Some more penny stock plays popped up on Friday. As always, we view some of these picks as short-term trading candidates, while others may be best used as longer-term positions. (Of course, ‘long-term’ for penny stock folks may still be short-term for everyone else.)

Even though we’re recommending them, in all cases you’ll still want to do some more of your own due diligence, and trade them intelligently. The key themes we saw for each ticker are described below.

Click on each company name (ticker) to view a chart, if the chart’s not shown.

Hyperdynamics Corp. (HDY)

Hyperdynamics’ board is not inviting CEO Kent Watts to return to his post - his last day will be July 1st. And apparently, the market is happy with the decision. Normally we wouldn’t chase a high-volume breakout on news like that, but this move may have broken the stock’s rut by giving the company new life. HDY rallied very well for several days the last time we saw buying this heavy.

Arbinet-thexchange Inc. (ARBX)

A big move out of nowhere? An earnings call scheduled for May 7th on the same day the big move started? It could be an omen, and ARBX may be able sustain the speculative rally right up until earnings are released…..and maybe afterward as well. This is still a pretty speculative chart, but it’s also the best move we’ve seen since 2006.

Sunrise Solar Corp. (SSLR)

Sunrise Solar has a fairly reliable history of strong rallies that start out modestly, and then accelerate for a week or so once engaged. Each of the recent ones (July of ‘09 and January of ‘09) faded just as quickly, so be sure to bail at the first sign of a top. But, it could be a decent ride on the way up.

The Dixie Group Inc. (DXYN)

Q1 was worse than expected, but the market doesn’t seem to care. Perhaps investors are eying earnings of 10 cents in 2010. Either way, the downtrend has turned into a well-supported uptrend. Look for turbulence in the $3.70-ish area.

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ANPI)

Angiotech’s conference call on Thursday was uneventful, as was the market’s response to what was said. That’s perfect - we can do without the volatility for this long-term idea. What the market doesn’t quite get (or maybe it does) is that Angiotech’s slow trek into the black as about to accelerate. Analysts are looking for earnings of 2 cents in 2009, and 12 cents in 2010. At the current price, that means the forward-looking P/E is 4.5. We love the slow, methodical progress in the meantime.

Elray Resources Inc. (ELRA)

Didn’t we already pick Elray earlier this week? Yep, but it popped up again using a different scan. In the past we’ve found if stocks keep showing up on different ‘buy’ lists for different reasons, it does actually mean that all those things are coming together in a ‘perfect storm’. Note the support being made at the 20 day moving average line. If resistance at 50 cents is broken, look out above.

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