Trading Tips Blog

Many heavily shorted companies are done so due to their weakness to potential bankruptcy. However, sometimes a company gets a heavy short interest without any apparent weakness. That still makes shares susceptible to a squeeze. That may be what happened last week with shares of Tootsie Roll (TR). The confectionary firm saw its price soar to nearly $60 per share in intra-day trading, only to come back to its more recent price trend near $30. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why ...
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Daniel Johnson, a director at Fastenal Co (FAST) recently picked up 1,080 shares of the company. The buy increased his holdings by over 14 percent, and came to a total price of just over $50,000. Director Stephen Eastman was also a recent buyer, with a 1,000-share pickup in late January. Overall, insiders are both active buyers and sellers, with C-suite executives cashing out of stock options while directors keep buying. The directors are doing a better job, as shares of the ...
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Joseph Whitters, a director at Accuray (ARAY) recently picked up 20,000 shares. The buy increased his holdings by over 7 percent, and came to a total cost of just over $100,000. Whitters last bought 50,000 shares in November, at a price about 50 percent lower than where shares currently trade. Insiders have generally been sellers of shares at the company over the past three years. Overall, insiders own 3.4 percent of the company. Accuray designs and develops healthcare equipment including therapy ...
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Even before the pandemic, video games were a huge business. In 2019, video game sales exceeded box office sales globally. That trend continued even higher in 2020, thanks to lockdowns and a new generation of video game consoles. The big winners in the space are often the video game design companies. Largely dominated by a few big players who keep turning out franchise titles much like a big film studio, these companies tend to see steady and growing revenues. For instance, Electronic ...
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Shares of Aurora Cannabis (ACB) have more than tripled since early November, as more states legalized marijuana, and as federal trends point towards lower enforcement, if not outright decriminalization. One trader sees a further move higher. The September 2021 $14 call option last saw a 23-fold rise in volume, going from 131 open trades to over 3,100. Expiring in 225 days, the option is the at-the-money trade, given that shares trade just under $14.00. The buyer of the option paid $4.63 to ...
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There are many ways to play the growing digitization of the economy. Traders are familiar with software companies, which can make money selling once or via monthly subscription models. Or hardware firms that create the tools needed to access it in the first place. But other trends in the digital age are out there. Ark Investments, one of the top tech investment funds, has been around for years. Its performance last year, however, has led to many close followers. Recently, one of ...
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Kevin Stephens, a director at Crown Castle International (CCI) recently picked up 2,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by nearly 96 percent, and came to a total cost of $328,000. This is the first insider buy of 2021. Insiders were both buyers and sellers in 2020, with directors picking up shares as C-suite executives generally being sellers at the firm. Overall, in the past few years, insider sales have exceeded insider buys. Despite the general sales of insiders, the company’s ...
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Enterprise data cloud platform firm Cloudera (CLDR) has seen shares rally nearly 70 percent since early November. At least one trader sees shares continuing to head higher. That’s based on the August 2021 $17.50 call option. Over 16,400 contracts traded against a prior open interest of 143, for a 144-fold rise in volume. The call option is at-the-money, given the current price of $17.43. The trader paid $3.88 for the trade on average. The trade expires in 198 days. Shares are ...
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