I read about Western Digital Corp (NYSE: WDC) in this weekend’s Barron’s. It’s been a while since I followed WDC and was surprised to learn that they now have no debt. They have strong cash flow and their lagging technology model may become a big reason for their continued profits to keep rolling in. I…
Month: May 2007
Where is this Market Going Now?
After two big up and down days to end the week I was anxious to read Barron’s views. I always read the Market Week section first for some reason. Kopin Tan had me turning into a big bull to start my Saturday off right. He said: “…corporate profits were up 8.5% in the first quarter,…
AT&T Cuts Coffee for Employees
I don’t think this quite qualifies as news to trade on, but interesting anyway. I’m a contractor at the “new AT&T”. They are making big cuts anywhere they can to reduce expenses. AT&T (T) is not a volatile stock. It’s just steadily up month after month, for the past year. I’m not sure how much…
Retail stocks are for the Birds (or Bears)
I was reading through the (long) list of retailers that disappointed recently and realized that I can’t recall when I last traded on a retail company. I rarely feel confident enough in retail stocks to be able to invest in them. Funny, I was telling one of my co-workers yesterday afternoon that we were due…
Option Trade on CROX
The chart on Crocs, Inc (NASDAQ: CROX) coupled with the juicy premiums make it worth consideration for writing naked puts. The implied volatility is at 47 for the June 65 strike and at 45.6 for the June 70 puts. Both of those options are currently out-of-the-money and based on the chart should be worthless by…
Time to reconsider Cisco Systems (CSCO)?
Cisco Systems, Inc (CSCO) is down 1.79 right now to 26.57. I’m glad I got out when I did. If I didn’t have the covered calls last month I might have held on. That’s just one more example of why I like writing options. It forces me to sell an equity if not at least…
Baidu (BIDU) Chart Looks Good
In a reply to another stock I was posting about on elitetrader.com I received another idea for looking at Baidu (BIDU). I’m attaching the chart below to show how I have drawn the chart. BIDU closed at 125.24 yesterday, off from its highs following earnings announcements. I see three possible (if not imaginative) trend lines…
Allegheny Tech (ATI) – Room for Growth Still
I put a limit in to sell a June 110 put on Allegheny Technologies, Inc (ATI). I’ve traded options on ATI before and continue to come out ahead. Even if assigned from the naked put, the call premiums are high enough to stay in the game easily. Looking at the ATI chart I see that not…
Speculative stock – INCY – Incyte Corp
Jim Cramer mentioned INCY last night in the lightening round. In short – the company is a drug discovery and development company and carries a lot of risk. That makes the premiums high. Apparently it has a lot of potential, but with drug companies that means nothing until it’s realized and then it means the…