First Solar FSLR traded heavily today, in quite a wild fashion. The stock opened down, but less than a dollar. Then, along with the rest of the market, quickly tanked. FSLR traded as low as $200.11 today, but never did dip below the $200 mark.
Through most of the midday the First Solar was choppy, but consistently down. Starting at about 2pm EST, with two hours left in the trading session, the stock literally marched from around $202 to $219. This was an incredible run for anyone who bought a ticket.
Eventually, with less than an hour to go, FSLR ran out of gas and actually closed down -$2.65 for the day. But overall not too surprising given the tremendous weakness in the equities markets today. The DOW was down 450 points and financial stocks continue to be pounded. There are still rumors about Wamu and AIG that just will not go away, even though there is a decent chance the companies will.
Let's return to the last two hours of trading today. Looking at the chart of today's trading in FSLR we can see the absolute march starting at 2pm. Between 2pm and 3:15pm the stock went up $17. Every few minutes added another dollar to the stock.
Now to make things more interesting, look at the chart of FSLR trading the day before, Tuesday Sept. 16th. Again, right at 2pm nearly the identical situation occurs. FSLR is just under $200 even, and then between 2pm and 4pm the stock heads straight up, closing at $214.65 for the day.
This is just something to keep in mind if you see the First Solar starting to move up late in the session, particularly around the 2pm timeframe. Now, to keep things in perspective this is a stock that started September around $275 a share and lost $75 of that price in the first 10 calendar days of the month, trading around the $200 mark recently. But if we keep our focus specifically on days when FSLR starts to increase late in the day, this could be viewed as a possible short-term trading opportunity. When First Solar gets any upward momentum late in the day, then think about hitching a quick ride. And be ready to jump off just as quick.
