Wide Options Skew Heightens Risk of Trading Yelp.com Lockup Expiration

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 27, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Yelp.com (YELP) has a float of 16.59M shares and shares outstanding of 61.2M. According to Eric Savitz, 52.7M shares (Class B) are available to start trading on August 29th as Yelp’s … Read more

T2108 Update (June 22, 2012) – Stop and Go Traffic

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are posted on twitter using the #120trade hashtag) T2108 Status: 39.6% VIX Status: 18.1 … Read more

Chart Review: Google’s “Nine Lives” Around $600 End As Expected

On May 20, I wrote “How To Play The End Of Google’s ‘Nine Lives’ Around $600” where I outlined the technical case for Google (GOOG) finally breaking through $600 support. It turned out to be quite timely. With the stock now trading below the 200-day moving average (DMA) for the first time since last October, … Read more

Shorts Back Off Lender Processing Services As Overall Prospects Continue To Improve

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 31, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} Since a spate of heavy call buying in February, short interest has taken a fresh plunge. It has now returned to levels last seen right before foreclosuregate exploded. Source: NASDAQ.com … Read more

Play Joy Global Earnings For Upside…With A Hedge

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 29, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} JOY reports earnings on the morning of May 31st with its stock struggling to stay above 2011 lows. The weekly chart shows how for a second time JOY has lost … Read more

Time For Yet Another Pairs Trade As Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems Plunge

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 26, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} I became so comfortable with the JNPR side of the trade that I never blinked while accumulating a fresh JNPR position over the past two and a half months without … Read more

Chart Review: Apple’s Revenge Part Two

It seems Friday’s stalemate was indeed a demonstration of Apple buyers finally putting up a fight. Apple’s stock is still in a short-term downtrend, but the trading action has been electrifying almost the entire way down. The wild swings and near symmetry of the move downward are the kind of “art” that only a chart … Read more

Getting Fooled By the Put/Call Ratio – The J.C. Penney’s Post-Earnings Disaster

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 17, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) The past three earnings cycles have delivered some tremendous post-earnings successes in stocks like Amazon.com (AMZN), priceline.com (PCLN), Best Buy (BBY), and Apple (AAPL). J.C. Penney (JCP) broke my streak in … Read more

Chart Review: J.C. Penney Bouncing Off 200DMA Support Ahead Of Earnings

A little over a week ago, I pointed out that shorts are increasing along with a drop in the put/call ratio on J.C. Penney Company (JCP). At the time, I said that I was done buying puts on JCP. Since then, I decided to buy calls. The stock is now bouncing off 200DMA support. It … Read more

As Earnings Near, J.C. Penney Put/Call Ratio Plummets And Shorts Increase

I last wrote about J.C. Penney (JCP) in March right after an ominous breakdown below its 50-day moving average (DMA) (see “Put Buyers Rush Into J.C. Penney As The Stock Breaks Down“). I soon joined the surge of put volume that occurred around that time, and the trade ended well. JCP eventually erased all its … Read more