Caterpillar Call Buyers Bet Stock Extends Gains Next Week
by Option Review - May 3rd, 2013 1:55 pm
Today’s tickers: CAT, QLGC & CPRT
CAT - Caterpillar, Inc. – Trading traffic in weekly call options on the world’s largest maker of machinery indicates some traders are betting Caterpillar’s shares, up 3.75% at $87.43 as of 12:50 p.m. ET on Friday, extend gains next week. Bullish bets in weekly contracts expiring next Friday are heaviest at the May 10 ’13 $87.5 and $90 strikes. Upwards of 4,000 calls changed hands at the $87.5 strike, with the bulk of the volume purchased in the early going at an average premium of $0.51 apiece. The price tag on the $87.5 weekly calls has roughly doubled to $1.03 as of the time of this writing, with the stock sitting at the highs of the session. Traders long the calls profit at expiration next week as long as CAT’s shares exceed the average breakeven price of $88.01. More than 2,000 of the $90 strike weekly calls have traded as well. It looks like most of the contracts were picked up this morning at an average premium of $0.13 each. Premium on the $90 calls expiring next Friday has also roughly doubled since this morning, with the last traded price on the contracts up at $0.25 apiece. Overall volume in CAT options is above 51,000 contracts, topping the stock’s average daily volume of around 46,700 contracts, with the call/put ratio up above 2.0.
QLGC - QLogic Corp. – Shares in QLogic are bucking the trend today, sliding more than 7.0% to $9.71 during the first half of the trading session even as the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rally to fresh highs. QLGC had been participating in the run up in U.S. stocks earlier this year, rising nearly 25% from the start of 2013 to as high as $12.35 in mid-March. During the seven weeks since then, however, shares in the name have dropped more than 20% to the current level. QLogic’s shares slipped to a fifteen-week low today after a number of analysts lowered target prices on…
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Wednesday Worries – AAPL Makes $76,103 While You Read This
by phil - October 10th, 2012 8:44 am
$76,103 – That's not sales, that's profit!
Every minute of every day, AAPL is making $76,103 (at $40Bn a year) on the sale of $316,120 worth of products. No company on Earth comes close to that kind of metric and, overall, the stock's performance clearly indicates that but, if you listen to the MSM, you would think AAPL is finished.
We had a nice, in-depth discussion about AAPL in Member Chat this morning and we not only concluded it's still a buy but we came up with a lovely spread that has the potential to turn $3,000 into $45,000 between now and Jan 2015 if AAPL simply holds $600 – needless to say we're very proud of that as it's always nice to have a trade or two in your portfolio that returns 1,500% and we rarely get a chance to do them with a blue-chip stock like AAPL.
Note in the above chart, that AAPL is still a relative outperformer this year – shown priced against HPQ, DELL, INTC, IBM, CAT and ISRG – all good companies that have simply failed to keep up. We also like HPQ at this level, now $14.30 as their REDUCED guidance has them earning $3.62 per share next year after earning $4.05 this year and that's still 25% back on your money, which sure beats TBills and we're not even counting the $18Bn in cash they have on hand, which is quite a lot when you consider that their entire market cap is now just $28Bn. Small wonder HPQ spent $9Bn buying back their own stock last year, when it was priced 100% higher.
HPQ is a pretty good candidate for a buy/write, where we Buy the stock for $14.30 and Write 2014 $15 puts and calls (sell short) for $5.50 and that nets $8.80 on the trade and, if HPQ is below $15 in Jan 2014, then another round of shares will be put to you at $15 for an average entry on 2x of $11.90, which is 17% below the current price and, if HPQ is over $15 in 16 months, then you get called away at $15 for a $6.20 profit on cash (75%). Buy/writes are our favorite tools for making long-term entries – see "How to Buy a Stock for a 15-20% Discount."
As we mentioned INTC in the above chart, let's look at a similar…
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Caterpillar Put Spread Preps For Further Downside Next Week
by Option Review - July 13th, 2012 3:00 pm
Today’s tickers: CAT, HAS & INTC
CAT - Caterpillar, Inc. – Shares in the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment are getting some relief today, trading up 1.5% at $80.84 this morning as U.S. stocks snap a six-day losing streak. Caterpillar’s shares, hit hard in recent months on concerns of a global slowdown, are down 30% off the February 24th 52-week high of $116.94. Trading traffic in options with one week remaining to expiration suggests, however, that the rally in CAT’s shares may be short lived and the shares have further to fall in the near term. It looks like one trader purchased a 1,500-lot July $72.5/$77.5 bear put spread for a net premium of $0.71 per contract. The spread positions the strategist to profit in the event shares in Caterpillar slide 5% to breach the effective breakeven price of $76.79, with maximum possible profits of $4.29 per contract available given a 10% pullback in the stock by expiration. Shares in CAT last traded below $72.50 back in October 2011. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings ahead of the open on July 25th.
