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The Sykes Pattern Is Alive And Well, And I Will Teach Everyone, Including Myself, Seriously

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TIM $14,195 (up $43 on the day)

Short 1,000 MWY @ $3.29

Another Near Miss, I Really Suck Lately And That’s OK

Covered my 1,200 ZVUE right at the open at prices ranging from $2.12

to $2.15—I didn’t like what I saw (no volume, no gap up, pathetic PR this morning) so I took my basically 12 cent/share loss. Not a bad trade.

Ahhh The Sykes Pattern—yup, that’s what I’m calling it. I’ll have detailed post later tonight (big dinner meeting with some producer folks), but for now just look at the charts of ASHW, JMBA, AMPX and now MWY—see any similarities?

Yup, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to profit from this pattern and that’s why this afternoon, I shorted 1,000 shares of MWY @ $3.29—hoping for a gap down and a possible crack of $3 tomorrow morning. They have a new video game out (which they previously announced would be delayed) that will probly save the company and the stock has spiked basically 100% as a result (mostly due to panicking shorts—this is a massively shorted company). I gave up trying to predict corporate turnarounds long ago and instead have learned to focus on chart patterns, patterns exactly like this one (as some of you know I go on and on and on about in my DVD)

The ideal entry coulda woulda shoulda been much higher ($4.30 was niiiice, but I like strong stocks to crack—a little—before I short), but the thing tanked so quickly this morning, I was scared to short in the $3.80 range. By the time I told myself I should just bite the bullet, the thing had tanked to $3.50 (on its way to $3) and I was praying for an afternoon bounce to short into. I took the bounce to $3.30 as $3.33 held firm all afternoon long (was kind of nervous it would really bounce, but it’s all about conviction and this was a good pattern to short). Make no mistake, this is a risky overnight hold (considered the stock is down 19% today!), but I’m so sick and tired of not being able to day trade freely, I’m gonna start taking on more risk in order to try to get to the magical $25k mark—we’ll see how it goes, might be my undoing, but it’s worth a shot.

AMPX—I was afraid of this chart pattern yesterday—scary stuff for longs (although who, other than somebody trying to naively scalp 50 cents-$1 would be long after this runup, cough, cough), just another day in the office for The Sykes Pattern if you’re a short seller. Missed this one completely

Lots of big news movers today: JBLU—potential ownership stake—big spike, fell halfway back down, now holding (too risky for me considering potential follow up news), RIGL—big drug news—big, big spike, lots of shorts, offered solid breakout entry at $20 in the afternoon, tried to grab 200 shares, thing ran too fast, another opportunity wasted (ran to $23 within an hour although I’d probly sell out at $21-$21.50 cuz I like quick profits), SVNT—big drug news—solid premarket volatility (5 points!), but boring during market hours (I hate playing biotechs so I never really considered it)

EMKR—nice continuation on the breakout yesterday, probly due to the overnight Forbes article and continuing press today. If I’d been in it (which I probly shoulda been), I’d have sold it pre-market because it wasn’t looking too strong and I get uncomfortable being long strong stocks that don’t perform (hence the reason why I try to avoid putting myself in these situations—TIM Lesson: Know Thyself!)

FRPT—wow, an up day, albeit a slightly up day –thought about buying some, but catching falling knives is too painful

CYGT—last, but certainly least, they won another contract to outfit a park that gets 250,000 visitors/year…you can actually see Cygnus’ new software at work at this new park already (click the buy season pass button—it’s kind of funny how advanced Cygnus’ software looks compared to the MS DOS looking website this park has, aka why Cygnus might be TOO GOOD LOOKING)…Impressive win, probly says more about the credibility of Cygnus’ new CEO though than the credibility of their new software considering this park’s management are all ex-Six Flags—see the details here—the really good news being that this park is owned by a $16 billion hedge fund, so these people should eventually see the potential for Cygnus to increase exponentially and just snap Cygnus up (my average is 40 cents so I might still profit from this thing yet!)…good buying volume on today’s news, longs rejoice, still a loooooong way to go!

Positions: Anti-The Idiots at WarOnGreed.org, Short MWY

Posted in CYGT, TIM Lessons

  • Dan000

    Whoa.

  • nojobmaui

    killa

  • acerockolla

    Ahhh so many stocks, and only 1 trade left.

  • Getshorty

    Wow, if you got this one right it can be 1999 all over again.

    bad I am short BAP overnight, 50 shares though and my 4 days old 100 shares short for COIN. THinking of just covering and look for biggest gainers among the list for the next few days.

