Sure nothing technical here, I was just lucky 2 weeks ago when I said: Let's get back to this stock in 1-2 weeks, shall we? As a minimum I expect it to go back to the SMA line, which is around $41....
I am probably going to jinx it, but what the hell. The stock has bounced from 34.7 and currently is at $37.4
I might be missing something here. But I don't see how Ackman has "won", assuming that he is still holding his short position. Although HLF has done poorly since the FTC press conference about Fortune Hi-Tech on Monday 28th, HLF has not (yet) been subject to any investigation. Assuming that remains the case, then HLF remains a business that is profitable and viable for now, and likely to remain so for the next 2 or more years.
It you had done a chart of HLF on 16 December, it would have shown a massive rise from the December climatic bottom. I suppose then the conclusion would have been "the longs are winning". Furthermore, investors who bought HLF below $30 are still sitting on large gains, despite the losses seen so far this week. My point is - it's too early to say that any investor (long or short) with a multi-month or multi-year timeframe has "won".
It's like a baseball score. AFAIK, Ackman has been shorting since the low to mid 50s. The recent low is $26. There is little doubt that Pershing is up a lot more on his short (20MM shares) than Icahn is up on his long. Icahn has not filed so the positions must be (relatively) small.
I am surprised that nobody was getting a hard on a few days ago when the stock briefly tanked 14% in the morning (on some BS news), just to finish back in the green. Today is the second day in a week when the market is tanking and HLF is nicely up. As I said, nice bounce from the lower BB on the daily chart.... It also reached the SMA line (my minimum expectation)what came down to $37 (was at 41 a week ago).