Mixed broad tone …HTBs du jour: SOLO (again), RBZ, FUV (latecomer) … scratched a number of marginal things, put on full risk in CYBR (all-time high), no way to reduce risk given time of day. See charts below:
Trading Notes -- 20190213 Wednesday
Poz broad tone … noticed that since Dec there’s never been three consec down days and rarely two, massive uptrend means no tailwind … SOLO the HTB SDJ today … 88,888 trades at day end … PTX the other HTB SDJ … I shorted SOLO (0.02 borrow) in the morning at C&B avoided adding A (fortunately, partly because I didn’t want to pay for yet another borrow) and stopped out for a 1R loss, well played … then they ripped it to 3 no 4 no (after hours) 5 and maybe 6 as I type this … you gotta honor thy stop … recall that I lost a VAST amount of money recently in APHA from what? not honoring my stop, then my head was screwed up so I couldn’t take advantage of it as it fell and I surely would have made it all back and then some … a loss like COTY yday, that’s a fluke, that doesn’t count, I honored thy stop as best I could, no regrets (helped that it was very small size lol) … covered the rest of APHA Typ3, there’s an example of a fine trade which made back most (all?) of my squeeze out loss earlier, my head was still in the right place with that one… some of the late day things I put on yday I scratched, just a waste of time (and commish) .. covered some PTI at an adjusted minC, will scratch the rest if it bounces, it’s dead 3980 trades today … shorted PYX messed up by not getting an add at B but I was busy and there were a million things in play today, at least I got the main size on … shorted YGYI covered minC waiting below with rest … tried to short GSUM, no spot but free borrow made me look hard at it … shorted RKDA, DBD, will see what happens, may end up scratching or taking a loss, who knows.
The Spoiled Children of Liberty
Liked this bit from an interview with Midge Decter in October 2001:
I think we're living as people have never lived before. Never. And we don't know our way. We don't know how to do this. We don't know how to live into our 90s. We don't know how to live without physical suffering. We don't know how to accept hardship, and when it comes, it feels like an injustice. The things that people lived with always throughout history, we--we find ourselves cut off from the sources of human wisdom and experience because this life is so new and we are bewildered. I think we are.
Trading Notes -- 20190212 Tuesday
Snow day, kids home, poz broad tape, COTY tender whammy, not a small cap after all, PYX VKTX TROX CVNA CHGG WORX (0.05 borrow) MIME … lotta earnings, still waiting below in AMRS ARRY PTI … VKTX good and bad
Trading Notes -- 20190211 Monday
May write more later … AVCO SPI PTI OTLK AMRS
Techniques Employed by Manipulative Short Sellers
Found this comical section among the Risk Factors in some Chinese company’s filings:
Techniques employed by manipulative short sellers in Chinese small-cap stocks may drive down the market price of our common stock.
Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has borrowed from a third party with the intention of buying identical securities back at a later date to return to the lender. The short seller hopes to profit from the difference in the sale price of the borrowed securities and the purchase price of the replacement shares. As it is therefore in the short seller’s best interests for the price of the stock to decline, there have been incidents of short sellers publishing, or arranging to publish negative opinions in order to create negative market momentum. While traditionally these disclosed shorts have been limited in their ability to access mainstream business media or to otherwise create negative market rumors, the rise of the Internet and technological advancements regarding document creation, videotaping and publication by weblog (“blogging”) have allowed many disclosed shorts to publicly attack a company’s credibility, strategy and veracity by means of so-called research reports that mimic the type of investment analysis performed by large Wall Street firms and independent research analysts. These short attacks have, in the past, resulted in the selling of shares in the market, on occasion on a large scale and broad base. Issuers with business operations based in the PRC, that have limited trading volumes and that are susceptible to higher volatility levels than U.S. domestic large-cap stocks can be particularly vulnerable to such short attacks.
These short seller publications are not regulated by any governmental, self-regulatory organization or other official authority in the U.S., are not subject to the certification requirements imposed by the SEC in Regulation Analyst Certification and, accordingly, the opinions they express may be based on distortion of the actual facts or, in some cases, fabrication of the facts. In light of the limited risks involved in publishing such information, and the enormous profit that can be made from running just one successful short attack, unless the short sellers become subject to significant penalties, it is more likely than not that disclosed shorts will continue to issue such reports.
