Trade recap: $900 in profits on pump & dump Americas Energy Company (OTC: AENY)

I don’t like trading soon after the new year or in a new month, because it means the slate is clean and any loss will put me into the red. Yes, I know it is a dumb psychological hangup, but that is how I think. So I was more relieved than elated after making $916.50 on my short of AENY today. My total profit for the new year is now just under $1500, which is not bad for two days’ work. Even better, I made my first trade in my ThinkorSwim account (1k of my 3k shares short of AENY), which is tracked by Covestor.

I wasn’t the only one to profit from AENY … Tim Sykes shorted at the same time I did but covered later and made more. While I am a TimAlerts subscriber, I shorted it before I got the TimAlert, because I understand pump & dumps, having learned about how to trade them from Sykes’ DVDs.

I bought ECOB and JYHW into the close, looking for gaps up on them tomorrow and then I will look to sell quickly. These are both pumps so I recommend staying away.

Trades at IB:
SLD    1,000    AENY    false    Stock    4.7400    USD    SMART    09:31:24        5.00
SLD    1,000    AENY    false    Stock    4.7000    USD    ARCAEDGE    09:32:51        5.00
BOT    500    AENY    false    Stock    4.4400    USD    SMART    10:27:36        2.50
BOT    200    AENY    false    Stock    4.3850    USD    SMART    10:31:19        1.00
BOT    200    AENY    false    Stock    4.3250    USD    SMART    10:34:29        1.00
BOT    300    AENY    false    Stock    4.3200    USD    ARCAEDGE    10:35:33        1.50
+    BOT    200    AENY    false    Stock    4.290    USD    SMART    10:39:19        1.00
+    BOT    300    AENY    false    Stock    4.173    USD    ARCAEDGE    10:57:33        2.00
BOT    300    AENY    false    Stock    4.2000    USD    ARCAEDGE    10:57:55        1.50
BOT    2,500    ECOB    false    Stock    0.6600    USD    ARCAEDGE    15:44:26        8.25
BOT    1,200    JYHW    false    Stock    1.3900    USD    ARCAEDGE    15:53:29        6.00

Daily profit: $916.50

Disclosure: Short 2,000 AENY, long 1,200 JYHW, and long 2,500 ECOB. 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.

Watchlist for January 5th

China Direct Industries, Inc. (CDII) – Big move today on increased guidance. Probably overdone and I’m not looking to buy this here, but I wouldn’t short either.

cdii

Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. (IDN) – Still on watch, looking for a second down day tomorrow.

idn

ICx Technologies, Inc. (ICXT) – Still on watch, same as IDN. I really should have played this and IDN better (I didn’t trade ICXT at all today and it was down 20% by the close).

icxt

Kandi Technologies, Corp (KNDI) – Nice move! $6.20 would be a dandy breakout.

kndi

Voltaire Limited (VOLT) Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) – Nice breakouts to 52-week highs.

volt

bexp

Americas Energy Company (AENY.OB) – A pumped piece of garbage. ALFFS!

aeny

STEC, Inc. (STEC) – Time for more gap-filling, perhaps?

stec

ION Geophysical Corporation (IO) – $6.56 would be a 52-week high.

io

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for the first trading day of the new year

I messed up a few trades today and still made a halfway respectable amount of money. I’m not happy but I don’t mind too much.

Trades at IB:
+    BOT    800    AHD    false    Stock    6.810    USD    DRCTEDGE    10:25:29        4.00
+    SLD    400    AHD    false    Stock    6.910    USD    SMART    10:50:57        2.00
+    SLD    400    AHD    false    Stock    7.080    USD    SMART    11:04:15        2.00
+    BOT    400    AHD    false    Stock    7.110    USD    DRCTEDGE    11:05:10        2.00
+    SLD    400    AHD    false    Stock    7.100    USD    ARCA    11:06:56        2.00

Daily profit: $581.50

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for the 4th day of the new year

A couple big runners on short watch. These have been profiled previously. They are up big on security / airline /terrorist fears.

Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. (IDN) – Nice big move, steady in the morning and then faded into the close. I’m looking for a short on red.

idn

ICx Technologies, Inc. (ICXT) – Small black candle with big wicks at both ends. I’m looking to short aggressively on red or the break of Thursday’s support at $9.30.

icxt

A few others to consider:

eOn Communications Corp. (EONC) – Had a first red day after an 80% move on seven straight white candles. I would look for it to fall more but this thing has a low float and has been stubborn in the past. I will likely not look to short it.

eonc

Implant Sciences Corp. (IMSC.OB) – Low-priced; up over 1000% in four days, this has to be pump. Hopefully it doubles again … then I would look to short. This is also up on hype related to airport security.

imsc

Americas Energy Company (AENY.OB) – Was a great breakout, now over-extended. This thing is pumpish and has been pumped before. Hopefully it has another great day and then I would look to short after that, on weakness.

aeny

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

How to spend your trading gains: New Year’s Eve dinner at Alinea

I spent some of my hard-won trading gains at one of the top restaurants in the world for a New Year’s Eve dinner with my wonderful wife. The restaurant is Alinea, and it is one of the hotspots for molecular gastronomy. While the dinner was ridiculously expensive, it was also ridiculously good and it is an experience worth having. Below are pictures of some of the 10 courses we had. My wife’s favorite course was the black truffle explosion raviolo. Mine was the poached pear with white wine and allspice and black pepper foam.

I should point out that I am not the first penny stock trader to visit Alinea and blog about it. Tim Sykes did that last summer. I have to say my experience was better than his. The waitstaff was unobtrusive but ever present. They did not idly chitchat with us, but when we had questions about the food or wine they seemed happy to engage with us. The service was better than any other US restaurant I have been to (although I haven’t been to any top restaurants in Vegas, San Francisco, or New York) and the equal of the two Michelin-starred restaurants I have been to in France.

