Two Steps Forward

... after yesterday's six steps back. DNS +30, +24, +6.

Trades:

My speculative options play on BRKR's earnings report went horribly wrong. They ended down 8.6% for the day. -37.1% There goes some play money I don't get to play with anymore. :-)

I sold my LFUS calls (-54.1%) as they seemed the least likely to rebound and I wanted some cash for a ...

... GG bull call spread. I was looking at 79% unrealized gain (less comms.) until it fell below $49.

I bought a bull call spread for MCP too.

That leaves me with (5) bull call spreads and one call (FMCN) for August expiration. C'mon rally!

Reversal alerts: (18).

These are based on value (forward P/E) and growth, but the charts are generally horrible. You may want to add them to your watchlist though: STEC, ENSG, NS (was Valero), NTAP, APEI (good chart), and PLCM.

Exit Only

It feels like I'm going against traffic here. Charging into the stampede. Buying when I should be mostly in cash already.

It's like a high risk "Genius/Moron Play" in poker. You're a genius if you win, and a moron otherwise. I have a bad feeling it might not be the former. DNS -266, -75, -33. Wow.

Trades:

MCP stock and BRKR calls as noted below.

AMG hit the stop, -2.5%.

Reversal alerts: (18).

GG has a decent reversal pattern,  rising estimates, and Cramer's blessing (gold). 60% YoY quarterly sales growth.

CRM alerted but I can't go for a stock with a forward P/E above 200. They report Aug 17.

DRIV and RVBD had good growth expectations based on the estimates. But judging from the charts, I'd say they missed 'em.

MCP & BRKR

I bought call options for BRKR hoping for a good earnings report.

MCP stock bought.

Bruker Corporation (BRKR)

EPS Growth Prev Yr Past Yr Growth P/E 0.08 0.14 75.0% - 0.10 0.17 70.0% - 0.27 0.18 -33.3% - 0.10 0.07 -30.0% 31.3 Next Two Quarters (est) 0.14 0.21 49.3% 27.38 0.17 0.23 34.7% 25.03

Sales Growth Prev Yr Last Yr Growth 252.5 300.9 19.2% 265.1 310.2 17.0% 366.4 416.1 13.6% 277.7 357.0 28.6%

Molycorp Inc. (MCP)

EPS Growth Prev Yr Past Yr Growth P/E -0.18 -0.47 -161.1% - -0.18 -0.15 16.7% - -0.22 -0.10 54.5% - -0.16 -0.03 81.3% Next Two Quarters (est) -0.47 0.44 193.0% 405.29 -0.15 0.64 528.0% 67.05

Sales Growth Prev Yr Last Yr Growth 1.2 1.9 58.3% 2.0 8.5 325.0% 2.2 21.7 886.4% 3.0 26.3 776.7%

Earnings Calendar (Aug)

Today: VRTS, after
Wednesday: BRKR (before), CVI (?)
Thursday: HUN (before), LFUS (before), RBCN (after)

Aug 11: DAR (?), MCP (after)
Aug 22: FMCN

Pffft

DNS -11, 12, -5.

Trades: Listed below.

Reversal alerts: (23).

A growth screen yields LFL & CLB.

KNL, LUV, & JBHT are also interesting.

Most of these are pretty beat up. I'm not going to read too much into the chart patterns given the market dynamics.

That Was a Short Rally

Wow. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed before noon.

What to Buy?

Tough decisions. Buy orders for stock in CPX, CVI, HUN, and HURC have filled. Done buying for the day.

SKH fell hard this morning - a rough start for the ESG portfolio.