As you can see from the Nasdaq chart above, the general trend was up. In last week's article, I discussed several cheapie plays while the market was in a decline that day. The overall preopen showed upward momentum, leading me to believe it would be a positive day. Keep this in mind, as it slightly altered my entry and exit points.

At Home (ATHM:Nasdaq - news - commentary) caught my eye because of news that the company had renegotiated its optical-fiber capacity contract with AT&T in a new deal that provided the company with $85 million in cash.

After reading the news, I put it up on my screen. Just prior to the open, I noticed an increase in the buying pressure and the proper entry was at the open. You can see from the At Home chart above that it opened at $1.90 and climbed straight up from the open without so much as a hiccup until 9:58 a.m. EDT, when the buying slowed, selling came in and the momentum abruptly changed direction when it hit $2.46 for an easy 0.50-point gain. A 0.50-point gain may not seem like much, but as I said in last week's article, I play 1,000 shares minimum on cheapies. I will take a $500 profit on a trade any day of the week.

Acclaim Entertainment (AKLM:Nasdaq - news - commentary) was a bit different. It was still swinging a bit over some old news about the company retiring some old debt, but daytraders remained interested for some reason. It caught my attention because it was still being discussed in the chats. I watched the preopen and it also showed a good amount of upward momentum just prior to the open. Because the news was neither fresh nor all that good, I was a bit concerned. However, the momentum picked up just prior to the open and because I determined the general market was in an uptrend due to the preopen action, I decided it was worth a shot.

Take a look at the Acclaim chart above. You can see it opened at $3.30, dipped a bit to $3.27, then took off. The proper entry on this was not at the open, but at the first uptick due to the weaker news. The stock faltered a bit at 10:23 a.m. EDT when it hit $3.69, but I elected to stay in the trade due to the overall upward momentum of the general market. At 10:50 a.m. EDT the stock hit $3.98 and changed direction. Again I elected to stay in the trade as the general market was still climbing. I was wrong. Three minutes later, I noticed many stocks on my screen starting to sell, signaling an exit point at $3.90. Not bad -- a little under a 0.60-point gain with 1000 shares.