Trading short names like Forex, make sure you have a gameplan

When looking at the domain names you are buying/regging you need to think what is my end game ? Why am I registering these types of names ? Over the last six months some things have popped up in domaining that is a bit different from the usual keyword or short domain play. People are honing in on some trends where they are regging names that they don’t necessarily love and certainly don’t have an end user in mind. They are looking for bulk purchases for a greater overall uptrend down the road. If you are buying a name like Pineapple.com you are not looking for a big move in all fruit related .coms, you are buying it because it is a one word generic .com that has meaning, value and brandability.

When talking about things like 6 and 7n.com, 4L.net and some mixed LLNN.com type names. The play has been to soak up the inventory look for buyouts such as 4L.net without aeiouv.

There are several things you look for and would like to happen with these type of trading strategies. Full disclosure I have been buying 4L.net or I was when I could handreg them or acquire at Go Daddy closeouts. Previously I had focused on just LLtv.net for my 4L investments in .net.

There has been great discussion on this topic at Namepros and a lot of members have contributed. The news of the 4L.net Chinese premium buyout took place on Namepros back on July 27. Member DotCN posted about what was going on and members started to scramble to pick up names as cheap as possible on the aftermarket sites. There were no more handregs left so Go Daddy closeouts was the first place to play, Name.com and Dynadot were other strong alternatives.

So I posted that while people were getting excited we need to see one of the indicators that I look for in any buyout or short name momentum move. No closeouts ! While we were talking about the news that DotCN posted I was looking at Go Daddy and picking up some of the names that I felt were good buys for $5 to $8. There can be no universal wholesale move in value if people can get them for $5 plus renewal on Go Daddy closeouts.

Now 4L.net has crossed that barrier off, no 4L.net without aeiouv has made it to closeouts for a couple of weeks. Now names are going for $17, $22, $30 and $60. There have even been outliers like HDFC.net going for $2,075.

People have been paying $37.99 on Name.com, I was waiting for PHPN.net to go to $18.99 as Name.com uses a Dutch auction style, but it never got there someone paid up and didn’t want to risk losing it at $18.99. That name actually got flipped on Namepros for $150.

We have also had 6N.com names get bought up in bulk, if there is no 0 or 4 they are no longer available to hand register. Namepros member ZZZZ.us mentioned: 33,000+ NNNNNN.COMs was registered by Mr. Xie from Sep. 13 to 14. Many domainers from China are searching 6 digits coms and selecting those unregistered ones to register. It is almost a certain thing that all 6 digits coms will be registered before 2017.

We have watched people jump into 7N.com seeking out the best patterns, there was even an auction battle for a 9N.com on DropCatch.

So now there are a lot of domain investors owning a lot of names they would not necessarily register if it was not for other outside factors like the buyouts. So these domains are just being traded like foreign currency, some will look to make a few pips (A pip measures the amount of change in the exchange rate for a currency pair. For currency pairs displayed to four decimal places, one pip is equal to 0.0001. ) and others may be looking for 1000 pips. The key is to have a gameplan to how and when you want to sell.

• Bulk sale to another investor
• Liquidate on NameJet individually hoping that a couple names reach outlier levels
• Hire a broker that specializes in Chinese domain sales

You need to be following the markets as these are not passive investments, some people are trading these back and forth everyday and you want to keep up on market moves.

I know when it comes to 4L.net I am done buying, prices have moved up to where I might start to liquidate, everyone is different, I want to get in and get out. Maybe these things move up to a base price of $100 – $150, I don’t know if I will hold that long.

Disclaimer: Nothing written here should be taken as a recommendation to invest in domain names of any kind, domain investing is a speculative business and you should do a lot of research. The data is retrieved from what are believed to be reliable sources and is for information purposes only. The author of this post may buy or sell the niches mentioned here at any time wholesale or retail.