Fat Fingers – Goode Trades

Trade recap for May 12th

Mentions of AEHI in chat:
[May 12, 2010 12:00:56 PM EDT]    JC      AEHI hod
[May 12, 2010 12:17:32 PM EDT]    JC   AEHI seems pumped hmm
[May 12, 2010 12:22:32 PM EDT]    JC   frigging… AEHI new hod
[May 12, 2010 12:24:59 PM EDT]    SteveS   AEHI how high will that go?!
[May 12, 2010 12:28:03 PM EDT]    Reaper   AEHI omg
[May 12, 2010 12:28:09 PM EDT]    JC   wtf…AEHI..
[May 12, 2010 12:30:28 PM EDT]    Reaper   shorting a bunch of AEHI … very risky
[May 12, 2010 12:30:46 PM EDT]    Reaper   short 3100 AEHI @ .97055

IFLG a nice short (in SogoElite, not shown below):
[May 12, 2010 2:57:57 PM EDT]    Reaper   shorted 1k IFLG @ 5.35 @ sogoelite … very tight 10 cent stop
[May 12, 2010 2:58:50 PM EDT]    Reaper   I like the big offers on IFLG @ 5.37 and 5.40
[May 12, 2010 3:05:59 PM EDT]    Reaper   covered 500 of my IFLG @ 5 still short 500
[May 12, 2010 3:09:42 PM EDT]    Reaper   out IFLG @ 5

My trades today (except those at SogoElite):
BOT   1,000   AMEL   false   Stock   1.3100   USD   SMART   10:26:48       5.00
BOT   1,000   AMEL   false   Stock   1.3100   USD   ARCAEDGE   10:27:22       5.00
SLD   2,000   AEHI   false   Stock   0.9300   USD   SMART   12:27:34       9.30
SLD   100   AEHI   false   Stock   1.3400   USD   SMART   12:28:53       1.00
+   SLD   1,000   AEHI   false   Stock   1.030   USD   SMART   12:30:22       5.00
BOT   1,500   AEHI   false   Stock   0.6000   USD   SMART   12:45:10       4.50
BOT   1,600   AEHI   false   Stock   0.6500   USD   SMART   12:58:53       5.20
+   BOT   5,000   DIVX   false   Stock   7.235   USD   SMART   15:48:17       25.00
+   SLD   2,500   DIVX   false   Stock   7.300   USD   ARCA   15:48:52       12.50
+   SLD   2,500   DIVX   false   Stock   7.400   USD   ISLAND   15:49:12       12.50
+   SLD   500   DIVX   false   Stock   7.510   USD   SMART   15:50:58       2.50
+   BOT   500   DIVX   false   Stock   7.550   USD   SMART   15:54:12       2.50

09:53:31   PRWP   B   0.8   1630   NITE
10:22:18   PRWP   S   0.83   1185   NITE
10:19:11   PRWP   S   0.83   445   NITE

Daily profit: $2,193.60

AEHI Intraday chart

Disclosure: No positions in any stocks mentioned. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

Trade recap for November 12th: Reverse pseudo-arbitrage

Good recap today that explains how I practice share-class pseudo-arbitrage. Watch it.

+   BOT   1,000   CNLG   false   Stock (SCM)   1.815   USD   ARCA   09:36:18       5.00
+   SLD   1,000   CNLG   false   Stock (SCM)   1.850   USD   SMART   09:45:23       5.00
+   SLD   1,000   PLA   false   Stock   3.930   USD   SMART   11:39:39       5.00
+   BOT   1,000   PLA   false   Stock   3.830   USD   SMART   11:44:16       5.00
+   BOT   400   VRMLQ   false   Stock   21.500   USD   SMART   12:49:06       2.00
+   SLD   200   VRMLQ   false   Stock   22.450   USD   SMART   12:55:49       1.00
+   BOT   1,200   KNDI   false   Stock (SCM)   4.014   USD   DRCTEDGE   13:56:07       6.00
+   SLD   200   VRMLQ   false   Stock   23.260   USD   SMART   13:56:20       2.00
+   SLD   1,200   KNDI   false   Stock (SCM)   4.050   USD   SMART   14:10:12       6.00
SLD   30   BRK B   false   Stock   3396.70   USD   NYSE   14:53:56       1.00
BOT   1   BRK A   false   Stock   101965.00   USD   NYSE   14:53:58       1.00
BOT   1   BRK A   false   Stock   101989.00   USD   NYSE   14:56:02       1.00
SLD   30   BRK B   false   Stock   3396.54   USD   NYSE   14:56:37       1.00
+   BOT   400   VRMLQ   false   Stock   22.268   USD   SMART   15:43:27       2.38

Daily profit: $684.23

Disclosure: Long 60 BRK-B, short 2 BRK-A, long 400 VRMLQ. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for September 3rd

I messed up what could have been a nice trade in IPII and ended the day with a tiny profit.

