Holding THROUGH Earnings?

[yoyomama]

Okay so I've been trading less than a year & I took a chance with AAPL last Q by holding a few shares AfterMarket and that worked out.

Do any of you hold though earnings? It seems like most traders hold up until & then bail. Obviously there's alot to be made if they beat earnings and of course the inverse also.

Any of you hold through?

IE: AA Monday Aftermarket

[billyjoe]

yoyo,
I've held through earnings many times. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's disastrous. Try to find as much info that you can on the stock from many different sources including analysts. If you're convinced earnings will be within the expected range or beat expectations, hold on. If it looks iffy you may want to get out. Blow out surprises or complete tankage sometimes will happen out of the blue. If you're confident in the company, hold, if really uncertain, sell. You can always buy back into a good stock. Good luck.

--------------billy

[dcman401]

If you are invested in a solid company, there is no reason to worry about holdings through earnings. Some of my best days were days earnings were reported. FDA approval deadlines....different story hahaha (those are always crazy and fun). Option expiration days I stay away from doing any type of day trading because it's so unpredictable, but holding long term through earnings reports is fine.

My advice...HAVE A GAME PLAN!!!!

The night before I always draw a little plan together. Lets say earnings are expected to be 2% greater than last time they reported. I will not just wait to see what the number is, but think about how I think the market will react to the different news. For example, companies like AAPL right now, where I feel like everyone expects them to have great numbers, I predict higher than expected earnings won't have as large of an effect, as it would on another company without the same reputation. Remember at the end of the day the numbers mean nothing, it's the reaction to the numbers that matters.

That, and I always try to predict how the institutions are trading a certain stock. With a company like AAPL that's especially important. For example, when it was around 190 a couple weeks ago, I predicted the prices were being held down by the institutions and the stock was undervalued. Sure enough the thing popped to around $215. Yes, the tablet i'm sure was a huge part of that, and perhaps institutions had nothing to do with it. But trying to get into the minds of the people doing 75% of the trading on a particular stock is always something I find valuable.

That's just my strategy though.

[mrmarket]

I think holding through earnings is a lot less risky when market multiples are depressed, like they are today. When market multiples are high, even very good earnings reports sometimes lead a stock to slaughter.

So I would say holding through earnings is more risky when market multiples are high because the burden of exceeding expectations becomes greater.

[yoyomama]

Hey, great stuff y'all. I appreciate your taking the time to post your thoughts & opinions!

Thinking...

Again thanks.

[yoyomama]

Well I bought a few shares of AA at close to see. That didn't work out so much...not enough to really piss me off though. I realize the way to play earnings or so at least I read is with options but I need to learn about that. AA will no doubt get up to where it was before the drop but I'm not into hanging around so I took the loss & moved on. It wasn't that big a deal but I might just watch next time...although INTC & JPM are coming up.