Madaz shorted $TCCO this morning and I wanted to dissect the trade.
First, we know he was watching $TCCO because it was the number one Up Gapper:
At 9:39 AM he tweeted that he had "nailed" it for $5,200 having shorted "4ish average" and covering $3.50.
Now let's look at a micro timeframe chart here, 10 second bars ... that should read "pre-open high $3.70" not "high $3.70."
Later at 9:54 AM he tweeted that he covered his final 2,000 shares at $3.20 bringing the total gain to $5,800 ... $3.20 is 30 cents below $3.50, times 2,000 shares is $600 additional, that makes sense, I guess.
Here's the chart again with the $3.20 level marked.
Finally, he tweets his P&L, which he does every day, win or lose.
What's revealed in the P&L is that he realized $5,942.85 by shorting $TCCO, generating 10 tickets and trading 66,096 shares. I'm not sure if the shares and tickets numbers mean he bought and sold 33,048 shares or bought and sold 66,096 shares, or 5 buys 5 sales, 8 buys 2 sales, 9 buys 1 sale, etc.? Maybe some kind reader can enlighten me via email (or Twitter).
Let's assume that he bought 33,048 shares and sold 33,048 shares to make the $5,942.85. That's almost exactly 18 cents a share. So we have to assume that he is averaging into the position and averaging out of it, and was able to walk away with 18 cents of profit.
If he simply shorted 33,000 shares at $4 and covered 33,000 shares at $3.50, he would be making over $15,000 on the trade, not $6,000. I'm not sure how much of a difference the final 2,000 shares covered at $3.20 can make.
I'm just thinking aloud here, I'm trying to make sense of this.
A bigger question is *why* did he begin shorting where he did to build a 30,000 share position with a 4ish cost basis? Was he "reading the tape" and built the short based on that? This thing traded up to $4.40 ... if he were short 30,000 shares from 4 and it ran on him, would he get out at $4.40? How much slippage would he suffer? Was he willing to risk $12,000 to make $6,000?
I'm just thinking out loud here, trying to make sense of this. I'll update the post as I continue to think about it, and incorporate any other wise people's thoughts, with credit of course!
Two readers have written in with their comments, both full-time traders with many years of experience:
“As to his trading TCCO today your guess is good as mine as to how those 60k+ shares were distributed within the 10 tickets you mention. What I find odd here is that based on his strategy as explained in his various YouTube videos, he doesn’t short unless price is at or below VWAP and below pre-market highs. Maybe he has some nuances to his strategy that I am not aware of, but this particular TCCO trade is opposite of how he “normally” trades short. If he goes long its almost a reverse mirror image of this TCCO short trade. I believe most of his trades are cleared through ETC.
Based upon one of his recent tweets about getting enough rebates to cover commisions, I am led to believe he probably hits bid/ask for entry/exits about half the time, otherwise why “advertise” you covered your commissions with rebates.
From my viewpoint, if his trades are real, he is scaling in and out hiding share size but what is sketchy to me, based upon experience, is that he is able to move 5k-30k lots without moving price dramatically and getting full fills. The volume in the majority of the low floaters he trades in my opinion can’t absorb the share size he is using and getting filled without adversely moving price. I trade them from time to time but the only way I can get multiple thousand lot fills is to piece it out hiding shares at various price levels and even then I end up not getting full fills and have to cross the book and hit bid/ask to close position.”
“First off, it’s 33,000 in and 33,000 out for his total shares. And yes, his risk to reward is completely skewed. I’m not a fan of how he trades. If he got short on this around 4 and especially because of the super low float he could have just bid whacked 10,000 share blocks and knocked the price down himself easily.
There was no reason to cover where he did. He claims to use the three minute chart and if you take a look at it there was no reason to only get such a small piece of that move. I really think the only reason why and how he has made money is because of the sheer size of his positions.
An answer to your question of why he would short there is because we are familiar with the name and also super low floats. You get to know these things over time and this is textbook: it hit half dollar resistance and pulled, and once these pull it’s over and can be pretty safely shorted.
Especially if you look at that last green candle and how big it is on the three minute chart. It’s going parabolic and that’s a dead giveaway that it will pull back. These stocks are a completely different world, but once you get to know them, they are highly predictable. He does know his set ups, but I really think he gets scared out of his trades because he is using too much size. He would be way more profitable if he sized down even a little bit.”