Stock InsightStock InsightThis site contains Stock Insight's stock portfolio, trades, and opinions. All investment questions are answered by a former Registered Investement Adviser. Articles
Switching to Ameritrade from Scottrade
2008-05-18 17:12:00 After a pretty long relationship, I will be switching my main trading account from Scottrade to Ameritrade soon. I will list the reasons below, but the main reason is that the margin department switched my margin account to a cash account. In my opinion a cash account is useless. You can have a margin account without going on margin, but the benefit remains. The benefit is that you can trade stocks without having to wait three days to make the next trade. For example, you buy a stock on Monday with all of your cash, then sell it on Tuesday. In a cash account, you would then have to wait till Thursday or Friday to buy the next stock. In a margin account you can do it right away.My account was switched because of those day trades I made a couple of weeks ago. The margin department at Scottrade has a number of avenues available to it before it makes me deposit $25,000 or removes my ability to borrow (if you did not know, there is a federal rule that if you consistently day tra... More About: Switching
Portfolio Wrap-up For the Week Ending 2/16/08
2008-05-17 16:33:00 Below is the chart for this week. Since it shows up small, you can just click on the image, and it will be large enough to view.The rows in white represent stocks that were sold during the week. The "Day Gain/Loss" columns represent what happened Friday.Not much of a week for me. I did not lose much, however, yesterday really blew what could have been a good week (down over a $1,000). The YTD loss is now at -85.8%.Obviously, my week was determined by ACC, since that is the only stock I have owned during this time. As I mentioned yesterday, I plan to hold it a little longer to see if it comes back like AFT did, unless it breaks below .09. I am not sure how long my patience will last though.Look for some new trades by the end of the month when I put some more funds in my account. Working with such a small amount has proved very difficult. I think the market is looking much better right now, so I think I have a good shot at duplicating my old success now that conditions are more ... More About: Portfolio , Week , Ending , Wrap
AAC
2008-05-17 01:18:00 Last night I said that the chart for ACC looked very good, but was a little suspect. That suspicion was well warranted, as the stock could not follow through today. I had also said we needed that follow through to be more confident of the bullish indicators that were present. Unfortunately, two out of three of those indicators are now bearish. The stock closed back below it's 20 day EMA (.104), and the RSI fell back below 50. The only bullish indicator we have left is the MACD, which is still positive.....so far.In my opinion, if you own this stock now, it is just for fundamental reasons. Which may mean holding until next earnings (3 months from now) before you see any gains. However, I thought that same thing with AFT, and was very wrong. That stock also fell the day after earnings, but then rose steadily afterwards. It continued to rise all the way up through earnings, and is now selling at more than double what I sold it for. So based on that experience, I will hold onto AAC a l...
AAC Chart
2008-05-16 00:58:00 As promised in the comments section, below is the chart for AAC:This chart looks very good, but is a little suspect. The reason I say that, is that while the stock closed at .1095, the spread finished at .093 x .10. This does not impact the technical analysis, however, I would want to see some follow through tomorrow to be more confident about it.That out of the way, let's look at the chart. The stock closed above the 20 day EMA (.104) for the first time in a couple of weeks, the MACD made the bullish crossover, and the RSI rose above 50. All bullish signals. I think the key for the stock tomorrow would be another close above the 20 day EMA. After that, I would look for a move up to .12 resistance, which also happens to be the 50 DMA. Beyond .12, there should be a lot of resistance at .13. We'll see how it goes. Support should continue to be at .09. More About: Chart
AAC - 10Q Out (updated)
2008-05-15 18:19:00 It looks like this quarter was better than the previous quarter (higher revenue and lower loss). No reaction so far with the stock. I think the key will be the PR that comes with the filing, which should have future guidance and include talk about their new real estate ventures.Below is the link to the 10Q:ABLEAUCTIONS COM INC Files SEC form 10-Q, Quarterly ReportUPDATE: The company has now released the PR that goes along with the 10Q. Unfortunately, they gave no future guidance, other than to say that we will see a much further reduction in costs for quarter two. That may or may not push them back to profitability. They only lost $194,000 this quarter (.003/share).One other note, is that they bought back and retired about 5 million shares over the last three months.So far there has still been no reaction to today's news. Below is the link to the PR:Ableauctions Announces First Quarter 2008 Results