When asked whether I wanted tea or coffee at the end of the meal I asked if they had Pu-erh tea (an aged tea from China). The waiter not only answered in the affirmative but listed their two choices: a 1949 Pu-erh for $97 and a 1997, for $12. I took the cheaper option. Not even I can justify $100 on a cup of tea!

1st Course: brioche foam with cream and caviar … a nice twist on the classic that emphasized the texture of the caviar.
IMAGE_131

2nd course: Berkshire pork belly Thai style, inside iceberg lettuce. The drink at the top left was a distillation of lemongrass, fish sauce, and chile.
IMAGE_125

3rd course, maybe? Otoro and a bunch of other stuff.
IMAGE_126

5th course: A tribute to Auguste Escoffier: sea trout, chanterelle mushrooms, and in little boats made from short-bread cookies, a quail egg with black truffle (in the center boat) and fish roe (in the side boats). And yes, that means they were roe boats.
IMAGE_128

7th Course: Wagyu beef with beets and fennel. My wife did not like this at all so I got two servings!
IMAGE_129

One of the desserts: chocolate mouse, liquid nitrogen frozen chocolate mouse, mentholated chocolate crumbs and some other things.
IMAGE_132

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose other than that I loved Alinea!

Trade recap for New Year’s Eve

I had a quiet day today. I was busy with some things other than trading and the main stocks I was watching, ICXT and IDN, were not kind enough to give me easy entries. No video recap today.

Daily profit: $260.92

Weekly profit: $327.23

BOT    500    ICXT    false    Stock    9.80    USD    ISLAND    09:31:37        2.50
SLD    500    ICXT    false    Stock    9.90    USD    ISLAND    09:33:30        2.50
+    SLD    4,914    EONC    false    Stock    6.013    USD    ISLAND    12:52:59        24.57
+    BOT    4,914    EONC    false    Stock    5.959    USD    ISLAND    12:55:46        24.57

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for the Kuumba, the sixth day of Kwanzaa

Kuumba means creativity … something I’m a fan of, particularly in trading.

Stocks from yesterday’s watchlist that did what I expected were CBAK and AENY. AENY had a huge gain today, while CBAK gapped down a bunch after its rumors turned out to be false. There are a couple really nice stocks for tomorrow.

PIP – I’m short-biased here. This thing was a day-trader’s dream today, up 120% at one point on no news.  While it faded hugely, it still has more downside.

pip

ICXT – This is an airport security play that has been hot due to the Detroit underwear bomber incident. I will look to short aggressively on fading price action or a huge vertical spike. I expect a huge spike in the morning considering that this hit $10 towards the close of after-hours trading.

icxt

IDN – Similar chart and similar story as ICXT. Much lower volume, though.

idn

RAE – Nice move, maybe more will come?

rae

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for December 30th, St. Egwin’s feast day

I nailed the entry on buying PIP today but sold over $1.10 too early. Oops. I shorted it in my BlogoElite account too but my entry wasn’t great and I didn’t hold it long. By the way, my PIP entry was alerted in my new stock chat (see link at top of my blog) and several people there made good money on it.

BOT    700    SPNC    false    Stock    7.01    USD    ISLAND    09:41:20        3.50
SLD    300    SPNC    false    Stock    7.11    USD    ISLAND    09:45:16        1.50
+    SLD    700    SPNC    false    Stock    6.976    USD    DRCTEDGE    09:47:15        4.00
BOT    300    SPNC    false    Stock    6.99    USD    SMART    09:48:16        1.50
SLD    200    VRMLQ    false    Stock    27.10    USD    SMART    10:10:46        1.00
BOT    200    VRMLQ    false    Stock    27.02    USD    SMART    10:12:56        1.00
+    BOT    2,400    PIP    false    Stock    2.170    USD    AMEX    12:42:47        12.00
+    SLD    1,200    PIP    false    Stock    2.240    USD    AMEX    12:44:30        6.00
+    SLD    1,175    PIP    false    Stock    2.270    USD    AMEX    12:45:04        5.88
SLD    25    PIP    false    Stock    2.23    USD    ISLAND    12:45:20        1.00

Daily profit: $220.62

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

Watchlist for Nia, the fifth day of Kwanzaa

“Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.” – from Wikipedia

CBAK – I am looking to short this on red. It was up 60% today on rumors that its batteries will power the new Google smartphone.

cbak

SPNC – Up big on news that it will pay $5m to end a federal probe. I like this for more strength and I might buy on red/green.

spnc

AENY – OTC BB stock, but that sure is a bullish chart.

aeny

IVAN – Similar chart to AENY.

ivan

PSUN – A similar chart, $4.00 would be an important point of resistance.

psun

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.

Trade recap for December 29th

Fairly boring day. A couple not quite so good trades early in the ayem and I only made one trade after that.

+    SLD    1,000    CGEN    false    Stock    4.950    USD    DRCTEDGE    09:31:30        5.00
BOT    1,000    CGEN    false    Stock    5.05    USD    DRCTEDGE    09:32:52        5.00
+    SLD    1,000    AHD    false    Stock    5.951    USD    NYSE    09:43:20        5.00
+    BOT    500    AHD    false    Stock    6.000    USD    SMART    09:53:36        2.50
+    BOT    500    AHD    false    Stock    6.040    USD    SMART    09:53:42        2.50
BOT    60    VRMLQ    false    Stock    26.94    USD    SMART    15:37:32        1.00
SLD    60    VRMLQ    false    Stock    27.40    USD    SMART    15:38:52        1.00

Daily profit: ($163.31)

Disclosure: No positions in anything mentioned in this post. This blog has a terms of use and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; my full terms of use is incorporated by reference into this post.