Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Moving Trains and Falling Knives...

Anyone who has traded or invested knows that you don't want to get in the way of a moving train.  Ride the train, yes, but stay out of the way on the other side.  I just got off of my own ride for my posts on the TheStreet.com's Options Profits, winning 19 of 20 in retail option picks.  It was bound to end but that does not mean I like it.

Fortunately, I have Aqumin's AlphaVision Landscape to find new opportunities to take a closer look at.  It is like an alert system you never have to reset to see market currents.  Just click a View and see what is happening in that space in time across the names you are interested in.  AlphaVision effortlessly creates visual alerts in the nooks and crannies of the equity markets.

11-10-2010 9-46-10 AM Take a look above at the S&P 500 yesterday at EOD.  My eyes were immediately drawn to the giant spike in the back of the landscape.  The tall red spike means Dean Foods (DF) got smoked on the day and the dark red color means that the name is lagging behind the entire S&P 500 for the month.  A falling knife if there ever was one.  Most likely that would come up on a typical alert, if you could set for both.  But what you also see is 1 month total return and 1 day total return at once, for 500 names instantly per Industry Sub Group (Bloomberg).  This is like looking at 500 rows and two columns on a spreadsheet already divided up by Sub Group in one shot.  On a down/strange day it is easy to see what has been on a tear.  The move in context generates a new idea.  One last thing to note is the run up in implied volatility prior to earnings in the old school chart on the lower right, pretty lucky bet there.

Back to DF now... It is not a name I will jump out and recommend but put into an AV watch list for future reference.  As I flip through my View Library looking for more anomalies, DF will pop in context with all the other names I follow.  Maybe the Falling Knife will regain the earnings power (milk is a commodity after all, aren't those going up?) it enjoyed in 2007 (it was a $40 stock then) but I will keep watching until my landscapes tell me to look harder.

Andrew Giovinazzi

For AV for Bloomberg users, just click 1 Day vs 1 Month Total Return in the View Library to interact with this view live. If you are not an AlphaVision for Bloomberg Subscriber please follow the download link here:  Download AV for Bloomberg

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