I messed up an easy trade on ONCY today. Lesson: if a stock keeps trading only at the offer (ask) and not at the bid, and the bid keeps rising, it is probably going to continue to go up.
+ BOT 1,300 ONCY false Stock (SCM) 3.220 USD SMART 09:32:08 6.50
+ SLD 1,300 ONCY false Stock (SCM) 3.300 USD ISLAND 09:33:20 6.50
Here is a screenshot of the time and sales from right before I sold (I sold at 9:33:20). It actually was not just printing at the offer, unlike how I remembered, but it was at least balanced between bid and offer and the bid did not drop after hitting 3.26.
Daily profit: $91.00
Weekly profit: $3583.25
Disclosure: No positions. I have a disclosure policy.
#1 by Preston on October 2, 2009 - 4:19 pm
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I made 90.00 shorting LUNA today while driving home from Texas, I pulled over to make the trades.
#2 by sm on October 2, 2009 - 7:17 pm
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wth, how did you get shares? I was tryin to get shares of LUNA all day today
#3 by Preston on October 2, 2009 - 7:50 pm
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Thats’ kinda funny really, because it was the only one that Ameritrade had to short for me. I really wanted to short ONCY after it broke it’s HOD but they didn’t have shares of that.
LUNA was my last choice and I started to hold over the weekend but I puss’d out.
#4 by sm on October 2, 2009 - 8:28 pm
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hmm, it seems interactive brokers goes through allot more routing that TOS and others do to search for borrows. On their short list I had shares available for nearly every stock I put up in their shortlist search engine. This was after hours though..
#5 by Preston on October 2, 2009 - 9:20 pm
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That’s the thing with AMTD is they sometimes have shares of stocks that are hard to borrow, but in general they are horrid for shorting stocks. I can not short any OTC or pink sheet stocks at all, they don’t allow that. But NASDAQ stocks they normaly have a decent borrow list for them.
#6 by sm on October 3, 2009 - 10:23 am
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TOS allows shorts for those stocks, but usually the operator says the have nothing. I ask for 300 shares to short on CHIP and there is nothing. Then I go onto the IB shortstock list and and they have like 5000 shares available to borrow for CHIP. I just don’t understand it. I think cause TOS goes through only one routing firm where I noticed IB had around 15-20 of them listed on their availability lists.
#7 by Reaper on October 3, 2009 - 10:27 am
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Y’all are wrong. It has nothing to do with how many routes (ECNs, stock markets, market makers) a broker can send an order to. It has to do with the clearing firm and where else a broker can get shares. IB self clears. Lots and lots of penny stock traders use IB because of the low per-share commissions and because it is awesome. IB will lend those shares held by some of its customers to those wanting to short. Furthermore, I think IB can and does borrow shares from other brokers/institutional investors/clearing firms to lend to short sellers.
#8 by Island Minister on October 3, 2009 - 1:28 pm
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Let’s not forget, wasn’t TOS acquired by Ameritrade? I used to get great borrows from them 2 years ago when Tim was just starting the new site. Actually, maybe he’s had a lot to do with TOS’s share pool nowadays?
#9 by Preston on October 3, 2009 - 4:14 pm
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Ok I got a question; How do I get a Gravatar for my comments? I have pictures to use but do not know how to put it in my frame.
#10 by Reaper on October 3, 2009 - 7:30 pm
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Go to Gravatar.com and sign up using your email and username you use here: http://en.gravatar.com/
#11 by sm on October 4, 2009 - 12:33 pm
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is that what they are reaper?? What I had meant was the exchanges. Like for CHIP it will list exhanges like these:
Exchanges: NASDAQ, BEX, IDEAL, CSFBALGO, CSFBCROSS, DARK1, JEFFALGO, NITEECN, LAVA, DRCTEDGE, DRCTIOI, ISLAND, BTRADE, ARCA, DBALGO, LEVELATS, ISE, CBSX, EDGEA, TRACKECN, BATS, IBSX, MIBSX
#12 by Reaper on October 4, 2009 - 4:22 pm
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Nasdaq – stock market
DirectEdge – ECN (electronic crossing network; google it)
Island – Nasdaq (the route name is for an ECN they bought I think)
Arca – ArcaExchange, an ECN owned by the NYSE
BATS – Better Alternative Trading system
For some stocks you can route directly to a market maker:
NITE – Knight Capital Markets, Inc
#13 by sm on October 4, 2009 - 12:52 pm
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Ameritrade might have to do something with their shorts. Anyway Im opening a second accound with IB also so I have least have 2 brokers to search from. I really love the customer service with TOS so I’ll keep em a little longer. Probably use it more for buying positions. I hear IB has execution and customer service issues. But I’d be willing to give that up for a better share pool.
#14 by Reaper on October 4, 2009 - 4:23 pm
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Remember even once Thinkorswim is sucked up into the Ameriturd monstrosity and starts to clear through Ameriturd, if they keep the brand separate and allow shorting of a wide array of stocks (as they do now), the borrows could IMPROVE, because the borrows could come from all Ameriturd customers while other Ameriturders can’t short the non-marginable stocks.
Oh, and IB’s fills are awesome. Its only issue is customer service, and it is rare to deal with them.
#15 by Preston on October 4, 2009 - 2:48 pm
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sm, that’s my next move as well, opening an account at IB after the first of the year. I look forward to the day that I can short OTC and Pink sheet stocks.
Michael has always said that a trader needs a little more experience to trade those type of stocks so I have been waiting until I feel that I am making sound and consistent decisions.
There are so many things that I have to improve on that sometimes it’s overwhelming me. My overall knowledge of trading is very poor.
#16 by Reaper on October 4, 2009 - 4:24 pm
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So I assume you’re the tough-looking guy in the photo?
#17 by Preston on October 4, 2009 - 4:32 pm
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I don’t know about tough but yeah that’s me with my mom. I told her that I was going to put a photo of us on the web and she didn’t believe me, haha she will see it before long because she cruises your site a little.
#18 by sm on October 5, 2009 - 2:19 pm
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thats good to hear that their fills are good. I’m practicing their demo software to get used to the platform. Its a little less complicated than TOS. Hopefully I won’t have to deal with their customer service that much