Category: All Categories

Trade recap for December 10th: Excitement & small profits

I suggest checking out my blog post on Investools’ settlement with the SEC at my GoodeValue blog. Also, don’t miss my review of auto-trading Tim Sykes at Covestor Investment Management that I published earlier today.

Today was an exciting day, but the net result was unspectacular. That is okay … exciting can be bad, and the day certainly started off badly. I spend most of my trade recap discussing RWC.

Daily profit: $228.50

Trades at IB:
SLD    1,000    SMCE    false    Stock    1.79    USD    SMART    09:30:19        5.00
+    BOT    5,000    RWC    false    Stock    3.940    USD    SMART    09:31:43        25.00
+    SLD    2,500    RWC    false    Stock    4.090    USD    SMART    09:39:58        12.50
+    SLD    2,500    RWC    false    Stock    4.140    USD    AMEX    09:40:12        12.50
+    BOT    800    RWC    false    Stock    3.930    USD    DRCTEDGE    09:53:17        4.00
+    SLD    800    RWC    false    Stock    4.070    USD    AMEX    09:55:57        4.00
+    BOT    800    NLST    false    Stock    6.140    USD    SMART    10:00:57        4.00
SLD    800    NLST    false    Stock    6.1500    USD    SMART    10:01:52        4.00
+    BOT    500    LZB    false    Stock    10.000    USD    ISLAND    12:41:13        2.50
SLD    500    ENER    false    Stock    11.60    USD    ISLAND    12:56:16        2.50
+    BOT    500    ENER    false    Stock    11.760    USD    SMART    12:57:40        2.50
+    SLD    500    LZB    false    Stock    10.002    USD    NYSE    13:16:19        2.50

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

A first look at auto-trading Tim Sykes using Covestor Investment Management

About a month ago I signed up for Covestor Investment Management (CV.IM). I put $10,000 into a new account at Interactive Brokers controlled by them and then signed up for that $10,000 to be auto-traded following Timothy Sykes. I mainly did this out of curiosity to see how well the trade replication worked. Please note that only Sykes’ trades in one of his two Interactive Brokers accounts are replicated by those following his strategy on CV.IM (trades in his other IB account are replicated with the CV.IM Tim Sykes Aggressive strategy, while trades in his SogoTrade and ThinkorSwim accounts are not replicated anywhere).

My biggest problem with CV.IM is that it subdivides orders and then sends those orders at two minute intervals, guaranteeing that the last shares filled will be filled long after the first shares were filled [Edit 12/10/09 see comment #7 below for an explanation from Covestor]. While this may make sense to minimize market impact for longer-term traders, it is absurd to have an order-replication algorithm that does such a thing when trying to track a day-trader of volatile stocks. Even ignoring the problems with subdividing the orders, out of 7 total trades (three round-trips), 2 had initial fills over 15 minutes after Sykes’ order was filled (the initial short on DRAM and the buy on LZB). Because of this risk of delayed replication time I must emphatically recommend against signing up with CV.IM to follow Tim Sykes or any other short term trader.

Below are my round-trip trades so far and the comparisons to where Tim Sykes made the trade and when I received an alert from his TimAlerts trade alert service. First I compare my profit margin per trade with Sykes’ profit margins:

IMGG —  Me: +14.3%
IMGG — Tim: +13.1%
Difference: +1.2% in my favor

DRAM —  Me: (8.3%)
DRAM — Tim: +5.6% (approximate)
Difference: (13.9%) to my detriment

LZB —  Me: (4.4%)
LZB — Tim: (2.0%) (approximate)
Difference: (2.4%) to my detriment

From these three trades I have lost a net of $30.78, including commissions and short stock borrow fees.

—

The first trade, IMGG, was replicated quickly:

My CV.IM account short sold 571 IMGG on 11/17/09 at  $1.645 at 9:34:40
My CV.IM account covered 571 IMGG on 11/18/09 at $1.41 at 9:36:20

Tim Sykes short sold IMGG on 11/17/09 at $1.64 and I received the TimAlert email at 9:39
He covered IMGG on 11/18/09 at $1.425 and I received the TimAlert email at 9:38

For IMGG, everything worked well and both sides of the trade were replicated quickly and almost exactly at the same price Tim Sykes trades were at.

