ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
This is a quick follow-up on a piece I wrote about Cognizant Technology (CTSH) called “Planning to Accumulate Cognizant Technology Even As It Fights To Hold 2-Year Lows.” Since then, CTSH has rallied to fill its earnings gap from May. Source: FreeStockCharts.com I sold my position after the August earnings gap up thinking I would … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 3, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} {snip} First, why bother with a silver miner that is experiencing operational difficulties due to political turmoil? I think the company’s description of itself provides a good summary of the … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 24, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} TOL reported earnings the morning of August 22nd. The tone of the conference call was bullish and the market responded by pushing TOL to fresh 5 1/2 year highs. TOL’s … Read more
The stocks market’s slow action hides all sorts of dramatic action in individual stocks. For this chart review, I take a look at a range of performers. Google (GOOG) has broken out to fresh five-year highs. First Solar (FSLR) has more than doubled since its June lows. Baidu (BIDU) has sold off for over a … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 17, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Almost two months ago, I wrote about Fastenal (FAST), an industrial and construction supplier, describing the stock as expensive but worth buying at lower prices. Within a month, FAST jumped over … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 11, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Wednesday, August 8th was a rough day for priceline.com (PCLN). The company significantly pulled back current quarter revenue and earnings guidance based on expectations for poor performance in Europe: {snip} Moreover, … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 13, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Since reporting earnings August, 1, First Solar (FSLR) has been on a tear. {snip} This trading action represents strong follow-through to the nascent bullish action I pointed out on June 19th: … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 6, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) The HOLDRS Retail ETF (RTH) made new all-time highs in late July, and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) has remained in a trading range since failing a retest of its … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 5, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) On July 20th, I described the mechanics of making the pre-earnings trade on F5 Networks (FFIV) (see “Lessons From The F5 Networks Earnings Trade“). After finishing the post-earnings trade with a … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 30, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) For the second earnings cycle in a row, I failed to execute the post-earnings trading strategy for Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy the open (see “After Amazon.com Earnings, Buy The Stock At … Read more