DARK HORSE HEDGE – What I Like About You, VECO
by ilene - October 10th, 2010 10:51 pm
DARK HORSE HEDGE – What I Like About You, VECO
By Scott Brown at Sabrient, and Ilene, at Phil’s Stock World
When you go up, down, jump around,
That’s what I like about you
Never wanna’ let you go, know you make me feel alright, yeah
Veeco Instruments Inc. (Veeco) (VECO) designs, manufactures, markets and services enabling solutions for customers in the high brightness light emitting diode (HB LED), solar, data storage, scientific research, semiconductor and industrial markets. In its LED and Solar segment, Veeco designs and manufactures metal organic chemical vapor deposition systems that are used to make HB LEDs or solar cells made of III-V compound semiconductors. In its Data Storage segment, Veeco designs and manufactures equipment used in the production of thin film magnetic heads that read and write data on hard disk drives. In its Metrology segment, the Company designs and manufactures atomic force microscopes, scanning probe microscopes, stylus profilers and fast three-dimensional (3D) optical microscopes… (Sabrient’s Ratings Report)
Sabrient rates VECO a Strong Buy for its superior value and growth profiles, which indicates a stock that should outperform the market.
Read Sabrient’s full report here.
We liked a lot about VECO when we added it to the Dark Horse Hedge virtual portfolio at $31.93 on August 25, 2010. Using Phil Davis’s Buy/Write strategy, we bought half a position in the stock and sold October $32 calls and puts against it (1 put and 1 call per 100 shares of stock).
With option expirations on Friday, October 15, it’s time to decide if we "never wanna let you go," for now, or if we want to close the trade and take profits.
VECO closed at $36.51 yesteday. We could keep the $6.20 option premium and let VECO get called away for $32. But why do that when there is so much to like about…
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DARK HORSE HEDGE – Any way the wind blows, doesn’t really matter
by ilene - September 1st, 2010 2:23 pm
Housing-keeping note: Thanks to WordPress’s destruction of Phil’s Favorites site (and replacement with an invite to sign up for its service!), I’ve been relocating my blog to TypePad. Benefits: it looks better, is very user friendly and offers an easy way to search archives for any topic. One unique feature is that while exploring the internet, I can simply click on a button to post an excerpt of an interesting article with a link to the full article. That ability allows me to post links to articles that are worth reading when I do not have reprinting permission, such as articles from major news sources.
The new Favorites site is here. I’ve also created a website for Dark Horse Hedge, here. - Ilene
DARK HORSE HEDGE – Any Way the Wind Blows, Doesn’t Really Matter
By Scott Brown at Sabrient & Ilene at Phil’s Stock World
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy (Poor boy)
I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows
Doesn’t really matter to me, to me
*****
Ilene and I started the Dark Horse Hedge on July 1, 2010 with the goal of helping self-directed investors weather any storm, no matter which way the wind was blowing. Today completes the second month of publishing the Dark Horse Hedge and we thought it would be a good time to review.
The…
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Dark Horse Hedge – Don’t let the sun (profits) go down
by ilene - August 25th, 2010 1:52 pm
DARK HORSE HEDGE – Don’t let the sun (profits) go down
By Scott at Sabrient and Ilene at Phil’s Stock World
Recovery in danger as firms, homebuyers cut back – AP
Not exactly the kind of headline that anyone wants to wake up to, but if you simply change a few words, it is as if we have slipped into the movie Groundhog Day. Each day’s gloomy headline is much like the day before’s, with a few words changed. Fortunately, DHH began with the premise that how news is going to be headlined and short-term market moves have proven over time to be nearly impossible to predict with any consistency.
So we seek to have long positions that are the best of the best, leveraged against short positions that are the worst of the worst. We combine the ability to reduce beta, or market correlation, with two alpha (return) improving measures. Our first measure is to tilt the balance of the Long/Short portfolio based on market trend, and the second is to use options for yield enhancement.
We are currently in the middle of a 5th consecutive down day for the S&P 500 and we believe in taking profits off the table when the risk/reward premise changes. DHH recommended a short position in SunTrust Banks, Inc. on July 13, 2010 at $25.54 and following the companies $750 Million tender offer of debt on Monday, we believe it is time to cover our STI short position at these prices. We have earned a 11.9% profit in just over a month, and so it is time to let the sun go down alone if its trend continues, but not to let our profits go down.
BUY TO COVER SunTrust Bank, Inc. (STI) at the market, Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Chart from Finviz.
