This one happened so quick, if I had blogged it I would have missed it (which has happened before). What is important to learn from is the process.
This morning, USU went into a nose dive. You’ve got to love after market trading, which is the only way a stock can plummet almost 50% by 9:45 AM. I figured from the panic that it would drop a bit further, and picked it up at 3.26.
I had two plays in mind. If it bounced right back up, it could stay up or fall off again. If it took a day or two to come back up, it would probably drift slowly back up as the rumors faded. Or, of course, I could be totally wrong and lose a few bucks. What amazed me is that my low-ball limit buy went through in minutes. For once I hit it right on the nose, and by the time I even knew I owned it I was up 10%. I then put in a limit sell of all shares for 4.24 good for the day. The plan then was if it didn’t hit that number by market close I would put in a new limit sale at 5.29, but only enough shares to cover my investment, leaving the rest as “free” stock.
If I can get my money back and have stock left over within 60 days, I consider it free stock. One of my previous free stocks was JNY, where I continued to pick up free stock for a year as they bounced around. Thank you Jim Cramer for the first buy on that one.