he usually stuck with it and made money.

    On my new “Trading Profits” page I describe some of my trading strategies. I will add detail to that over time. The pre-leaders strategy I got from Muddy over at InvestorsUnderground (he has an old blog at http://greenonthescreen.blogspot.com/ that has good info on all his methods)

  4. Ok, so several lessons today; Get Tims book, I will re-read that blog as I understand more now than I did when I read it. Emotions, as you have said time and time again are your worst enemy.
    And surely I need to open an account when possible at IB and I will do that in time.
    Thanks for all of your help, I really appreciate it.
    Stocks I recieved in my alerts;
    NVSR, TGLN. These are new companies with no history. I’m only tracking for the documentation of the sender.

    Preston

  5. Is that green/red on todays price or yesterdays?
    I picked up TZA before opening for a scalp, looking good so far.
    I will not get greedy on this, just looking for small profit.

  6. when it goes below yesterday’s close is what I normally mean by green/red (and same with going above yesterday’s close for ‘going green’.

    I could never play those 2x or 3x ETFs profitably so I stopped trying.

  7. I just got lucky, it was set up this morning for a good risk/reward IMHO. Of course I have done this before and watched a 100 gain go into a 200 loss in minutes.
    I’m out now for a 200 dollar profit, makes up for my bad trades yesterday.
    I will have to learn that green/red because GGC looks good now to short for me, flawed thinking on my part.
    I do understand that the risk/reward is better after red, and I read that again from Muddy and that is great information. It’s the opposite of what I use to think.
    WUHN has a lot of action today on very low volume.

  8. When I get a chance I’ll post some charts of a couple of my greatest Sykes-type trades, USS and SIL. I think they will enlighten. With these huge-run stocks like GGC (Sykes calls them Supernovae) a few bucks here or there doesn’t matter. When they collapse they usually fall big on the first down day and the following day.

  9. Ok thanks, anything you have I would like to see.

    AWSL is being pumped by penny stock chaser, here is a chart.
    http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=awsl

    They have some suckers buying into the rise of oil and the need for solar. It will surely fall quick, this is another one I’m watching to verify the source.

    Here is the e-mail from them, for information only.

    TGLN and NVSR are huge winners on solid volume – Members should keep buying the momentum and lock in more profits

    MOMENTUM IS JUST CRAZY GOOD ON TGLN AND NVSR.

    BOTH TGLN AND NVSR LOOK GOOD FOR A DOUBLE HERE.

  10. AWSL shares available to short at IB too. By the time these things fall there usually aren’t shares though (like with USCN today and yesterday).

  11. My short here on GGC just like where Tim shorted on USS–the momentum has died and this is slowly fading but it is still not negative on the day. (see my twitter feed, I’m short GGC from 35.51). Shoulda taken profits at $34 though.

  12. Ok, I just joined twitter.
    Good luck with GGC, what do you think about WUHN now. It pretty much did what you said and it doesn’t look like it’s going to break down. But it does look like it’s stalled for the moment, and very low volume.

    AZO is really falling, it may get ugly in a few days as people bail out because of the vehicle trading going on. Thats the only reason it was up because of speculation of people doing their own repairs.
    I’ve had it redthumbed in CAPS for some time now, and I went long AAP thinking their prices would draw together. I was looking for those types of things after your trading blog came out.
    Now that I’m thinking, maybe short AZO and long F. these would be longer term though.

    If I click on your link to Tim and buy his book does that give you comission? I only noticed the DVD’s but I will try to find the book. And thanks again.

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