Certainly an odd candle and bizarre trading day, but it's not a thinly traded stock ($1.2m shares on the day).  How exactly does this possible "manipulation" work?  Rumors just prior to the open that are quickly dispelled?  

Would like to understand how a stock gaps down huge like this at the open, then IMMEDIATELY reverses course to gain 11% on the day.  What series of events creates that reaction?  News after the open?  Just trying to understand and hopefully never get caught in this type of reversal using proper stops.

Seems like it's about $1.00 away from a clean breakout.  Any thoughts on taking the trade here with a tight stop or is it better to place a buy stop limit of something like $10.80-$10.82?  When the pattern is enticing but the last price is far from the breakout, I have trouble deciding which is the better approach.

ZSAN: Sometimes you get lucky.  Had a stop in place and was taken out for a small gain yesterday at $5.15.   Gapped down huge today: https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=zsan

Nice trade.  Congrats.  When they move that fast, you can almost never get out at the top.

VBIO: two questions.  

1. How do you consider buying a stock like this with daily volume of 20K-30K?

2. How does anyone buy $2M worth of stock when volume that day looks like it was less than 100,000 shares? Exercising options?  Direct purchase from the company?

Just sold out of PRED at $2.20 for a 98% gain.  Thank you Steve.  Has a parabolic look on the daily chart and approaching major resistance from last September.  Hard to manage this stock as a trade since Fidelity won't allow stop loss or trailing stops on pink sheet equities.  Might re-enter down the road after a reasonable pullback.  LOL: Probably will rocket higher later today.     

Is there ever a time a company does an offering where it doesn't feel like they're throwing shareholders under the bus?   Adding insult to injury, more often than not the offering is at below market prices.

Trading action in PRED confuses me.  Six times since late November it has presented a huge white candlestick, which is always followed by a near 100% retracement over the next 5-15 trading days.  Why can't stocks like these find any sort of sustained move up?  

https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=pred

Today...or generally speaking?  Can you elaborate?

Why?  Honest question.  

Asking because I often do the same and for me at least, it's part psychological and tied to my confidence leveland what else is happening on the day.  If I'm in a confident mood, I usually make the trade.  If not, I wait and wait, then find myself missing on opportunities.  Suspect it happens to many of us, and not due to a technical read of the chart, either.  Those who can remain objective, almost (but not entirely) mechanical in their trading probably fare better.  But we are human...

MTEM: Any way to prevent this in future?

Bought at $4.20 late January.  Stock was trending up nicely the past few days.  Had my stop loss in place at $4.51.  Closed Friday at $4.85.  Opening print (1st minute) Monday was $4.83 on 500 shares traded.  Next print (2nd minute) was down $0.52 at $4.31 on 11,000 shares traded and I was taken out of my position (1,000 shares) at that price.  Then price immediately reversed.  Next trade (3rd minute) was up $0.37 to $4.68 on only 300 shares traded, followed by $4.85 on another 300 shares traded.  Stock closed the day at $4.99 on total volume of 54,500 shares.

Feel like I was robbed.  Was this manipulation by the market maker (to take out stops) or was I just unlucky due to one large seller?  More importantly, did I do anything wrong and what step(s) can I take to avoid a similar fate going forward?

Here's the daily chart: https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=mtem

Definitely moves to the beat of a different drum.

Three points, Nayan:

1. Matt and Steve run an outstanding website.  Both had been cautious of late...especially going into last week.  Not sure how you missed that.

2.  Although I don't play them, BPT's SPY Systems and sub-Sytems have excellent longterm track records.  However, no system (or individual) will be right 100% of the time.

3. It's extremely hard to predict those 1-2 day downdrafts; no one can to any degree of consistency.  If you've followed even a sampling of suggestions put forth by BPT over time and traded with discipline, you should be well ahead of the game.  If not, look inwards and improve your trading .

WEYL - Any update on the potential short squeeze expected today, or did I misunderstand the article posted earlier this week? 

Read this article twice.  Think I got the gist of it, but some details are beyond me.  This is potentially great news for those who own the stock, right?    Can something happen to prevent the projected short squeeze?

Now the tricky part - where to place a stop.  Suggestions?  Halfway point of yesterday's candle?  Will watch the newsletter for any clues.  Bought yesterday @ $1.68.  Was going nowhere until late in the day.  Didn't see the move until 5 minutes before the close.  Sell half, let half run?  Sell at open if it jumps higher?  Many of the insider plays have turned out to be excellent swing trades; thank you Steve and Matt.

Matt, 

The note on the FLMN chart says insider bought 750,000 shares at $10/share on 8/23/18.  A quick look at the chart shows the last time price was anywhere close to $10.00 was back in May.  I'm confused.  After the close of trading today, could you address this?

Bought the breakout at $10.57;  watched it gently rise to $11.40 , gave it some room with a stop at $11.15.  At work all day; never saw the parabolic move to $11.80.  Caught in the late morning downdraft and was taken out at my stop.  Made money but felt like I left too much on the table.  Without watching every tick, was there a better way to maneuver my stops?  Often when I use a trailing stop I find I'm taken out too soon.  That would've worked better in today's scenario. 

PRED late day move. Chart link

Does the same fate await the Appleonians, Amazonians and Googlites one day in the future?  After all, they suffer from a similar dogmatic loyalty, only on steroids...believing these companies can never do wrong...ever?  That day of reckoning, if it ever comes, will make the gold bugs decline pale by comparison.