Stock Du Jour, Wed. May 13, 2020, VTIQ

VectoIQ Acquisition (VTIQ) was the HTB (hard-to-borrow) du jour, doing 152,000 trades and $1.34BB in volume … I paid 9.97 cents ($997 per 10,000) per share for the borrow … this stock was in the $30s (up from $15 five days ago, hee hee) and was very difficult in the morning as it kept on flagging and moving higher, frustrating the early shorts (don’t worry, they were just “dabbling,” with “starter size,” taking mere “paper cuts”) … it finally broke after 11 AM following a frenzied push above $35 (watch the tape below closely at that time … pause it, rewind, you know the drill), and gave me a spot to get short. I traded it after-hours as well, which messed up my averages, but my main entry was above $34, which was nice.

There was a bunch of stuff in play today: SIF, MARK (day two), CREX, CODX, etc. Just a wild amount of action if you’re a day trader … I guess the broad market was down, but HTB land is its own universe and I don’t think the tailwind or headwind from the broad tone makes much of a difference. I also traded CYCC (5.53 cent borrow) and made a hash of it, scalping around long with hotkeys and just producing a lot of paperwork while missing the big move down, bah. I caught SIF pretty well, not perfectly, but not badly either ... then got crap after-hours covers on the majority.

I did not open IB and therefore could not harm myself by shorting various ETBs (easy-to-borrow), which is usually my undoing as I lose thousands of dollars, not in borrow fees, like usual, but in bad trades, where I’m tricked, trapped, and top-ticked out — and of course pay an insane amount of commissions at $0.005 a share. As long as I focus my energies on HTB land via the brookie, good things happen. Until tomorrow, fellow pikers!

Stock Du Jour, Tue. May 12, 2020, MARK

Remark Holdings (MARK) was the HTB (hard-to-borrow) du jour, doing 370,000 trades and $451MM in volume. I did not play it (unfortunately) and focused on NNVC instead. There has been so much in play lately that I’m finding it hard to focus, and yesterday I “forgot” about a resting order in something that got triggered and instantly snapped back giving me a large loss, which I took (could have carried it and hoped for the best (and it would have worked out) but I considered it a mistake that had to be fixed immediately). Also I’ve been paying a lot in borrow fees that I’ve not been using effectively, so I slowed things down today and only focused on NVAX and NNVC.

I paid between 6.6 and 10.97 cents per share for the NNVC borrow and thankfully made enough money to pay those crazy fees. They took NVAX near $45 (it closed yesterday at around $25). I fought this one a bit (“don’t fight the tape”) and used questionable size at times (near infinite borrow at IB), and lost quite a bit of money on it in the end. Bad. Anyway, tomorrow is another day (until I run out of money or lose my mind).

Stock Du Jour, Mon. May 11, 2020, APOP

Cellect Biotechnology (APOP) was the stock du jour, or more specifically the HTB (hard-to-borrow) du jour, doing 200,000 trades and $215MM in volume. I paid 11.79 cents per share ($1179 per 10,000) for the borrow. APOP hit 5.81 pre-open and broke hard on the open to 4.30, then launched an absolutely vicious (or beautiful, if you’re a savage) stop run to 5.40, then fell again, then bounced again (yeah, a big coil), giving me a decent spot to get short. I was a bad boy however and took partial profits at hourly support, which was a mistake, as Dave Mabe and his warm blanket will tell you. Covered the rest at the close, but the damage was done and the all-out R not wonderful on a 12% gain.

A lot of stuff was in play today … MARK (258,000 trades and $398MM in volume), AMC (227,000 trades and $551MM in volume) which I was anxious to short but my brookie’s locate button wasn’t even responding (restricted somehow) … I asked the second brookie about a borrow and they said I would have to ask them directly, couldn’t get them through the automated locate … UAVS did 72,900 trades and $69.9MM in volume, MGNX did 76,300 trades and $577 million in volume, VTIQ did 33,800 trades and $228MM in volume … as I say, a lot of activity out there. They say there are lot of new retail gamblers in the game, and I believe it after looking through the numbers. Scary.

Touching and Teasing and Telling Me No

Looks like Regard’s “Ride It” is going to fall off the Spotify Global Top 50 … I think it’s good enough to include among my selections … video is sort of a celebration of crystal methamphetamine, which is unfortunate, but I don’t personally know any victims so I’m OK with it:

Chairman Recommended -- Herbal Tea

I tried a bunch of different herbal teas recently, and the best one I found was Paromi’s detox with me. Pricey at 60 cents a sachet, but worth it. I need a caffeine-free tea since any amount of caffeine I have during the day screws up my sleep cycle.

If you know of a better brand, please tell me about it.

Movies Watched -- The Big Heat (1953)

89 minute running time … Columbia movie … pretty gritty and violent for its day … suicide, homicide, blackmail, car bombs, threatening a policeman’s family, prostitution, torture, burning people with cigarettes, throwing pots of coffee in their face, strangulation, corruption … it’s pretty intense. The only problem I had was that Glenn Ford doesn’t come across as that much of a tough guy. Lee Marvin is a good bad guy, Gloria Grahame is good as a gangster’s dame, the head honcho Italian gangster was good. The story wasn’t bad, the pacing wasn’t bad, Fritz Lang directed, I don’t know why I’m hesitating to make it green-go … I guess I will temporarily until I see more movies from 1953. John Farr recommended it, calling it “brutal and in-your-face,” and he’s right.

You couldn't plant enough flowers around here to kill the smell.

Everybody Finds His Own Approach

Discovered Alice Sara Ott today … half-German, half-Japanese, born in 1988. Her discography.

Stock Du Jour, Fri. May 8, 2020, PTGX

Protagonist Therapeutics (PTGX) was the stock du jour, doing 159,000 trades and $525MM in volume. It was a latecomer, meaning I didn’t notice it immediately and only added it to the Bookmap at 10AM, so the tape is shorter than usual. PTGX was easy-to-borrow, but I did play it short at IB, and was looking for a big fade from my entry at $15, but it only dropped to $13 then came back and I closed it end of day around $14.

Other in-play stocks were MRAM (really jerked me around, shorted it, got jammed out, re-shorted it, got re-jammed out, ugly. Worst part was borrow at IB was iffy so I shorted it at the bookie as well, then got fills at IB, so I lost a lot with both brookie and broker, double what I expected to lose, in a sense) … FTEK (missed my entry), VUZI (did short it but they held it up all day and I took a loss), CWH (did short it, but it too came back, took a loss).

A day of net losses for sure, no tilt though, all planned losses, it’s just bad when you call tails and flip heads five times in a row.

Movies Watched -- Detective Story (1951)

103 minute running time … written for the stage, maybe? (Yes, it was.) Started out sort of slow and cheesy, a day in the life of a detective bureau in the big city, but then the story picked up speed and drama … it got pretty interesting, some good writing for sure, Eleanor Parker was really good (ah ha, best actress nomination for this one, I believe it) … young Kirk Douglas, he’s always intense … and Cathy O’Donnell (remember Keechie?), beautiful, and young Lee Grant, also beautiful. Anyway, I was pretty moved by this one, it was good, I liked it, green-go … a possible Top 500 movie selection. Thanks to John Farr, who rightly called it “absorbing and devastating,” for the recommendation

I'd rather go to jail for 20 years than find out my wife was a tramp.

Movies Watched -- Night Train to Munich (1940)

95 minute running time … British movie, not really a thriller, more of a comedy, British humor, silliness … 1940 was pretty early days though … not terrible, but also not good enough to recommend; John Farr did.

Crooks don't generally play for the Gentlemen.