ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The slogging has been a little tough since I recommended buying First Solar (FSLR) on the other side of an earnings disappointment. FSLR did disappoint and after the stock broke down from post-earnings consolidation, I insisted the stock remained a buy even as short interest reached new highs. After bouncing 11% so far this week, … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) The latest short interest data are out for the two weeks ending May 13, 2010 (see list of solar short interest at NASDAQ.com). There are three main changes from my review of the health of solar … Read more
Famous short-seller Dick Chanos visited the CNBC set on April 14 and talked about his expanding list of targets that includes alternative energy, especially First Solar (FSLR). In response, the stock dropped 2.7% that day and did not stabilize until the stock lost almost 10% over the course of a week. Directly ahead of another … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece) Perhaps it is not a good idea to use the term “watershed” twice in a year when referring to solar stocks, but it seems to me that Total Group’s acquisition of a 60% controlling stake in … Read more
Last week, I suggested that the nuclear power crisis in Japan could usher in a watershed moment for solar energy and its constituent stocks. For all of two days, most solar stocks soared. For example, First Solar (FSLR) gained 14%. However, March 15th marked a sort of peak in the market’s concern over Japan’s nuclear … Read more
Higher oil prices are not helping solar stocks. Instead, earnings disappointments and hand-wringing in Italy over solar subsidies and policy have put downward pressure on almost the entire sector. While it seems the second half of 2011 could be rough for solar stocks, the current sell-off seems to be creating some buying opportunities. First Solar … Read more
On Wednesday, Wunderlich Securities issued a trading call on solar stocks citing a correlation with oil prices. First Solar (FSLR) was the prime beneficiary of this research. Eric Rosenbaum from TheStreet.com beat me to the punch critiquing this call in “Should Solar Stocks Trade on Rising Oil?“, but I will add my two solar panels … Read more
On Monday, Goldman Sachs added First Solar (FSLR) to its conviction buy list with a $165 price target. The market’s response was swift with FSLR ending the day up 6% and a closing price of $156.40. I wish I had received the memo because I sold off the last of my FSLR positions on Friday. … Read more
Another earnings-related presentation, another yawn from the stock market – such is the life of First Solar (FSLR). On December 14, First Solar hosted a conference call to discuss its guidance for 2011. Overall, it was a relatively bullish call. However, the stock had rallied over 10% into the call and, presumably, expectations were high. … Read more
GT Solar International Inc (SOLR) jumped 15% on news that it secured two large orders for its sapphire crystallization systems used in the manufacture of LED products. From the press release: GT Solar has “…has received its first two orders totaling more than $84 million for sapphire crystallization systems. The orders come from Jiangsu Jixing … Read more