Akers Biosciences Inc was the stock du jour … AKER did 195,000 trades today. … hard to borrow … I paid between 5.49 and 7.8 cents per share for the borrow (ave. $665 per 10,000 shares) … I was a good boy and didn’t short it prematurely…. waited for 14:35 kill candle and shorted $5.05 ave. There was a really slimy fakeout breakout at 15:34, they did not pick me off but came close, cleaned out both sides of the book beautifully, slow it down and pause to study the Bookmap then. The clock was running out and I covered most at $4.50 into the close and the rest after hours at $4.25 best.
Blows Up Account in CODX
Q: What was your exit plan?
A: I didn't really have one.
I’d like to hear more details about the exact entries and exact exit, preferably with time stamps … he says he was short from an average in the high $3s (initiated on 2/25/20?) and that he added to the trade once it went against him (how much? at what prices? which dates?), and that his broker (EGRP) bought him in in the high $10s (he had no stop loss order in the market) … he had 16,000 shares and lost around $100,000.
Clearly he went on tilt, and doesn’t have a clear plan or method. He wasn’t using a hard stop. He wasn’t sizing his position to his expected loss. Basically he broke every rule in the book, and paid the price (busted out).
He said he was making an average of $1,200 a day prior to this (trading from his cellphone while at day job) … did he have stops in any of those trades? Were they mainly longs or shorts? I’d ask a hundred different questions.
Click to enlarge
Movies Watched -- Hail, Caesar! (2016)
106 minute running time … more smart-assery from the Coen brothers. Making fun of 50’s Hollywood and the studio system, but this isn’t one of their better works, more like inside baseball and a full employment act picture for their buddies. “Not their first dud comedy” is right. Give it a miss.
Wanna lace up what you have on “Hail, Caesar”?
Stock Du Jour, Fri. Apr. 3, 2020, CEI
Camber Energy Inc was the stock du jour … hard to borrow, I paid between 2.88 and 3.78 cents per share (around $333 per 10,000 shares) … CEI did 144,000 trades today Again, it came on my radar a little bit late, but in plenty of time to be tricked and trapped several times before 10AM.
Movies Watched -- The Snake Pit (1948)
108 minute running time … I went to 4x fast forward after a full half hour of normal speed and don’t regret it … a mental illness picture from the 1940s … interesting to see the shock treatments and ice baths … Olivia De Havilland was treated better than the other inmates because she was better looking and listened to Brahms. It was probably an impressive picture for its day, but I couldn’t get into it and don’t recommend it, though John Farr does. You can’t win ‘em all, even when you have Farr screening them for you.
Starring Sigmund Staring
Stock Du Jour, Thu. Apr. 2, 2020, APOP
Cellect Biotechnology Ltd was the stock du jour … hard-to-borrow, I paid 2.16 cents per share ($216 per 10,000 shares) … it did 112,000 trades today with about 12,000 of those being mine (half kidding). I didn’t notice APOP immediately, so the data begins around 9:38 AM.
Stock Du Jour, Wed. Apr. 1, 2020, APT
Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. was the stock du jour … IB had plenty of shares available, which meant I could get in plenty of trouble fighting it.
This is a new feature… I’ll try to post the Bookmap view of the stock du jour every day.
Bookmap Features Wish List Number 04
I wish that you could pin the separated Bookmap chart to the screen so that it stays on top … IB’s TWS and ThinkOrSwim both have this feature:
Lift You Up Another Semitone
Probably my favorite song from the latest? Arctic Monkeys’ album:
Vivus Trade (VVUS) with Bookmap View
Vivus (VVUS) was the HTB du jour (it did 170,000 trades by end of day) … it was so hard to borrow that I had to attempt to locate the shares over and over and over (something microcap HTB players know all about) and when I finally got some they were 35 cents a share! ($3,500 per 10,000 shares). I still took the borrow because I believed I could make around a dollar out of it … watch the video to see how brilliantly I handled this one. As Nona Horowitz famously said, reality bites.