HAS - Hasbro, Inc. – Put options are in play on game maker Hasbro this morning ahead of the company’s July 23rd second-quarter earnings report. U.S. stocks are broadly moving higher today, enjoying their biggest gains of the month thus far, but Hasbro failed to join in the rally with its shares trading 1.1% lower on the day at $32.52 as of 11:50 a.m. in New York. Traders positioning for further downside in the stock purchased 1,500 puts at the Aug. $32.5 strike for a premium of $1.33 apiece. Put buyers stand prepared to profit should the price of the underlying decline another 4.2% to breach the average breakeven point at $31.17 by August expiration. Bearish options are also in play at the Aug. $30 strike, with around 1,000 puts purchased at an average premium of $0.45 each.…
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Friday Failure – Weak Bounce Levels Turn Into Resistance
by phil - May 25th, 2012 8:30 am
Resistance is, unfortunately, not futile for our indices.
On Monday we discussed our expectations for a 2% weak bounce for the week, which would be a 20% retrace of the 10% drop I had predicted we'd have way back (and a bit early) in March. That constitutes a WEAK bounce and not a rally and they almost fooled us on Monday by taking back most of that 2% on day one but, since then – it's been pathetic and we've essentially done nothing the rest of the week.
The levels we were looking for were laid out in Monday's Member Chat and in Tuesday morning's post and were:
- Dow – 12,750 (12,540 is 20% retrace/weak bounce), now 12,529 – off by 11
- S&P – 1,343 (1,319), now 1,320 – off by 1
- Nas – 2,900 (2,840) , now 2,839 – off by 1
- NYSE – 7,720 (7,560), now 7,552 – off by 8
- RUT – 780, (765), now 766
…
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Bulls And Bears Take To CAT Options As Shares Extend Pullback
by Option Review - May 17th, 2012 3:11 pm
Today’s tickers: CAT, RRGB & ROC
CAT – Caterpillar, Inc. – Shares in machinery maker, Caterpillar, Inc., are down the most in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, trading more than 4.0% lower this afternoon at $88.08 as of 12:15 p.m. in New York. The stock has fallen roughly 25.0% in the past two months after reaching a record high of $116.95 at the end of February. June expiry options trades initiated on CAT this morning suggest there are some strategists preparing for a recovery in the price of the underlying while others position for further bearish movement in the stock through expiration next month. A 1,500-lot June $80/$87.5 debit put spread established at a net cost of $2.20 per contract makes money if shares in Caterpillar decline another 3.2% to trade below the effective breakeven price of $85.30 by June expiration. Maximum possible gains available on the spread amount to $5.30 per contract should the stock plunge 9.2% to $80.00 in the next four weeks. In contrast, June $92.5/$100 call spreads established for a net premium outlay of around $1.55 each look for shares in Caterpillar to rebound sharply come expiration day. Finally, nearer term plays in the fresh weekly options issued on the stock were largely bearish in the first half of the session, with traders buying puts at the May 25 ’12 $80, $82.5 and $85 strikes that increase in value if CAT’s shares extend losses next week.
RRGB – Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. – It looks like traders that sold Red Robin call options ahead of the restaurant chain operator’s disappointing first-quarter earnings report can have their burger and eat it too as shares in the name take a sharp turn to the downside. Shares in Red Robin Gourmet Burgers are off their lows of the session, trading down 11.9% at present to stand at $31.50 as of 1:20 p.m. ET. A review of open interest in the May $35 strike call, currently at 814 open positions, suggests some 478 of the contracts were sold at an average premium of $1.38 apiece between May 3rd and May 8th. With shares in the name taking a big hit today and with expiration on the horizon, it’s no surprise to see these contracts are now almost worthless. The far out-of-the-money May $35 strike call is trading at a premium of $0.05 each this afternoon.
ROC – Rockwood…
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Free-Falling Thursday – Facebook Faces Fatal Friday Follow-Through
by phil - May 17th, 2012 8:04 am
What a week to do an IPO!
Will Facebook save the markets tomorrow with a successful roll-out of the largest IPO of all time or will it be the straw that breaks the camel's back, with a disappointing open that sends the Nasdaq off a cliff along with their entire over-priced sector? Either way – this is going to be fun.