+   BOT   200   SVA   false   Stock   10.320   USD   SMART   09:30:52       1.00
SLD   200   SVA   false   Stock   10.35   USD   SMART   09:31:12       1.00
+   BOT   200   OXM   false   Stock   16.800   USD   NYSE   09:33:47       1.00
+   SLD   200   OXM   false   Stock   17.370   USD   DRCTEDGE   09:35:44       1.00
+   SLD   2,000   IPII   false   Stock (SCM)   2.400   USD   ISLAND   10:16:31       10.00
+   BOT   2,000   IPII   false   Stock (SCM)   2.428   USD   DRCTEDGE   10:30:49       10.50

Daily profit: $39.50

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

August 18th trade recap: Blah, day 2

It probably wouldn’t have been so blah if my quotes at IB had been working in the premarket. I missed huge gains in RTK and AXL. Instead I made $14.01 by buying RDN and AFN. Both AFN and RDN were pre-leader longs. I played them both well; they just did not continue to go up.

+   BOT   1,500   AFN   false   Stock   .920   USD   NYSE   09:33:55       7.50
+   SLD   1,500   AFN   false   Stock   .930   USD   DRCTEDGE   09:39:32       7.50
+   BOT   200   RDN   false   Stock   8.040   USD   SMART   10:42:49       1.00
+   SLD   200   RDN   false   Stock   8.120   USD   SMART   10:52:49       1.00
+$14.01

I also bought my 249 shares of ZRBA.

BOT 249 ZRBA false Stock (SCM) 3.75 USD ISLAND 11:36:43 1.24

AXL I bought late in the day as it hit a new high. I played it too big considering how poor I am at these. If I had played it smaller I would have probably held overnight for a likely gap-up.

+ BOT 1,000 AXL false Stock 5.700 USD SMART 15:35:32 5.00
+ SLD 1,000 AXL false Stock 5.750 USD NYSE 15:37:33 5.00
+$40.08

MERC another fat-fingered short, far from ideal. I covered literally 10 seconds before it plunged 20 cents. Oh well.

+   SLD   3,000   MERC   false   Stock (NMS)   1.500   USD   SMART   15:50:08       15.00
+   BOT   1,500   MERC   false   Stock (NMS)   1.460   USD   DRCTEDGE   15:53:47       7.50
+   BOT   1,500   MERC   false   Stock (NMS)   1.500   USD   ISLAND   15:55:06       7.50
+$30

Today’s Profit: $84.09

Disclosure: Long 249 ZRBA. I have a disclosure policy.

August 5th Trade Recap

Another video recap today.

Here are my trades:

Short GGC 1000 35.514
Cover GGC 1000 37.16
($1626.00)

GGC was bouncy and my entry wasn’t great. I should’ve shorted at $36.80 on break of $37 resistance, not on break of the day’s low.

+   BOT   6,000   SCLN   false   Stock   4.164   USD   ARCA   14:58:19       30.00
+   BOT   6,000   SCLN   false   Stock   4.173   USD   ARCA   14:58:22       30.00
+   SLD   4,000   SCLN   false   Stock   4.220   USD   BATS   15:00:36       20.00
+   SLD   6,000   SCLN   false   Stock   4.214   USD   BATS   15:00:52       30.00
+   SLD   2,000   SCLN   false   Stock   4.320   USD   BATS   15:11:49       10.00

SCLN was a TimAlert. +$661

+   SLD   0   ICOG   false   Stock   .000   USD   SMART   16:16:17       30.00
+   BOT   0   ICOG   false   Stock   .000   USD   SMART   16:16:27       4.50
+   BOT   0   ICOG   false   Stock   .000   USD   SMART   16:15:51       23.00

I had made $980 on ICOG but the Nasdaq canceled all those trades so instead I lost the $57.50 I paid in commissions.

