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Wild Weekly Wrap-Up – August in Retrospect

by - August 29th, 2009 8:28 am

It has been a crazy few weeks!

I went back over our Long Shots list from August 9th, thinking all our picks must be doing great but really only C, with a 67% gain, is really outperforming.  Long spreads on UYG and BHI are on target for nice gains but haven’t moved much.  Looking at our original picks in Pharmboys Phavorites from the same week, GSK is on track and up nicely already, our AZN cover is up 45% and MRK flew up 19% already.  On the riskier Biotech side, ARIA’s stock is up 16% and our spreads are all performing well, ONTY has been flat, OGXI is up 33% and the Jan $17.50s are up a rockin’ 63% with that "cautious" spread up a surprising 75% already. 

SPPI had a wild ride (as we predicted with TSCM’s failed assassination attempt) and the buy/write is already up 24%, the Feb vertical is up 50% and the naked Jan put sale is up 27% and our Feb hedge play is right on track so all good there and a fine example of how following Cramer and his lackeys and and doing the opposite of what they say can be very profitable!  Congrats to Pharmboy for a very fine set of picks, proving once again that there is room for research and fundamentals - not a single loser in the bunch in a choppy market!  It was very timely as I had mentioned just that week in my interview with AOL Finance that XLV was my favorite sector and our IHI pick of 8/10 is up 28% on the naked Feb $45 put sale while the Feb $45 calls have already jumped 16%.  It was a great call as IHI outperformed XLV and all our major indexes.

So our energy service pick (BHI) and overall financial pick (UYG) have not done much in 3 weeks and those were our leading sectors into my call to cash out our exposed long calls on Aug 13th, ahead of expirations.  The Dow was at 9,400 on that day and now, a bit more than 2 weeks later, we’ve gained another 144 points but to listen to the MSM, you would think you are missing the rally of the century the past couple of weeks.  This is one of the reasons I’ve gotten a bit more cynical about the rally – there is so much hype and so…
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Mylan Rebounds After FDA Report Signals All Clear

www.interactivebrokers.com

by - August 13th, 2009 5:07 pm

Today’s tickers: MYL, MU, ACAD, PAAS, PALM, KLAC, LDK, OIH & SM

MYL – The global pharmaceutical manufacturer released the final findings of an FDA investigation review of its Morgantown W Va. manufacturing plant, which came under the microscope following a local newspaper’s scathing report alleging health and safety wrong doings. The FDA found nothing wrong with the operations, much to the pleasure of Mylan shareholders as new investors sent its shares higher by 3.8% to $14.12. Mylan’s valuation now stands above the point it was trading at the day prior to the story. Shares fell from $13.93 to $11.66 on the report prompting investors to seek the safety of protective puts. Investors today are taking a different take and have scooped up almost 10,000 bullish call options expiring in September granting rights to buy shares at a fixed $15 per share. The number of open positions at that strike as of Wednesday evening was 8,576 contracts. Investors paying 55 cents for calls are predicting a break to a fresh 52-week high for Mylan’s shares indicating a rally by as much as 10% within a month. Around four times the number of calls traded today compared to puts. – Mylan Inc.

MU – The demand for call options on the manufacturer of flash memory products far outweighed that of calls as investor activity drove the call-to-put ratio up to more than 25-to-1. The call option feeding-frenzy was likely induced by the more than 3.5% rally in shares of MU to $7.00. About 1,000 calls were picked up at the nearer-term September 8.0 strike price for an average premium of 15 cents apiece. Bullishness spread to the October contract where traders splurged on 5,600 now at-the-money October 7.0 strike calls for an average premium of 66 cents each. Finally, traders got long of some 7,500 call options at the higher October 8.0 strike for about 40 cents per contract. A 20% increase over the current price per share by expiration, would allow investors long the October 8.0 strike calls to begin to accumulate profits above the breakeven point at $8.40. – Micron Technology, Inc.

ACAD – Shares of the biopharmaceutical company have soared upwards of 17.5% during the trading session and currently stand at $6.23. ACAD appeared on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner after one investor initiated a long butterfly spread in the September contract. The trader constructed the…
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NRG Takeover Spills Into Curious Option Combo

www.interactivebrokers.com

by - June 25th, 2009 5:25 pm

Today’s tickers: EXC, NRG, PALM, ANF, CAL, AMTD & PAYX

EXC – The company has been increasingly less successful in trying to persuade shareholders at NRG – NRG Energy– to tender their shares to the company in what has become an ugly battle. Shares in both companies are on the rise today at $51.08 (Exelon) and $23.70 (NRG). Two sizeable footprints were left for analysts to explore in options trading. Here’s what we think is happening. Perhaps the easier half of the trade is a nearby July 22.50/17.50 put spread on shares of NRG. An investor bought 50,000 higher strike puts at 72 cents and sold 25,000 puts at the 17.50 for a nickel per contract. The investor likely expects that management at NRG will be successful in convincing its investors that the Exelon deal isn’t a good fit. The CEO mailed his thoughts urging investors to remain loyal to his leadership. In the event that the takeover fades, as appears the case, this investor might benefit from some of the hot money hopping out of the stock. Exelon options were a little more convoluted. An investor appears to have bought 50,000 July calls at the 55 strike at 39 cents and taking a sizeable credit on the sale of the same amount of calls expiring in August at the 50 strike. He’s possibly thinking that the near-term prospects for the company in the event of a botched deal would buoy the shares. Thereafter some of the optimism might fade. – Exelon Corp.

