My Zippo Armor Collection, Part I

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Here’s part I of my Zippo Armor collection, with my notes below. The top two rows are early Zippo Armors, with “Shilly Shally” (A1) being the earliest. You can see the evolution as they experimented with attaching a gem stone (“Stellar Performance” (A4) and “Opalescence” (B4)), or doing epoxy inlays (“Blood Stone,” (B1) “Marble Pillars,” (B2) and “Heartfelt Trinity” (B5)), or went for a “rugged look” with Black Ice coating (“Cave Dwelling” (B3)). Row C demonstrates how design became more conventional with simpler patterns following the Great Financial Crisis.

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A1: No. 20437, Shilly Shally, J 03

A2: No. 20771, Carved Columns w/Black Nickel, G 04

A3: No. 20757, Carved Elegance, C 04

A4: No. 20892, Stellar Performance, I 04

A5: No. 20958, Latitude, A 05

B1: No. 21198, Blood Stone, I 05

B2: No. 20992, Marble Pillars, L 05

B3: No. 21201, Cave Dwelling, D 06

B4: No. 21199, Opalescence, G 06

B5: No. 24199, Heartfelt Trinity, H 07

C1: No. 24953, Carved Border, F 10

C2: No. 24952, Elegance, C 12

C3: No. 28366, (TR?) Carved Border, H 12

C4: No. 28835, Globes, E 16

C5: No. 28637, Carved Chrome Diamond, J 16

Stock Du Jour, Fri. May 29, 2020, ADAP

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Adaptimmune Therapeutics (ADAP) was the stock du jour, doing 365,000 trades and $1.18BB in volume. IB had shares but I paid 2.17 cents at the brookie to borrow it since I’m never shorting again at IB. I didn’t make any money in ADAP, it was very tricky — I should have gotten long it but I don’t trust those lunchtime breakouts, esp. when it hasn’t tested higher time frame support.

A ton of stuff was in play as is always the case these days and I played PHIO, SNOA, NAK, and PRTY as well, spreading myself pretty thin. Mis-sized my SNOA bet badly and it was a small win instead of a big one.

His Zealotry Knew No Bounds

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From James Lardner’s interview on Booknotes:

“David Burnham pointed out to me that both of these key instigators Serpico and Durk were on the outs, you might say. They were not the standard cut of police officer. Serpico was Italian American. There were a lot more Italian Americans in the police department than there were Jewish Americans. But still, both were a minority.”

Strum

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From Nadine Cohodas’s interview on Booknotes:

“… by that time the senator was nearly 68 years old and Nancy Moore was about 22 and a half, a 44-year age difference. We may have come a long way but, you know, for a politician who was hoping to survive, there was good reason to believe you might alienate a lot of people and just look kind of odd doing this. Do I dare say wacky? And that it just was not a very smart political thing to do.

But, as history has shown, it has not turned out to be that at all, and, indeed, in 1978 having a young, attractive wife and four very cute children who ran around or drove around the state in the Strom truck with t-shirts that said ‘Vote for my daddy’ was a wonderful thing to blunt Pug Ravenel's appeal -- young, handsome, 40 years old. And there was another picture in there during that campaign of Senator Thurmond sliding down a fire station pole at his son Strom Jr.'s sixth birthday, again to show he was plenty vigorous and could, if you will, keep up with the times.”

Stock Du Jour, Thu. May 28, 2020, ABIO

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Arca Biopharma (ABIO) was the HTB du jour, doing 319,000 trades and $1.3BB in volume. It was so hard to borrow that my brookie didn’t have a borrow, which was a good thing since it went from $4 to $22. It did give me a spot very late in the day, and the brookie was asking .999 a share so I passed (it woulda been worth it). Of course I’d never think of getting long something like this. Too easy. Buy $13 sell $20, who wants to do that?

I got in trouble again with IB … HX (249,000, $144MM) had plenty of shares there (at first!) so I shorted there pre-open, then got jammed out, then reversed long, stopped out, reversed short, double size, stopped out re-reverse long, etc. Total mess. Extremely costly. Again easily over a thousand dollars in commissions generated (zero commissions, you say?). Calmed down. Re-shorted it, jammed out, top tick. Deep breath. Re-short, Jammed out. Top tick. It finally and legitimately cracks. IB no borrow. Have to go to brookie and pay up. No way to get the money back at IB. Just gone. No borrow. Not when you need it. I’m done shorting at IB. I’ve said it before but I really mean it now.

Shorted MARK (146,000, $209MM) at IB. Worst ave than yesterday. It cracked, I covered some but not enough. Was expecting it to fall to $2 after earnings. It didn’t, it went up, jammed me out for a sizable loss. Then tanked. Yeah, one of those days. Really bad. Can’t lose money like this every day. If I did I’d be out of biz in a month. Maybe less. And it’s a lot of money to lose. Scary.

