As you recall, I have documented the problems that JP Morgan Chase has been having over the last year. I provided links that show they are low balling home values, so that way they can freeze home equity lines. That way they do not have to lend. Not lending hurts American consumers, and in turn the economy as a whole. In the end it will hurt the banks as well. Below is a link to my most recent article on JP Morgan Chase.

The Economy Still in Trouble, Just Look at JP Morgan Chase

The subject of my write up today is with Bank of America however. It looks like they do not want to lend now also.

Yesterday, after accepting a balance transfer offer from Bank of America, I got a call from their enforcement arm (FIA Card Services). They started asking me all sorts of questions about my finances. After I answered the questions, some that I was unsure of the answers to, they said, "not only will we not give you the transfer, but we are also going to close your account". What?? I have had that card for over 11 years, and never missed or was late on a payment (in fact, I have never missed or been late on any payments). The credit limit on that card was my lowest as well.

No matter how much I pleaded to just keep the account open, they said no (an account closure by the credit card company hurts your credit). They said that I had used to many balance transfers over the years, and it concerned them. Again, what?? Banks never had a problem with that before. Due to health issues, my daughter's college, car problems, etc, I got into a lot of debt in 2007/2008. The only way to keep the interest rate manageable was to transfer those balances to lower rates, before the one's I had were jacked up. Doing this has kept me afloat. Doing this kept me able to make my payments on time. Slowly but surely I am getting the balances down.

You may think I am an isolated case. That it is rare for a bank to close an account with someone who has excellent credit. Nope. Take a look at the link below. All of these are from Bank of America customers who had very similar stories:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/bank-of-america-c97671.html?sort=datea&page=3

So now, you have Chase freezing home equity lines and Bank of America closing credit card accounts in late 2009. All of these being done to people with excellent credit. What does that say about the economy. I thought things were supposed to better now? Obviously not.

If banks are not lending, especially the big boys, this "recovery" we are having will come to a screeching halt. Sooner or later this house of cards is going to come crashing down...

¶ 12/29/2009 02:02:00 PM 2 comments

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord - Luke 2:11

¶ 12/24/2009 11:10:00 PM 0 comments

Sold all 2,600 shares at $1.00. That was my target.

So, paper profits on this one were about $700. Nice pick Shashi, thanks!

¶ 12/22/2009 03:03:00 PM 0 comments

In lots of pain, so that is why I have not posted. The procedure was pretty much a failure, other than for the fact that I am still cancer free. All other objectives failed. I'll go into that more at a later date.

On the stock front, real quick:

CNOA - I saw that Shashi sold this one. I still like it, so therefore I am holding. It may pullback a little from .80, but I think it will eventually close the gap up at $1.00.

IMGN - Has retreated down to around the 200 DMA ($7.78) as expected, but is staying above $7.50, also as expected. I would think we'll get a bounce here soon.

XTEX - Nice move for this one. I recommended it at $5.50, and it hit $7.18 yesterday. I was going to paper trade it at $6.00 the other day, but it only fell to $6.06. I shouldn't be so stubborn, especially when paper trading.

I would look for the start of a pullback in XTEX on Monday. It might start out a little higher, but then should fall back into the low $6's by Tuesday or Wednesday.

PS: It's snowing here big time. Looks like a blizzard. So glad I locked in my Natural Gas price :-)

¶ 12/19/2009 08:43:00 AM 3 comments

Sold all 1,500 shares at $1.21 for a $100 loss. It looks like it made a double top at $1.25 (200 DMA) intra-day. However, if it gets by $1.25, then I made a big mistake.

¶ 12/16/2009 02:04:00 PM 1 comments

Bought 1500 shares at $1.26. $1.25 is the 200 DMA. The stock is right on the oversold mark (RSI 30).

I am looking for a bounce here after Tim Sykes and his followers shorted it to death. We'll see.

¶ 12/16/2009 09:59:00 AM 0 comments

SIGA - I sold at $6.00, and it closed at $5.95. It did not trade at all the way I thought it would. Today's range was $5.85 to $6.05. Very narrow. It traded just below yesterday's high and above support ($5.75).