We can argue the merits of Facebook's value (or lack thereof) all day long but, scam or not, it's very likely FB will set off a buying frenzy in the space and we finish the week off with a bang. If that doesn't happen – I will be very, very bearish but from what I'm hearing and the way they are extending the offer and raising the price – it's way oversubscribed. Also, we have to consider that people are cashing out 1-5% of their holdings to raise cash for FB on Friday – sure it's moronic, but that's what people do so you have to put yourself in a position of someone who wants to put 5% of your portfolio in to Facebook (the way you wish you had put 5% into Google at $80 when they IPO'd) tomorrow – what would you be doing with the rest of your portfolio today?
Meanwhile, the rest of the World is falling apart with Europe turning sharply lower as Spain sells bonds at record high yields (5.106% for 4-year notes) this morning after announcing that their Q1 GDP was -0.4% at the same time as Moody's indicates they will be cutting the credit ratings of 21 Spanish Banks this evening AND, to top it all off – there is a run on Bankia, which Spain nationalized last week – with $1.3Bn pulled from accounts this past week! This sent Spain's markets down 1.6% and Italy (who is next) fell 2%, sending the Euro down 1% to $1.2668 and the Pound followed it down to $1.5832 (while EUR/CHF holds steady at 1.2009 in the most blatant currency manipulation ever witnessed).
Wow – that's a lot of bad stuff! Maybe too many bad things – as in a bit suspicious that all this bad stuff happens at once – as if maybe someone WANTS to force a panic bottom? If so, I applaud them – we certainly needed to shake things up a little…
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Which Way Wednesday – Hurts So Good!
by phil - May 16th, 2012 8:27 am
Finally – news so bad it's GOOD!
Commercial Real Estate is down 14% in China so far this year with Residential right behind, down 13.5% – all on 11.8% fewer sales than last year. Foreign investment in Chinese properties has dropped 42.9% year to date. China's main banks are not lending any money – due to lack of demand, not supply and 45% of Chinese companies predict a slowdown this year and next. Brazil is right behind China with their own real estate market collapsing and the IMF is racing over to Australia to assess the damage done to their banks by the bursting property bubble and EU property values are also off 20% from their 2007 peaks – even in London and Frankfurt – which were supposed to be "immune" from this nonsense.
Good – let's get it all out in the open finally!
Italian Banks are in turmoil and their Government is considering using troops to protect the Banksters after one was shot last week. There is a run on the Greek Banks with almost $900M withdrawn this month and virtually no liquidity should people want more. Meanwhile, The Institute of International Finance has estimated that the global cost of a Greek exit could hit $1,300,000,000,000. When Argentina defaulted in 2001, foreign debtors lost around 70% of their investments. Is $1.3Tn finally a number that matters?
That's right folks, the Global situation is a complete and utter disaster – which is why we went long on the Russell Futures (/TF) at 775 and Oil Futures (/CL) at $92.50 in Member Chat this morning. Where the Hell else are you going to put your money if not in US Equities? That was my conclusion at 11:54 in yesterday's Chat, when I said to Members:
Nice pop off the EU close – still seems like people are abandoning the sinking ship of state over there and money has nowhere to go but US equities (but TBills and Dollars are getting some love too). With gold, silver, oil and copper all looking weak – where the hell are people supposed to put money?
We noted that there were 16 stocks that were hitting their 2009 panic lows which we were very comfortable moving into in what we're calling our…
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Will We Hold It Wednesday – NOW It’s May
by phil - May 2nd, 2012 6:40 am
Yesterday did not count.
Until the end of day, the volume was low and, as you can see from Dave Fry's SPY chart, the morning pump was mostly erased by the end of the day. In fact, on the Russell and Nasdaq – it was entirely erased. What a friggin' joke, yet no one will investigate it and few will even question it.
As we often say at PSW – We don't care IF the game is rigged, as long as we know HOW the game is rigged and get to place our bets accordingly. In my Morning Alert to Members at 10:05, my comment on the move up was:
Not too many markets are open so super low-volume means we can pretty much ignore whatever's happening. Some wild gyrations at the open already with AAPL popping $10 to goose the Nas and they are spiking us up and down at will on this low volume.
At 12:02 we made our planned adjustments to our 4 active virtual portfolios, taking advantage of the big, bad spike to move to cheap June bear positions and cash out our long plays and just get generally more aggressively bearish at what we thought was going to be the top for the day. The most aggressive move was made in our most aggressive, $25,000 Portfolio (pictured here from its 10am status BEFORE many changes were made), where we flipped our protective TNA hedge from bullish to very bearish – shifting the balance of the portfolio much more bearish with a single move:
TNA – $60s are now $4 so let's take that and run on 5 (1/2), as that's more than we paid for the spread and we'll ride the $63s half-covered with a stop on 5 at $3 (now $2.25). Also, a stop on the 5 remaining $60s at $3, at which point we would reset the stop on the $63s, of course.
