Sunday, February 28, 2010

Stock Watch 3-1-2010

Stock Watch 3-1-2010
Got a nice 9 stock watch list. Mostly comprised of breakouts which are my favorite. ISSI was my trade last week check out my summary here.


MCG Capital Corporation (MCGC) – MCG Capital Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in investments in middle market companies. This stock got a nice spike on Friday on speculation of future earnings. The best part is that it is a technical break out at $5/share and has volume behind it to propel it forward and spike good. Potential buy for quick gains on Monday, will watch the action in pre market to see where it might go.

China Armco Metals, Inc. (CNAM) – This stock got a 16% spike on Friday from an announcement that they received a line of credit from ING bank for 15million dollars to Expand Its Distribution Business in 2010. It is in the technical break out range right now, no telling if this could keep going or if this is an opportunity to sell into it. I will watch this to see if volume picks up and price action leans towards a higher breakout, potential buy for a swing trade if it does.

Atlas Pipeline Holdings LP (AHD) – This stock gained 14% on Friday on speculation of 2010 earnings as well as speculation of a 34% growth in shale reserve in the Appalachian region. I did trade this stock not to long ago in an intisipation of a breakout. The breakout failed and I was stopped out, I took a tiny 2% loss in the initial investment which was no big deal. With this news release it will test that breakout out point once again at $7ish/share. I will watch to see if it can break it and hold, only then will I try it once more for a breakout that could potential run big!

Magellan Petroleum Corporation (MPET) – Got a gap up in Friday with a 13% gain putting this in a technical breakout range. The only problem is I have not found the cause or reason for such a spike in price, no news, no P/R’s, and not even any stock promotion. This causes some suspicion for me. On the other hand since this is a technical breakout it could be a potential buy for a quick day possible swing trade. Although I must find out why it is spiking so much in the first place before I get in so I can calibrate what type of trade it is and how to play it. With this in mind sitting on the sidelines wont be a bad idea until the time is right.

Wave Systems Corp. (WAVX) – This stock has just been on a huge momentum move, almost defined as going parabolic with nothing but green days and no pullbacks yet. This is technically breaking out from $3/share. I can see this running a few more days, this would be a good opportunity to short into this spike as I missed the breakout. Will look to short on the first sell day for a quick gain if it happens.

Interpublic Grp Cos (IPG) – Is right on the cusp of a breakout at $7.50/share. It was up 11% on Friday from financial news as well as the hype around advertising spending increasing. If this stock can break threw it could spike if the price action is right. Potential buy if it can power threw.

Tuesday Morning Corp (TUES) – This one is breaking out nicely, it got a 7% gain on Friday. I am not sure if it is due to the breakout or for the company’s director Robin Selati resignation. I will just watch to see if it will continue its momentum or it will sell off and become a short opportunity.



TASER International Inc. (TASR) – I have been watching this one for a few days as it does not know what it wants to do. There is also controversy surrounding this company which makes it unpredictable as to which direction it is going to go. On the other hand, volume is slightly fading as buyers are leaving and as it is hitting tiny resistance. This could end up being a potential short. Will just sit and watch.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Trade Details Of Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI)

Trade Details Of Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI)
Well a couple days after I got in it finally happened.
It was only a matter of time before this stock would have a pull back and stop its parabolic move. I got into this stock way to late at $8.40/share which I am disappointed with myself for not jumping in when I wanted to at $6/share when it made its first breakout!


The Trade
I went long on ISSI at $8.40 and as it went up so did my stop. As I new the stock was approaching very heavy resistance I had a feeling that this might be the time where it would pull back. In response to this feeling I moved my stop up quit a bit to lock in some profits. Yesterday was the day it sold off over $1/share, I was stopped out at $8.71/share very early on. I made roughly 4% on this trade, which to me a profit is a profit.


5 Day chart where I bought in and where I was stopped out at.

1 Year Chart

Overall

This is a great stock and with a company that looks to be turning around their business model. As the blew away earnings last Qtr this will still be a great company to invest your money in. Since this stock did do a pull back I will look to go long on it in the near future as this stock can obviously run when it wants to. Congrats to those that got in early when I posted my watch list where I first mentioned this stock and made some killer profits.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Stock Watch 2-22-2010

Stock Watch 2-22-2010
Thanks to better market conditions I am getting better plays, here is a list with 6 stocks and 6 ways to make some good steady gains. I am currently in ISSI and up about 3% thus far with a small position.


