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Opportunity in that “September 7 Announcement,” plus Ligand, Sandstorm and GSV notes

Checking in on a few stories for the Friday File

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, August 19, 2016

So… what’s been happening with the stocks I follow and write about for my favorite Irregulars? We’ve had a couple weeks pass since I last checked in, thanks to my vacation and the Pan Mass Challenge, so there’s a bit to catch up on… (and thanks again to those who sponsored me, once I get the last checks forwarded to the PMC I should be near last year’s phenomenal and humbling $32,000+ total — and the PMC overall aims to hit $46 million this year, so you’ve helped to do something tremendous!)

Before I check in on a few stocks I like, I should tell you about the one trade that I’ve been kind of itching to make this week. I haven’t made this trade, and probably won’t get a chance to because I’m mentioning it to you today, but I really want to short Energous (WATT) — though I might well buy puts instead of shorting the stock, since that’s generally what I do to make sure I have a handle on my maximum potential loss (a tiny stock can always double overnight on an acquisition or big announcement, even if you think it’s unlikely, and that makes it extra dangerous to short them).

Why would I bet against WATT? Because too many people are betting on it, and the promises by some pundits are absurd and way out of touch with even the “overpromising” that the company has been doing itself — and because Ray Blanco at Agora Financial is again sending out an ad that promises WATT will solve the “deadly flaw” that every device has (battery limitations)… and implying that Apple will be using WATT’s technology in their next iPhone, and send WATT stock soaring when Tim Cook introduces the next iPhone on September 7.

There’s a cohort of folks who are skeptical of WATT, as you might imagine, since the short ratio is up to 20% now (that’s the percentage of the float that is sold short), but I think there’s likely to be at least a 20% downdraft that has the shares down near $11 over the next month or so.

If you remember, Blanco had widely-distributed ads promising that same thing on June 13, when Apple had their last event (the WWDC), and that drove the price of WATT up to $14… only to see it crash to ...

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