While we intend to strongly defend our public filings against any such short seller attacks, oftentimes we are constrained, either by principles of freedom of speech, applicable state law (often called Anti-SLAPP statutes), or issues of commercial confidentiality, in the manner in which we can proceed against the relevant short seller. You should be aware that in light of the relative freedom to operate that such persons enjoy – oftentimes blogging from outside the U.S. with little or no assets or identity requirements – should we be targeted for such an attack and the rumors not dismissed by market participants, our stock will likely suffer from a temporary, or possibly long term, decline in market price.
Market Value of Publicly Held Shares
If you’re a small cap short seller, this is one of the key things you have to understand:
(D) Market Value of Publicly Held Shares
A failure to meet the continued listing requirement for Market Value of Publicly Held Shares shall be determined to exist only if the deficiency continues for a period of 30 consecutive business days. Upon such failure, the Company shall be notified promptly and shall have a period of 180 calendar days from such notification to achieve compliance. Compliance can be achieved by meeting the applicable standard for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days during the 180 day compliance period , unless Staff exercises its discretion to extend this 10 day period as discussed in Rule 5810(c)(3)(F).
Here’s Nasdaq’s Continued Listing Guide (pdf) from January 2019. The market value standard is currently $15 million. Once you know the size of the company’s common share float, you can quickly figure out what price “they” are trying to maintain for 10 consecutive days. Then you act accordingly.
Movies Watched -- Revenge (2018)
108 minute running time. Some French language. Rape-revenge movie, ultra-violent and gory, buckets of blood, not leavened by enough humor, fairly low budget, girl in bikini toting heavy weaponry, this appeals to teenage boys, I guess … you know, sex and violence and “revenge” without any subtlety … no idea why it’s 92% fresh at RottenTomatoes, the rating system there is next to useless… avoid it, unless you’re a certain kind of teenage boy.
Lena Wilson correctly writes: “… though the film makes a valiant effort to subvert a sexist formula by shrouding itself in French art film trappings and pseudo-empowering femininity, it ultimately falls prey to its exploitative roots … the film sets itself up for feminist failure by buying into the violent rape-revenge premise at all.”
Tomb Raider Jen
Movies Watched -- Beast (2018)
107 minute running time and I could have cut out seven minutes to make the sacred 100 minute mark, but it wasn’t overly long, which is the case with nearly every movie made today. I liked this one, even though it’s a W.D. By movie (written and directed by the same guy).
It’s a sort of horror / thriller / mystery. Mental illness, stifling family relations (Mommie Dearest), island life (Jersey) … I liked the class angle (as always) … lead actress was good, really good, amazing red hair, I think she’s Irish, reminds me of Sally Hawkins … movie has a strange vibe which is kind of wonderful, thanks in part to the cinematographer.
It’s not a great movie, but it’s unusual and good enough to get a recommendation from me. Green light, go.
You need help.
Trading Notes -- 20190208 Friday
Weird mixed tone with eod spike (see chart below) … brief notes … quiet Friday … lowered stop on AMRS and they jammed me out which was of course a perfect spot to add, so I instantly re-shorted (revenge trading much?) but I still think I’m right and this was so low-volume shenanigan BS, dummy de-Gentile revealed his big short so now they have to drive him (and me) out … SNNA the only HTB play, miraculously IB got me some shares but not even enough for a full fill on ONE leg, annoying and messes up the whole thing, thank god it worked otherwise I really woulda been annoyed … used bookie broker (0.0369) to short some more but again couldn’t leg in due to PDT, dumb, must get money over there but I’m worried about the bookies booking back to Bermuda or wherever :-) But SNNA a beauty entered C, got no adds (see above) but got lovely minC Typ3 exits for a solid win… if you were playing the morning “flag” breakout you surely woulda been trapped and crushed a real disaster but that never happens to anyone at least on TWTR, ya know… COTY an earnings play and I was a little smartassy shorting the PO B level or at least I think that’s what I was doing, didn’t wait for C which I think is a rule, innit?, but of course it went against me and I was good about not adding in the PM (for once!), will be a small loss if I don’t pull the stop which I very well might since I’m a sicko… ARRY not getting to minC and I wish it would before ToS gives me another margin call in my rapidly diminishing $4K account, lol … HYRE was a yday HTB SDJ and today it did under a thousand trades EOD talk about being StuckAtaProfit don’t worry no one holds overnight with the 7x fee sheesh. BIOC did an offering PO those dirty bastards, I recall shorting $3 just the other day and now it’s $1, but again, 7x ON holding cost. Usually I lose money on Fridays, often lots, but SNNA saved me today (bookie broker borrow the key there).