  • TheParadox

    im a little sketchy on all this, but does that mean we “go long” any all these shit ass companies… would this really be a “better angle” like you say in your post… maybe i should get off my lazy ass and read more into it. haven’t had much time. not sure what to make of it. quick and dirty would be nice from anyone.

    exchanges in france don’t allow short selling.

  • SemperTrader

    I’m confused as well…. Tim, since the majority of your post was about short selling being banned and how “great” this may be for us, I’m confused as to whether I should short these or go long.

  • gburleson1

    NOt SURE where to go long here.

  • notesguy88

    At this point, the ban on short selling is only on the financial stocks. For now all the others are fair game.

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Guess we gotta revise the short list based on the ban…

    Any idea now which stocks are going to skyrocket today based on the ban that we should jump in long premarket?

    BIGJIM

  • bigjimstradingpost

    I’ve been trading a lot of financials over the last few days, profited from BCS, ETFC, BAC, MS, WB, WM…unfortunatley I am only long 100 measley shares of BAC right now….everything is POPPING big time premarket…wonder how much of a pop we get at the open when all the lemings pile on… guess I will be looking for some $1 scalps on the open…and without the ability to short…can’t ride the wave downward once the short timers bail…

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Get your asses out of the FART SACK and get on here. Today is going to be monumental…hell you may see the DOW up 1000 friggin points at some point today.
    I have no idea where to start. Premarket opens in 10 minutes. I don’t know whether to sell or buy and wait for the open..

  • TonyEllis

    Fucking unbelievable

  • SemperTrader

    some markets have been open for 4 hours already brother

  • TheParadox

    not sure what to do… thinking just buy XLF – SPDR financial ETF

  • bigjimstradingpost

    not a bad idea…limits exposure to any one company and enjoys the bump from the entire financial secotr. Looks like it’s up 20% premarket though… Where is your entry point?

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Here is the link to the banned short list

    http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58592.pdf

  • TheParadox

    now, at 24.10 – might not have been the best but hey… could hit 28 i think but… hmm… i think thats a little overly optimistic

  • TheParadox

    500 Long on XLF @ 24.10

  • TonyEllis

    BKUNA, DSL, TGIC, BBX are a couple of my top watches….all wonderfully managed financials

  • bigjimstradingpost

    My order for 1000 at 24.02 never filled…trying again at 24.25

  • bigjimstradingpost

    filled 1000 at 24.22 XLF

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Tony

    All 4 of those are UP HUGE premarket…We buying any???

  • bigjimstradingpost

    here is the list of banned shorts.

    add a www before the sec

    sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58592.pdf

  • w00shman

    Any thoughts on AIG? AIG is already up 52% premarket but may pop even more on the SEC ban.

  • bigjimstradingpost

    I have so many thoughts on so many financials out there but have no idea what to do. Thinking about buying some ETFC…It’s a big mover

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Just picked up 5000 ETFC at $4.02 and have 1000 XLF at 24.22 premarket…

  • TheParadox

    W00 – no, wouldn’t touch AIG if its up that much already.

  • TheParadox

    grabbed another 500 of XLF so 1k of XLF at 24.35 averaged…

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    confused, u should be confused, shorts are getting crushed, now lets add VSE to this list of stocks that shouldnt be up, and its shortable!

  • bigjimstradingpost

    I’m getting sick to my stomach…my gut tells me to scarf up as much as possible in premarket and unload in the first hour of trading…

    Any of you smart guys out there offer any suggestions or insight to what we should expect???

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Things seem to be drifting back down…the premarkt swarm has subsided…

  • bigjimstradingpost

    We could see a huge wave of profit taking at the open and wipe out all these premarket gains

  • TheParadox

    hey, IRC chat room #FuckingFinancials on moznet/mozilla.org

    Chatzilla – a free IRC client extention/add on for firefox – freakin awesome
    mibbit.com – web based client for other (shitty) browsers/work place limitations.

  • Reaper

    chatroom today is #longfinancials at mozilla.org

  • bigjimstradingpost

    just added another 5000 shares of ETFC at $3.93. Average now $3.97.

    Only $26,000 let in buying power for the day…

    Damn…I’m scaring the hell outta myself…

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    good luck to u guys buying, not sure how much more these stocks can go up, i’m gonna wait til the afternoon, everything settles down by then

  • Getshorty

    I got my BAP short (50 shares only thks god), hope this peruvian bank doesn’t get carried away. COIN up 50 cents premarket with tight spread, might close my 100 shares today as well

  • Getshorty

    XLF giving some back, its good to make this kind of bets, but don’t bet the house dudes.