Xenoport, Inc. (XNPT) – This company is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers products that utilizes the body’s natural ability to over come disease. This stock had a nice 25% gain on Friday on speculation of better fda news for a drug this company is working on. They received a response letter from the FDA concerning there restless leg syndrome tablets, which pretty much states there will be further delays in the approval process as this drug is not producing good results read the 8-k here. In the past month the stock took a huge dive from $19ish/share to low $6 range from bad news. The news on Friday took this stock higher as it speculates on better results from the drug. I will watch this as this could be bouncing off the bottom in attempts to fill the gap, although this company’s drug does not look to good going into approval.

Newpark Resources Inc. (NR) – This company brokeout on Friday on good earnings and speculation of the future growth of this company. What attracts me is the breakout and its low price as it sits at $5/share, it also held this level threw the close on Friday which validates how strong it is and its potential to keep going. Potential buy.

GFI Group Inc. (GFIG) – Huge spike on Friday on the outlook of the company and its earnings. It hit resistance on Friday and did not breakout on a 15% gain, it hit the $5.50 mark and sold off from there. If this brokeout past $5.50 this could be a buy on quick gains. I will watch to see what happens.

Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI) – This stock is a monster and is unstoppable, it is in what some call a parabolic move that has no explanation. Well it does have an explanation, this company has turned around big time! The company blew away earnings and has a great balance sheet why wouldn’t this stock go parabolic after it has been on the floor for the past few years. I finally got into this stock on Thursday at $8.40/share, a very small position since its not exactly where I wanted to get in at. This has turned into a very nice swing trade, I will only sell when I see signs of it topping or when I reach my target price.

Dataram Corporation (DRAM) – This stock has been gaining momentum on a better outlook for the company. It signed an agreement with Government Acquisitions, Inc which works directly with the federal government, this agreement will help DRAM and its market share tremendously. On Friday it spiked from $2.90ish to $3.50 on this partnership deal. DRAM is an old company and has been around forever, this stocks price is going to get a nice lift from all of this. Potential buy and nice swing trade.



TASER International Inc. (TASR) – Taser blew away earnings on Friday as it posted its 4th qtr profit. What is interesting is it was already on the verge of a breakout at the $6.50 level and with this news and gaped up and surpassed it nicely. Potential buy if it can hold.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Stock Watch 2-16-2010

Stock Watch 2-16-2010
Well it has been a while since I gave a watch list, this is due for the lack of plays with a horrible correction in the market. The only play that was just beautiful threw it all was “ISSI” which was on my last watch list and I tweeted a hundred times. So here is the new 9 stock watch list, this one has some good ones!


PositiveID Corporation (PSID) – PositiveID Corporation provides radio frequency identification (RFID) systems for healthcare sector. This stock got a nice 21% jump in price on Friday due to a bounce in the market and uplifting P/R’s relating to healthcare or obamacare. On a technical level PSID is right on the edge of a breakout at $1.50ish/share. Looking at the past few months on the chart, this stock spiked huge and slowly faded back down. If the volume picks up some and breaks out once more, we could see another spike in the price but I am sure it wont last long due to how horrible of a financial position this company is in, there balance sheet is horrendous. potential buy when the volume picks up and breaks out around $1.60 range for a quick gain, definite short when it starts to collapse as we can see it will and when it does it really goes red!

Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) – This company does research, development, and marketing of engines and fuel injection systems that use gaseous fuels, including natural gas. This stock had a good 14% gain one Friday from the news of good earnings and an uplifting conference call. They added a nice amount of revenue to there balance sheet as well as gaining ground on future innovations. On the charts it seems to be slowly but surely gaining towards higher ground. What I will be watching for is when it hits the $14 mark, could be some heavy resistance, although with good volume it could push threw and breakout that is when I will be there for the push as this stock could run and make for a nice swing trade. Potential buy.