I think what it does tomorrow is sort of a crap shoot. Might be a good opportunity to buy if it takes one more dive to the $5.25 area.

CNOA - Bought at .72, and it closed at .725. It was slow going today with this one, but I still like it.

FEED - Bought at $4.76, sold at $4.67, and the stock closed at $4.63. Bad buy, good sell. As I mentioned earlier, I see this one hitting $4.50 again.

IMGN - Closed at $8.32. Last night I said I expected it to fall more, and it did. I am not worried about my minimum $7.50/share at all.

I will be looking for some more trades tomorrow. Then I will be off most of the day Thursday. Cancer check number three for me that day.

¶ 12/15/2009 07:09:00 PM 2 comments

Sold all 1,000 shares at $4.67. The stock could not hold any of it's averages. Should see $4.50 soon. This was about a $100 loss.

¶ 12/15/2009 03:31:00 PM 0 comments

Bought 1,000 shares at $4.76. Looks like it could bust out, if it gets above $4.82.

¶ 12/15/2009 12:57:00 PM 0 comments

Bought 3,000 shares at .72. It broke .71 resistance. This pick came from reader Shashi. We'll see how it goes. 80 cents looks like next resistance.

¶ 12/15/2009 10:43:00 AM 2 comments

Sold all 800 shares at $6.00 for a $60 gain. I will look to re-enter on the pullback.

¶ 12/15/2009 09:47:00 AM 0 comments

It looks like SIGA will trade more like I envisioned prior to seeing the news last night. I would look for a retest of $5.75 at the open now.

¶ 12/15/2009 09:10:00 AM 0 comments

SIGA - $6.01 (+.77)

As I mentioned in the post below, this stock traded as I had expected. In fact, it was pretty much classic. Take a look:

1. The stock gapped up in the morning and opened at $5.70 based on this mornings positive CC.

2. After that, the stock dipped slightly, and then tried to break resistance at $5.75. It failed.

3. After failing to break resistance, the stock closed the gap from the morning (the low was $5.28, so it was 4 cents off the gap...close enough).

4. After closing the gap, the stock attempted to break resistance at $5.75 again. This time it succeeded.

5. After breaking resistance, the stock ran up to the next resistance pretty quickly ($6.00).

6. The stock broke this second resistance quickly, but then also faded quickly. The resistance after $6.00 is $6.10 if you are wondering. Today's high was $6.078.

7. After falling below $6.00 again, the stock tested new support (old resistance) at $5.75. That held.

8. After holding support, the stock closed strong, and came close to hitting the high of the day again.

Very very nice action here. If you are a trader, you have to like this.

Now in the post below I said that I expected the stock to dip at the open tomorrow, and the close up. Somewhere between $6.25 and $6.50. I still feel good about the close, however, after tonight's news, I would look for the stock to gap up again. Here was the news:

SIGA Technologies, Inc. Announces Close of $20 Million Common Stock Offering

The offering closed at $7.35 a share as planned. What was once bad news is now good news. $7.35 is a nice premium to today's closing price. Additionally, there was some doubt that the deal would go through, since Friday's closing price was $5.24.

Based on that news, I would look for the stock to gap up and hit that $6.25-$6.50 area in the morning. Most likely it will pull back after that, but should close strong in my opinion.

IMGN - $8.57 (-.20)

As I mentioned over the weekend, I thought the stock would start out positively, but then close down. However, I felt it would stay above my $7.50 minimum.

Indeed, the stock opened up at $8.90 (+.13), and moved up to $8.96. After that, it moved down, and fell as low as $8.15. It did have a nice recovery based on where it closed though.

Over the next few weeks before January expiration, I would look for the stock to move higher, however, it should test the $7.72 to $7.95 area first (the 200 DMA and 50 DMA, respectively).

So at this moment, both paper trades look good. The profit on SIGA is only $80, but hey, it's a profit. Plus, it's better than the $870 loss it was in at one point on Friday.