  • Reaper

    oops, Paradox beat me to it

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    not finding any shares to short of even of unrelated stocks like MEG VSE and AKNS…looks like penson shut down their entire short department, whats IB got?

  • Reaper

    So TOS tells me no shorting today. Is that just a TOS thing or has there been an announcement? My other brokers still show shares available to short.

  • Reaper

    IB’s got some borrows, but not a ton of shares … I put in an order on ATLO already. Fuck timing, I just gotta get those shares short and hold on. Goldman is fucking horrible today … can’t get anything through them.

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    dont worry guys, this is just the first day of the massive squeeze, plenty of opportunities, just gotta be careful cuz this is unprecedented action here

  • notesguy88

    I’m just gonna stay in the sidelines today and just watch.

  • Reaper

    FUCK. ATLO a bank and is on the banned list.

    Full list here: http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58592.pdf

  • taylor5161

    Don’t y’all think Monday will be better to take serious action once the dust settles and allow the weekend news to take effect? This seems very risky.

  • w00shman

    I believe I’ll be sitting out on the morning hype. Prices of the financials have soared in premarket and the risk/reward ratio just isn’t there for me.

  • Davey

    was able to get a couple 1000 NCT from TOS but just about everything else was unavailable.

  • Reaper

    WTF Davey? TOS told me no short selling today? Did you just talk to them?

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    we need to create a list of stocks tht are up a ton and not on the restricted list

  • hellrayza

    does anyone think any of these financials are long-able until monday?? no day trades left =(

  • TonyEllis

    I don’t even know what to think….I’ve been scalping all PM…Up $20K

  • be-the-ball

    i actually was able to short GS this AM at IB, lol, it was a hedge while i waited for AMTD to open so I could sell my GS long.

  • Davey

    I just talked to them and they even told me about how hard it is going to be to borrow stocks for a while. I had them check on about 7 other stocks and they were just not there. NCT was the only one I got, but I did not here that there is no short selling at all today.

  • TheParadox

    what the fuck is up with borrows… i asked for NCT like at 7:30 and the dude said no…. fucking TOS…. fuck…. thats twice. im switching to IB, fuck this shit.

  • TheParadox

    sounds like a good idea tim

  • Reaper

    I got HSWI and NCT reserved through Goldman. Most of these stocks available at IB but in small quantities.

  • Davey

    I’m also thinking to switching to IB, but the thing with TOS is that it depends on who you get. Some guys don’t even check and you can tell, but some of the other people actually check for as long as they need to in order to find you shares.

  • tuck

    Bought LYG yesterday when news of London short ban came over wire. Bought RAMR before yesterdays lift off because I have done well with it in the past couple of months. Has been a trailer in the past but went up over 25% yesterday. Not sure you will be able to find something that isnt already up significantly. the question is how high is high?

  • prognesubis

    Look at the bright side. You can get rid of all that long crap you have been holding for a day like today.

  • Deeznuts

    Most of my long crap is caught between Scottrade and TOS. Dammit!

  • bigjimstradingpost

    Well it looks like the premarket frenzy was a bit overdone…not the big bounce at the open as much for XLF

  • Jake

    Hmmmm seems like nobody is in #longfinancials

  • tradertomcat

    Woa take a look @ Yahoo gainers list ( http://finance.yahoo.com/gainers?e=us ) lots of effing indexes up insanely! 600%+ Crazy

  • nojobmaui

    epiq if you can find shares

  • Omaggio

    how do we access that?

  • nojobmaui

    had epiq 1000 short from yesterday at 12.52 decided to wait out the spike today

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    epiq is crap, dont even waste time on that, NCT, HSWI, VSE has the volatility u need

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    this is absurd that i’m wwaiting an hour to try to find shares in VSE, NCT and HSWI…already missed great drops in all 3, but methinks theres waaaaay more downside too

  • nojobmaui

    thx Tim

  • Attack987

    The short-selling blame game is as old as speculation. They will ALWAYS be blamed in times of financial crisis.

    England banned short sellers in the 18th century during the Dutch tulip bulb mania. President Hoover attacked shorts and FBI chief J Edgar Hoover went after them in 1929 stock market crash–which subsequently led to legislation banning short sales on a downtick. They were blamed by top executives for bringing down Enron.