—

The second trade, DRAM, was not replicated quickly:

My CV.IM account short sold 131 shares of DRAM at $4.28 at 12:03:07.
My CV.IM account short sold 146 more shares of DRAM at an average price of $4.53 between 13:50:19 and 13:58:34. This was submitted as four separate orders spaced 2 minutes apart on average.
My CV.IM account covered all 277 shares of DRAM at an average price of $4.746 between 9:42:18 and 9:48:26. This was submitted as four separate orders spaced 2 minutes apart on average.

Tim Sykes short sold DRAM on 11/23/09 at $4.68 and I received the TimAlert at 11:46.
He short sold more DRAM on 11/23/09 at $4.59 and I received a TimAlert (text only) circa 14:25.
Tim covered all his shares of DRAM on 11/24/09 at $4.40ish and I received a TimAlert email at 9:47.

For DRAM, the first short trade was over 17 minutes after the TimAlert (so probably just about 20 minutes after Sykes actually made the trade). It was also at a price over 8% lower than Sykes’ trade. Because I do not have adequate records of when I received the second short alert, I cannot say how close the first trade at CV.IM was to it. However, there was still 8 minutes between first and last fill on the subdivided short orders. The cover orders began before I received the TimAlert, but the fills on the buy to cover orders were still over 7% higher than Sykes’ cover.

—

The third trade, LZB, was not replicated quickly:

My CV.IM account bought 123 shares of LZB on 12/8/09 at an average price of $10.125 between 15:24:18 and 15:40:28. This was submitted as five separate orders spaced 3 minutes apart on average.
MY CV.IM account sold those 123 shares of LZB on 12/9/09 at an average price of $9.761 between 9:52:15 and 10:00:16. This was submitted as five separate orders spaced 2 minutes apart on average.

Tim Sykes bought LZB on 12/8/09 at $10.00 and I received the TimAlert email at 15:06.
He sold LZB on 12/9/09 at $9.80ish and I received the TimAlert email at 9:55.

For LZB, even the initial buy order from CV.IM came 25 minutes after Tim Sykes bought and 18 minutes after I received the TimAlert. The fills on the sell were better, with the initial fills beating the TimAlert, but because of the spacing of the subdivided sell orders, many of the shares were not sold until after the TimAlert was received.

—

Here are the details from each of my trades copied from my Interactive Brokers activity statement:

