ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
A week ago I used F5 Networks (FFIV) as a model to suggest that Finisar (FNSR) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU) showed some promise to bounce from critical support levels. I drew out the specific price points at which buys made sense and included some stops. The promise quickly led to a letdown as both FNSR … Read more
Competition For Online Video Content Heats Up : NPR When it comes to providing consumers with movies and TV shows online, Netflix is king with its more than 20 million subscribers. But the competition for serving up content on computers, TV screens and mobile devices is heating up fast. (tags: Amazon Netflix video internet online_video)
Finisar (FNSR) was punished with a 39% one-day loss last week after announcing disappointing guidance for the current quarter that included the extremely poisonous phrase “…a slowdown in business in China.” The tremendous price drop combined with record trading volume of 40.4M shares displayed all the classic markings of complete abandonment by institutions and large … Read more
When I made the case for buying CSCO after its earnings disaster in November, I was bracing myself for an extended stay at or near 52-week lows. I even planned to add more on a steep enough decline. After two weeks of slowly drifting downward, CSCO made a bottom. The stock is now climbing out … Read more
When Ener1 (HEV) chairman and CEO Charles Gassenheimer appeared on CNBC in November to discuss how his company will benefit from Democrat and Republican cooperation on energy policy, the stock got a nice 4% pop on the day. Last week, HEV announced a major joint venture deal with China’s number one automotive components company Wanxiang … Read more
I was clearly far too early in restarting a pairs trade short Microsoft (MSFT) and long Intel (INTC). Over the past two months, the performance of MSFT has steadily improved, while Intel’s performance has steadily worsened. The MSFT/INTC ratio is now at 10 month highs. Source: stockcharts.com Typically, I would look at this divergence and … Read more
The shorts in Cisco (CSCO) had it right after all…even if they were a bit early. Short interest in CSCO surged in late August close to 52-week highs. When I noticed this in mid-September, I made a somewhat complicated case for using this as a contrarian signal to go long the stock. CSCO trickled upward … Read more
Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) have been tech laggards for some time now. However, over the past week, both stocks finally breached the all-important 200-day moving average (DMA) line of resistance (charts at the end of this piece). While MSFT is struggling to add to its small post-earnings gains, INTC has completely reversed the post-earnings … Read more
The post-earnings selling in Intel (INTC) has become uncanny in its consistency. Four out of the last six earnings reports have resulted in selling even as INTC’s headline earnings news has generally been OK to good. Three of the four bouts of selling followed immediately after INTC opened its first post-earnings trading day higher. This … Read more
Adobe Systems, Inc. (ADBE) surged as high as 17% today after news leaked about a private meeting between ADBE and Microsoft (MSFT) company executives. The most salient rumor surrounding this meeting is that MSFT is considering acquiring ADBE in addition to other strategic options for going after Apple’s (AAPL) dominance in the mobile device market. … Read more