Trading Tips Blog

Consumer tastes are shifting, and lower-income consumers may have to cut back on big spending this year amid a rise in credit card delinquencies. For higher-income homes, some areas won’t see much of a cutback in spending at all. The most likely place to hold up is with fine dining, even fine at home dining. Upper-income homes continue to spend well on high-end menu items. That bodes well for premium ingredient providers. One such player is Chef’s Warehouse (CHEF), which distributes Read More About This

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B), a major holder of Verisign (VRSN), recently added to that stake with three buys over the past month. The buys came to a total cost of just over $89 million, increasing Berkshire’s stake by 4%. This cluster of buys marks the first insider buying at Verisign over the past two years. Going further back, company directors and officers have been sellers of shares on a steady basis. Overall, Verisign insiders own 14.4% of shares. The internet infrastructure company is ...
Read More About This

Steel producer U.S. Steel (X) fell 5% last week after President Biden refused to allow the company’s sale. Over the past year, shares are now down over 33%. One trader sees a short-term rebound following the selloff. That’s based on the April $40 calls. With 100 days until expiration, 21,059 contracts traded compared to a prior open interest of 333, for a 63-fold rise in volume on the trade. The buyer of the calls paid $1.28 to make the bullish bet. U.S ...
Read More About This

Behind the overall stock market numbers, many individual sectors move in different ways at different times. Some sectors tend to be runaway winners some years, but are highly cyclical and trend lower in others. Other sectors tend to be steadier, and could hold up well if the overall market has a poor year. Looking to 2025 and the market’s early struggles so far, investors may want to look for safety in an underperforming space. That space is the restaurant industry. While rising ...
Read More About This

William Shepard, a director at CME Group (CME), recently bought 276 shares. The buy came to a total cost of $64,282, and increased his position by less than 1%. Shepard is a quarterly buyer of shares, and picked up a similar dollar amount of shares in September, June, March, and January of 2024. Otherwise, several company insiders, including the company CIO, were slight sellers of shares over the past three months. Overall, CME Group insiders own 0.5% of shares. The stock exchange ...
Read More About This

Drug manufacturer AstraZeneca (AZN) is down 30% from its peak last summer, and shares are now down on a 12-month basis. One trader sees a potential bounce higher in the weeks ahead. That’s based on the March 21 $72.50 calls. With 73 days until expiration, 5,037 contracts traded compared to a prior open interest of 116, for a 43-fold rise in volume on the trade. The buyer of the calls paid $0.92 to make the bullish bet. AstraZeneca shares recently traded for ...
Read More About This

AI trades have helped push the market significantly higher since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) has dominated the conversation, but other necessary components for AI hardware and software have been, and will likely remain, winners in 2025. One key hardware component relates to networking. AI programs need multiple pieces of hardware and software to work, and networking is critical for unleashing an AI’s full computational power. That’s why a networking company like Marvell Technologies (MRVL) could ...
Read More About This

John Rogers, a director at Nike (NKE), recently bought 2,500 shares. The buy increased his stake by 8%, and came to a total cost of $191,625. This marks the first insider buy since last June, when another director bought 2,941 shares, increasing his position by 15%. Otherwise, there have been a handful of insider sales in the second half of 2024, largely from the company’s Chairman of the Board. Going further back, insiders were also likely to be sellers. Overall, Nike ...
Read More About This