Trading Tips Blog

Shares of Clover Health Investments Corp (CLOV) have shed half their value since late December. At least one trader sees a further decline ahead. That’s based on the May 25th $9 put options. With 32 days until expiration, over 9,400 contracts traded hands, a 75-fold rise in volume from the prior open interest near 125. The buyer of the contract paid about $1.42. With shares just under $10, the option is slightly out-of-the-money. Come expiration, shares will need to trade lower than ...
Read More

John Wilder, a director at Evergy (EVRG), recently bought 2.27 million shares. The buy is an initial stake, and comes to a total cost of just over $113 million. Insiders have overwhelmingly been sellers at the utility company over the past few years, although a few company insiders have made small buys in March ahead of this sizeable director buy. Before this latest buy, company insiders owned less than 0.3 percent of shares. The utility company has traded flat in the ...
Read More

Telecom company Altice USA (ATUS) has been trending up in the past year, and performing well for a telecom. However, at least one trader sees the potential for a big drop. That’s based on the January 2022 $20 puts. With 277 days until expiration, over 10,900 contracts traded from a 115 open interest, for a 95-fold rise in volume. The put buyer paid about $0.50 for each contract. With shares currently near $33.50, shares would need to fall by over $13 ...
Read More

Earnings season is coming in strong so far, as companies are comparing to the start of the pandemic last year. A reopening economy is also helping. But with stocks already back to all-time highs, investors are starting to worry about possible inflation. That suggests a need to focus on companies that can pass on higher costs to consumers. One such play just reported better-than-expected results. That company? Pepsico (PEP). Besides beating earnings, the company noted that it may not engage in ...
Read More

Shares of social media firm Snapchat (SNAP) peaked in February before trending down. In the past week, they’ve started moving up again. At least one trader sees a push to new all-time highs. That’s based on the May $62 calls. With shares at $62.01, they’re the at-the-money trade. With 28 days until expiration, over 4,680 contracts traded against a prior open interest of 136, for a 34-fold rise in volume. The buyer of the call paid $5.10 to make the trade. Snapchat next ...
Read More

A number of big banks reported earnings earlier in the week. All of them beat expectations, although all of the big banks gave Wall Street traders a few cautious items to think about as well. A recovering economy largely helped to reduce reserves, and earnings and revenue were up overall. Of the big banks, Wells Fargo (WFC) looks the most interesting here. The company posted earnings of $1.05 per share, well above estimates of $0.71 per share. The stock has already ...
Read More

MFN Partners, a holder with a director stake at PennyMac Financial Services (PFSI), recently bought 94,106 shares. The buy increased the fund’s holding by less than 10 percent, but came to a total purchase price of just over $6 million. The fund made repeat buys back in March, and shares are down high double-digits since then. Overall, insiders tend to be bigger sellers than buyers. Overall, insiders own over 44 percent of shares, so the level of insider selling isn’t ...
Read More

A rise in Covid shutdowns internationally, combined with concerns over vaccine safety, may point to a prolonging of a full economic reopening. In any event, the past few weeks have caused a pullback in a number of recently high-flying names. One of those areas is energy. While the sector is still up strongly for the year, the sector as a whole peaked in mid-March and has come back down. It’s starting to look like a solid entry point for long-term investors. For ...
Read More