So what kind of positions do we want to add in this market? One that I like and am recommending is VEECO Instruments Inc. (VECO) using Phil Davis’s buy/write strategy. VECO has a strong buy rating from Sabrient, with excellent scores for growth and value.
Excerpt from Sabrient’s Ratings Report for VECO:
Veeco Instruments Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets solutions for customers in the high brightness light emitting diode (HB LED), solar, data storage, scientific research, semiconductor, and industrial
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Ratio Put Spreader Tunes in to DISH Network Corp. Options
by Option Review - August 5th, 2010 4:39 pm
Today’s tickers: DISH, LBTYA, HGG, VECO, WBMD, VLO & TFSL
DISH – DISH Network Corp. – The implementation of a ratio put spread on the U.S. provider of direct broadcast satellite subscription television service this afternoon was perhaps put on by an investor looking to lock in recent share price gains. DISH shares, which are currently up 2.4% on the day to arrive at $20.77 by 3:40 pm ET, have rebounded nearly 17.5% since touching down to $17.75 on July 1, 2010. It looks like one trader purchased 3,000 puts at the December $20 strike for an average premium of $1.58 each, and sold 6,000 puts at the lower December $18 strike for an average premium of $0.83 a-pop. The investor responsible for the transaction receives a net credit of $0.08 per contract, and keeps the full amount at long as DISH’s shares exceed $20.00 through December expiration. The trader is perhaps utilizing the spread to protect the value of a position in the underlying shares. If this is the case, downside protection kicks in should shares reverse course to trade below $20.00 by expiration day. The decision to employ a ratio spread rather than a 1-by-1 spread or a plain-vanilla long put stance suggests this investor does not expect DISH shares to collapse ahead of expiration at the end of 2010. The firm is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings ahead of the opening bell on August 9, 2010.
LBTYA – Liberty Global, Inc. – It looks like one options strategist expects shares of the international producer of video, voice and broadband internet services to remain range-bound through October expiration. Liberty Global’s shares are currently down 0.20% to stand at $29.65 as of 3:05 pm ET. LBTYA reported an adjusted net loss of $2.42 a share for the second quarter of 2010 after the market closed on Tuesday. But, shares moved very little following earnings. Perhaps the lack of fluctuation in the price of the underlying shares during earnings season bolstered the strangle seller’s premonition that LBTYA’s shares are likely to trade within a specified range for the next couple of months. The investor appears to have sold roughly 10,000 puts at the October $27.5 strike for a premium of $0.70 each in combination with the sale of about the same number of calls at the October $32.5 strike for an average premium of $0.35 apiece. The trader pockets…
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Take-Off Tuesday Already?
by phil - July 27th, 2010 8:29 am
Wow, this market goes from zero to sixty in record time, doesn’t it?
Our 1,113 mark (see yesterday’s post for charts) was tested and broken on the S&P yesterday (see David Fry’s chart) on a silly stick save into the close but, seeing that, it was very obvious that "they" are looking to paint some impressive moves on the charts this week so strap yourselves in – it’s going to be a wild one.
1,120 is our next big test on the S&P along with the satanic 666 on the Russell and 10,700 is the next big test for the Dow (as 10,500 seems well in hand). Advancers led decliners 20:1 on the Nasdaq, which shows you what a total farce the market is because we had the same ratios going down so stocks are either ALL good or ALL bad on a random daily basis. Human beings do not trade this way my friends, this market has been totally taken over by machines and the affect of your individual trading is about the same as shotting a water gun into a wave to slow it down.
As long as you accept this fact and "go with the flow" you can be a very happy channel surfer but fight the tide at your own peril! We stuck to hedged plays in yesterday’s Member Chat with our bearish play on FSLR in the Morning Alert and then earnings spreads on MEE and VECO along with long-term bullish plays on LYG, GS, CHK and our beloved TBT, who are finally showing signs of life. We also keep selling GENZ calls to overly enthusiastic buyers who think someone is going to pay more than $70 for the company – even though it was at $50 before the rumors started. Aside from the lack of logic that a buyer with a p/e of under 10 will pay a p/e of over 20 for GENZ, it just isn’t really the right credit environment for buyers to be bidding +40% for a company. We aren’t buying puts but we’ll certainly sell Jan $70 calls for $4 as that’s just silly!
The markets are back in "Soar and Ignore" mode this morning as bad news is now like water off a duck’s back to the market, much the same way good news was ignored just 2 weeks ago. The moon is full this week so I’m going to start charting that against the market as we’re still trying to find some sort of early predictor of…
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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.