What are the best SHORTING methods?

[Tatnic]

Sis,
When you short you can cover yourself, too. It is called "a covered put." What happens is you sell the stock, and you sell a put, too. That gives you extra dough in case you were wrong about which direction the price is going.

Not sure that covered is the correct term, but hedged is. Covered implies that you already hold securities to forfeit should it become necessary. When you short common its just like buying a put. So if you are expecting the stock to go down you sell a put out of the money to hedge your bet. Your maximum gain is limited but your maximum loss is not, ie theorectically your loss can keep accumulating as long as the stock prices keeps increasing above the breakeven point.

For example, say you short XYZ at $100 and sell a put (strike 95) for $1. If at expiration the stock is at $95, your gain is 5+1 or $6. And if it closes at $90, your maximum gain is still only $6 (10-4).

But if the stock goes against you and closes at $105, your loss is $4. If it closes at $110 your loss is $9, at $115 its $14, etc. etc. So your losses are not capped on the upside unless you buy a call with the proceeds of the put sale.

Lets say you buy a 105 strike call for a buck, then your maximum gain is $5 and your max. loss is also $5.

Bottom line, it makes more sense to me to not bother hedging a short position....just set your (trailing) stops and adhere to them.

[spikefader]

Does HANS look like some kind of chart formation that screams for a short?

If things start going south all the momos will start piling out of HANS.

Jus sayin.

lemonjello. Looks like it's done a 5th completion on the monthly chart. The abc correctives definately favor the short side. And there is the SHS on the 5 day 10 min chart. The weekly candle has a spike top on it too.......hmmm Looks like we have a top.... Nice spotting dude. http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/7913/hans7wd.jpg

[lemonjello]

Nice. It's not easy to short HANS - not many shares and no puts. Some of the other tech leaders are looking sick as well - GOOG, CSCO, AAPL.

lemonjello. Looks like it's done a 5th completion on the monthly chart. The abc correctives definately favor the short side. And there is the SHS on the 5 day 10 min chart. The weekly candle has a spike top on it too.......hmmm Looks like we have a top.... Nice spotting dude. http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/7913/hans7wd.jpg

[IIC]

Well...If you read my thread you'd know that HANS pulled an ERS...#1 on the IIC 100 since last September 12th and now OFF THE LIST...That oughtta be good for another 30 point drop...LOL...jk...IIC

[lemonjello]

Anybody got a take on if MDRX is a good or bad short for tomorrow?

[spikefader]

Anybody got a take on if MDRX is a good or bad short for tomorrow?

Let me have a quick look. I know one thing though.......HANS has shaped into something bullish at this stage......

[spikefader]

Anybody got a take on if MDRX is a good or bad short for tomorrow?

Looks like a good short candidate to me, only problem is it's right at 16.00 gap support and near a 5th down completion on the daily from that top......it's probably going to look for the abc correctives up now....but bias-wise, it's got double top back there, with expanding channel short on that gap up, that was exhaustive in nature, heavy vol by price up top. Good target is the 14.83 gap fill, just shy of 10% from close of 16.41. Next target 13.00 support, or 21%. After that, next major support is 6.00, 63% profit.

I'd recommend waiting for a pop to say 17.20.

Good luck.

[lemonjello]

I took it today - time will tell. I'm trying to develop a reliable shorting approach and test it with real trades. Looks like the market may be giving everyone a lot of shorting picks going forward. Thanks for the chart info.

Looks like a good short candidate to me, only problem is it's right at 16.00 gap support and near a 5th down completion on the daily from that top......it's probably going to look for the abc correctives up now....but bias-wise, it's got double top back there, with expanding channel short on that gap up, that was exhaustive in nature, heavy vol by price up top. Good target is the 14.83 gap fill, just shy of 10% from close of 16.41. Next target 13.00 support, or 21%. After that, next major support is 6.00, 63% profit.

I'd recommend waiting for a pop to say 17.20.

Good luck.

[spikefader]

I took it today - time will tell. I'm trying to develop a reliable shorting approach and test it with real trades. Looks like the market may be giving everyone a lot of shorting picks going forward. Thanks for the chart info.

Sure dude; good luck. You are likely gonna be sitting pretty with it; broad market weakness the last 90 mins and we're likely going to see a gap down. MDRX failure at the gap support tomorrow should see volatile move down for ya.

[lemonjello]

Another reason to go short -

WHO suspects human to human bird flu transmission

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/swissinfo.html?siteSect=43&sid=6744389

Of course the bird flu stocks started moving already.

[lemonjello]

IRAN - more missle testing

And this -

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1148287850178&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

[lemonjello]

Bad time for birds.

Chicken stocks look like they're going down...

safm
tsn
ppc


Fundamental reason - bird flu could destroy the industry.

Any opinions?

Note to self: Buy pork bellies, live cattle - do not take delivery.

[lemonjello]

Fake out

Stopped out.

Sure dude; good luck. You are likely gonna be sitting pretty with it; broad market weakness the last 90 mins and we're likely going to see a gap down. MDRX failure at the gap support tomorrow should see volatile move down for ya.

[lemonjello]

Declaring victory

Hey, maybe that chart stuff does work.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors came back from the weekend feeling none-too-charitable toward Monster energy drink maker Hansen Natural Corp.

Early Monday, the Corona, Calif.-based company reported an 86 percent increase in second-quarter profit, but sales missed analysts' expectations, sending the stock tumbling in premarket trading.

Shares were down $6.91, or 17.2 percent, to $33.34 on the INET electronic exchange, from Friday's closing price of $40.25 on the Nasdaq.
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Does HANS look like some kind of chart formation that screams for a short?

If things start going south all the momos will start piling out of HANS.

Jus sayin.

[ninner]

is it too late to short hans yet???