Portfolio of the Week

[spikefader]

Sticky,

You're HUGE!

[Lyehopper]

Cover X.... Short NRPH....

In real life I'm covering my NRPH short for a small profit.... This stock really scares me because I've been bitten in the butt before shorting it.

HOWEVER.... I'll hold my short position in the POTW just for the fun of it.

[Rob]

Week 41 (2), Day 3

[Gwhiz]

Billy Joe,
Shorted another block of peix @ 15.34
just thought i'd let you know,
G whiz

[skiracer]

Billy Joe,
Shorted another block of peix @ 15.34
just thought i'd let you know,
G whiz

That would be a nice play. What time did you get make that short play at. How many shares do you consider a block.

[Gwhiz]

I put the order in around 10:30 but it says it made the trade @ 10:48.
600 shares is a block just because my first short was 600 shares
Virtualstockexchange.com is the site that we use for the contest and it doesn't process very quickly. A few days ago, a friend in the same contest placed a buy order for PEIX when it was up 1 % and by the time the order processed PEIX was already up 9 %.

[billyjoe]

Gwhiz,
IOC is another great short candidate. Read about it at stocklemon.com. It's not a question of if, but when it will tank.

-------------billyjoe

p.s. just went to interactive brokers they say PEIX and IOC are not shortable

[billyjoe]

Rob,
My bad ? Interactive brokers says due to federal regulations PEIX is not shortable , but Gwhiz says he just shorted some. Does this wipe out my 3rd place finish last week and my next to last place in this week's contest ? I will abide by your ruling.

--------------billyjoe

[Gwhiz]

why would federal regulations prohibit shorting peix?
I shorted it in a stock market contest on virtualstockexchange.com, so its possible that they let me short it even though with real money you can't short it.

[skiracer]

I put the order in around 10:30 but it says it made the trade @ 10:48.
600 shares is a block just because my first short was 600 shares
Virtualstockexchange.com is the site that we use for the contest and it doesn't process very quickly. A few days ago, a friend in the same contest placed a buy order for PEIX when it was up 1 % and by the time the order processed PEIX was already up 9 %.

So you didn't actually buy it for real. Nice way to figure a block of shares. I don't think the stock is shortable so you couldn't have done it with real cash and at 10:30 am PEIX was just at that price range and you might not have gotten it even if it was shortable. Not all stocks are shortable. You really have to check first to see that it is shortable. When dealing with real money that would have been the first thing your brokerage would have told you.

[Gwhiz]

I've said before that I was shorting peix with fake $$$.

Honestly I don't know what a block of shares is, I just used the term to say that it was in equal amount to the first. From what you just said it sounds like a block must be some amount determined by the size of the portfolio and the risk or something, but I did not know that.
I realize that maybe because I am not dealing with real money on this stock I should stop posting my moves.

Are you implying that I lied about where I shorted?

I posted exactly what my transaction history says. All I can is that because VSE is not a real broker the trading may be slightly weird.

[skiracer]

I've said before that I was shorting peix with fake $$$.

Honestly I don't know what a block of shares is, I just used the term to say that it was in equal amount to the first. From what you just said it sounds like a block must be some amount determined by the size of the portfolio and the risk or something, but I did not know that.
I realize that maybe because I am not dealing with real money on this stock I should stop posting my moves.

Are you implying that I lied about where I shorted?

I posted exactly what my transaction history says. All I can is that because VSE is not a real broker the trading may be slightly weird.

No I wasn't implying that you lied or that you should stop posting your moves. You just learned something about trading that was probably new to you. It's a continuing learning experience with all of this. I also didn't read where you stated that you were doing a paper trade. A block is usually 10000 shares but it can be whatever you want it to be to yourself when your doing what your doing. When it's for real, real people trading real money see it in a different light. Usually the way that it really is. That is why I questioned your post. No big deal.

[Lyehopper]

I don't think the stock is shortable so you couldn't have done it with real cash and at 10:30 am PEIX was just at that price range and you might not have gotten it even if it was shortable. Not all stocks are shortable. You really have to check first to see that it is shortable. When dealing with real money that would have been the first thing your brokerage would have told you.

PEIX is shortable (I think).... There are currently just no shares available to short. When the demand is high to borrow shares sometimes they just simply run out. I was trying to short PARL once and TD Ameritrade kept saying "no shares of this security are currently available to short" (that's what it's saying about PEIX too) so I kept trying and eventially I lowered the amount of shares I was shorting to 200 (market order).... I'll bet I tried twenty times and finally the transaction went through. I'll betcha that's the case with PEIX..

[Lyehopper]

More thoughts on a stocks "shortability"

IB's (not shortable) list does NOT mean a stock can't be shorted, just that there are no shares (in current inventory) available to borrow by IB at this particular time.... I shorted NRPH today and now Ameritrade says there aren't any shares of NRPH available. I'll bet you I'll be able to short it tomorrow if I try hard enough, now maybe I can't get 100k shares.... but I'm pretty sure I can get 1k....

[IIC]

A block is 10,000 or more shares...Doug(IIC)