Check Out This Site - Xearn
2008-05-10 16:50:00 While I was on my break, I added a link on the right hand side to Xearn. I think this is a pretty neat site, and would encourage every one to take a look at it.What they do, is allow you to create a paper portfolio with $100,000. You can base it on your own portfolio, or go a completely different direction. Xearn will keep track of everything. You make the trades real-time, just like you would with your broker. If you are good, you will be able to get subscribers to your portfolio. And if you are really good, you can charge those subscribers a fee to see that portfolio. Xearn will also keep track of that, collect the fees, and pass them onto you. Obviously, they take a small percentage of those fees. It's a great deal however, as I know full well how much it costs to set all that up yourself, and it looks much easier to go this route, in my opinion.Either way you go, please check it out (Xearn). The site owner has asked for feedback, so please let me know what you think, and I wil... More About: Site , Check
Portfolio Update
2008-05-10 02:54:00 Not a very good week for me. The week started off okay, as I lost money on HOTT, but more than made it up with day trades of CRUS, SPF, & INAP. Unfortunately, my next two moves were not as good. Those would my buys of CYTR and AAC. The former cost me about $150, and the latter has cost me about $750 so far (I currently own 60,000 shares at an average of .105/share). However, AAC is subject to 2 to 3 cent swings every day, and at 2pm I was actually up about $300 on the trade. That would have made for a very different week.As it is, I lost another 6% this week, and my YTD loss is now up to -85%.One more note on CYTR. While I did lose on the trade, selling at around .823 turned out to be a very good move. The stock is now at .71. Another good move that I made, which I was chided for earlier in the week, was selling INAP. The stock fell as low as $4.25 today, and finished at $4.84. I sold at $5.11 and $5.18.One more note on AAC. While I am currently down on the trade, I thi... More About: Portfolio , Update
Trade Alert - AAC & CYTR (updated)
2008-05-07 17:51:00 AAC - Bought 40,000 shares at an average of around .1075.I will go over my reasons for buying this one later today.CYTR - Sold all 5,300 at around .823 for a small loss. I changed my mind about the purchase, and felt that AAC was a better bet.UPDATE: Here is one of the reasons I bought AAC today:Ableauctions Commences Construction of Gruv DevelopmentThe company has already collected $2.34 million for this project, which equates to about half the revenue they made in 2007 ($4.9 million). Additionally, the project when complete will garner $25 million total, which equates to 5 times their 2007 revenue. Profit on the project is expected to be in the neighborhood of $4 million. In 2007 they lost $693,000. In my opinion, this deal is not reflected in the share price yet.This deal was a good move for the company, as their traditional auction business has not been growing.Another reason I bought AAC, was this:Ableauctions Stock Buy-Back Program Exceeds 5.6 Million SharesLastly, if the stoc... More About: Trade , Alert
Trade Alert V - INAP
2008-05-06 21:27:00 Sold all 2,400 shares at $5.18 for a small profit. More About: Trade , Alert
Trade Alert III - SPF
2008-05-06 20:09:00 Sold all 2800 shares at $4.35 for a small profit. More About: Trade , Alert
Trade Alert II - CRUS & SPF
2008-05-06 19:07:00 CRUS - Sold all 2,100 shares at $5.74 for a small profit.SPF - Bought 2,800 shares at $4.31. More About: Trade , Alert
Trade Alert - HOTT & CRUS
2008-05-06 17:47:00 HOTT - Sold all 2,500 shares at $4.845 for a small loss.CRUS - Bought 2,100 shares at $5.66.I thought CRUS was trading better, so I made the switch. We'll see how it goes. More About: Trade , Alert
INAP
2008-05-06 01:38:00 I hope everyone watched INAP today. Please refer to my post three below this one ("My Trading Day Today - SPF, CRUS, INAP") to see why I am mentioning this.If you recall, I sold the stock after hours at $5.11 on Friday, which was 10 cents above the closing price. As I said in that post, this seemed like a bargain, however, I was leery about it based on some past experience I had with another after hours trade. Sure enough, after opening at $5.02, the stock quickly rose to $5.29 this morning. So $5.11 ended up not being so so much of bargain anymore.While I am content with the profit I made on the stock, I think from now on, I will refrain from selling when the bid is much higher than the closing price, or buying when the ask is much lower than the closing pricing. In the absence of news of course.
