Trading Tips Blog

Bet on drop in silver through year’s end.
A spike in put option buying on the
Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS) December 20th $15 put options resulted in over 6,000 options trading hands against an open interest of 176—a 34-fold surge in volume. With shares trading at $16.30, the option bet will move in-the-money if shares drop just $1.30, or about 8 percent. Given the volatility in metals markets, such a swing is easily achievable within the next 52 days before expiration. At a ...
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Director makes $1.99 million buy.
Mellody Hobson, a director at
JP Morgan Chase (JPM), picked up 16,000 shares recently, increasing her stake in the company by 15 percent. At current prices, the buy came to $1.994 million, and leaves the director with just over 117,000 shares. Insider data shows that the banking behemoth has had a mix of insiders both buying and selling in the past few years, which is typical of big companies that pay executives in stock options. Shares of the ...
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There are a lot of ways to make money in the market. But even if you find that rare company that can move ten-fold and provide one of the best profits of your lifetime, that will take time.Most investors get impatient. Trading Tips’ Andrew Packer explains why you should be looking at blue-chip bargains ...
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Thomas Shaw, President and CEO of
Retractable Technologies (RVP), added 1,500 shares to his stake recently. Shaw owns over 18.7 million shares of the company, making the increase in his total holdings a modest one. Shaw is a frequent buyer of shares in small lots—likely just enough to ensure the small-cap company’s shares don’t move wildly, and he has been buying shares as they have continued to move higher in the past few months. Retractable Technologies, a designer and manufacturer of safety syringes ...
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Traders bet on further weakness following earnings miss.
A variety of put options on
Twitter (TWTR) saw soaring volume following the company’s massive earnings miss, which sent shares down by twenty percent. Of the numerous contracts with heavy volume, the December 20th $26 put options saw a 40-fold increase, from 101 contracts to over 3,900. The option, with a cost of just $0.23, is a bet that would move in-the-money in the 56 days until expiration if shares fell another 18 percent—a little ...
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Bet in surge of call buying.
There was a 25-fold surge in volume from 111 contracts to over 2,800 on the November 15th 2019 $16.50 call options on
Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), also known as Petrobras. The options, with shares of the Brazilian oil company trading at $15.50, would trade in-the-money with a $1 rally in shares in the next 22 days. At a cost of just $0.19, or $19 per contract, it’s a cheap bet on shares to rally in the next few ...
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Director picks up $25,000 in shares.
Director Richard Kenny picked up over 1,150 shares of
Plumas Bancorp (PLBC) recently, raising his stake by over 20 percent. The buy cost just over $25,000. Insiders at the regional bank have been both buyers and sellers in the past few years, with the last sales coming at prices 13 percent higher than the recent insider buys. Buyers and sellers have just included corporate executives, not major funds or outside capital. All told, insiders own nearly 20 ...
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Bet on shares moving higher after earnings.
Over 6,800 contracts traded on the November 8th $29 call options on
Kraft Heinz (KHC). Compared to the open interest of 141 contracts, that’s a 48-fold surge in volume. With shares of the company around $28.30, shares need to move just 2.5 percent higher in the coming 16 days before expiration to move in-the-money. For the call buyer, paying $0.90, to profit, shares need to move closer to $30 by then. With the company next reporting ...
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