Trading Tips Blog

At least one trader is betting that oil giant BP (BP) will head higher despite reporting its fifth-quarterly loss in a row on Tuesday. The trader bought the December 18th $15 call options, expiring in 51-days. The options are about $0.50 in-the-money and should move penny-for-penny higher with shares. The options saw over 10,700 contracts trade against a prior open interest of 432, a 25-fold rise in volume on the trade. The option buyer paid about $1.20 for the contract. With the ...
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One of the world’s biggest and best-known brands has been a laggard in today’s market. Now a lumbering behemoth, Coca-Cola (KO) has lagged the market and peers in the beverage and defensive consumer sectors. However, the company has announced that it’s trimming its lineup of products. And with the company’s massive global reach, it’s possible that a reopening will be huge for the company’s operations. That’s the view at Barron’s, with the note that shares of Coca-Cola have traded basically sideways ...
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Mark Oman, a director at specialty insurance company First American Financial (FAF), recently bought 4,000 shares. The buy increased his holdings by nearly 12 percent and came to a total cost of just over $191,000. The purchase marks the first buy from company insiders in years. Insiders have typically been sellers over the past three years, mostly by C-suite executives and not directors. Shares of the company have slid 22 percent in the past year, in spite of a 14.5 percent ...
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PPGM, a Netherlands-based public pension fund, just reported its latest securities holdings to the SEC. The fund scaled back on some of its tech trades, and also started a position in a video game company. The fund’s most interesting buy, however, came in the fintech space. The timing is especially interesting, as the sector has been seeing tremendous growth this year and embracing alternative currencies such as Bitcoin. The fund’s buy? PayPal (PYPL). That company made headlines last week when it ...
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Joseph Evans, a director at Cadence Bancorp (CADE), recently added 4,000 shares. The buy came to just over $48,000, and increased his holdings by 0.9 percent. This follows up on multiple buys from directors back in September. Overall, insiders have been active buyers in shares this year, with only one small insider sell over the summer. In total, company insiders own 3.3 percent of outstanding shares. Like many bank stocks in general, shares are down over the past year. The regional ...
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Shares of Cisco (CSCO) have been trending down the past few weeks. One trader betting that shares still have another 14 percent to decline. That’s the logic behind the move in the November 20th $32.50 puts. Over 8,800 of the contracts traded against an open interest of 22, for a 40-fold rise in volume. The option expires in 24 days, and from the current share price near $37.50, would require a 15 percent drop in shares to move in-the-money Cisco next reports ...
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Ari Levy, a director at Del Taco Restaurants (TACO), recently added 67,400 shares to his holdings. The buy came to just over $504,000. The director now owns over 3 million shares of the company. Insider data shows that company insiders have been massive buyers of shares in the past year, picking up nearly 500,000 shares in total. The last insider sale occurred in early 2019. All told, insiders own over 19 percent of shares. Like most fast-food names, the company’s ...
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Large companies in the technology space are facing increased regulatory scrutiny. Lawmakers of all political stripes are concerned with the abilities of big tech companies in nearly all facets of life. But for all the concerns about these companies buying up competitors or engaging in monopolistic practices, at least one analyst sees more upside ahead for the big-tech stocks. Why? Because these companies are big because they continue to innovate. That’s the logic of RBC Capital’s internet analyst. All the big-tech ...
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