Microvision Inc. (MVIS) – Engages in the development of miniature display and imaging engines based on its integrated photonics module technology platform. This company recently had a change in directors and released there 8-k reporting that. On Friday they also received a fluffy news report on them receiving top honors at macworld for a there lazer pico projector. Whats interesting is the chart, it seems to have hit support around $2ish and is starting to bounce. it tested this support a few times an held which to me validates it is strong. This is a potential buy on a nice swing trade, as I see this bouncing and possibly spiking on this new attention the company will be getting regarding their award and new product.

SkillSoft plc (SKIL) – Company provides on-demand e-learning and performance support solutions for enterprises, government, education. Well this was the big news on Friday, as SKIL received a buyout offer at 1.1billion dollars or $10.80/share from a private equity firm see the P/R here. This sent the price soaring 13% of course, although this was a sell into opportunity for a lot of investors. This will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of days, which this will either move the stock higher as this is in a technical breakout area or just sit and consolidate right here which is the likely story.

Athersys, Inc. (ATHX) -A biopharmaceutical company. This company has been getting a lot of attention from its recent news of getting 2 patents “Athersys Inc (ATHX) said it has been granted two U.S. patents that cover its proprietary MultiStem technology” which as made this stock soar, read the P/R here. Just on Friday the stock made a 12% gain which helps this uptrend the stock is in. The volume is also increasing as this news spreads. Hopefully this is the begging of another huge spike in the price as seen before, on the other hand with that spike can a fading sell off. But with the 2 new patents this stock should gain a lot of momentum as it is capturing my attention for a swing trade. I feel if it can reach and hold $4/share, this will be my entry as this can return back to the $6 mark and maybe in surpass it!

GenVec Inc. (GNVC) – A clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. This I know from the past is a very shady risky company to deal with. This stock I was hesitant to put on my list. On the other hand there are profits to be made here. Now you could buy this little short squeeze as it continues higher, but as we can not predict when the sell off will take place, I would not go long here for the reason of how shady this company is. I on the other hand will wait for that spike to start showing signs of failure and short it as we can predict that this will happen and when it does it will come crashing down hard, just take a peek at the chart. So I will sit back and wait for the sucker buyers and the pumpers to keep at it and wait for the first sell day to sell into and ride it down as panic selling takes place! Potential short if I can find shares, either way it will fun to watch if it happens.

JDS UNIPHASE CORP (JDSU) – This Corporation provides communications test and measurement solutions, and optical products to telecommunications service providers. This stock is the one to watch for easy gains. This company got an upgrade from Morgan Stanley and it also released a better earnings report on Friday making this stock gain over 6%. The chart is just beautiful, it is in the technical breakout range right here as it surpassed the $9/share mark. Not only has attention on the company risen but so has the volume, if this continues there will be no doubt it will breakout nicely. potential buy for a nice swing trade, which it sees no resistance till it hits a 2yr small resistance of $10 and a 2yr high of $15.33.

Epicor Software Corp. (EPIC) – This company designs, develops, markets, and supports enterprise application software solutions and services. Not much to say on this one, except its outlook for future earnings are great. I am just adding this stock to my list so that I can watch it to see if it can breakout at $9/share which it probably wont happen for another few days if it can. Just watching for now.



Integrated Silicon Solutions (ISSI) – Ahh the one that got away from me. This is still a potential buy and swing trade as no matter what the market is doing it keeps pushing higher. This stock gives ample opportunities to get in on an intraday level, as it dips and then powers higher. I am still beating my self up over not jumping in where I wanted to at $6/share as it now sits at $7.65, I was dead on with this….

Sunday, February 7, 2010

SEC Workers Caught Looking At Porn Instead Of Working

SEC Workers Caught Looking At Porn Instead Of Working

One Supervisor Tried To Access 1880 Sites In 17 Days
This is just hilarious and had to share. Goes to show what the SEC does instead of cracking down on all the fraudulent acts on wall street.
washingtontimes - sec-workers investigated for viewing porn at work

businessinsider

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Find Out If Your Speculative Stock Is Being Promoted

Find Out If Your Speculative Stock Is Being Promoted
Stock Promotion
If you have followed speculative stocks for a while you should know that their is a degree of promotion or manipulation when it comes to small companies. What these companies do is higher a stock promoter to promote their stock by sending out mass e-mails, P/R, “Research Reports” ect.. Most of the time those stock promoters are compensated in freely traded shares or actual cash money. With promotion comes spikes in stock price followed by a dump, knowingly called a pump and dump.
In this article I will show you one place were you can type in your small cap, micro cap, speculative stock or if you just have suspicion in a company’s ticker symbol. This tool will bring back a listing of promoters if your stock is or has been promoted. This list will also have have dates when issued and if that promoter was compensated or not. Let me show you how.


