Trading Tips Blog

Andrew Liveris, a director at International Business Machines (IBM), recently bought his first stake in the company, buying 2,655 shares. The buy came to a cost of just under $300,000. The buy comes on a cluster of director buys in the past week, amounting to nearly 20,000 shares. All in all, six directors have bought anywhere from $107,000 to $999,000 worth of shares at a time, marking the first insider buys since 2018. The insider buys come as the company has ...
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During a gold rush, the folks who went out to sift, mine, and hack away at the earth to find the yellow metal often don’t end up with much. The real winners? The suppliers. The folks who sell the pickaxes, shovels, and jeans. While that still applies to the mining sector, it applies to all sectors that need to be supplied. That can create some tremendous investment opportunities in unexpected places. One such player is Zebra Technologies (ZBRA). The company sells a ...
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At least one trader sees a massive surge higher in shares of General Electric (GE) this month. That’s based on the December 11th $8.50 calls. The option saw 956 contracts trade against a prior open interest of 107, for a nearly ten-fold rise in volume. With shares around $7.70, shares would need to rally about 10 percent for the trade to move in-the-money. The call buyer paid about $0.26 for the option. General Electric shares have been in rally mode in the ...
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Traders know to play the airlines and cruise lines on any pandemic related headline. But there’s a secondary category of companies that have been impacted by this year as well. On the positive side, many tech names have gotten market attention. But a number of consumer names without a technology angle have been reasonable winners right now. Some even offer investors high dividends in today’s zero percent interest world. One such company is Newell Brands (NWL). The maker of Rubbermaid containers cited ...
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At least one trader sees a massive surge higher in shares of megabank Wells Fargo (WFC) this month. That’s based on the rise in volume on the November $24.50 calls, expiring in 17 days. The options saw over 68,000 contracts trade against an open interest of 3,300 contracts, a 20-fold rise in volume. Shares currently trade under $22, so the call buyer is betting on a double-digit rally in shares. Shares of Wells Fargo took a dive last week following earnings. While ...
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Jasmin Staiblin, a director at NXP Semiconductor (NXPI), recently bought 1,500 shares. The buy increased her holdings by over 135 percent, and came to a total price of just over $135,000. As is typical of a tech company, insiders are mostly sellers of shares, with a heavy concentration of selling at the executive vice president level. However, this was the second buy of the year from insiders following another director purchase back in April. NXP, based out of the Netherlands, has ...
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Jon Springer, President and CRO at Universal Insurance (UVE), recently picked up 10,000 shares. The buy increased his holdings by nearly 2 percent and came to just over $117,000. He was joined by Stephen Donaghy, CEO, who also picked up 10,000 shares, paying just over $119,000. The company CIO also picked up 350 shares. This is the second cluster of insider buying in 2020, and insiders have been entire buyers since 2019. Universal Insurance is a property and casualty insurance company ...
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Certain sectors of the economy tend to be more susceptible to an election than others. Defense spending can impact the value of defense contractors. One of the bigger areas that tends to see big swings? Managed-care companies, also known as health insurers. History shows that these companies tend to decline before an election, and then recover. A recent analysis shows that these stocks tend to underperform the stock market by over one-third heading into an election. That’s a good argument for ...
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