Stocks To Trade
Sep. 21, 20236 min read

Are You Capitalizing On The Latest Market Shift?

Tim BohenAvatar
Written by Tim Bohen

I often talk about the trading ‘shift’ that happened around 2015… 

It’s when I used to be a short seller and one of my favorite short patterns was the late-day fade. When a stock would break below VWAP in the afternoon and then fade into the close. 

But then something changed… 

Instead of fading into the close, stocks started ripping higher — breaking above the morning high and squeezing shorts. It’s what has now become my VWAP hold high of day break pattern

And all of that happened because there was a shift in the market. 

More and more traders started shorting penny stocks. And it created an overcrowded strategy that led to these big squeezes when shorts wanted to cover. 

So I had to adapt and learn to take advantage of the moves to the upside. 

Fast forward to today and I’m noticing another shift… 

It is something that traders didn’t used to do but it could be becoming a new theme. 

Today I’ll show you what I’m seeing in the market with three examples and show you how you can take advantage of the moves. 

Could This Turn The Penny Stock Market On Its Head? 

Shifts happen in the market all the time. Because the patterns and themes that play out are based on traders’ emotional decisions

And when you’ve been in the markets as long as I have, you learn how to notice them… 

One thing I noticed recently is that an old way of thinking has changed. 

Many traders used to think that true penny stocks weren’t heavily shorted. 

That’s because there is a rule some brokers have that in order to short stocks under $2.50, you still need $2.50 in your account for every share you short. So it just didn’t make sense to short such low-priced stocks. 

And that’s one of the reasons I don’t like true penny stocks — because there are no shorts to squeeze. 

But now we have evidence that this is changing…

It all started with T2 Biosystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTOO). The stock started running in July when it was trading around 10 cents. 

TTOO chart: 3-month, daily candle — courtesy of StocksToTrade.com

Then all summer TTOO just continued to squeeze and squeeze. It climbed to a high of 70 cents and is still trading around 30 cents. 

And that might not sound like a big deal to those of you that haven’t been around as long as I have… 

But it’s exceedingly rare for a 10-cent stock to still be at 30 cents four months later. 

So this might be the new theme, I don’t know for sure, but we’ve seen more evidence in other true penny stocks like…

Axcella Health Inc. (NASDAQ: AXLA) which went from around $2.50 to $41 (price adjusted after a reverse split). 

AXLA chart: 3-month, daily candle — courtesy of StocksToTrade.com

And Novo Integrated Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVOS) which went from around 7 cents to a high of 53 cents in a few weeks…

NVOS chart: 3-month, daily candle — courtesy of StocksToTrade.com

Now it’s happening in MSP Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIFW).

It’s been a week and the stock is still near its highs. Is there any reason for it to still be up this much? 

You might think it’s FOMO and dip buyers coming in, but did they all just jump in at the same time on Wednesday morning when LIFW bounced from around 10 cents back up to 27 cents? 

There was no news or other reason to buy the stock that morning, other than the short sellers getting squeezed. 

That’s just my opinion, we don’t have to agree… 

But the moves these true penny stocks are having and the length of time that they’re holding up, leads me to believe they’re full of short sellers… 

LIFW chart: 3-month, daily candle — courtesy of StocksToTrade.com

So it might be time to adapt to the market again — just like I did in 2015. 

If true penny stocks continue to run, short squeezers are something to look for. But if all the shorts give up and stop shorting true pennies, this theme might die off. 

It’s something I’ll be watching for. 

Learn how to trade short squeezes here. 

And you can keep with me every day in my free live training workshops. I go over the hot stocks of the day and key levels to watch, and I show you a system to help you catch some of these incredible moves. 

The StocksToTrade team has an entire schedule of free workshops so you can join when it’s convenient for you — check out the schedule here and sign up! 

See you at the next one! 

Have a great day everyone. See you back here tomorrow. 

Tim Bohen

Lead Trainer, StocksToTrade