Stock Du Jour, Fri. May 29, 2020, ADAP

Adaptimmune Therapeutics (ADAP) was the stock du jour, doing 365,000 trades and $1.18BB in volume. IB had shares but I paid 2.17 cents at the brookie to borrow it since I’m never shorting again at IB. I didn’t make any money in ADAP, it was very tricky — I should have gotten long it but I don’t trust those lunchtime breakouts, esp. when it hasn’t tested higher time frame support.

A ton of stuff was in play as is always the case these days and I played PHIO, SNOA, NAK, and PRTY as well, spreading myself pretty thin. Mis-sized my SNOA bet badly and it was a small win instead of a big one.

Stock Du Jour, Thu. May 28, 2020, ABIO

Arca Biopharma (ABIO) was the HTB du jour, doing 319,000 trades and $1.3BB in volume. It was so hard to borrow that my brookie didn’t have a borrow, which was a good thing since it went from $4 to $22. It did give me a spot very late in the day, and the brookie was asking .999 a share so I passed (it woulda been worth it). Of course I’d never think of getting long something like this. Too easy. Buy $13 sell $20, who wants to do that?

I got in trouble again with IB … HX (249,000, $144MM) had plenty of shares there (at first!) so I shorted there pre-open, then got jammed out, then reversed long, stopped out, reversed short, double size, stopped out re-reverse long, etc. Total mess. Extremely costly. Again easily over a thousand dollars in commissions generated (zero commissions, you say?). Calmed down. Re-shorted it, jammed out, top tick. Deep breath. Re-short, Jammed out. Top tick. It finally and legitimately cracks. IB no borrow. Have to go to brookie and pay up. No way to get the money back at IB. Just gone. No borrow. Not when you need it. I’m done shorting at IB. I’ve said it before but I really mean it now.

Shorted MARK (146,000, $209MM) at IB. Worst ave than yesterday. It cracked, I covered some but not enough. Was expecting it to fall to $2 after earnings. It didn’t, it went up, jammed me out for a sizable loss. Then tanked. Yeah, one of those days. Really bad. Can’t lose money like this every day. If I did I’d be out of biz in a month. Maybe less. And it’s a lot of money to lose. Scary.

Stock Du Jour, Wed. May 27, 2020, GRNQ

Greenpro Capital (GRNQ) was the hard-to-borrow (HTB) du jour, doing 172,000 trades and $155MM in volume. I paid between 5.33 and 6.73 cents for the borrow. It gave me a good spot pre-open and it dropped 20% down to the hourly support, but I’m a very greedy guy and was looking at higher time frame targets below. They launched a short squeeze at 11:30ish and I got jammed out (at breakeven thank G-d), which of course just pissed me off, so I had to go back in and re-short it much bigger to get REVENGE. Of course it held just fine, held support all afternoon, just going up up up. Sheesh. I paid an obscene amount in borrows and have nothing to show for it, which oddly doesn’t happen to any service seller. Maybe I’ll GET IT BACK tomorrow, we’ll see.

A lot of stuff was in play yet again (all those stimulus checks floating around out there) … MARK my nemesis, that rotten bastard of a stock, just up up up, ignoring my shorting (184,000 trades $326MM in volume). Traded that at IB and lost a fortune… AGAIN. Maybe I’ll get it back tomorrow. Only if there is a j-st trading G-d.

ESEA I shorted at the brookie, drove me nuts getting partial locates, request 10,000 get 100 it’s like what?!? Cuz it just dings, I don’t look to see how many shares, I assume it’s a full locate. Worked the locate button super hard and was rewarded with an additional 100 shares. ESEA’s a $3 stock, c’mon. Played it greedy for HTF (higher time frame) target and they didn’t come. Yeah I’m greedy.

HTZ BK no borrow nothing at brookie, no play. PHUN woulda been fun but I was busy fighting MARK and generally getting my ass handed to me. MRSN saw it too late. NK saw it, shorted it (at IB), got my ass kicked. Refused to reverse and get long even though it was obvious. Can’t get long.

Bad day, no coin, brah, Negative coin. And Jeebus Christmas you should see the locate fees I generate, just makes my eyes water. Until tomorrow!

Stock Du Jour, Tue. May 26, 2020, MARK

Remark Holdings (MARK) was the stock du jour, doing 167,000 trades and $245MM in volume. It’s a Reg SHO Threshold List member so the brookie had no borrow, but oddly IB had a quarter million shares available to short so I went there to trade it. I had an OK average (2.80921) but it was holding the hourly support like a champ, and I thought, geez, I’m going to get jammed out of this and, worst nightmare, that will be just the moment IB has no borrow and I won’t be able to re-short it to “get it back.” And you know what happened next: I got jammed out of it, (though IB didn’t run out of borrow, that will happen tomorrow). I had a 2.88126 ave getting out, which ain’t bad, but multiplied by a gazillion shares (you don’t wanna know), it was a pretty big loss. Maybe I’ll be able to get it back tomorrow, assuming IB still has a borrow.

