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August 14th trade recap: Nailed Newcastle Investment Corp (NCT)

Yesterday I wrote about Newcastle Investment Corp (NYSE: NCT), saying “Nice move today and after hours it broke multi-month resistance at $1.25. A buy if it breaks $1.25 during regular trading although if it gaps up it will be much riskier.” It opened at $1.23 and quickly broke above $1.25. I hit the ask at $1.30 to buy 1200 shares and soon enough it spiked above $1.50. I sold as it fell off that spike for a not very good exit of $1.43. Overall, a nice 9% profit ($144.00) on an easy trade. A better trader could have profited over 20 cents. I alerted NCT as I traded it on Twitter.

+    BOT    1,200    NCT    false    Stock    1.300    USD    SMART    09:32:13        6.00
+    SLD    1,200    NCT    false    Stock    1.430    USD    NYSE    09:37:10        6.00

My only two other trades today were CHINA and ZAGG, both of which were scalps off of TimAlerts. +$65 on the pair.

+    BOT    2,400    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.648    USD    BATS    09:56:45        12.00
+    SLD    2,400    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.660    USD    ISLAND    10:00:18        12.00
BOT    1,000    ZAGG    false    Stock (OTCBB)    6.1900    USD    SMART    10:31:47        5.00
BOT    2,000    ZAGG    false    Stock (OTCBB)    6.1900    USD    SMART    10:31:49        10.00
SLD    1,500    ZAGG    false    Stock (OTCBB)    6.2000    USD    SMART    10:36:01        7.50
SLD    1,500    ZAGG    false    Stock (OTCBB)    6.2400    USD    SMART    10:36:26        7.50

After I first published this post I made the following attempt at a fat-fingered short on MTXX, forgetting that MTXX has faked me out before. It is a little too high in volume to be good for this:

+    SLD    1,000    MTXX    false    Stock (NMS)    5.510    USD    SMART    15:30:46        5.00
+    SLD    500    MTXX    false    Stock (NMS)    5.600    USD    ARCA    15:32:49    BookTrader    2.50
+    SLD    500    MTXX    false    Stock (NMS)    5.600    USD    SMART    15:33:02    BookTrader    2.50
+    SLD    500    MTXX    false    Stock (NMS)    5.620    USD    SMART    15:35:34    BookTrader    2.50
+    BOT    2,500    MTXX    false    Stock (NMS)    5.604    USD    ISLAND    15:47:21        12.50

($115.66)

Today’s Profit: $93.34

Weekly Profit: $573.93

I am holding DNE over the weekend, although that is looking less and less attractive to me.

Disclosure: Long 10,000 shares of DNE. I have a disclosure policy.

Watchlist for Friday August 14th

Short and sweet tonight. I’m not a fan of being short over the weekend so I’m not aggressively looking to short anything.

TRX, Inc. (TRXI):  Nice big two day move on no news and fade after morning spike today. Would be a short on green/red action but it is lower volume and lower-priced so I will likely not trade it.

Newcastle Investment Corp. (NCT):  Nice move today and after hours it broke multi-month resistance at $1.25. A buy if it breaks $1.25 during regular trading although if it gaps up it will be much riskier.

Craft Brewers Alliance, Inc. (HOOK):  Beautiful move today. I almost bought it but instead bought TPI as it was a late hit to the pre-leader list; I was scared off because of lower volume.

GRRF:  Arggh. (No reason, just wanted to say that; too low of volume to interest me.)

Tucows Inc. (TCX):  Way lower volume so it doesn’t interest me too much, but that is a nice breakout on big volume relative to what it normally trades with.

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

Trade recap for August 13th

Video trade recap today. I will offer little written explanation.

TPI and PUK were two pre-leader longs

BOT 400 TPI false Stock 4.07 USD ARCA 09:31:15 2.00
SLD 200 TPI false Stock 3.95 USD ISLAND 09:43:17 1.00
+ SLD 200 TPI false Stock 3.910 USD ARCA 09:44:18 1.00
+ BOT 200 PUK false Stock 18.005 USD SMART 09:34:14 1.00
+ SLD 200 PUK false Stock 17.680 USD SMART 09:37:23 1.00

DNE I am long overnight. This is not a normal trade for me.