PALM – Shares of the Pre-maker, which launched earlier in June, are stable at $13.96 ahead of earnings data after the closing bell on Thursday. The fact that sales of the Pre won’t materially impact the bottom-line earnings numbers means we may have to wait longer for further developments from the company. However, investors have been in a buying tizzy for stock in the company all year and have driven shares from $1.14 to $15.25 recently. The options market, however, has been forced to maintain a careful eye on developments given the depths to which the shares plummeted earlier this year and still attributes a relatively high reading of implied volatility of 90% on options on the stock. That makes hedging a little more expensive that it ought and heading into earnings today, one investor appears to have tried to do so by implementing a put…
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Bull foresees healthy rally for UnitedHealth Group

by - June 8th, 2009 6:04 pm

Today’s tickers: UNH, USO, MNKD, POT, X, MCD, PALM, S & JPM

UNH – The diversified health and well-being company has experienced a share price decline of 3.5% to $26.12. Despite the erosion in the price of the stock today we noticed a bullish play in the July contract. One investor looks to have sold 10,000 puts at the July 24 strike price for a premium of a dollar apiece in order to finance the purchase of 10,000 calls at the higher July 27 strike for 1.36 each. The net cost of the transaction amounts to 36 cents and yields a breakeven point at $27.36. In order to profit by expiration, shares of UNH would need to rally by approximately 5%. – UnitedHealth Group, Inc.

USO – Shares have remained relatively flat today at $37.37 and we observed a mixture of bullish and bearish plays on the fund. Bullishness came in the form of a calendar spread initiated by one investor looking for significant upside on the stock by expiration in October. The spread involved the sale of 10,000 calls at the in-the-money July 37 strike price for 2.45 apiece against the purchase of 10,000 calls at the higher October 42 strike for 2.25 per contract. The trader looks to have originally bought the calls at the July 37 strike on May 28th for an average premium of 1.90 each. Today he reeled in profits of 55 cents by selling the calls for 2.45. He was effectively able to reduce the cost of rolling his position forward to the October 42 strike to just 1.70 apiece. This individual will amass profits on the bullish stance if shares can rally 17% to the breakeven point at $43.70 by expiration. In contrast to such medium-term bullishness, another trader took a bearish stance in the nearer-term July contract. This individual looks to have sold 2,000 calls at the July 38 strike price for 1.85 each in order to purchase 2,000 puts at the same July 38 strike for a premium of 2.50. The net cost of shedding calls to get long of puts amounts to 65 cents and yields a breakeven point to the downside at $37.35. Shares of the USO would need to fall more than 2 cents from the current price in order for this bear to begin to amass profits on the reversal. – United States Oil Fund LP…
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Lifting the Axle

www.interactivebrokers.com

by - June 5th, 2009 5:08 pm

Today’s tickers: AXL, PALM, POT, XLF, EMR, AA, & BIIB

AXL – Shares of the Tier 1 supplier of parts and components to the automotive industry have rallied more than 8.5% to a whopping $2.78 today. The improvement in the stock, since touching down to just 26 cents on March 9, 2009, prompted one uber-bullish investor to enact a call spread in the October contract. The trader seems to have determined that the $300 million cut in AXL’s second- and third-quarter revenue streams, felt in the wake of its bankruptcy-brethren GM and Chrysler, will have been replenished by the fall. The summer shutdowns by the automakers are certainly painful for the time being as the two behemoths account for 90% of AXL’s annual revenue. Hoping for a ridiculous turnaround in circumstances, the investor initiated the purchase of 10,000 calls at the October 5.0 strike price for a premium of 40 cents apiece which were spread against the sale of 10,000 calls at the higher October 7.5 strike for about 15 cents each. The net cost of the transaction amounts to 25 cents and yields maximum potential profits of 2.25. Shares will need to grow with the tenacity of the Hulk in order to rally more than 169% over the next five months. – American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc.