Trade Alert - HOTT (updated)
2008-05-05 17:48:00 Bought 900 shares at $4.95. If the stock can close above $5.00, it will look pretty good technically. The MACD is just over the center line, and the RSI is above 50. $5.00 is the 20 day EMA. The 50 DMA is $4.76.The stock is retracing after going from $4.80 to $5.60 recently.UPDATE: Bought 1600 more at $4.90. More About: Trade , Alert
Portfolio Update
2008-05-04 15:46:00 One of people that commented recently asked for a portfolio update. At this time I hold no positions, but the percentage loss/gain for the year is -79%. Not a good year so far by a long shot. However, with the market improving I hope to turn that around. It's definitely possible, we'll just have to see if I can pull it off.I will not be commenting on client percentages anymore. The reason is twofold. One, at the moment, I am only trading for one client, so there would be no transparency there. Two, it is too much work for me to update the blog with two different sets of numbers. At least more work than I feel like putting into it right now. It was worth it previously when I was trying to gain new clients, however, I am no longer trying to do that, so that incentive is gone. More About: Portfolio , Update
My Trading Day Today - SPF, CRUS, INAP
2008-05-03 01:29:00 Well, I guess I came back with a bang, or should I say bust. SPF did not trade the way I had hoped (see post below). It started out well, going as high as $5.23, but then retreated. I thought for sure it was going to break the 20 day EMA ($5.25) after the initial pullback, which would have been bullish, however, it continued downward. I continued to hold, since as I said below, the key was support at the 50 DMA ($4.86). Once the stock broke below that though, I put my sell order in, and was lucky to get out at $4.89. That was a 24 cent loss for me. I say lucky, because the stock closed at $4.50.After a couple of day trades that resulted in small losses, I bought CRUS at $5.75. The stock was already down $1.68 or 23% at that time. Looking at the chart for CRUS, I saw that there was support at $5.74 and $5.65. I decided to go with the first one, since I did not want to miss out. As it turns out, I should have chosen the second one, as it did hit $5.65, which was the low for... More About: Trading , Today
A Post! - SPF
2008-05-02 01:56:00 It looks like my break is over. I am not sure how often I will post, but I thought I would share this stock with everyone. I have another that I will probably post tomorrow.Below is the chart for SPF:I bought this one today at $5.13. Looking at the chart, you can see that the stock has been in a nice, slow but steady, uptrend since the end of January. This trend has been tracking the stocks 20 day EMA and 50 DMA on up. Right now, the stock looks like it is bouncing off of that 50 DMA ($4.86) as it did back in mid-March. The pattern we have right now looks very similar to what we saw at that time. The RSI is just below 50, and the stock has made it's second successful test of the 50 DMA.If the stock can close above the 20 day EMA ($5.26) tomorrow, I think we should see the stock hit $5.86 (200 DMA) next week. SPF definitely has no trouble moving up or down 50 cents in one day. On the flip side, we need to watch out for a violation of the 50 DMA. If the stock breaks that support, I... More About: Post
Stock Insight Taking a Break
2008-03-08 16:30:00 You may have noticed that there have not been any posts since Tuesday. That is because I decided it was time to take a break. This break may last weeks or months depending on how I feel, and how other circumstances play out.At the moment I really do not have a whole lot of funds to invest with, and therefore I have been restricted to trading mostly penny stocks. This restriction is somewhat due to my own investment philosophy, which is to always have enough shares to make a high impact on the account balance. The other reason for this restriction is the market itself. Currently, the market is very poor, and I expect that to continue for at least another couple of months. Right now I would recommend going short. One requirement by brokerages on going short, is that you have to short marginable securities. For Scottrade, these would be ones that are at least $4.00 or higher. With the funds I have available to me, I would not be able to short many shares of any company. So wh... More About: Break , Insight , Stock , Taking
Trade Alert - ACII & WNBD
2008-03-04 20:39:00 ACII - Sold client out at .032 for a decent loss. The stock broke below .035 support, so I sold. The other technical indicators were not favorable either.WNBD - Bought shares for a client at .02. It bounced off .015 support, and is now above the 50 DMA (.0163). This one is due for news, and has pulled back from .05. If it can close above .0251 (20 day EMA), that would be bullish. More About: Trade , Alert
News Out - NPWS
2008-03-04 14:20:00 I am not sure how significant this news is, but hopefully it is enough to stem the recent move down. See link and headline below:Neah Power Announces Transition to Larger Silicon Electrodes for Higher Volumetric Energy Density More About: News
JCDS
2008-03-04 00:18:00 Nice day for this stock, as it closed up over 33% to .0036. This was significant, as it made it above both the 20 day EMA (.0031) and 200 DMA (.0032). The RSI is now over 50, and the MACD has reversed and is heading up towards the center line. The next hurdle will be .004, and then .006.