Stock Du Jour, Wed. May 27, 2020, GRNQ

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Greenpro Capital (GRNQ) was the hard-to-borrow (HTB) du jour, doing 172,000 trades and $155MM in volume. I paid between 5.33 and 6.73 cents for the borrow. It gave me a good spot pre-open and it dropped 20% down to the hourly support, but I’m a very greedy guy and was looking at higher time frame targets below. They launched a short squeeze at 11:30ish and I got jammed out (at breakeven thank G-d), which of course just pissed me off, so I had to go back in and re-short it much bigger to get REVENGE. Of course it held just fine, held support all afternoon, just going up up up. Sheesh. I paid an obscene amount in borrows and have nothing to show for it, which oddly doesn’t happen to any service seller. Maybe I’ll GET IT BACK tomorrow, we’ll see.

A lot of stuff was in play yet again (all those stimulus checks floating around out there) … MARK my nemesis, that rotten bastard of a stock, just up up up, ignoring my shorting (184,000 trades $326MM in volume). Traded that at IB and lost a fortune… AGAIN. Maybe I’ll get it back tomorrow. Only if there is a j-st trading G-d.

ESEA I shorted at the brookie, drove me nuts getting partial locates, request 10,000 get 100 it’s like what?!? Cuz it just dings, I don’t look to see how many shares, I assume it’s a full locate. Worked the locate button super hard and was rewarded with an additional 100 shares. ESEA’s a $3 stock, c’mon. Played it greedy for HTF (higher time frame) target and they didn’t come. Yeah I’m greedy.

HTZ BK no borrow nothing at brookie, no play. PHUN woulda been fun but I was busy fighting MARK and generally getting my ass handed to me. MRSN saw it too late. NK saw it, shorted it (at IB), got my ass kicked. Refused to reverse and get long even though it was obvious. Can’t get long.

Bad day, no coin, brah, Negative coin. And Jeebus Christmas you should see the locate fees I generate, just makes my eyes water. Until tomorrow!



Stock Du Jour, Tue. May 26, 2020, MARK

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Remark Holdings (MARK) was the stock du jour, doing 167,000 trades and $245MM in volume. It’s a Reg SHO Threshold List member so the brookie had no borrow, but oddly IB had a quarter million shares available to short so I went there to trade it. I had an OK average (2.80921) but it was holding the hourly support like a champ, and I thought, geez, I’m going to get jammed out of this and, worst nightmare, that will be just the moment IB has no borrow and I won’t be able to re-short it to “get it back.” And you know what happened next: I got jammed out of it, (though IB didn’t run out of borrow, that will happen tomorrow). I had a 2.88126 ave getting out, which ain’t bad, but multiplied by a gazillion shares (you don’t wanna know), it was a pretty big loss. Maybe I’ll be able to get it back tomorrow, assuming IB still has a borrow.

With the bookie I traded OBLN (very thin with 23,700 trades and $1.5MM in volume) and MTC (61,300 trades and $34.6MM in volume) … they both gave me good spots and faded all day into the close (no partial profits taken, Dave Mabe!). Big gains, tremendous gains as Dear Leader might say. I’ll tell you what else was tremendous: the borrow fees. MTC was a 25 !?! cent borrow ($2500 per 10,000) and later dropped to 10.6 cents (where I borrowed more). It’s a $3 stock. Imagine being a losing trader AND paying fees like that. Yeah, tough game. OBLN was a 1.84 cent borrow ($184 per 10,000) … that’s more like it, but still. I should note that I paid more in commissions at IB than I did for all my borrows at the brookie. See how they get you? One way or another.

Stock Du Jour, Fri. May 22, 2020, NAVB

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals (NAVB) was the HTB (hard to borrow) du jour, doing 226,000 trades and $186MM in volume. I paid 3.71 cents for the borrow ($371 per 10,000) and it gave me a good spot … I was a good boy and took no partial profits till the end of the day, but then it dropped another 20+ cents after hours which would have nearly doubled my gains … 7x overnight borrow cost and a long weekend means no swinging possible, plus I was tired at the end of the week and didn’t want to monkey with it after hours where the liquidity gets very sketchy and it can be difficult to exit things, even for a relative small fry like me.

I also traded SNDL (74,000 trades $39.7MM volume, 2.7 cent borrow) and CLSN (60,400 trades and $68.6MM in volume, 2.7 cent borrow) with the brookie with sort of so-so results. I was a bad boy and shorted both XSPA and MARK at IB since they had shares and scratched them more or less while paying a vast amount of commissions (insane to pay $0.005 per share in commissions in these sub-dollar stocks). But the borrow was free, lol.

Anyway it was a good end to the week. There’s nothing worse than losing money on Friday, especially a Friday before a long weekend, so I was pleased that I was able to bank sick coin, brah, line to line, at the week’s end.

Movies Watched -- The Great McGinty (1940)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

82 minute running time … Preston Sturges … kind of interesting, 1940, political graft in America, election rigging, municipal contract deals … a good woman changing a crooked guy … this was a John Farr recommendation, and he’s right that it’s “never heavy-handed or didactic” … I didn’t dislike it, but it’s not a Top 500 movie, I don’t think.

Give ‘em a bathtub, they keep coal in it.

Give ‘em a bathtub, they keep coal in it.

Stock Du Jour Master List -- April 2020

Added on by C. Maoxian.