Symbol Date/Time Exchange Quantity T. Price C. Price T. Amount Comm/Tax Basis Realized P/L MTM P/L Code
Stocks
USD
DRAM 2009-11-23, 12:03:07 – -131 4.2800 4.4800 -560.68 -1.00 -559.68 0.00 -26.20 O
DRAM 2009-11-23, 13:50:19 – -57 4.5900 4.4800 -261.63 -1.00 -260.63 0.00 6.27 O
DRAM 2009-11-23, 13:52:35 – -39 4.5900 4.4800 -179.01 -1.00 -178.01 0.00 4.29 O
DRAM 2009-11-23, 13:56:59 – -28 4.4300 4.4800 -124.04 -1.00 -123.04 0.00 -1.40 O
DRAM 2009-11-23, 13:58:34 – -22 4.4000 4.4800 -96.80 -1.00 -95.80 0.00 -1.76 O
DRAM 2009-11-24, 09:42:18 – 57 4.5750 5.3900 260.78 -1.00 243.52 -18.25 46.46 ML;C
DRAM 2009-11-24, 09:44:52 – 11 4.6900 5.3900 51.59 -1.00 47.00 -5.59 7.70 ML;C
DRAM 2009-11-24, 09:46:23 – 5 4.6400 5.3900 23.20 -1.00 21.36 -2.84 3.75 ML;C
DRAM 2009-11-24, 09:48:26 – 204 4.799608 5.3900 979.12 -1.02 905.28 -74.86 120.44 P;ML;C
Total DRAM 0 92.53 -9.02 0.00 -101.54 159.54
IMGG 2009-11-17, 09:34:40 – -571 1.6450 1.4850 -939.30 -2.86 -936.44 0.00 91.36 O
IMGG 2009-11-18, 09:36:20 – 571 1.4100 1.2100 805.11 -2.86 936.44 128.47 -114.20 ML;C
Total IMGG 0 -134.18 -5.72 0.00 128.47 -22.84
LZB 2009-12-08, 15:24:18 – 22 10.1400 10.1100 223.08 -1.00 224.08 0.00 -0.66 O
LZB 2009-12-08, 15:26:17 – 22 10.1300 10.1100 222.86 -1.00 223.86 0.00 -0.44 O
LZB 2009-12-08, 15:28:14 – 17 10.1300 10.1100 172.21 -1.00 173.21 0.00 -0.34 O
LZB 2009-12-08, 15:36:14 – 11 10.1000 10.1100 111.10 -1.00 112.10 0.00 0.11 O
LZB 2009-12-08, 15:40:28 – 51 10.1200 10.1100 516.12 -1.00 517.12 0.00 -0.51 O
LZB 2009-12-09, 09:52:15 – -5 9.8200 9.8700 -49.10 -1.00 -50.95 -2.85 -0.25 ML;C
LZB 2009-12-09, 09:54:16 – -5 9.8200 9.8700 -49.10 -1.00 -50.95 -2.85 -0.25 ML;C
LZB 2009-12-09, 09:56:17 – -5 9.7900 9.8700 -48.95 -1.00 -50.95 -3.00 -0.40 ML;C
LZB 2009-12-09, 09:58:19 – -97 9.7600 9.8700 -946.72 -1.00 -985.98 -40.26 -10.67 ML;C
LZB 2009-12-09, 10:00:16 – -11 9.7000 9.8700 -106.70 -1.00 -111.54 -5.84 -1.87 ML;C
Total LZB 0 44.80 -10.00 0.00 -54.80 -15.28
Total in USD 3.14 -24.74 0.00 -27.87 121.42

Disclosure: No positions in any stocks mentioned in this post. I currently have $5,200 subscribed to follow Tim Sykes at CV.IM. I receive a commission for every DVD or TimAlerts subscription bought through my affiliate link to Sykes’ web store. To see more details on my relationship with Sykes, please see my disclosures. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosures & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for a blizzardly Thursday

AAU – Hmm, looks nice a nice breakout, but no volume today. Pass.

aau

AFFX – First really big up day with volume since the stock’s crash in late October. It might have more.

affx

LIWA – Now that is a breakout!

liwa

GGWPQ – Keeps going. No clear play IMHO but it will continue to be volatile.

ggwpq

IMGN – Up on breast cancer drug news today, chart looks decent.

imgn

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for December 9th

Not too much exciting for me today. In my video I promote the Investors Underground chatroom; use my link and type in “reaper” as the promo code and you can save money there.

Trades at IB:

BOT    1,000    NLST    false    Stock    5.5900    USD    ISLAND    09:30:14        5.00
+    SLD    1,000    NLST    false    Stock    5.750    USD    SMART    09:30:54        5.00
SLD    500    LZB    false    Stock    9.90    USD    NYSE    09:35:45        2.50
+    BOT    500    LZB    false    Stock    9.874    USD    ARCA    09:54:22        2.50
+    BOT    500    NLST    false    Stock    5.950    USD    ARCA    14:53:03        2.50
+    SLD    500    NLST    false    Stock    5.844    USD    SMART    14:55:59        2.50
+    BOT    1,000    SMCE    false    Stock    1.665    USD    SMART    15:59:21        5.00

Daily profit: $110.04

Disclosure: Long 1000 SMCE and short 5000 RWC. No positions in anything else mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for December 9th

RMIX – Another strong up day, could have another one, but odds are not as good now. I probably won’t play it because I know I’m not great at playing cheap stocks.