Trade Alert II - RNTT & SCLL (updated)
2008-03-03 19:51:00 RNTT - Bought shares for a client at .008. The stock is a shell that has recently had some activity on the Colorado Secratary of State site (Articles of Reinstatement filed on 2/21/08). This usually means that it will probably be reverse merging soon. The stock should move up on anticipation of this. The OS is pretty low (only 9 million), so it could move up nicely if it gets the right amount of exposure.SCLL - Bought shares for a client at .014. This one has been getting a lot of volume lately, and moved from .007 to .02 in a few days. Today it finally pulled back a little, which is healthy. So far no news to explain the huge volume. I am thinking it should be due to come out soon. We'll see.UPDATE: I added more shares of RNTT at .006. Too bad I did not buy them all there. The client's average is now .0075. More About: Trade , Alert
Trade Alert - BHWF
2008-03-03 18:38:00 Sold clients out at .001 for a small loss. The break below the 20 day EMA was not good technically. The MACD also made the bearish crossover on the move. More About: Trade , Alert
Trade/Market Update - Dec 5
2007-12-06 00:03:00 The Nasdaq made a very nice move today, up almost 47 to 2666. This action really helped the chart. The Nasdaq is now back over it's 20 day EMA (2651), the RSI is now back over 50, and the MACD is rising again after being flat. The MACD is currently positive as well. Based on these technicals you would expect another move up to 2700 tomorrow, however, the market has been kind of finicky lately. I could just as easily see a move back down to the 20 day EMA as well. So we'll just have to wait and see. If the Nasdaq were to get by 2700, that would be a significant event. The next milestone would be the 50 DMA at 2718.TRADE UPDATESTrade s for Clients:HYGS - Added more shares at $1.04. The chart is looking a little better after today's small rise. The key for the stock is still to close above it's 20 day EMA ($1.10).SCLD - Sold all shares at $1.00 for a small loss.RIGL - No trades with this one, but I was glad the market saw the conference call the way I did last night. The stock finis... More About: Market , Update
Happy Hanukkah!!!
2007-12-05 18:31:00 I want to wish all of my Jewish readers a happy Hanukkah , which began at sundown yesterday. May you have a joyous and safe holiday! More About: Happy
Trade Updates - Dec 4
2007-12-05 02:25:00 As you'll see, this was a difficult day for me.For Clients:DCTH - Added more shares for clients around $2.07.ERFW - Sold clients out at an average of $1.315 for a decent loss. This turned out to be a bad move, as the stock closed at $1.40.DEIX - Bought and sold clients out for a small loss (this was a day trade).SOYO - Bought more shares for clients at around $1.17. The stock closed at $1.14. By the way this stock fell on good news today. The company announced that they were filing for an uplist to the AMEX. They said they met all the requirements except the $2.00 share price (it used to be $3). They said they hoped to be able to reach that price organically in time to be accepted. Furthermore, they said if they did not attain that share price in the allotted time, that they only had two options at that point. One was to reverse split, and the other was to withdraw the application. In that filing the CEO says that he will NOT do a RS. Therefore, withdrawing the application would be... More About: Updates , Trade
RIGL Conference Call - My Take
2007-12-05 01:43:00 I listened to the RIGL R788 ITP Trial Data Conference Call this afternoon (4:30pm ET). If you recall, the stock fell from as high as $11.50 to as low as $6.64 (today) on fears that these results would be negative.In listening to the call, it looks like these fears were for naught, as the call ended with the company saying they were pleased with the results. There were also fears that the drug had bad GI side effects (nausua and diahrea). These fears were also for naught, as they said the side effects were not that bad, and did not cause anyone to stop using the drug. Additionally, some were treated with some anti-nuasua medicine, and were fine.So how could the analysts be so far off base? This is my theory. Apparently, analysts got wind that one person from the study had been hospitilized for dehydration. This blossomed into multiple people being hospitilized. Keep in mind that if you have enough vomiting and diahreah, you can get dehydrated, so this is what fueled the rumor... More About: Conference Call
Trade/Market Update - Dec 3
More articles from this author:2007-12-03 23:54:00 Well, Saturday I said this would be a key day for the NASDAQ, and gave a couple of scenarios. The NASDAQ took the negative one, and closed below the 20 day EMA (2652) by finishing the day at 2637 (-24). Based on today's action, I would look for a drop to at least 2600 tomorrow. Keep in mind this based purely on technical analysis. That being said, I will continue to be in stocks I feel are defensive.TRADE UPDATESFor Clients:Sold the remaining shares of RTK at $2.01 for a decent loss overall. The company is taking too long to respond to the buyout proposal, and I felt there were better opportunities out there (see next trade). It turned out to be a good move, as RTK closed at $1.95.Bought shares for a client in DCTH at $1.89. I really like the chart on this one now, and think it is undervalued fundamentally as well. The stock closed at $1.96.For Myself:Bought 140,000 shares of PLKC at .0028. I had about $400 or so left in my account, so I wanted to put it to use. The chart looks go... More About: Market , Trade , Update 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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