Finding The Promoters
1.)Go to www.stockpromoters.com , I have found it best if you register to use this site, so go ahead and register an account. It takes not time at all, I also suggest using a e-mail account that you don’t care about because they will send you daily news letters with the latest promotions, if that is something you want to get then by all means use your regular e-mail account.
2.) Once registered and you verified your account, login and navigate to the left hand side of the page and look for the “Search StockPromoters.com” text box.
3.) Enter the ticker symbol that you want to check out and click search. For this example I will use NXTH as my ticker because I know for a fact it has been promoted in the past.
4.) Explanation
So here is the list of Promotions, it includes the promoter name and the date the promotion starts. What is funny is sometimes those promoters are on StockTwits and do a little promotion there as well. so as you read those lists keep an eye out for familiar names. One example form the list above is “OTC Picks” they are on StockTwits and pump there picks on there as well, just something to keep in mind when reading those tweets on StockTwits.
5.) If you are following along with me click the first link or the company name, and a list will appear with the promotions. I have pictured just one of the many promotions, highlighted are the most important aspects to pay attention to.
6.) Note
The key information is the promoter, the date, and how the promoter was compensated. If the promoter was compensated in cash then they will just do what they were paid for and push out some e-mails or a research report. On the other hand if they were given freely traded shares that promoters is going to pump really hard so they can sell into the pump and dump their shares on the suckers that bought into it.


Profiting From The Promotions
So if you find your stock is being promoted how could you profit from the promotion? Well I do not recommend buying into the pump fore you do not know when it dumps, although some have gotten lucky buying in. So, we wait for the signs of selling when the promotion is over and short the stock! I mean we know it will not hold those $1 plus spikes, we do know it will sell off and crash, which is the only predictable thing we have. When you spot a promotion and see it spiking hold back that trigger finger and gut felling to buy into it as this is your first instinct. Do not think you are missing out on easy gains, the easy gains come from the fall of the stock, have patients. The hardest part of profiting from the sell off is finding shares to reserve so you can short it. If you can get your hands on some shares then you are set when the sell begins.
You can also see theShort Interest in a stock to see just how much of the float is betting against the stock in the first place. So when the dump is on you will know, it usually will be the first sell/red candle day as well as the volume starting to fade as buyers leave. All signs setting up for the sell off.
This is what happens!


The promotion, nothing but green days, then out of no where the huge dump!!! This chart is classic and is ridiculously funny, which makes for a prime example.


Combine This with….
Combine this tool added with my ways of finding those spec stocks and you have built your self a speculative stock strategy with an edge!
Check out these 2 articles:
Finding high growth speculative stocks
Finding the latest HOTT stock picks!

Hope you enjoyed, please share your thoughts below

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

How To Find Speculative High Growth Stocks

How To Find Speculative High Growth Stocks
Finding High Growth Stocks
Well we learned how to find those hot stock picks already, but how do we find those speculative high growth stocks or what might be called “Diamonds in the Ruff” just waiting to be discovered and traded? I will once again reference a great tool yahoo finance offers, that allows us to screen for those types of stocks and hopefully profit from them. We are talking about stocks that have a high 5yr growth percentage of 50% – over 500% in speculative growth, no we are not talking about those lame sub-penny stocks that are almost impossible to forecast. We are talking about actual companies that have a lot of potential and are on the move. One warning though, some of theses companies may pay for promotion and might be involved in manipulation in the goal to help promote and raise money ( I will do a how-to later on how to find out if those companies are being promoted or not), but with good research you can determine what is good or not.


Enough Show Me How!
1.) Go to the Yahoo Finance page.
2.) Hover your mouse pointer over the investing tab, pictured below.


