IBD still sees “market uptrend under pressure.” With the GMI now at 2 it could flash a Sell signal with a second day below 3. The QQQ short term trend is now down but about 40% of these down trends since 2006 lasted 5 days or less. An indication of strength is that the biotechs came through this period strong. Fourteen biotechs hit new highs on Wednesday. Some of them that I have been following for a while and that are in strong RWB up-tends include: CBMG, TSRO, UTHR, QURE, ANAC, INGN , BLUE and RCPT. Last December I wrote about INGN as a stock my stock buddy, Judy, had talked to me about. It was then at $30.25. It closed at $37.34 on Wednesday. The GMMA chart shows a nice RWB pattern and a green line breakout (GLB) to an all-time high in November. Way to go, Judy!!!! (After this post was first released, I found that INGN released some difficult news that is causing the stock to decline premarket.)
With the leading industry, biotech, (see industry chart below) still showing strength, this bull may only be resting.
Given the news about INGN today, I felt I should comment about how I handle my high beta, (especially bio-tech) companies during earnings season. If there has been a significant run-up prior to earnings, especially 1-2 days before earnings I usually collar them. This means I use put and call options to protect my profits. If readers want this explained in more detail, please ask. Ingn has no options, so everyone must decide for themselves their own comfort level for risk. I still think the product is an excellent product, but I do not like companies with accounting issues.
Judy, thanks for posting your insights about how you handle high beta stocks during earnings season. I would like more information about how you use put and collar options to protect your profits. When a stock has no options like INGN, do you have some rules of thumb for addressing risk?
Thanks in advance your comments.