Zak Mir on Gulf Keystone Petroleum – Cracking the code!

One of the problems that you see time again as far as private investors and traders are concerned is that they are drawn to the very stocks and markets which are the most difficult to call and perplexing to understand, even at the best of times.

This means that for some reason they are really keen on losing money on the FTSE 100 by day trading it, and at the same time just cannot stop themselves from taking a punt on small cap companies in the resources area where the fundamentals are unknown quantities and where some directors sometimes tell the truth.

What is a personally interesting though, is the way that even though the Iraqi focused oil and gas explorer Gulf Keystone (GKP) has a market capitalisation of £1.5 billion and should in theory be relatively liquid and transparent in terms of news flow and issues like corporate governance, the company still seems to attract more than its fair share of controversy.

For me, this makes the shares all the more intriguing and interesting as a technical trading play, and given how many traders seem to be keen to conquer this particular North Face of the Eiger as far as AIM stocks are concerned, it may be fair to pitch in with some “tricks of the trade” that I have gleaned after following the price action here day in, day out for many months.

As you might imagine, there is nothing that focuses the mind quite so well in having to make a call on a stock which so many have their hopes and fears pinned to in financial terms…