I guess that's why penny stocks are tough to play, the stuff happens so fast. A pump on the big boards moves slower - ie. a couple of weeks before earnings you'll see the formation of a classic pattern, and a bounce off an intermediate level trendline - you have can have several days, or actually even anticipate that, so perhaps a week to get in. I think I glanced at AMZN and PCLN and if I remember right, they are at the tops of a couple of triangles - their earnings should be around the corner, so there, i would look for the bounce up out of the triangle, like mon-weds, as that was happened with AAPL, which is why I bought the calls. That also would be time wise, a good time to get the nasdaq to hit the gap resistance.