With the bookie I traded OBLN (very thin with 23,700 trades and $1.5MM in volume) and MTC (61,300 trades and $34.6MM in volume) … they both gave me good spots and faded all day into the close (no partial profits taken, Dave Mabe!). Big gains, tremendous gains as Dear Leader might say. I’ll tell you what else was tremendous: the borrow fees. MTC was a 25 !?! cent borrow ($2500 per 10,000) and later dropped to 10.6 cents (where I borrowed more). It’s a $3 stock. Imagine being a losing trader AND paying fees like that. Yeah, tough game. OBLN was a 1.84 cent borrow ($184 per 10,000) … that’s more like it, but still. I should note that I paid more in commissions at IB than I did for all my borrows at the brookie. See how they get you? One way or another.

Stock Du Jour, Fri. May 22, 2020, NAVB

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals (NAVB) was the HTB (hard to borrow) du jour, doing 226,000 trades and $186MM in volume. I paid 3.71 cents for the borrow ($371 per 10,000) and it gave me a good spot … I was a good boy and took no partial profits till the end of the day, but then it dropped another 20+ cents after hours which would have nearly doubled my gains … 7x overnight borrow cost and a long weekend means no swinging possible, plus I was tired at the end of the week and didn’t want to monkey with it after hours where the liquidity gets very sketchy and it can be difficult to exit things, even for a relative small fry like me.

I also traded SNDL (74,000 trades $39.7MM volume, 2.7 cent borrow) and CLSN (60,400 trades and $68.6MM in volume, 2.7 cent borrow) with the brookie with sort of so-so results. I was a bad boy and shorted both XSPA and MARK at IB since they had shares and scratched them more or less while paying a vast amount of commissions (insane to pay $0.005 per share in commissions in these sub-dollar stocks). But the borrow was free, lol.

Anyway it was a good end to the week. There’s nothing worse than losing money on Friday, especially a Friday before a long weekend, so I was pleased that I was able to bank sick coin, brah, line to line, at the week’s end.

Stock Du Jour, Thu. May 21, 2020, SNCA

Seneca Biopharma (SNCA) was the stock du jour, doing 247,000 trades and $160MM in volume … it was hard to borrow (HTB) and I paid 2.43 cents for the borrow ($243 per 10,000). I got lucky because I noticed this one late since I was busy with CLSK (64,100 trades $64.8MM volume, 4.9 cent borrow) and SONM (41,000 trades with $23.7MM volume, 3.17 cent borrow) … I would have been jammed out in the morning for sure, but I got in on the “backside” and rode it down to the Dave Mabe no-partial-profits taken end of day (fell short of greedy target). If I didn’t have to pay 7x to the brookie for overnight, I would’ve swung it shooting for Greedy.

Really good day, everything went my way, and I was able to bank some sick coin, brah. Minus the borrows. Semi-sick net of borrows. Oh, SURF was a latecomer (242,000 trades and $485MM in volume) but it was ETB (IB had over 1.5MM shares) so I avoided it… see, I can learn from my mistakes. In the past I would have instantly gone to IB and shorted a massive slug of shares, just on principle, but no, I’ve learned, ETB and I don’t agree on things. If I tracked my stats carefully I dread to think what the ETB losses would add up to. Good thing I track no stats. Just print out charts and put ‘em in a binder and forget about ‘em. Lazy.

Stock Du Jour, Wed. May 20, 2020, PHUN

Phunware (PHUN) … 163,000 trades … $428MM volume … did not play, too many halts and stopped watching it … borrow was $194 / 10K … shoulda kept watching because it did give a good spot in afternoon, can’t catch ‘em all when you’re a point and clicker.

Did play NNDM 9.72 cent borrow, pre-open offering (EFFECT yday 17:00) … also played CCCL, 6.93 cent borrow in a dollar stock

CIDM latecomer … 190,000 trades, $120MM volume .. EOD offering.

Stock Du Jour, Tue. May 19, 2020, NNDM

Nano Dimension (NNDM) was the HTB (hard-to-borrow) du jour, doing 639,000 trades and $1.93BB in volume. I paid 4.14 cents per share ($414 per 10,000) for the borrow. I went a bit on tilt in this thing, alas. I shorted it pre-open and during the opening range and stopped out quickly both times. Then I got long it at 1.37, yes, you read that right, LONG it at 1.37, then I said, no, I’m uncomfortable long this, let me sell it for a four cent loss, which I did. I think that’s when things went off the rails.

