ONCY's lesson: Don't sell a stock if it is banging the offer

I messed up an easy trade on ONCY today. Lesson: if a stock keeps trading only at the offer (ask) and not at the bid, and the bid keeps rising, it is probably going to continue to go up.

oncy_multiday

+    BOT    1,300    ONCY    false    Stock (SCM)    3.220    USD    SMART    09:32:08        6.50
+    SLD    1,300    ONCY    false    Stock (SCM)    3.300    USD    ISLAND    09:33:20        6.50

ONCY

Here is a screenshot of the time and sales from right before I sold (I sold at 9:33:20). It actually was not just printing at the offer, unlike how I remembered, but it was at least balanced between bid and offer and the bid did not drop after hitting 3.26.

Daily profit: $91.00

Weekly profit: $3583.25

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

0 thoughts on “ONCY's lesson: Don't sell a stock if it is banging the offer”

  1. Thats’ kinda funny really, because it was the only one that Ameritrade had to short for me. I really wanted to short ONCY after it broke it’s HOD but they didn’t have shares of that.
    LUNA was my last choice and I started to hold over the weekend but I puss’d out.

  2. hmm, it seems interactive brokers goes through allot more routing that TOS and others do to search for borrows. On their short list I had shares available for nearly every stock I put up in their shortlist search engine. This was after hours though..

  3. That’s the thing with AMTD is they sometimes have shares of stocks that are hard to borrow, but in general they are horrid for shorting stocks. I can not short any OTC or pink sheet stocks at all, they don’t allow that. But NASDAQ stocks they normaly have a decent borrow list for them.

  4. TOS allows shorts for those stocks, but usually the operator says the have nothing. I ask for 300 shares to short on CHIP and there is nothing. Then I go onto the IB shortstock list and and they have like 5000 shares available to borrow for CHIP. I just don’t understand it. I think cause TOS goes through only one routing firm where I noticed IB had around 15-20 of them listed on their availability lists.

    1. Y’all are wrong. It has nothing to do with how many routes (ECNs, stock markets, market makers) a broker can send an order to. It has to do with the clearing firm and where else a broker can get shares. IB self clears. Lots and lots of penny stock traders use IB because of the low per-share commissions and because it is awesome. IB will lend those shares held by some of its customers to those wanting to short. Furthermore, I think IB can and does borrow shares from other brokers/institutional investors/clearing firms to lend to short sellers.

  5. Let’s not forget, wasn’t TOS acquired by Ameritrade? I used to get great borrows from them 2 years ago when Tim was just starting the new site. Actually, maybe he’s had a lot to do with TOS’s share pool nowadays?

  6. Ok I got a question; How do I get a Gravatar for my comments? I have pictures to use but do not know how to put it in my frame.

  7. is that what they are reaper?? What I had meant was the exchanges. Like for CHIP it will list exhanges like these:

    Exchanges: NASDAQ, BEX, IDEAL, CSFBALGO, CSFBCROSS, DARK1, JEFFALGO, NITEECN, LAVA, DRCTEDGE, DRCTIOI, ISLAND, BTRADE, ARCA, DBALGO, LEVELATS, ISE, CBSX, EDGEA, TRACKECN, BATS, IBSX, MIBSX

    1. Nasdaq – stock market
      DirectEdge – ECN (electronic crossing network; google it)
      Island – Nasdaq (the route name is for an ECN they bought I think)
      Arca – ArcaExchange, an ECN owned by the NYSE
      BATS – Better Alternative Trading system

      For some stocks you can route directly to a market maker:

      NITE – Knight Capital Markets, Inc

  8. Ameritrade might have to do something with their shorts. Anyway Im opening a second accound with IB also so I have least have 2 brokers to search from. I really love the customer service with TOS so I’ll keep em a little longer. Probably use it more for buying positions. I hear IB has execution and customer service issues. But I’d be willing to give that up for a better share pool.

    1. Remember even once Thinkorswim is sucked up into the Ameriturd monstrosity and starts to clear through Ameriturd, if they keep the brand separate and allow shorting of a wide array of stocks (as they do now), the borrows could IMPROVE, because the borrows could come from all Ameriturd customers while other Ameriturders can’t short the non-marginable stocks.

      Oh, and IB’s fills are awesome. Its only issue is customer service, and it is rare to deal with them.

  9. sm, that’s my next move as well, opening an account at IB after the first of the year. I look forward to the day that I can short OTC and Pink sheet stocks.
    Michael has always said that a trader needs a little more experience to trade those type of stocks so I have been waiting until I feel that I am making sound and consistent decisions.
    There are so many things that I have to improve on that sometimes it’s overwhelming me. My overall knowledge of trading is very poor.

  10. I don’t know about tough but yeah that’s me with my mom. I told her that I was going to put a photo of us on the web and she didn’t believe me, haha she will see it before long because she cruises your site a little.

  11. thats good to hear that their fills are good. I’m practicing their demo software to get used to the platform. Its a little less complicated than TOS. Hopefully I won’t have to deal with their customer service that much

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