Swing Updates

The broader market traded mostly sideways for a second day, ending slightly down, but there are plenty of attractive setups to keep on the watchlist at the moment, with CPE providing an example of one that, with a little patience, can be very rewarding.

Per prior posts this month, I'd been holding CPE for longer than I'd originally planned and it was starting to become a real pain in the backside, threatening to break out but then falling back to support on several occasions. Prior to today, I'd had sell limit orders set for the 4.00 mark (break even) almost every day just so I could take my money elsewhere, but the chart became even more attractive yesterday and today's news of an upgrade provided lift-off.

I thought I'd done well by selling at 4.25 from my 3.98 entry, but the stock rallied hard to close in the 4.60s, above two converging moving average lines, suggesting that there me be more upside as it continues  its recovery from a steep fall earlier this year. I may keep it on the watchlist but must be satisfied with my modest gains.

Elsewhere, my hopes of seeing a further spike for HDY diminished in the pre-market and it actually dipped as ow as 2.23 before rallying back to close strong at 2.43. The stock remains oversold, but consolidation at this level for while would set HDY up for its next leg up.

ALXA threatened to blow a big hole in my FDA run-up strategy when news came out after the close that the company was selling 376K in shares on behalf of a major shareholder —it turns out that Hercules Technology Growth Capital are dumping their holdings at 3.30 after riding them up from 2.69... as BioRunUp.com muses, they've played their own run-up and are cashing in before the FDA makes their decision.

The stock dipped under 3.00 after hours but recovered a little to the 3.10 area. It would be interesting to watch the action at the open tomorrow but I won't be at my trading desk as I'll be taking the pup to the vet to have the family jewels removed (poor pooch!) but I expect there will be a little more juice left in the run-up before October 11.