Just when I was getting sick and tired of being sick and tired, the volatility in the solar stocks comes back to remind me why I love trading. I went into today short (Nasdaq: DSTI) and I was a bit nervous considering its strong Friday close and the morning strength we had today. But, as you saw in my last post, I was determined to hold it for a few days because I really think the company is a POS and the recent strength was a gift to short into. Bingo! After trying to hold positive in the $6.70 range, a gradual downtrend turned into a freefall, dropping all the way down to $5.60. But, as been my habit and probly will continue to be so, I covered early at $6.20, for a nice $200+ gain. Bad bad early cover, but now that the stock has already rebounded to $6.25ish, not so bad in the grand scheme of things.
The ideal time to short would’ve been this morning when it cracked Friday’s low at $6.45, as that would’ve protected you from having to hold over the weekend and risk a morning spike. But I didn’t know if the stock would gap below that level and freefalling immediately, so overall, it wasn’t a bad trade. It also helped that the overall market and the rest of the solars got taken out and shot from 10am-10:20am.
Since I covered DSTI early and saw the solars tanking, I decided to try to get in on the action by shorting 300 of the incredibly strong (Nasdaq: AKNS) at $15.57. It’d already tanked $1 or so off its highs, but I felt the solar panic coming on strong and other plays like SOLF, CSUN and CSIQ were all down $2-$5. AKNS didn’t crash like the others, so when it went barely negative on the day under $15, I decided to cover and did so at $14.82, another $200ish profit. Just as morning spikes scare me, so do morning crashes. It’s a long day and when a stock tanks $2+, it can easily come back and smack short sellers who try to take more than $1-$2/share. AKNS is now at $15.86, after dropping to $14, this is a solid rebound and is yet another example of how my poor timing still yielded a solid profit and is rather good in the grand scheme of things.
This pushed my account to an all-time high past $14,500 and I wanted to stop, but I felt the need to profit more from all this volatility. So, I decided to buy some of these solars on the crash. The message boards didn’t know why anything was cracking, so I took that as a sign of a potential rebound. SOLF was down $6, but at $31ish, what was I gonna buy 100 shares (couldn’t have a big position since the stock would probly only bounce a bit, aka respect crashes)? Potential upside of $100 or $200 (if I was patient and daring) or so, but it seemed to be leading the pack down, so maybe there was negative news?!?! Couldn’t risk it, I decided to buy (Nasdaq: CSUN) as it was down $2, a near 15% drop, buying 200 shares at $13.86, a nice safe bet to hold overnight, or so I thought. When the crash continued, and it took out $13, I cursed myself for not waiting until the afternoon. Other solars started to come back, as did the market, so I doubled up, buying 200 more shares at $13.10.
Screw the day trading rules, there was money to be made!
I’d worry about getting restricted later. Average of $13.46 came in handy as it started to rebound, although very slowly, so slowly that it made me worry. I was thinking I should holding this overnight and not risk getting in trouble with yet another day trade, but this quick crash and lack of a quick rebound scared me. After all, I’m better at shorting. Screw it, I sold my 400 shares at $13.55, a pathetic gain, but I secured my account at $14,552, a big $475 up day. Stock now at $14, yet another bad timer, but I hope I’m making my point that even with bad timing, I protect my account (and I obviously more comfortable shorting than longing)
God, I love this game!
No positions right now, I’ll be looking to short these solars overnight…maybe AKNS if it closes negative, but gotta be very careful there.
Posted in So Hot Right Now