Overall profit today: ($1,022.50)

FRNTQ.pk and WUHN did what I exptected them to do. WUHN a bit too choppy and too wide of a spread to easily trade. FRNTQ.pk easy short but I was distracted; I had a sell order ready but didn’t execute because it was already down 10%. At one point it was down 42% on the day.

Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.

July 31st trading recap

As I wrote last night, I have some house-guests, so this is a short post.

Here are today’s trades, with little comment:

+ BOT 200 GGC false Stock 16.410 USD SMART 09:31:38 1.00
+ SLD 200 GGC false Stock 17.610 USD SMART 09:41:51 1.00

GGC was negative in pre-market. I bought it just a minute after open after it jumped green. I had incredible patience for me, selling 10 minutes later after it twice failed to take out big offers at $18.10. This turned out just like I thought it would.

+ BOT 800 IBNK false Stock (NMS) 1.829 USD BATS 10:01:47 4.00
+ SLD 800 IBNK false Stock (NMS) 1.760 USD SMART 10:16:04 4.00

Pre-leader long on breakout to new high. Small trade. My winning ratio on this type of trade is poor and I net about breakeven overall.

BOT 200 GERN false Stock (NMS) 8.8397 USD SMART 11:12:34 1.00
+ SLD 200 GERN false Stock (NMS) 8.970 USD ARCA 11:13:50 1.00

Bought on red/green (a bit slow). Halfway decent trade.

BOT 500 INO false Stock 2.01 USD BATS 11:21:02 BookTrader 2.50
+ SLD 500 INO false Stock 2.040 USD ISLAND 11:22:18 BookTrader 2.50

Pre-leader long. If I had given it more room to run I wold’ve had an easy 30 cent profit.

BOT 500 VHC false Stock 4.38 USD SMART 14:26:39 2.50
+ SLD 500 VHC false Stock 3.898 USD AMEX 14:27:50 2.50

Dumb play on VHC, I had the right idea but I was slow to sell and buy. I am generally bad at quick-moving plays like this that can go either way.

+   SLD   3,000   PAL   false   Stock   3.110   USD   SMART   14:25:52       15.00
+   SLD   3,000   PAL   false   Stock   3.088   USD   ISLAND   14:28:29       15.00
+   BOT   3,000   PAL   false   Stock   3.020   USD   ARCA   14:59:31       15.00
+   BOT   3,000   PAL   false   Stock   3.030   USD   SMART   14:59:48       15.00

PAL was what I call a fat-fingered short. I don’t mind going reasonably large in these; risk/reward is good although this strategy leads to occasional big losses. In this case it was CNBC pumping it. 40 cents (18%) vertical moves in 30 seconds are in general good shorts unless there is real news. It didn’t turn out as I predicted but I still had a halfway-decent profit.

For your reference, here are my year-to-date profits for the above-mentioned trading strategies:

Fat-fingered shorts:

Total Profit	$2,889.99
Avg Profit %	0.55%
Wtd Avg Profit	0.86%

Pre-leaders longs:

Total Profit	$67.89
Avg Profit %	0.66%
Wtd Avg Profit	0.26%

Today I netted +$348.39.

Disclosure: No positions.

The Greatest stock chart of the year: Aspyra (APY)

This is a classic trading post from my investment blog GoodeValue.com. I have added a few more details to the end of this post.

This brought tears to my eyes … never before have I put a limit price on a big order so far below the market price, but alas there were no shares.

Here is how it played out … I caught this on the Scottrade MarketMovers list around $1.50 on the way up, was ready to short as the bid backed down to $1.30, could not find borrows, but hoping that IB could find borrows I placed a limit short for 5,000 shares at 90 cents (yes, 40 cents below market) … no shares became available.

This is the one-hour chart from 3pm EST to 4pm EST today.

This is a perfect example of what I call “fat-fingered shorts” … stocks with little volume where the price and volume shoot straight up on no news. They are likely caused by traders accidentally placing market orders instead of limit orders. This is one of the easiest charts to short sell. I usually run across one decent one a week. Of course, you need to get in on these quick; because of these constraints this is only a viable trading strategy for people who are already full-time daytraders and the potential profit is limited. As of this re-posting on 7/27/2009, my net profit in 2009 from similar trades is $2,505.99, with an average profit margin of 0.79%.

Disclosure: No position.