Earlier I ran a post-mortem on PluralSight (PS) as a lead-in discussion about history, trends, and technicals for stocks heading into earnings.
Although, we are deep into earnings season, there are still plenty of names to report. And the best part about earnings season? If you don't like this one, simply be patient and another one will be along shortly.
I thought it might be a beneficial study to examine (briefly) a dozen names reporting Thursday night with a quick touch on the weekly chart setup, historical trend (if any), and current pricing expectations of the option's market so that we can follow-up Friday and see how each played out.
Nvidia (NVDA) : One of the Biggest Names Reporting
- Options market is pricing an expected move of 6.8% by the close of trading Friday.
- Technical -- BULLISH. Long-standing bullish uptrend breaking out to new highs this week. Momentum and trend both overbought and very bullish
- Historical trend-- BEARISH. Stock has traded lower post-earnings five of the past seven moves.
Datadog (DDOG) : One of the Newest Names Reporting
- Options market is pricing an expected move of 14% by the close of trading Feb. 21.
- Technical -- BULLISH. Price is breaking out to all-time highs while momentum, trend, and volume are in uptrends and not yet overbought.
- Historical trend -- Not yet established (too new).
Alteryx (AYX) : One of the Strongest Names Reporting
- Options market is pricing an expected move of 10% by the close of trading Feb. 21.
- Technical -- BULLISH. Price is breaking out to all-time highs while momentum and trend are strong and rising, although hitting overbought territory. Volume has been topping out.
- Historical trend -- BULLISH. The stock has experienced a double-digit intraday move higher eight of the past 10 reports
LivePerson (LPSN) : One of the Strongest Names Reporting
- Options market is pricing an expected move of 10% by the close of trading Feb. 21.
- Technical -- BULLISH. Price is breaking out to all-time highs while momentum and trend are strong and rising. There are a few yellow flags here as volume is lacking while Full Stochastics is flashing a bearish divergence versus price.
- Historical trend -- VOLATILITY. The stock has experienced double-digit moves 17 of the past 20 reports.
PDF Solutions (PDFS) : One of the Strongest Names Reporting
- Options market is pricing an expected move of 9.5% by the close of trading Feb. 21, although the spreads are ridiculously wide on options, so the expected move is an approximation.
- Technical -- BULLISH. One of the strongest charts in terms of price and trend. After three months of consolidation, PDFS broke out higher this week. Volume is the one lackluster here.
- Historical trend -- BEARISH + VOLATILITY. Ugly intraday red action seven of the past 10 reports.
Roku (ROKU) : Streaming Kind
- Options market is pricing an expected move of 14.7% by the close of trading Friday.
- Technical - SLIGHTLY BULLISH. The price action here isn't as bullish as the names above. Volume has also been trending lower, but the trend and momentum both appear ready to crossover bullish, but neither can be confirmed until Friday, which makes it kind of tough.
- Historical trend-- BULLISH + VOLATILITY. Green four of the past six reports with several huge moves mixed in. It should be no surprise this one ranks high on the volatility scale.
That's the first half of the list. Back shortly with part 2, and names that don't look quite as rosy.
Tim Collins provides options trade ideas each day on Real Money Pro, our sister site for active traders. Click here to learn more and get great columns, commentary and trade ideas from Tim Collins, Mark Sebastian, Paul Price, Doug Kass, and others.
