My Stock Trading Progress

[hustleEveryDay]

When I was in highschool, I'd saved about $5k from working a fastfood job for a few years. I thought I could multiply it with penny stocks, but ended up losing it all instead. My parents/friends were quick to say they told me so, and I vowed never to touch stocks again.

Fast forward 10 years... a few weeks ago I decided to invest $3k into a gold ETF to hedge my savings long-term. But seeing gold fall a bit last month, I was tempted to give trading another shot. Looking back, I realize my first attempt was full of mistakes. Some of which included... using an expensive broker with high commissions, didn't have patience, didn't set any targets/goals, didn't read into financials, traded primarily based on the company's product/service, etc.

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Having read the MFL book, I realize trading shouldn't be my primary wealth vehicle, and it's not. I've got a web app in the works and other stuff too. This is just an experiment for now. In this thread I'll keep track of what stocks I buy/sell, the quantity, prices, what I'm watching, etc. I'm particularly focusing on small and micro caps. Huge risk, which I know well from my own past experience - but, with great risk there is also great profit potential. I think that with due diligence and research I can minimize that risk and generate consistent gains.

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Lastly, keep in mind that my posts in this thread are purely for entertainment purposes only. Although I appreciate any feedback or trading discussion, I'm not trying to encourage any buying/selling activity whatsoever.

[Bozigian]

So what is your route going to be? Are you going to trade penny stocks again or are you going to use leveraged etf;s FAZ,FAS?

[hustleEveryDay]

With that intro out of the way, I'd like to share my current positions and watch list. I'm going to disregard the gold ETF I bought and sold because that wasn't exactly a "stock" per se. In terms of positions, I'll post the average price I bought at (so if I bought in chunks, I'll calculate the initial purchase prices together and divide by the total shares). Same thing with selling. I'm also not including commissions in my buying numbers, but will subtract them from the sale amount. I'll try to include some notes on why I buy/sell each stock.

So what is your route going to be? Are you going to trade penny stocks again or are you going to use leveraged etf;s FAZ,FAS?

My overall focus as of now is stocks in the small cap range that are on the $1 borderline minimum price for Nasdaq listing requirements. From the reading/research I've done lately, there's a lot of bouncing that goes on when stocks drop below, get a warning and try to pick back up to meet the minimum requirements. Some in this range tend to be very bullish, IMO. I look at volume, financial improvements, short interests, look up if there's any insider purchasing/selling of interest, 52-week range, and do some chart analysis and compare to other stocks in the same industry/market.

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Pick #1:

Ticker: BWEN
Purchase Date(s): 12/5, 12/6, 12/7
Average Purchase Price = $.7459
Total Shares = 10,750
Total Purchase Equity = $8,018.42
Total Commission for Purchase(s) = $60.79
Target Price to Sell @ = $1.10 (before mid-January 2012)
Target Equity = $11,825
Potential Profit = $3745.79
Potential Gain = 46.7%

Reasoning: Recently received a "deslisting warning" from Nasdaq. Hit a 52-week low in October, and has since bounced back and more than doubled. Has new contracts which seem to be initiations of more-to-come, financials improving, and CFO made a big insider purchase in mid-November. They have a 1-year target of $1, and price is getting close. Chart pattern is quite consistent "stair-step" upward movement... goes up sharp one day, balances out, and repeats. Revenue right now matches levels in March '09 when stock was trading at about $7. Volume is increasing steadily above average, short interest appears to be decreasing, and from past history, it appears the company does well in a down-market...