PSTV
Ultra-nova.
Plus Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage company that develops treatment for cancer – and other diseases. A clinical stage company is a company that has completed or is in the process of completing clinical trials. They were once Cytori, but changed their name to Plus. They’ve been around since 1996. Their primary product is called DocePLUS and treats small cell lung cancer.
At the beginning of the month, on August 6th, 2017, PSTV did a reverse stock split, returning one share for every fifty. A 1:50 reverse split. This took their float from around 22 million down to an ultra-low float of 440 thousand. An ultra-low float.
On August 15, 2019 – the day before the ultra-nova – PSTV put out a rather uninspiring earnings report, but it was accompanied by some very optimistic forward looking statements. They spoke of the future of their leading cancer treatment, DocePLUS. They announced they had completed their phase one trial. They had received FDA drug designation for Small Cell Cancer. With a little investigation, this sorry looking earnings report turned into a 5 star press release.
Their average daily volume was a measly 244 thousand, but on August 16th, that volume spiked to over 16 million – about 36 times its average daily volume.
The earnings report/press release came out on August 15th, so why did the volume not spike until August 16th?
BECAUSE, MOTHERFUCKER, THE EARNINGS REPORT CAME OUT AFTER MARKET.
It came out at 7:21pm. The response began the next day, premarket.
So, we had an ultra-low float stock, with a hot press release, in a market where everyone is looking for the next thing to pop, and volume rushed in.
It had faded off into the evening and I was watching it in its channels, calling it play by play – I’m getting good at that, but this PSTV was beyond my price range and I didn’t want to get in at all because I was too emotional about having missed the big run. So, I’m watching this stock, just studying, and out of nowhere it has a massive rip. I thought it was dead. At about 3:00pm – I always speak in market time when referring to stocks – it just flies away again. Just like it had in the morning. What. The. Hell? Where did that come from?
It was already on fire. It was embers under ashes. It was the campfire no one had dumped water on. All it needed was air. I didn’t learn until today, when I finally made everyone leave me alone long enough to come back and really look into this stock. An article talking about it being a hot stock came out on Bazinga a few hours before the second run – right about lunch time lunch time, after it had petered out. That was all it needed. At the start of power hour, it took back off like a rocket, blasting through resistance that had held since the morning and taking off to new highs.
The article came out at 1 pm. PSTV took off at 3 pm.
PSTV opened at $8.50 and ran up to ten dollars twice by 9:45, bouncing off support at the open. It then, fell back down to support and u-shaped back up to ten dollars for a third touch channel/u-shaped breakout. It flew to $11.81 before encountering resistance and struggling to stay up there, but struggle it did. It formed a solid bull-flag and, as I recall, popped on my mark. From there, it had a solid run up to fifteen and change.
When it broke, it came back down to the point where the bull-flag broke out – around $11.81. It started climbing again, of course, but without its original vigor. It had run out of steam. I’m sure the plummet would have been predictable, but I’m not sure how to explain it. The stock LOOKS weaker. There’s pull back. Hard pullbacks. The climb is not what it was. It’s sideways action, but the range is like 30 cents. Five tiny green candles, pushing, pushing, pushing, and one red doji before it pops and drops back down a dollar and a half – back to the bull-flag resistance break. It struggles for a minute and falls again. Bounces off the VWAP – I called that one – and back up to resistance. I didn’t think it would get back there to be honest. It flirts for a couple hours – VWAP, resistance, VWAP, resistance. Sometimes it falls a little below, goes a little above. It’s just flirting.
Then, as lunch time comes, volume’s drying up and I call the VWAP break. 12:45. Everyone’s at lunch. There’s no one to catch it. Everyone watching is either in and wants out, or too afraid to get in – and who can blame them?
Later it sets itself in a channel. I was wrong here. I thought it would break under the third time it touched resistance. It was under the VWAP. It had had its run. Instead, it built higher lows and, on the fourth resistance touch of the channel, it rips back up to run again. Madness. Pure, predictable, astonishing, wealth bringing madness.
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