Buying long the 10 call options for those stocks is indeed difficult because of the bid/ask spread of the options. Even if you manage to get a successful trade, because of the turnaround of those companies, the bid/ask size will disappear and the spread widen even more, sometimes with one side completely disappearing as "option traders" reevaluate their models. Tried to create a few options strategies combining calls with different strikes and using puts, it was a bit more achievable, but much more expensive in terms of trading costs. Profits were simply much smaller than the actual pure trade of the underlying. Buying simply the underlying was eventually easier as the security were liquid and the trading costs very small, and so were the gains.
because I have the candidates for the last 8 years, and have their forward returns historically, so I can run without looking forward bias or survivor bias the strategy historically. Everything is "as is" or "point in time" historically for fundamentals and returns. I don't use technicals to enter the trades, the fundamental conditions are the signal. However, I expect a trader to use technicals to enter and exit the trades at the best time, and play the volatility.
if you ignore all the blog sentiment, everyone is doing everything ,despite all the bullish or bearish rants , there is a buyer/seller every trade