Trading Tips Blog

Shares of semiconductor giant Micron Technology (MU) have been soaring higher in recent weeks. Traders expect the trend to continue. The April 2021 $77.50 call option just saw over 8,450 contracts trade, against a prior open interest of 196. That’s a 43-fold rise in volume. The trader is betting that shares will rally another $4 from their current price near $73.50 in the next 130 days. The trader paid about $6.75 for the options. Over the past few years, shares of Micron ...
Read More

Steven Lykken, a Senior Vice President at Hormel Foods Corp (HRL), recently bought 6,873 shares. The buy increased his stake by over 25 percent, and came to a total cost of $322,000. This is the second buy from insiders in as many months, following a small sale by a Group Vice President in November. Generally, insiders have been nearly exclusively sellers of shares over the past three years. Insiders currently own over 47 percent of shares, however, so the relatively large ...
Read More

Many retail firms will report numbers monthly, not just quarterly. That allows traders to see what’s happening much faster than a quarterly earnings report. Even better, for a company showing tremendous growth, it can give investors a reason to stay invested ahead of earnings. But sometimes Wall Street gets overly excited—or depressed—about a company. When that happens, it can create a short-term disconnect on a company and create a trading opportunity. That’s the case with Costco (COST). For November, it reported that ...
Read More

Shares of athletic apparel firm Under Armour (UAA) have been part of the market’s uptrend in the past few weeks. One trader sees shares continuing even higher. That’s based on the January 8th 2021 $17 call option. Over 14,110 contracts have traded, a 140-fold rise in volume from the prior open interest of 101. Expiring in just 35 days, the buyer paid $0.95 for the contracts, which will move in-the-money if shares move just 30 cents higher. Adding in what the buyer ...
Read More

Christian Winkle, a director at Beazer Homes (BZH), recently bought 3,775 more shares. That increased his stake by over 13 percent, and came to a price just over $55,000. This follows two buys that he made in the prior two months. While this director has been buying, C-suite executives have been sellers of shares this year. And one director sold a massive stake back in March, when the share price was less than half of what shares go for today. While ...
Read More

Ride sharing giant Uber (UBER) had a great month in November. Legislation in California to classify contractors as employees failed, and shares rallied. One trader sees shares moving even higher. That’s based on the December 24th $60 calls. Over 2,770 contracts traded against a prior open interest of 153, for an 18-fold rise in volume. The trader paid about $0.32 for the option, which expires in 21 days. With shares near an all-time high at $51, it will take another 17.6 ...
Read More

Thomas Aaron, a director at Cincinnati Financial (CINF), recently bought 2,500 shares of the company. The buy increased his stake by 115 percent, and the price paid came in just under $200,000. This follow on two insider buys in early November from another director. Directors have been accumulating shares throughout the year, even as one C-suite executive made a large sale of shares. Over the past few years, insider buys have outnumbered sales. Overall, insiders own 6.8 percent of shares. A ...
Read More

Investors love companies with a recurring revenue model. Rather than selling a one-off product like a refrigerator or car, selling a monthly subscription to, say, a streaming service creates steadier cash flows. That kind of steady growth is why any company with a subscription service reports their growth numbers. It’s also why they’re on the lookout for ways to increase the number of loyal subscribers as well. In the e-commerce world, Amazon (AMZN) came to dominate thanks to the use of free ...
Read More