PALM – Put options on the mobile devices company were favored by option investors on the scene today amid a share price decline of 3% to $13.22. One trader targeted the July contract in order to initiate a bearish ratio put spread. The transaction involved the purchase of 2,800 puts at the in-the-money July 14 strike puts for a premium of 2.82 per contract spread against the sale of 5,600 puts at the lower July 10 strike for about 70 cents apiece. The net cost of the pessimistic play on PALM amounts to 1.42 and yields maximum potential profits of 2.58 to the trader if shares decline down to $10.00 by expiration. Profits begin to amass if shares fall another 5% to the breakeven point at $12.58 by expiration next month. Option implied volatility has ramped up significantly over the past couple of days from 93% at the start of Thursday to the current reading of 112% ahead of the release of The Pre tomorrow. – Palm, Inc.

POT– We observed an interesting use of out-of-the-money puts by one investor on…
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Pre-tense

by - June 4th, 2009 5:29 pm

Today’s tickers: PALM, AA, UNG, FXI, IYR, YGE, VRTX & XLF

PALM– Shares are up more than 9% to $13.67 just two days prior to the much anticipated release of Palm’s touch-screen handset, The Pre. While some reviews of the new product suggest The Pre is attractive and innovative, others have indicated that it cannot hold a candle to Apple’s iPhone. The real test will begin in two days when the phone goes on sale to the public, exclusively through U.S. carrier, Sprint Nextel Corp. (S). A number of option traders are hoping The Pre will wow consumers and subsequently boost Palm’s shares as they were seen getting long of bullish calls in the near-term June contract. More than 4,300 calls were snapped up at the June 16 strike price for a premium of 29 cents apiece. Other Pre-optimists paid just a dime per contract to pick up 2,000 calls at the higher June 20 strike price. If Palm’s new product pleases the masses, investors long of June 20 calls may realize profits if shares can climb 47% to the breakeven point at $20.10 by expiration. – Palm, Inc.

AA– The world leader in the production of primary aluminum has experienced a significant share price rally of more than 7.5% to $10.83 after the firm announced that it sees “great opportunity” for growth in Russia. Alcoa has invested some $750 million over the past five years. A large-volume call spread initiated in the October contract suggests at least one investor is hoping for continued bullish movement in the stock over the next several months. The transaction involved the purchase of 12,600 calls at the October 12.5 strike price for a premium of 1.02 apiece spread against the sale of 12,600 calls at the higher October 17.5 strike for about 23 cents. The net cost of the optimistic play amounts to 79 cents and yields maximum potential profits of 4.21 if shares rally up to $17.50 by expiration. The stock must climb approximately 23% before the investor begins to amass profits at the breakeven point of $13.29. – Alcoa, Inc.

UNG– Recovering from losses experienced earlier in the trading day, the natural gas ETF has rallied slightly by about 0.5% to $14.37. We observed an interesting play initiated by one trader once we skipped over all of the nearer-term activity on the fund to arrive at the January 2010 contract. The…
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Phil's Favorites

William Black on JP Morgan and the Failure to Regulate Wall Street Fraud

May 24th, 2012 5:26 pm

William Black on JP Morgan and the Failure to Regulate Wall Street Fraud

Courtesy of Jesse's Cafe Americain 

"It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident...And yet none of this conduct has been punished in any significant way." 

~ Charles Ferguson, Inside Job

"I know that my retirement will make no difference in its [my newspaper's] ca...

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Zero Hedge

Guest Post: The Big Print Is Coming

May 24th, 2012 4:35 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Libertyblitzkrieg

The Big Print Is Coming

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express; and another one – the one we use – which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Grundy, until habit makes us co...



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Chart School

S&P 500 Snapshot: Another Save at the Bell

May 24th, 2012 4:35 pm

Courtesy of Doug Short.

The S&P 500 got off to weak start and, after retracing a modest morning rally, spent most of the day in the shallow red with an intraday low of 0.63%. But in the last seven minutes of trading, the index recovered enough to a make a small gain of 0.14%. This is the fourth advance, the first was Monday's 1.60 surge, but the last three have ranged from 0.05% to 0.17% with today's close near the high of the miserly three-day series.

The index is now up 5.02% for 2012, which is 6.93% off the interim closing high.

From an intermediate perspective, the S&P 500 is 95.2% above the March 2009 closing low and 15.6% below the nominal all-time high of October 2007.

Below are two charts of the index, with and without the 50 and 200-day moving averages.

 

...

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Option Review

Traders Take To Tiffany & Co. Options After Earnings, Guidance Disappoint

May 24th, 2012 3:44 pm

 

Today’s tickers: TIF, P & NYT

TIF - Tiffany & Co., Inc. – A surprise earnings miss and a reduced full-year profit and sales forecast from luxury jewelry retailer, Tiffany & Co., took some of the luster out of its shares today, with the stock trading down 8.5% at $56.55 as of 11:50 a.m. in New York. Options activity on Tiffany this morning suggests mixed sentiment on the st...