I shorted it TEN more times (including once after hours). I did not revenge size anything. My bet size was consistent throughout, which was good, “planned” losses. But I kept on trying to pick a turn, and I didn’t lose every time, just three-quarters of the time (ha!), but I was clearly tilted, I knew better, I knew I was irrationally fighting it. Without tilting, I would have taken two losses on this thing, max. Be clear: I cut my losses, I don’t “add,” I don’t martingale, I simply stop out with a hard stop. But then I get back in. Bad.

I am CERTAIN that people blew up in this, just like every other runner. In fact it hit $6.13 after hours! This one murdered people, and of course they paid a hefty borrow fee for the privilege.

PIXY was also in play, doing 158,000 trades and $334MM in volume. It gave me a good spot to short and I didn’t take any partial profits and closed it end of day even though my target was $8 (no way to swing it when the brookie charges 7x overnight). The only bad part was the brookie didn’t have borrow, then they later did and I got some at a mere 16 cents per share, I’m joking about “mere,” but it really was mere compared with the 60 !!! cent borrow I found when I went back for another slug of shares. True, I was targeting $8 so it sort of made sense at $13+, but still, sticker shock!

ACB was also in play, just faded from the get-go, total no-brainer, I missed it completely. YCBD, something which did me dirty yesterday, just faded all day today, total Day Two collapse, I missed it completely.

So it was a world-class shitty day, a single day loss that I haven’t seen since last December (when I also fought something with abandon). But I’ll reflect on things, play smaller tomorrow, and just get back on the horse, that’s all we can do, assuming we have money left.

Stock Du Jour, Mon. May 18, 2020, SRNE

Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) again was the stock du jour, doing 238,000 trades and $1.75BB in volume. Having learned my lesson last week about IB’s erratic borrow (and it was indeed erratic again today), I went straight to the brookie and borrowed shares at 4.73 cents ($473 per 10,000), I later went back for more and they were 4.57 cents. The stock tested hourly support pre-open and made a push into the RTH open which gave me a good spot to get short. I was targeting the SSR trigger level (6.08) and kept in mind Dave Mabe’s pleas never to take partial profits or “trail” a stop, and down down down it went to the SSR trigger level, whereupon it reversed (as they all do) and went into the RTH close around 6.50. I wasn’t entirely a good boy since I was greedily eyeing a larger time frame level to get out, but I did cover most of it at SSR trigger and into the close.

Big win, serious coin, sick coin, brah. Banked. Nailed it. You know how much I hate all those terms, and when I repeat them it’s tongue in cheek. Study all the key points on the bar/candlestick/Heiken Ashi/ whatever you use arbitrary time slice linear chart, then study the Bookmap during those key times. Notice anything? I’ll keep posting these until you do, don’t worry.

Stock Du Jour, Fri. May 15, 2020, SRNE

Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) was the stock du jour, doing 1.26 MILLION trades and $3.6BB in volume … it was an erratic borrow at IB (more on this below) so I eventually paid the brookie 4.6 cents a share ($460 per 10,000) to have reliable shares available … it gave a good spot in the morning, breaking down out of a coil (I shorted 4.81 at IB) but then caught support at 4.35ish and rallied, jamming me out for a full 1R loss, which I anticipated, but didn’t tighten the stop, which is fine. It then ran to $9, ya know doubling in a little over an hour. I then went to re-short it at $8 but IB had no borrow — took the loss earlier then had no way to make it back … FML … that’s when I went to the bookie and paid up and got short $7.99.

ACB was also in play (249,000 trades) and the same things happened to me there… short at IB, jammed out, go to re-short, no borrow, go to the brookie, pay 5.4 cents a share, and short 11.50 … super frustrating. So I had large realized losses at IB and no way to “make it back” … of course I made good money with the brookie, but that’s not the point. The unreliability of the borrow making a re-short impossible in the same account is super shitty, and makes me swear off trading short with IB again (until the next time).

Lastly I played TTPH (26,300 trades), shorting 2.27 (paid 1.94 cents for the borrow) and planned to cover 1.95 … bragged about imminent cover on TWTR which caused the stock to reverse 10% and jam me out for a semi-scratch.

GNUS did 80,600 trades and jammed out the weak shorts then dropped straight to the larger time frame targets, gotta love it … I was not involved but could have been … woulda been fine because I woulda re-shorted, unless I were playing at IB, in which case there’d be no borrow when I needed it and I’d be stuck with a large, unreplace-able loss.

BLIN also in play with 112,000 trades, no spot for me and I was busy with SRNE TTPH ACB, can’t catch ‘em all. Very good week with the brookie, absolutely terrible week at IB.