+ BOT 10,000 DNE false Stock .140 USD ISLAND 10:03:57 9.60

Emmis Communications Corp. (EMMS) was from last night’s watchlist.

+ SLD 7,650 EMMS false Stock .869 USD ARCA 10:06:12 37.88
+ SLD 2,350 EMMS false Stock .890 USD ISLAND 10:09:31 10.46
+ SLD 300 EMMS false Stock .930 USD ISLAND 10:09:54 1.40
+ SLD 500 EMMS false Stock .900 USD SMART 10:10:49 2.50
+ SLD 700 EMMS false Stock .900 USD DRCTEDGE 10:11:00 3.50
SLD 800 EMMS false Stock 0.90 USD DRCTEDGE 10:12:15 4.00
+ BOT 1,300 EMMS false Stock .808 USD ISLAND 10:46:01 6.30
+ BOT 3,200 EMMS false Stock .850 USD EDGEA 10:56:10 16.00
+ BOT 7,800 EMMS false Stock .860 USD EDGEA 11:08:25 36.99

ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG.OB) I played twice. Once anticipating a TimAlert, the second time scalping off of one.

+ SLD 1,000 ZAGG false Stock 6.900 USD SMART 12:39:13 5.00
+ BOT 1,000 ZAGG false Stock 6.755 USD SMART 12:44:35 5.00
+ SLD 1,929 ZAGG false Stock 6.300 USD ARCAEDGE 14:21:43 9.64
SLD 368 ZAGG false Stock 6.3000 USD SMART 14:22:55 1.84
+ BOT 2,297 ZAGG false Stock 6.208 USD SMART 14:28:01 11.48

Today’s profit: $416.78

Disclosure: Long 10,000 shares of DNE. I have a disclosure policy.

August 12th trading recap

BOT    200    WX    false    Stock    12.149    USD    SMART    09:48:18        1.00
SLD    200    WX    false    Stock    11.99    USD    SMART    09:53:25        1.00
($33.88)

WX was a pre-leader; I tried going long (got a horrible fill) on the $12 cross and got whipsawed out. It later hit a high of $13.49. A looser stop or a willingness to get back in when it went back over $12 would have led to nice profits. ADCT was another pre-leader today that ran well; I missed playing it.
BOT    500    DRL    false    Stock    4.060    USD    SMART    10:19:05        2.50
SLD    500    DRL    false    Stock    3.980    USD    ARCA    10:23:08        2.50
($45.00)

DRL has run in the past; in retrospect trying this on the break of $4 was not a good idea (especially considering its multi-day chart).

Daily Profit: ($78.88)

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

Watchlist for Wednesday, August 12th

Not much that interests me for tomorrow:

HLCS: crazy stock, crazy moves recently. It will move, but I have no clue which way. I doubt I will play it.

AVNR: gap and crap on positive (but weak) drug news. Was a good short when it failed to hold 4. I thought about shorting when it broke $3.50 but did not. I do not see much further downside or upside and I will avoid it.

JAZZ: up 20% after hours on positive earnings release. There is no play either way that I see.

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

August 11th recap

Boring day today for me.

AVNR was a pre-leader. I bought on the $4 cross and sold for a fat profit of $0.00 when it failed to move higher. It did not help that the market was down fairly big today. It would have been a great short from there. I thought about shorting it at $3.50 but did not; I do not like shorting fades of stocks up on news and still way green for the day.

BOT    500    AVNR    false    Stock (NMS)    4.030    USD    SMART    09:39:22    BookTrader    2.50
SLD    500    AVNR    false    Stock (NMS)    4.04    USD    BATS    09:40:10        2.50

CHINA was a TimAlerts play. I first played it to scalp a few cents off of TimAlerts subscribers but that did not work so I covered quickly. I held onto 4,000 of my 16,000 shares but covered when it showed some strength at 3pm EST.

