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.