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Insider Scoop

RealNetworks Reaches Agreement with Washington State Attorney General

May 24th, 2012 2:05 pm

Courtesy of Benzinga.

RealNetworks, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK) today announced that it has reached an agreement with the Washington State Attorney General over discontinued e-commerce practices. In accordance with the settlement agreement, RealNetworks has committed to:

Discontinuing the use of pre-checked boxes for purchases of RealNetworks subscription products; Spelling out more clearly the material terms of RealNetworks product offerings; Offering online cancellation of subscription offerings; Enhancing RealNetworks customer support guidelines regarding cancellation. Statement from Thomas Nielsen, President & CEO of RealNetworks:

"About two years ago, the Washington State Attorney General's Office contacted us regarding concerns they had with some of our e-commerce practices.

"While we disagree wit...



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All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

May 24th, 2012 1:40 pm

Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Click here for the full report.




To learn more, sign up for David's free newsletter and receive the free report from All About Trends - "How To Outperform 90% Of Wall Street With Just $500 A Week." Tell David PSW sent you. - Ilene...

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Market Montage

Chinese, European Data Continues to Weaken as Market Potentially Forming New Bear Flag

May 24th, 2012 8:50 am

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

First we'll go to the technicals.  Back in mid April I had opined a 'bear flag' formation was being created. [Apr 17, 2012: Potential Bear Flag Forming]  But the market being the difficult beast it is, head faked everyone and rather than a break down from said flag it first went UP and nearly touched yearly highs.  This caused everyone to think the bear flag had failed…. only to lead to a horrid May in the market.  Generally a bear flag will resolve relatively quickly but the longer...



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Sabrient

Sector Detector: New “Grecian Formula” is making us all gray

May 24th, 2012 2:14 am

Reminder: Sabrient is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Courtesy of Scott Martindale, Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics

Despite the fact that U.S. equities are well-positioned and well-supported to go up, once again it is the headlines out of Europe—especially Greece—that are scaring off investors. Some are saying that it is now likely (and even desirable) that Greece will default on all its sovereign debt, withdraw from the euro, and severely devalue its domestic currency (Drachma?). This will allow them to operate a balanced budget while pumping cash into growth initiatives, rather than suffer the ravages of Germany-mandated austerity.

Some say, so what? Greece makes up only about 2% of the Eurozone’s overall economy. Nevertheless, you might say that t...



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ETF Selector

Markets Die Then Flatten…Again (SPY, DIA, QQQ, IWM, FB)

May 23rd, 2012 5:29 pm

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Markets died and then rallied to flat again as European leaders “prepared contingencies” for a possible Grexit

Markets died hard and fast earlier today as major indexes registered as much as 1.5% of losses after news that Euro zone officials were unofficially “preparing contingencies” for a Greek exit from the Euro.  Unofficial statements were not enough to keep markets down however, as major indexes rallied back to flat levels by the end of the day.

So the world continues to wait on Europe, as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEACA:SPY) gained .05%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:...



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OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of May 21st, 2012

May 21st, 2012 8:54 am

Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current  trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

...

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly: Test Issue

May 20th, 2012 5:04 pm

NEW: Ilene is available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.

Here is this week's test version of the latest newsletter. We apologize for some formatting issues that need to be worked out. Please tell us what you think. 

Click on Stock World Weekly here, and sign in/sign up.

...

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Pharmboy

Big Pharma - Where Are We Now?

April 28th, 2012 8:49 pm

Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

In this article, please revisit an article written two years ago titled, "The Calm Before the Storm."  This article focused on the patent cliff that was looming in the pharmaceutical industry, that was later picked up by the New York Times and several other bloggers!  Subsequent articles were written about big pharma company's revenue streams, and the pros and cons of of their later stage pipelines.  Other articles have also attempted to identify smaller biotechs with the potential to reap big reward...



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IRA Strategy/Income Trader

Weekend Virtual Portfolio Update 2/26/2012

February 26th, 2012 10:39 am

My last weekend update is dated from January 30 so after a long hiatus, here is an update of our virtual portfolio. Since the last update, we have closed the AA Money portfolio due to a lack of enthusiasm (and activity) and I have stopped tracking the FAS strangle as the low VIX makes it hard to get rewarded for the risk! But we have added a small $5KP virtual portfolio which does not use any margin. FAS Money We have had to recover from a big move up by FAS and a low VIX which keeps option prices low. But the portfolio has gaine about 10% since the last update. Last update P&L - $5499.00 IWM Money Not a lot of activity in this portfolio where the main focus is on the large IWM BCS. But the portfolio has grown over 20% since the last update. Last update P&L - $1998.00 $5KP Portfolio This is the virtual portfolio that replaced the AA Money portfolio. It does not use margin and we will keep holdings under $5K. AAPL $50K P...

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