+    SLD    6,000    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.710    USD    SMART    12:36:48        30.00
+    SLD    6,000    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.710    USD    ARCA    12:36:50        30.00
+    SLD    6,000    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.700    USD    DRCTEDGE    12:37:21        30.00
+    BOT    14,000    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.700    USD    SMART    12:43:05        70.00
+    BOT    4,000    CHINA    false    Stock (NMS)    2.670    USD    SMART    15:00:23        20.00
+$61.71 overall

Today’s profit: $61.71

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

August 10th trading recap: 3 wins, 1 loss, +$80

SPDE was a nice short on the morning panic. It would have been easy to play it profitably for 40 cents as it went red, just like I said on yesterday’s watchlist. OPXA did almost nothing. Rather than trade SPDE, I saw Rentech (RTK) up big in pre-market trading on a great earnings release. It hit a high in pre-market trading of $1 and then opened around $0.88. Buying it was a good idea:

+ BOT 2,000 RTK false Stock .910 USD SMART 09:30:46 9.10
+ SLD 2,000 RTK false Stock 1.000 USD SMART 09:37:31 10.00
+$160 (8.74%)

Pre-leaders that have strong news but open significantly below their highs in pre-market trading are often great longs. Another good trigger for going long pre-leaders (or any volatile stock) is when it crosses an even-dollar amount.

BOT 1,000 YMI false Stock 1.03 USD ARCA 09:33:35 5.00
SLD 1,000 YMI false Stock 1.10 USD AMEX 09:40:35 5.00
+$60 (5.80%)

YMI was another pre-leader with news (drug news that was not that great in my opinion). I bought it as it crossed $1 (when it was alerted by Muddy in the Investors Underground chat) and I sold it after it backed off of its high of $1.20.

My lone loss of the day was a TimAlerts scalp play that I should never have traded. It was my watchlist stock SPDE that he shorted, but by the time I got the alert it was way off the price he traded it. Some may ask why I scalp stocks that Sykes trades. I do it because it is easy money (as long as I am quicker than most of his subscribers). Rarely does one come across a situation where one can predict exactly when a bunch of buying or selling pressure will occur. It is imperative to derive profit from such circumstances. This does not mean that I do not also often trade alongside Sykes on his alerts: I do. It just means that this is one other little niche for me to profit from. (For those searching for easy profits from mindlessly following Sykes’ trades, be aware that I have made almost twice as much money by making trades in the style of Tim Sykes than by following the trades of Tim Sykes.)

+ SLD 2,000 SPDE false Stock (SCM) 2.630 USD DRCTEDGE 09:41:03 10.00
+ BOT 2,000 SPDE false Stock (SCM) 2.743 USD ISLAND 09:48:00 10.00
($246.00) (4.69%)

My last trade of the day was a traditional Tim Sykes-type trade. I bought a steady runner that was finishing the day strongly, in anticipation of a gap up tomorrow. That stock was of course RTK; I sold it in after-hours trading while dealing with my website troubles. If I had not had to work on my blog I would not have followed it after hours and I would have planned to sell the next morning.

+ BOT 1,000 RTK false Stock 1.270 USD SMART 15:47:57 5.00
SLD 500 RTK false Stock 1.3900 USD DRCTEDGE 17:52:13 BookTrader 2.50
+ SLD 500 RTK false Stock 1.382 USD DRCTEDGE 17:52:15 BookTrader 2.50
+$106.08 (8.32%)

Today’s profit: $80.98

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

Server issues fixed

For some reason both this blog and my GoodeValue.com blog have stopped sending me any sort of emails on August 8. They use different versions of WordPress and are both hosted at 1&1. Even changing from a PHP mail() function to SMTP did not help. Upgrading this blog to the newest WordPress version this afternoon (causing some downtime) did not help. If you have any suggestions please leave them as comments.

It seems like this was a server problem on my web host. All my websites were down for a bit this evening and afterward my website’s email function worked again.

How to scan for pre-market gainers with Interactive Brokers

I often talk about pre-leaders or pre-market gainers. These are stocks that are up in pre-market trading. They often make for good trades. This video shows how to scan for them yourself. As to trading them, I will write about that in the future; I suggest checking out Muddy’s post about pre-leaders in the meantime.

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.