The poor performance by AAPL since late September (now down 36%) has been a drag on the NASDAQ Composite. The semiconductor ETF, SMH, is starting to perk up. It has just surpassed the August 2012 highs. Not a major accomplishment, but it is encouraging. Semi stocks often lead stock advances in the early phases of rallies based on an improving economy.
Applied Materials (AMAT) has been in a well-defined trading range since mid-2011:
Applied Materials will announce earnings on February 13th, most likely after the close. How is AMAT likely to respond? Will it finally break out of the range?
I’ll leave AMAT to prove itself first, then I may investigate trade possibilities on it.
In today’s Seasonal Forecaster newsletter though, I mention another semi stock that we had good success trading a straddle on leading up to its earnings announcement. It has an 86% chance of moving at least 5.3% over a certain post-earnings time period, which is the movement a current straddle would require to become profitable by expiration. I also cover a way to increase the probabilities of success with such a straddle trade.
Of course, there's much more you need to know and many more stocks you can capitalize upon each and every day. To find out more, click here: www.markettamer.com/seasonal-forecaster
By Gregg Harris, MarketTamer Chief Technical Strategist
Copyright (C) 2013 Stock & Options Training LLC
Unless indicated otherwise, at the time of this writing, the author has no positions in any of the above-mentioned securities.
Gregg Harris is the Chief Technical Strategist at MarketTamer.com with extensive experience in the financial sector.
Gregg started out as an Engineer and brings a rigorous thinking to his financial research. Gregg's passion for finance resulted in the creation of a real-time quote system and his work has been featured nationally in publications, such as the Investment Guide magazine.
As an avid researcher, Gregg concentrates on leveraging what institutional and big money players are doing to move the market and create seasonal trend patterns. Using custom research tools, Gregg identifies stocks that are optimal for stock and options traders to exploit these trends and find the tailwinds that can propel stocks to levels that are hidden to the average trader.
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