Needless to say, that trade worked out huge already as the $60s all stopped out at a $3.50 average ($3,500), which is $500 more than our max potential gain on the spread and the $63 calls already finished the day at $1.10 ($1,100) for a net of $2,400 (so far) off our $1,450 entry on 4/26 – so up 65% in less than a week on the trade we used to…
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Money, Power and Wall Street
by phil - April 28th, 2012 6:57 am
Have you seen this?
Frontline did this very good documentary and I'd file it under "those who forget the past are CONDEMNED to repeat it" – let's all TRY not to repeat the mistakes of 2008… "Wall Street got bailed out and Main Street didn't" is the quote that neatly sums up the present situation. Wall Street and the top 10% of this country – of this World – are partying like it's 1999 while the bottom 90% continue to languish in the worst Recession since the Great Depression.
Despite a myriad of worrying data, the Corporate Media is in full-blown promotional mode – pushing stocks as if it were modern snake oil – the panacea that will cure all your ills. We often forget that essentially ALL of our news sources are publicly traded companies and have a vested interest in the stock market going higher. Hell, we have an interest in that too, as our longer-term virtual porfolios are entirely bullish - but that shouldn't preclude us from making a realistic assessment of the CURRENT situation, should it?
Caterpillar, 3M, United Technologies and ABB are among the manufacturers that have reported weak performances in China in the first quarter as economic growth has slowed nearly to a three-year low. Caterpillar’s sales in China fell between $250 million and $300 million in the first quarter, pushing the company, the world’s largest maker of earth-moving equipment, to export to other countries a large share of the equipment it made in China.
Concerns about China overshadowed better-than-expected earnings at the company, which is based in Peoria, Illinois, and led investors to push the stock down 5 percent Wednesday, which was great for us as CAT was on our Long Put List.
ABB, a maker of power equipment, reported profits in the past week that were below analysts’ expectations, caused by weak Chinese demand. “It was a very slow start to the year for China. China in January was extremely weak,” ABB’s chief financial officer, Michel Demaré, said Wednesday.
“Our business in China is off to a slow start,” said Gregory J. Hayes, the chief financial officer of United Technologies, whose Otis arm is the world’s biggest maker of elevators. The unit’s China sales dropped 9 percent in the first quarter. “The ongoing government…
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Monday Market Meltdown – Global Wheeee Edition
by phil - April 23rd, 2012 8:08 am
Now THIS looks a little more realistic, doesn't it?
Last Monday we pointed out that the run-up, that was coming DESPITE a myriad of Fundamental negatives we were tracking, was essentially a load of crap aimed at bringing in more suckers before they pull the rug out from under the market. To keep ourselves from getting sucked in by the hype, we drew some very simple lines across our mult-chart which were 50% retacements of the month's dip. Not making those lines during last week's actions kept us from making poor decisions as the market hype continued all week. My warning was:
"How many times will the bulls be sucked in by the same empty promises? How many times will they reach into their pockets and BUYBUYBUY the snake oil valuations sold by the Reverend James Cramer?"
Tuesday I got a lot of sheeple angry by calling them sheeple for falling for Cramer and the rest of the Mainstream Media hype and we discussed a few of our hedges that were working already, like TZA, TLT and SQQQ as well as two that were still playable: CAT May $95 puts at $1.10 – up just 15% from our initial entry and DXD May $12 calls at $1.35, up just 12% from when our Members got the Trade Idea. Despite the market moving up, I reiterated my sell-off targets of Russell 775 and S&P 1,325.
Wednesday we tried to find reasons to be bullish, presenting both sides but judgment was once again for the bears after weighing the evidence as I pointed out that the lack of economic improvement for the bottom 90% could not be ignored – something Nick Sarkozy just discovered this weekend. In the morning post, I mentioned going back to the well and shorting oil again as it dared to reach for $104.50 again – another lovely pay-off last week and we caught it again this morning at $103.50 (/CL Futures) for a quick $500 per contract – so far.
Thursday we were having great fun and we had a bullish spread on CHK at $17.20 that may still be playable this week as the market dips again. We discussed our goal of re-shorting PCLN (back in the July $560 puts at $8.50) and we added a nice CMG spread in the morning post, selling the May $475 calls for…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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