Trading Tips Blog

Traders bullish on telecom in coming weeks. The October 18th $13.50 call options on CenturyLink (CTL) saw nearly 4,000 contracts trade, against a prior open interest of 360, an 11-fold surge in volume. With shares at $12.75, the option will trade in-the-money if shares rise 5.8 percent in the next 18 days. Given how shares have traded as high as $22 in the past year, the option stands a reasonable chance of heading higher in the next few weeks. With shares of the ...
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Major investor on verge of majority stake. CD&R Investment Associates picked up 3.2 million shares of Beacon Roofing Supply Inc. (BECN). The firm, already a major holder, increased their stake by 30 percent by making the buy. The total cost came out to just over $102 million, and leaves the fund with 13.7 million shares of the company. In the past year, CD&R has picked up over 28 million shares, and corporate insiders have also been net buyers, with only two ...
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At-the-money puts suggest potential decline. The December 20th $10 put options on Freeport McMoRan (FCX) saw over 8,100 contracts trade, a 57-fold increase over the prior open interest of 143 contracts. With 84 days left to go, and with shares right at $10.00, the option should increase in value with any dollar-for-dollar drop in shares. With the option trading around $0.80, shares would need to only drop to $9.20 for the option holder to start making money on the trade. Freeport McMoRan has ...
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Multiple directors add shares of struggling game retailer. Two directors took the opportunity to pick up shares of GameStop (GME) near all-time lows. Director Kathy Vrabeck bought 20,000 shares, paying nearly $106,000 to do so, and director Raul Fernandez bought 4,900 shares, paying just under $25,000. The buys come after the company eliminated its dividend earlier in the year and an activist investor targeted the company, suggesting it make a huge buyback with its cash hoard to unlock shareholder value. Other directors ...
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  Bet on shares to move higher by spring. The March 2020 $34.00 call options on Uber (UBER) saw over 10,100 contracts trade against a prior open interest of 391, a 35-fold surge in volume. The bet, with shares trading around $31, indicates that shares should move at least 9.6 percent higher in the next 176 days before the option expires. Shares of the recent IPO have traded as high as $47 per share, back in late June, about a month after going ...
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Buyers bullish ahead of earnings. The October 11th $18.50 call options on Snapchat (SNAP) saw over 18,400 contracts trade against a prior open interest of 500, a 31-fold surge in volume. Traders are betting that shares, around $17.50, can rally another $1, or 5 percent, higher in the next 16 days. That’s a reasonable bet, as shares have more than tripled off their 52-week lows of $4.82, and shares have traded as high as $18.36 in the past year. Snapchat shares struggled ...
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Major fund holder adds to stake. Investment fund Hudson Executive Partners LP bought 143,200 shares of USA Technologies (USAT). Already a major holder with over 10 percent of shares, the $638,000 buy increases the fund’s holdings to over 8,339,170 shares. This is the second buy from the fund following the purchase of 1 million shares back in August, at prices 26 percent higher than where shares currently trade. Insiders have otherwise been holding their shares in the past two years. USA Technologies ...
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Fund with major ownership adds to stake. Investment fund Elliott International bought 6,529 shares of Roadrunner Transportation Systems (RRTS), shelling out over $64,000 to make the trade. A mere 0.3 percent increase in holdings, Elliott now owns over 23,227,100 shares, a stake worth more than 10 percent of the company. Elliott has been an active buyer of shares throughout the year, at prices as much as 25 percent higher than where shares currently trade. There has been only one insider ...
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