Finally, I closed my OPTR position today.
After a brief spike in morning, OPTR went to 7.50 and was trading sideways. I felt that it could go test yesterday’s low of 7.30 but I did not want to take chance and closed my position for tiny gain. Here are the trades I made with OPTR since last Wednesday. (They are in no particular order)
| #of Sharess | Price | Cost | Commission |
| 500 | 7.2 | 3600 | 7.5 |
| -300 | 7.5 | -2250 | 5 |
| -200 | 7.51 | -1502 | 5 |
| 100 | 7.6 | 760 | 5 |
| 300 | 7.619 | 2285.7 | 1 |
| -400 | 7.5 | -3000 | 6 |
| 300 | 7.26 | 2178 | 5 |
| -300 | 7 | -2100 | 5 |
| 400 | 8.2 | 3280 | 6 |
| -400 | 7.3 | -2920 | 6 |
| Total | 331.7 | 51.5 | |
| Profit after commissions | 280.2 | ||
Overall, I made 280$ by putting 10,000$ on line.
As I wrote yesterday, I am not happy with how I traded OPTR. I had few right ideas (not panicking and taking a loss on my position), but screwed up everything because of greed. Also, I ignored the fact that I may not be able to watch my position because of day job and I should act more conservative. Overall, OPTR is a great stock to trade and you could have made easy money with it. Just look at how easily kanoe made 195$ with OPTR. Compare this to my situation where I had to take the pain of being down (for a week, I might add) on my position to make tiny profit. One thing which kept me going was a firm belief that OPTR will come down. I think Matty described these kind of irrational runners perfectly.
Anyway, I am thanking my lucky stars and I hope to take the lessons OPTR taught me and do better going forward.
Have a great weekend everyone,
RJ
9 responses so far ↓
1 iL Torello // Nov 21, 2008 at 6:41 pm
RJ…I’m happy you made something. That was a nailbiter. You’ve got balls of steel dude!
2 iL Torello // Nov 21, 2008 at 6:51 pm
RJ…thanks for visiting the site I’ve been working on. I have much more appreciation for bloggers like yourself. It takes a lot of time!
3 iL Torello // Nov 21, 2008 at 6:58 pm
RJ…ahh I didn’t get to trade today because I was at my primary job. It looks like we will be having some possible plays for Monday.
4 zheng // Nov 21, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Lucky for you you got out without a scratch. There was a huge rally today. How can you be so sure that OPTR will go down eventually? Stocks go up and down, and there is no guarantee. Even though it could be highly probable that some stocks will sink from two digits prices to single digit prices in this environment, do remember that rallies happen from time to time.
If you were unlucky, OPTR might have had some major developments, for example some company buying it out at $15 or something. Just saying.
5 YngvaiMalmsteve // Nov 21, 2008 at 9:41 pm
RJ,
I think it’s good you finally got out of OPTR. In my opinion, you don’t want to get married to a particular stock.
Also, what I’ve learned is that even if you think a stock is going to go down, it doesn’t mean it will. Really, after OPTR’s big initial drop on November 12th, it was a dead unpredictable play after that. There was nothing in the chart to make it an attractive play. At that point, it’s time to move on to something different.
Also, OPTR moved big on drug news. Big drug news is like an earnings play…they are less likely to come down. If OPTR had been a pump & dump or up on hype, then yes, it probably had more downside. But since it was up on legitimate, strong news, there probably wasn’t more downside after that first big drop day.
6 matty84 // Nov 22, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Yeah, good you’re out I think…and with a profit, that’s great.
That’s true, on that post I made I mentioned the strong probablility of these things falling…one thing I didn’t mention is my reticence to short pharmaceuticals anyway, since they can jump insane amounts just on news, and if you’re short overnight, you’re just screwed.
Yngvai is absolutely right. If a stock has meaningful news about drugs or money, it goes up. This is America after all.
7 RJ // Nov 23, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Zheng,
The main reason I was sure about OPTR going down was because the news was about ‘trial success’ and not the actual drug. They still have to go through few other stages before their drug is released, I think minimum of 1 year before they see any profit from their new drug. OPTR rose 100% of its regular price based on this news, which is typical because of the emotions involved. But once those emotions settle and people realize that they are paying too much premium for a ‘future drug’ which may or may not work. There has to be a sell off. Yes, what I didn’t consider was acquisition. If they were to be acquired by someone, then I would have been screwed.
Yng,
I am not sure if I agree with not getting married to a stock idea. I think it’s a good idea if you get married to a stock. That way you know how it behaves everday. How it behaves right at market open. How it behaves right before market close. And that’s where one can make money. As I blogged earlier, I like TRO’s idea of following only one stock. I am still finding that ‘ideal’ stock for me to play everyday.
And yes, Thank you Torello and Matty for your support.
Thanks,
RJ
8 Allen // Nov 23, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hey Ramta, I don’t know if you saw it already but I just left some questions I’d appreciate an insight on, it’s on your contact section – in the comments.
9 RJ // Nov 23, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Allen,
I did see the question and I will respond to it. I am thinking I will probably create a brand new blog post and explain that concept pioneered by JV.
RJ
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