¶ 12/14/2009 08:25:00 PM 0 comments

I'll have more of an update later tonight, but I will say that both of these traded exactly how I expected today.

On SIGA, I did update Twitter often during the day with my thoughts: http://twitter.com/stock_insight

Not sure if I will keep that up though, it looks like most people like coming to the blog.

One last thing before tonight on SIGA, I do think it will be up again tomorrow. It had a nice close. It may start off lower, but I think by the end of the day it will be up. I would look for something between $6.25 and $6.50.

¶ 12/14/2009 04:45:00 PM 2 comments

Only 90,000 traded pre-market so far. My guess is that the big volume will come at the open. Should be a wild ride.

PS: I thought the conference call was very good. The company highlighted the points I said they should in my previous post. They are the only company that can deliver a Smallpox antiviral for the next three years.

UPDATE: Keep in mind that $5.75 is key resistance, then $6.00. Currently SIGA is at $5.68 in PM.

¶ 12/14/2009 08:56:00 AM 0 comments

Right now, bets are that the 8:30am conference call will help the stock price. Pre-market SIGA is at $5.40 x $5.75. It closed at $5.24 on Friday.

I will continue to update this post.

UPDATE: SIGA is now at $5.59 (+.35). $5.75 is first resistance, then $6.00.

UPDATE 2: It looks like the market makers are collecting shares at $5.50. This could be a good sign. 10 minutes to go before the CC.

¶ 12/14/2009 07:58:00 AM 0 comments

Here is an update on my trades. Lot's of news.

SIGA - Initially, this trade looks like a disaster. Let me review my thinking, and what happened yesterday.

I noticed this stock on Thursday, when it dropped from $8.66 to $7.32 on news that the company had a stock offering at $7.35 a share.

SIGA Technologies, Inc. Raises $20.0 Million in a Common Stock Offering

I put the stock on watch, as I thought it would drop more, then rebound. My target to buy was around $6 a share. If you look at the chart, you will see that the most recent low was on October 30th at $5.97/share. Also looking at the chart, you could see that that price would probably result in an RSI of 30. That is usually where you can find support, and where stocks on the way done rebound.

Yesterday, I noticed that the stock started falling again. I watched and watched, and was amazed that the stock was heading for $6 already (this should have been a clue for me). I saw the stock hit $5.83, and then bounce over $6, then hit $5.85 and hold. That made me think $5.90 should be a good entry. Considering that the stock was oversold, and that the offering was at $7.35, the selling seemed way overdone for this news.

However, what I did not know, is that there was other news out there that was not on the wires, but had been discovered by some investors. This news was that the Government was changing the terms of an RFP that SIGA was bidding on for a Smallpox antiviral. The proposed change was on a Government site, however, it was not announced. Since people were awaiting the award of this contract to SIGA, there were some monitoring the site. In sum, the amendments to the RFP would allow awards to more than one vendor, and stated "that although the Offeror will still need to provide evidence for therapeutic index in non-human primate model under an eventual contract, the USG is willing to forego this mandatory criterion for eligibility at this time".

Apparently, this contract was going to be sole sourced to SIGA, since they have been the only company to show good results on primates. In fact, the only other company to test on primates, had the primates die using their drug. So it was an easy decision for the Government to award the contract to SIGA as a sole source.

This new change to the RFP means that the other company could now possibly get a piece of the pie. The market did not like this, and saw this move as a delay in the awarding of the contract, and a reduction in the amount that SIGA would get. The stock fell as low as $4.83 (closing price was $5.24). With complete silence from the company, investors feared the worst case scenario.

After market close, the company announced that they will have a conference call on Monday at 8:30am:

SIGA to Hold Conference Call on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 8:30 A.M. ET

This is what I think could save my trade, plus give you an opportunity. You can trade SIGA pre-market starting at 8am ET, the call is at 8:30am.

