Plug Power Inc (PLUG): Historical Perspective Of Recent Anomalies By thelongshorttrader
“Life is beautiful…but luck must be on your side.” – Tivadar Schwartz
I study rare events. Some believe it is my stock in trade. Enter Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) (“PLUG”). Someone pitched me PLUG as a short several weeks ago, when it was trading between $3.00-$4.00 per share. For various reasons, I was displeased with the short case and passed on it. I did not transact in Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) or related securities until the last couple trading days.
Luck was on my side. The stock went straight up over the last few weeks, hitting a high of $11.72 per share yesterday morning…before crashing down mid-day, and closing at ~$6.00/share. PLUG fell nearly 50% from peak to trough, yesterday.
On Monday, I claimed, “If you look at Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) historical daily traded value since 1999, you’ll see why I suspect recent criminal/illegal behavior.” I may be wrong, I may be right. I would like to elaborate on my opinion (which I stand by), and explain the underlying reasoning behind it.
Unusual and Historically Anomalous Volume
Note the following:
- Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG)’s 3 largest volume days in its HISTORY (since 1999!) occurred in the last 3 trading days;
- The value traded exceeded its market value in these 3 days.
- The price of PLUG rose 25%, 30%, and 9% (intra-day yesterday) on these days, even as volume rose to historical levels. The 25 % and 30% rise ranked in the top <1% daily price increases in Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG)’s entire history.
- Suspiciously, PLUG share price rise these last 3 days occurred without any headlines, developments, etc. Any positive news (e.g. Walmart blah blah blah) occurred many days ago. So no news, yet historical volume, and historical price increases?
- Nearly half of the largest volume/value traded days of the top 1% largest volume/daily traded occurred in 2014. (that is, if you rank Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG)’s daily trading by largest volume days, 42% of the 1%
If the above set of facts do not disturb you, consider the following: if you and I were playing poker, and I went all-in (bet my entire stack of chips) 3 consecutive times, and each time I won because my hand was a royal flush… which explanation is more plausible:
(a) The probability of such an event is blah blah blah
or
(b) He is cheating
Note how I never have opined on the company’s business, accounting, etc. I simply am pointing out mathematically questionable volume and trading activity. The above behavior can only be explained by the behavior of stock promoters, unscrupulous shareholders, and maybe unscrupulous quant/high frequency entities.
I may update this post later with more. Note that this post is not opining on the near or long-term trajectory of the shares discussed.
