Doubling Down on the United States Oil ETF While Oil-Related Names Gain A Reprieve from Calamity

The trade on a rangebound United States Oil (USO) is now failing (see “The Commodities Crash Accelerates: Scenarios for Trading Oil” for a description). Oil has continued its collapse past the historic 2009 lows and has helped to drive USO to fresh all-time lows. Source: US. Energy Information Administration, Crude Oil Prices: West Texas Intermediate … Read more

OPEC Slams the Oil Patch – A Quick Look At the Reverberations

On Friday, December 4, 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slammed the oil patch by adjourning without an agreement to put a cap on production. This quote from a Bloomberg article probably sums up the implications best: “‘It means more OPEC oil next year,’ Jamie Webster, a Washington-based oil analyst for IHS … Read more

Portfolio Manager Stays Firmly Bullish On Memorial Production Partners

Source: Nightly Business Report Portfolio manager Gregg Abella of Investment Partners Asset Management was placed in the uncomfortable position of having to explain these picks he recommended almost nine months ago. His over-weighting in oil really hurt. Abella is also the analyst who brought Memorial Production Partners (MEMP) to my attention. It was a pick … Read more

Hitting Reset on Memorial Production Partners

It turned out that technicals were indeed all I needed to follow for trading Memorial Production Partners (MEMP). As I described in an earlier piece, I successfully navigated a trade in MEMP by closing out my position and locking out profits after a break of support at the 50-day moving average (DMA). It was purely … Read more

Linn Energy Helps Sink Memorial Production Partners As Earnings Approach

It was an awful week for oil-related plays as oil’s price continued to drop and one energy company after another, including the titans Exxon(XOM) and Chevron (CVX), failed to provide investors much in the way of reassurance. This calamity was quite a contrast to the much higher optimism from earnings just three months ago. The … Read more

Memorial Production Partners: If You Liked It At $15, It Is A Steal Now

Back in February, I tagged Memorial Production Partners (MEMP) as my favorite oi-related play. Overall, MEMP was a great trade, but I had intended to hold it for a much longer time. After breaking its 50-day moving average for the second time in March, I put MEMP on the “sell” list. I sold on the … Read more

A Reduction in the Speculative Sparkle for the Oil Trades

I am extending a hat tip to a friend who sent the following Seeking Alpha news alert on what must be the most bearish prediction on oil out there from a major analyst…. “The recent surge in oil prices is just a ‘head fake’ and West Texas crude as cheap as $20/bbl may soon be … Read more