I think a front month, slightly OTM Strangle is the play here. Exit both positions right after earnings. Action is predicting a 16% move. That's 15.54 to the upside and 11.26 to the downside from Fridays close. Buy the Sept. 15 Call and the Sept 11 Put. A 16% move should make either profitable. Yes? Concerns. XRT is decidedly down. Wal-Mart was disappointing. Overall market is down. Could hold back any rally. Positives, if there are any. Weak hands long gone. Anyone who wanted out is out. Potential for a squeeze on anything positive. Conversely, bad news coupled with a weak sector performance and over sagging market could bring a serious slide backwards. I can't see this thing going sideways for this trade.
If you can't see sideways then you have less reason to sell a strangle. I think this is uncorrelated to the broad consumer sector.
Unless we get some good news, i think we are heading down to $12.00 which will lead to busting into $11.00. I am a day trader of JCP, my short-term views change by the hour, I still think we are going to touch $11.00 unless we get some great news.
"newwurld": The way JCP trades, that's why I can't justify holding it overnight, it's got some kind of magic attracting Value Hounds when we hit below $13.00, news some new person has taken on a "passive position" and Ackman has unloaded all his shares while Soros adds to his. If the story that "Comps" are above last year and they are removing some of their trash labels (MSO goods), why not do a turn-around like SuperValue (SVU) did? I have watched many stocks go from $50 to $1 and back to $20-$30. Examples of this are CKR, PIR, and I know you can name plenty. We had the buying opportunity of a lifetime back in 2008-2009, that's when most of my money was made. I am totally happy you have been slamming JCP by selling those Puts while I day trade against the Big Money and H.F.T.S. computers, nice when two people can make money with good ideas and various strategies!
Wow. I hadn't looked at the stock in a few days. My second job has been killing me. I would have been better off just being long stock than short puts. I agree its good to see people make money in different ways. If I were doing what you do, I would have been pummeled. Remember bby last year? Amzns showroom. Now stock has almost tripled.
Kyle Bass and Mark Cuban owning the stock could be a game changer ... just as Ackman cried uncle. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-03/kyle-bass-boosts-j-c-penney-bet-with-5-holding.html http://www.cnbc.com/id/101015329?__source=yahoo
I think ackman was bad for the company. They now have proper retail people running it without the distraction of a know it all activist investor. If they have a chance of coming back, its now. This could be a double in a year or two.
Whales like Soros and Bass could do well in Penny. Small-time investors like myself (or ourselves) can probably do better with smaller cap stocks that the big hedgies can't buy for lack of liquidity.
As professional traders, we have to be careful of the opinions of others. When a big name comes out to the financial networks and anounces that they're long or short a certain stock, typically retail traders flood to that stock and take a position in the direction that was recommended. What most people don't know is that the person making the recommendation is typically long from much lower prices or short from much higher prices and making the recommendation so that the novice will drive prices higher or lower. Keep in mind, the financial markets are without a doubt the most competitive industry in the world. How do you outsmart your competition and give yourself an edge??....