Trading Tips Blog

Director adds to stake of regional bank. On Tuesday, director Karl Silberstein picked up 4,000 shares of Bank of Commerce Holdings (BOCH). The buy increases his stake to 30,295 shares, and came at a total cost of $42,400. Over the past two years, insiders at Bank of Commerce Holdings have been buyers, with no sales. Insiders own nearly 6 percent of outstanding shares.   Bank of Commerce Holdings is the holding company for Redding Bank of Commerce in Northern California. The bank is largely ...
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Big bet on decline following earnings surge. Shares of Snapchat (SNAP) may have rallied on Wednesday following their strong quarter, but most traders were betting the rally in shares would be short-lived. On Wednesday, a number of put options on the company saw an explosion in volume, suggesting shares would come down in the coming days—possibly as soon as Friday. The most interesting of these options? The August 16th $17 puts. With shares of Snapchat hitting $17 in trading on Wednesday, the option ...
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Big bet on massive share rally by February. Shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ) may be heading higher between now and February, 2020, 212 days away. On Tuesday, over 2,000 contracts of the February $30 calls on the warehouse retailer were bought, against an open interest of 138, a 15-fold surge in volume. With shares around $24, it’s a bet that shares will rally by $6, or 25 percent from here. Shares of the company have traded as high as $33 in the ...
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Director adds to stake of industrial giant. Last week, director Michael Ancius picked up another 1,104 shares of Fastenal (FAST). The buy cost over $33,000 and increased his total stake by just over 5 percent. This marks the first insider buy at the industrial company so far this year, after a number of sales by insiders at higher prices.   Fastenal engages in the distribution of industrial and construction supplies around the world. Products include fasteners such as bolts, nuts, screws, studs, and washers, ...
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[image] Major fund owner adds to stake. Last week, Owl Creek Asset Management bought over 428,000 shares of pdvWireless Inc (ATEX). This represented a 16 percent increase in the fund’s holdings and brings their total share ownership up to over 3,076,000. The fund, with over $2 billion in assets under management, owns over 10 percent of shares in the company.   pdvWireless provides network and mobile communication solutions to infrastructure and enterprise customers, with a cloud-based mobile resource management solution and push-to-talk mobile communication services, ...
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Trader makes bullish bet before earnings on Wednesday. Shares of Facebook (FB) may rally on Wednesday after it reports earnings. On Monday over 29,400 contracts traded on a July 26th call option on the social media giant. With a strike price of $227.50 and with shares around $200, it’s a bet that shares will move up in the coming four days. Shares would need to move 13.5 percent higher for the trade to move in-the-money.   With the option trading around $0.32, or $32 ...
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Deep-value investment firm adds to stake. Last week, Strategic Value Partners, LLC, already a 10% owner, added to its stake in Chaparral Energy (CHAP). The fund bought 554,321 shares at a cost of just over $3.1 million. This follows on additional buys by the fund in recent weeks. Since April, the fund has seen its total holdings increase from 10.7 million shares to 13.1 million shares. Chaparral Energy engages in the acquisition, exploration, and production of onshore oil and natural gas properties primarily ...
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Shares likely to move higher by double-digits before year-end. Shares of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) may be heading higher between now and December, based on a surge of the $55 call options there. On Thursday, over 3,250 of the calls traded against a prior open interest of 187, nearly a 17-fold surge in volume. With shares trading at $48.50 however, the options imply that shares are likely to move at least 13 percent higher between now and December expiration, 154 days away. As ...
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