re: " put in a bid this morning for shares at .31 but Scottrade wouldn't allow me to purchase any.."
I just tried to enter an order as an experiment and , yes, still get the "contact your local branch for placing an order on this security" message.
but, All that means is that all you need to do is, call your local branch, or use the toll free number. That is what I did the last couple times. The commision was still $7, the online rate, instead of the usual 27.50 for "broker assisted" trades.
Anyway, regarding mosh, I discovered that once they enter the order for you, you can still modify order price online if need be (unlike regular broker assisted order placement).
mosh went to "restricted" status on Scott just after the first runup. I'm not sure why they are doing this now but I wonder if it might have something to do with supply of shares. My understanding of the nuts and bolts of broker/mm relationship is incomplete but I believe that some trades are executed by the broker out of their own inventory. Perhaps they do this to provide more rapid order execution. I also imagine that sometimes the broker will short sell them to you, so you will get your shares right away but then they have to go root around to replace them (cover).
There was a flap recently at Scott involving a penny stock they accidently shorted and sold to customer(s) at a pre-reverse-split price after the stock had already split and then they faced covering at 100x the original price - something like a million bucks or so was involved. It could be that the recent "restriction" issued on penny stocks showing large (upward) price action are just some latent paranoia from their little mishap.
The nice runup is obviously due a lot of retail buying but as opposed to regular short covering I bet we get/have a component of broker/dealers going to the cupboard now to replace shares they conveniantly shorted to fill customer orders and, well, what do you know, where have all the units gone?
Ah yes, the good ole law of Supply and Demand.
If it's any consolation, look at the chart, sure looks like there is more upside. imo.
There could be some kind of cresendo on the hearing date but, then again, that will be the date that a need for settlement would become a more serious consideration on the part of pxd et al. Presumably that could stimulate even more buying interest.
Unless the hearing somehow goes completely against mosh which seems unlikely.
It's not the lottery drawing anyway, just another milestone to pass on the way.
Actually instead of a lottery analogy maybe it would be better to think of the units more as tradable call options that don't have an expiraton date.