    When will the SEC and regulators realize that short sellers don’t create bad financial market conditions…they profit from them?

  • fibonacho

    They broke SKF, nice.

    Also: Anthrax – Madhouse \m/
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syBH1aJOH5A

  • tradertomcat

    The full list of financial stocks the SEC has placed a ban on short sales until October 2nd

    http://sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58592.pdf

  • Ross

    I never got an email alert this morning. Is the email system down?

  • Ross

    Looks like the email alert is now being sent to the wrong email account. I have a dedicated email account established but for some reason it got tripped back to the old one. How do I get it set back?

  • Reaper

    short HSWI, NCT, TRMP. Have 7k more shares reserved for HSWI … NCT won’t go big, financial-related.

  • Getshorty

    COIN giving $1 back, too bad I can’t find any more shares. My 50 short shares of BAP spiked to $75 this morning, now they are getting some rest around$70.

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    awesome reaper, what broker got u all those, IB? hows jon over at grace working out

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    davey u better have banked on NCT!

  • Reaper

    Tim – most through Grace today … every day up until today I have been pissed at how crappy the borrows have been … nothing I couldn’t get at TOS or IB. Today they cam through with NCT and HSWI when no one else had those.

    TRMP was from IB … they only had a few shares, so I didn’t wait for green to red, just shorted 2k as quick as possible.

  • Davey

    still short 1K NCT…i’ll give u the details soon! Def. up big tho

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    cool yeah, u just gotta try all brokers, shit like NCT is a gift!

  • Reaper

    I’ve slowly been eating away at a huge bid @ 2.99 on HSWI … Spread is 1 cent now, so now is probably a pretty darn good time to short some HSWI if you can get it. Still got 6k shares more reserved to short.

    Today’s not going to be a big up day for me … mostly not playing big, timing sucked, lost some money trying to play long, but I’m still up a little right now.

  • merbman427

    how many brokers do you use tim? for the little guy, doesnt that spread yourself kinda thin, especially if youre trying to keep above 25K?

  • prognesubis

    Any easy to borrow shorts that look promiseing?

  • http://www.test.timothysykes.com timothysykes

    i use only thinkorswim but as my account grows i’ll open new accounts

  • be-the-ball

    reaper,

    no HSWI at any of my 3 brokers or I would hammer that one with you….

  • awgregory

    Can’t short some I’m buying a lotto ticket on the XLF for $100. The XLF Sept 23/24 call spread is selling for about 10cents. If it rips back up into the close to about where it opened it will be a 10 bagger and at least I’ll get something out of today.

    Interesting to note the breadth has been positive which is a good indicator of market direction but so far the indexes haven’t been following suit. Were living in Bizarro world now.

  • Davey

    Out NCT 1k plus on the day…very fortunate to find shares…in 7.00-7.10 out 6.05-08ish

  • AdamN

    VLNC sideways all morning, now starting to fade.

  • mapiguy

    VLNC needs to break down..still holding for now

  • Reaper

    HWSI not moving at all, but I’m content to hold short over the weekend.

  • tamimkhan

    Sold half MS, GS and all of C – nice profits for two days of pain

  • Reaper

    WRSP big move up yest. and today on news that they delayed a call of their loans for 1 week. Looks like BK.

  • prognesubis

    No WRSP at TOS.

  • Reaper

    Got 10k WRSP reserved at Goldman … a few thousand shares left at IB. We’ll see how this goes. Now up 100% in two days.

  • Reaper

    WRSP up 85% today.

  • Reaper

    WRSP up 103% today! Starting to look like a supernova.

  • prognesubis

    13:36 mbarwacz: no shorting any stocks today. No soop for you!

    TOS

  • Reaper

    mbarwacz told me the same thing.

  • prognesubis

    Tos gave me 2 shorts this morning. I wish they had a live camera on the brookers so we could see them with their inside humor.

  • rassoodock

    MEG broke 15, short 200 shares (all they had @ scottrade)

  • Reaper

    closed NCT. Holding HSWI over the weekend, probably TRMP over the weekend as well.

  • nojobmaui

    went long aig at 4.08

  • rassoodock

    Short 300 shares BPOP, broke resistance @ 11

  • tamimkhan

    anybody who wants to short major financials can still do so by using single stock futures of those underlying stocks at IB or Tradestation

  • codyhof

    Allright Tim, you got me. Signed up finally.