When trading large blocks of shares, particularly in illiquid stocks, it helps to hide the number of shares in your order. You can do this with what is called an iceberg order. The video below shows how they work in Interactive Brokers Traders’ Workstation as I try to cover a large short position in an illiquid stock. You can learn more about all complex order types at IB by visiting their order type page.
Disclosure: No positions in any stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
1. How do I spot volume breakouts during the day?
2. How do I set alerts at IB?
3. How did I get an account at Goldman Sachs?
4. How do I find stocks moving in the pre-market?
If you send me an email your question or use my contact page to ask a question your question will likely be answered in the next installment of this (perhaps weekly) series.
Disclosure: No positions in any stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
Boring day today and that is okay. The rest of the week was plenty exciting.
Daily profit: $109.42
Weekly profit: $4024.77
Disclosure: No positions in any stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
Below is a chart of my cumulative profits from trading Tim Sykes’ pennystocking strategy. If you are impressed, why not take a look at his DVDs and learn the strategy for yourself? I recommend and own Pennystocking Part Deux and TimFundamentals Part Deux.
While I like Sykes his strategies are not the only trading strategies I use. This chart only includes those trades that I made using his strategies or my interpretations thereof. Please note that my “watchlist longs” profits are not included in the chart even though I consider that trading strategy to be purely derived from Sykes’ teachings. I have had about $2,000 in such profit in 2009 and 2010.
Disclosure: No positions in any stocks mentioned in this post. I receive a commission for every DVD 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 disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.
VLYF – Another airport security play. Lower volume and OTC though. Short on weakness.
MDCE – Pumped stock. I’ve made $835.49 in realized profits by buying this stock so far. I would much prefer to short it, however. Hopefully it has a huge up day or two left so I can short at a high price (even $0.80 would make me happy). Now it is too cheap for me to want to short. I have a small long position I will sell tomorrow (likely right after the open).
Disclosure: Long 6400 MDCE. No positions in any other stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
See video trade recap. Today was the dump day of pump & dump ECOB. I banked on that short despite covering a bit early and I also made $350 on the pumped stocks I held overnight and sold today (I’m now down to a $4200 loss for those this year). I did make a few trades after recording the trade recap; see below for details.
Disclosure: Long 6400 MDCE. No positions in any other stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
ECOB – The end is near and daily fluffy PRs cannot save this stock. I expect another big down day tomorrow and if that is the case I will likely cover my short position.
PEIX – Still on short watch. It will likely have another down day tomorrow.
ROSG – Big gainer, but no easy play now that they did a stock offering after hours.
Disclosure: Short 27,000 ECOB. No positions in any other stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
I didn’t suffer a forced buy-in but I explain them in the trade recap. I will look to cover ECOB in the next couple days and I will certainly sell my other positions soon after the market open tomorrow.
Disclosure: Short 27,000 ECOB, long 10,000 ISPI, long 7,000 GAZU, and long 12,000 MDCE. No positions in any other stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
NEXM – Big spike on drug news. Too cheap to excite me.
PEIX – I had a nice short of this today but it closed green. Tomorrow may be the big down day or it could pull an NLST/IDN and just gyrate sideways for the next week or two.
Disclosure: No positions in any stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
Horrible day today. I should have listened to Nana Mouskouri’s advice to not wait too long, but I didn’t. I waited too long to take profits in WTKN and a $4.2k unrealized gain yesterday turned into a $6.3k loss. See the video trade recap for some other lessons and trades.
Advice for nubile women and traders:
Trade recap
Trades at IB:
+ SLD 10,000 PEIX false Stock 2.062 USD ARCA 08:10:23 50.00
BOT 4,550 PEIX false Stock 2.0600 USD ISLAND 08:12:23 22.75
+ BOT 1,450 PEIX false Stock 2.040 USD ISLAND 08:18:14 7.25
BOT 1,000 PEIX false Stock 2.0400 USD DRCTEDGE 08:18:56 5.00
BOT 1,000 PEIX false Stock 2.0400 USD ISLAND 08:19:47 5.00
BOT 2,000 PEIX false Stock 2.0400 USD ISLAND 08:26:26 10.00
+ SLD 10,000 PEIX false Stock 2.497 USD SMART 10:26:26 50.00
+ BOT 1,000 PEIX false Stock 2.290 USD SMART 12:25:30 5.00
+ BOT 3,000 PEIX false Stock 2.290 USD SMART 12:41:07 15.00
+ BOT 3,000 PEIX false Stock 2.300 USD ISE 12:41:29 15.00
+ BOT 3,000 PEIX false Stock 2.310 USD SMART 12:41:37 15.00
BOT 2,500 BPAC false Stock 0.6110 USD ARCAEDGE 15:56:37 7.64
BOT 2,500 BPAC false Stock 0.6120 USD ARCAEDGE 15:57:02 7.65
Daily profit: ($3856.30)
Disclosure: Short 30,000 ECOB and long 5,000 BPAC. No positions in any other stock mentioned. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.