3.) The select the “Stocks” category and click it.


4.) On the left hand side you will notice a text box that says “Inside Yahoo” Click the “Stock Screener” link.


5.) In the section called “Launch screener” select the “Launch HTML” link I highlighted it in the picture. The application version is a little complex and I like to keep things simple and stick the the HTML version.


6.) You are now brought to the screener section. You could just bookmark this link as it takes you right there, but it is nice to see how you actually can get there from the home page.


- Above you see where I highlighted the important factors when doing a basic screen, you can however use other parameters to fine tune a search but for this tutorial I will show you what I use.
- For a simple search in the “share price” section I selected the 1$ as a minimum and left max as any, just to get a nice long list.
- Under the “Analyst Estimates” section, look for the 5yr EPS Growth which I also highlighted.
- Click the drop down menu and select “Up more than 50%”
- Click the button that says “Find Stocks”


You are then brought to a page that looks like this -


- As you can see you are given a great big list of a lot of speculative stocks
- Notice under the 5yr Growth column the high percentages *Note, to arrange by highest to lowest just click the 5 yr Growth link at the top of the column and it will arrange them however you would like.


The List
Here is a list of stocks where you can start your research and analyze them to determine if they can become potential plays in the market. I have found a lot of good stocks this way that have made me a nice chunk of money.


Please feel free to comment on using this method, maybe you can teach me something I don’t know. :)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Van K. Tharp’s “Super Trader” Book Review





Van K. Tharp’s “Super Trader” Make Consistent Profits in Good And Bad Markets
Wow, this book was a great read it truly was. It was definitely different from all the rest of the trading/investing books I have read. When I first came across the book, the words “super trader” caught my eye, well cause you know I want to be a super trader.. I picked it up and skimmed threw it and found it to be different from a lot of the trading books. This one focused on 3 topics, topics that I think are the most important and overlooked in the trading world. The topics were, the psychology or mindset of a trader, the trading plan one needs to be successful and position sizing. All of which he covered in great detail. This book was a very very easy read without to much jargon, it really kept you wanting to read more.


The Mindset
Tharp is not only a very good investor but he also has a great wealth of knowledge in the art of NLP(Nero linguistic programming), which goes hand and hand when dealing with the thought process or the psychology of trading. He knows exactly what one goes threw when trading, exactly the thought process, the emotions, stress ect. The part dedicated to psychology was the longest and most in-depth, he really wanted you to figure you who you really are threw various questions he would ask, or exercises he would ask you to do. Now, it did take some getting use to when reading, on the fact most people would pick this book up and immediately expect to read about trading/investing or how-to’s ect. Not this book, this was strictly a book on honing in on the true details and foundation one must have in order to be successful in the markets. This section really was a life lesson on the thought process of an individual and he does tie it into trading psychology which makes it very unique and interesting.


Building a Trading Plan
This has got to be the most over looked and undervalued thing regarding trading. A lot of other traders I have met never really sat down and drawn out a trading plan a guide to how this individual was going to trade and be successful at it. Most just want to get in and make as much money as possible, come to find out they become a statistic in the 90% of traders who lose money. Tharp hammers this into your brain that you must have one in order to be successful. He will also walk you threw and help you build one by asking a series of questions and jogging your mind about who and what kind of trader you are. This in turn will jump start your ability to write out a trading plan and actually following it no matter what!


The importance of position sizing
Out of all the topics I think this one really hit home with me, I truly got the most out of this section. I actually never realized the importance of position sizing and how it can effect your profits. I mean I know about it and i know what position sizing is, but not the way Tharp put it. He really broke it down and it explained it in great detail, aswell as giving you a formula to come up with for deciding your position in the market. ie: number of shares you should buy determined by the amount of risk you are allocating to the trade ect.. Now that does sound easy and I’m sure everyone does it but not like this. I guarantee he will open your eyes when he explains his method and the reasons behind it, it makes complete since.


Overall
If you are looking for a how to book or a book to teach you how to trade or start investing, this book is not it and I would direct you to this one. On the other hand if you have found yourself struggling in the market or need some guidance or just want to gain insight on a different perspective of trading then this book is a must read for all skill types. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book!