Nice to start the week off green. But in case it turns bear on us be sure to watch this fundamental video on how to short stocks. U.S. stock futures rose on Monday, with the focus largely expected to settle on Europe amid a dearth of economic news. Investors were also watching the situation in North Korea after the death of leader Kim Jong-il over the weekend.

A bounce for Europe stocks appeared to be providing support for the U.S., in a week where volumes begin to thin out ahead of the Christmas holidays. Within economic data, the home builders’ index for December will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

Friday I tried hard to buy ABOT at $.02 before it ran 220% but they jumped right over my bid. My $5k bet would have been an easy 100% profit but that’s the problem with pumps, it’s often hard to get your fill. I chased as high as $.025 before giving up, turns out even $.03 would have made for a good day.

MILV – The miss on ABOT led me to looking for another easy pump to score so I tried to buy 500,000 shares of MILV right at the close Friday – hence no time for an alert sorry. I managed to fill 193,500 shares and plan to flip them out today or this week. This 45-minute video on shorting explains why this is a perfect bounce play. Trading pumps like the 3 on 1 of today’s watch lists isn’t for beginners so be warned. Simply put, if you don’t know how or when to enter then just spend more time learning under my instruction before you risk it cause they can crush profits fast.

THQI – Looked like a solid bottom bouncer until someone unloaded 300,000 shares or so in a 5-minute period of time right before the close. Probably some funds looking to unload this dog so we have to be careful there aren’t more. Stop is $.72 and goal is just under $1 this week. No more swings turned long like LOCM, USAT and HKN – if they don’t perform I’m moving on because I want to have a much more profitable 2012 and holding and hoping isn’t the way to do it – my fault on some of those.

GEVO – This one held well on Friday so I held to see what this week would bring despite being up over $300 at times. I think we might see a continuation run this week which is why I decided to give it a shot. Goal is $8 but I’ll be happy with profit. I’ll stop out if it looks like it’s going to close below my entry.

Nothing new to report on LOCM, USAT or HKN. I’m looking forward to closing these positions but it’s not the right time for me yet, I’ll keep you posted.

We’re switching over to the new alert system soon and since Skype doesn’t work well I’m done using it for group communication. 2-hour lag on delivery is embarrassing for Microsoft if you ask me. I will keep it for 1-1 communication for now since I use Skype on a personal level anyway.