Missions Accomplished: ARNA, SKYT

Well, my Covestor account has me worried (It's starting to look like the Supernova pattern Timothy Sykes has me all too familiar with). I was able to cover two stocks today, ARNA and SKYT. The first was ARNA. Below shows the incredible tanking at market open (the light blue column indicates After Hours trading from last night through today's pre-market). I was torn on this trade. I really didn't want to cover (even though I was showing a profit), but two things got the better of me:

1. It was one of those 'fall off a cliff' openings I was afraid would bounce back at any time (I actually covered on the first big bounce @ 5.95).

2. I was home this morning to watch it- usually a bad thing because my emotions and psychological quirks take over (I'm sure none of you experience this;)



Next came SKYT. I wanted to cover this one today for one main reason: It wasn't up enough imo to short in the first place. I was showing a profit, so when it finally fell a little (low volume stock that moves like once an hour), I covered @ 3.20- you can actually see my 150 shares on any chart.

Still waiting on MAXY to really lose some ground, and PALM to forget it was hyped so much.

Steadily gaining ground on Master Sykes,

Evan

Three Charts, Three Fates

I hope you're having a great weekend! I've decided to post charts of three of the stocks I've shorted over the past two months. You'll notice the same key elements in each of them: Volume gradually fades after spiking, once the seal is broken (first down day after big run-up) the stock gets as volatile as a bull seeing red, and finally the hopelessness sets in as it heads toward normal trading levels. In succession, I give you MAXY, SKYT, and GERN:

I'd just like to thank Timothy Sykes for bringing every single one of these stocks to my attention. I know how to find these types of stocks myself at this point, but if he's already doing the digging for me... :)

My Four Horsemen

So while the world of finance came a-crumblin' down again today, being short MAXY, GERN, PALM, and SKYT (even though SKYT gained .01) paid quite well. Covestor is usually one day behind on updating their clients' portfolio values, but somehow my link (on the right) is two. I can't wait for it to show my most recent shellacking of the S&P. I would rather have the chart showing myself vs. Timothy Sykes (currently #1 on Covestor), but can't figure out how to configure the widget that way (any suggestions?).

I made two trades today, both profitable and loss preventing. I don't mind admitting that the talking heads over at Yahoo! Finance message boards are beginning to get into my head. Seriously, I don't know why I even read the ridiculous posts (9 out of 10 are bias with an agenda), but GERN is a stock focused on stem cell research, a science nobody really knows what to expect from yet. Given that Obama fully supports this type of research, I sold 100 of my 200 shares of GERN today at 7.48. I know, I know- I'm letting fundamentals interfere with my technical positions. I'm still learning the 'true' relationship between fundamentals and penny stocks.

Today was all MAXY needed to finally drift back below my initial buy (how many months ago?), so I covered 100 shares of my 300 at 8.17 near the close. I did this for three reasons:

1. Didn't want to be greedy (been there done that at the end of a down day only to see a gap up the next morning).
2. There was an earnings announcement after close. Don't think MAXY has a prayer (announcement hasn't come out yet 7:27pm 2/10/09), but why risk all 300 shares?
3. The stock downtrended aaaalllll day, and I followed Rule #6 of my strategy.

Unfortunately watching the market tread closer to year lows,

Evan