rmix

VVTV – Nice breakout yesterday and follow-through today. No easy play tomorrow.

vvtv

RWC – Contract win today, but the total value is spread out over many years and many companies. It couldn’t do anything today after gapping up so I’ll look for further weakness tomorrow.

rwc

NLST – We’ve seen this kind of move before. If this goes green tomorrow or gaps up slightly I will be a buyer.

nlst

PIP – This is what happens to 90%+ of biotech stocks. It could bounce a bit considering its huge plunge. I won’t play it.

pip

LZB – Nice breakout over $10, but it has been choppy and slow. I’m not going to try buying this again.

lzb

IFNY – Horrid little pinkie with no current financial information, up a bunch on a supposed oil find. That being said, the chart is bullish. I never recommend buying pink sheets or OTC stocks, but I especially advise inexperienced traders to avoid them.

ifny

HOKU – Crazy chart, but nice volume gain today. Maybe more tomorrow? I would consider buying on green, but it is right at resistance.

hoku

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for December 8th

Nothing too exciting today.

Daily profit: $304.60

+    BOT    300    RWC    false    Stock    4.490    USD    ARCA    10:02:04        1.50
SLD    300    RWC    false    Stock    4.41    USD    AMEX    10:03:33        1.50
BOT    300    RWC    false    Stock    4.50    USD    DRCTEDGE    10:08:11        1.50
SLD    300    RWC    false    Stock    4.33    USD    DRCTEDGE    10:10:51        1.50
+    BOT    500    LZB    false    Stock    10.060    USD    SMART    14:59:04        2.50
+    BOT    3,096    LZB    false    Stock    10.085    USD    DRCTEDGE    15:06:29        15.48
+    SLD    3,596    LZB    false    Stock    10.198    USD    SMART    15:07:09        17.98

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Excellent report on CLRH and NXTH pump and dumps

Thank you Streetsweeper! This article highlights the similarities between CLRH and NXTH and the work of Charles Payne in promoting NXTH. If you are unsure of how stock promotion works, this is a very informative article.

Investors blinded by the pretty stock prices for NXT Nutritionals (OTC.BB:NXTH) and Clear-Lite Holdings(OTC.BB:CLRH) might want to take a closer look at other – less attractive – traits shared by these two companies.

After going public through reverse mergers with shell companies earlier this year, both NXTH and CLRH promptly hired the same part-time CFO to keep their books in order. They also retained the same auditing firm in Boca Raton – a region viewed by regulators as a hotbed for securities-related fraud – to bless their financial statements. They even chose the same tainted public relations firm to attract potential investors. (That firm failed to answer questions about the companies for this story.)

Read the rest of the article at TheStreetSweeper.com

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for December 8th

BMJ – Nice move today, lower volume. Possibly a long on strength tomorrow.

bmj

PEIX – Another strong move today. What have I said in the past about paying attention to hot sectors?

peix

RMIX – I think this could have another strong up day before it inevitably falls back down. Notice the huge volume today. I would like it as a long on the $1 break or red/green.

rmix

LZB – On watch for long on a continued move (with volume) above $10.

lzb

Notice how it spiked towards the end of the day once it got a volume spike. Always pay attention to volume and price.

lzb_1day

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for December 7th

Nothing much today, just one little trade. I was busy with some other things. I had one nice trade buying BIOF as it squeezed short sellers on a morning spike. I was 10 cents too early getting out. Oh well.

+    BOT    1,000    BIOF    false    Stock    2.940    USD    SMART    09:35:35        5.00
+    SLD    1,000    BIOF    false    Stock    3.174    USD    ISLAND    09:37:14        5.00

Daily profit: $224.00

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for December 7th

GGWPQ – Nice move on reports that two different REITS are considering buying the company’s assets or the whole company. No clear play now.

ggwpq

OCLS – Up for two straight days after they provided an update on their research. Considering the news and that it isn’t up that much, I don’t think shorting here would be wise.

ocls

AHT – Decent breakout chart, resistance longer-term.

aht

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.