My opinion on this, which comes from working 10 years with the Government, and 10 years as a defense contractor, is this: The Government functionals, the people who actually need the drug and will be responsible for managing it once it is supplied, they knew that the quickest and best way to get it was to sole source the contract to SIGA. The only company with a reliable Smallpox antiviral. However, once the proposal hit the Government contracting shop for award, they had a problem with it (I can't tell you how many times I have seen this happen). They did not like that this kind of high profile contract was being given to only one contractor without any competition. They were probably scared of lawsuits, protests, and/or the perception of favoritism. So, they made the functionals change the RFP.

In reading the revised RFP, it does not look to me like this will hurt SIGA at all. The new RFP allows the Government to award the contract to the two company's that make the antiviral, however, SIGA is still the only company that can make one that does not kill the people it is administered to. SIGA will obviously be the first to deliver on the contract, and get paid. If the other company can ever come up with a viable drug, then maybe, they will get some orders under the contract. That's probably a long way away. In the meantime, SIGA will reap big rewards. It is imperative that the company get that message across on Monday. A good conference call on Monday could propel the stock price back up to over $7. We shall see. Could be a very interesting pre-market on Monday.

IMGN - This one is still looking like a good trade. If you recall, I bought 800 shares at $8.33 on November 25th. I then sold 8 Jan $7.50 calls for $1.90. This gave me a profit of over $800 on January 15th (options expiration). That's a gain of 35% in 7 weeks, assuming $2,300 invested (I used margin).

Yesterday, IMGN closed at $8.77. All signs technically show that it should stay above my $7.50 threshold through January 15th, however, since it's a pharmaceutical company, we know there other factors involved. In the case of IMGN, it was results on their Trastuzumab-DM1 drug for breast cancer. I noted on December 8th that they would be releasing those results on December 12th (today), and that would probably determine the success of the trade. On December 9th, the company released partial results that showed that the data was positive. The stock rose to $9.55 that day.

Today is December 12th, and they have already released the full results, and they look very positive. See below:

ImmunoGen, Inc. Announces Positive Trastuzumab-DM1 Clinical Data

The question is, with the rise to only $9.55 on the hint of positive results, will the stock fall on Monday? Will it be a sell on news type event? My thinking is that the stock will rise at first, but then close lower. However, I think the stock will stay above $7.50. We'll see.

¶ 12/12/2009 09:15:00 AM 0 comments

I want to wish all of my Jewish readers a happy Hanukkah, which began at sundown yesterday. May you have a joyous and safe holiday!

¶ 12/12/2009 08:08:00 AM 0 comments

Bought 800 shares at $5.90. This one is way oversold, should have a good snap back rally. I would do this for a day trade or a short swing trade.

¶ 12/11/2009 11:06:00 AM 0 comments

It looks like SGEN could not hold support at $9.00. I would sell at this point. The 52-week low is $7.00. I think it would be a good buy in that area. There is some support at around $8.75, but I wouldn't chance buying it there.

In other news:

IMGN - This one rose nicely yesterday when they hinted that the test results on their breast cancer drug would be positive. As I mentioned previously, they will report those on Saturday. What I didn't know is that they would release some of it yesterday. See story below:

Immunogen reports positive breast cancer drug data

XTEX - The stock fell below $5.50 yesterday, and then dropped down to $5.25 this morning. However, after hitting that minor support, it rebounded to $5.66. I felt that $5 was better support than $5.25, but maybe $5.25 will be strong enough.

VKNG dropped to .30 yesterday, but held. That was my original first support mark, but after the double bottom at .31, I changed it. I still think VKNG may fall to around .20 now that .31 has been broken, but we'll see.

¶ 12/10/2009 02:44:00 PM 0 comments

The other day I mentioned how I felt the economy is still not doing well, since I know that banks are still freezing home equity lines. Here is an article that talks about how banks are not lending, even in this "good" economy:

Mortgage lenders still aren't lending

¶ 12/10/2009 01:20:00 PM 0 comments

XTEX - After making a nice move on Monday, the stock is back to $5.50 support. Might be worth a shot down here, if you think $5.50 will hold.

SGEN - This one is nearing critical support at $9.00

¶ 12/09/2009 12:27:00 PM 0 comments