You Could have Bought Twitter Yesterday and Made a 16% Profit Today

If you had bought Twitter (TWTR) yesterday, you could have sold the stock today for a 16% profit, based on the closing prices. If you had bought LinkedIn (LNKD) yesterday, you could have sold for a profit today in excess of 10%.

So why did these and other stocks move so much in one day? Earnings announcements. In simple terms, the companies reported financials that made investors happy. Of course, you could have picked the wrong stock, such as Yelp (YELP), which was down 21.5% today or GoPro (GPRO), which tanked 13% today. In that case, you would have lost a lot, unless you had shorted the stock or owned an option straddle.

It's earnings season, and this is the time of year when many popular stocks can really move. If you can choose the right direction, you can bank bucks.

Or if you use the right option spread, you can make money whether the stock goes up or down. Here is an example. Yesterday, you could have bought the February 6 2015 call and put with a strike price of 41. The call traded around 2.60 yesterday and the put at 2.58, for a total cost for the straddle of 5.18 or $518.

Today, you could have sold the straddle for 6.75 or $675. This works out to a profit of over 30% in one day. What's your total risk? $518. What's your potential gain? Unlimited on the upside and around $4,300 on the downside, in the event a black swan hits the stock.

Now you might ask, what other stocks are coming out with earnings reports in the next week? Here is a list for you, which contains a lot of the stocks that can make big moves depending on their earnings.

February 09, 2015

Hasbro (HAS)

February 10, 2015

Akamai (AKAM)
Blue Nile (NILE)
Cerner (CERN)
CVS (CVS)
Health Net (HNT)
Jive Software (JIVE)
LifeLock (LOCK)
Molson Coors (TAP)
Monster Worldwide (MWW)

February 11, 2015

500.com (WBAI)

AOL (AOL)

Baidu (BIDU)

Cisco (CSCO)

Panera (PNRA)

Skechers (SKX)

Tesla (TSLA)

Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)

How to Invest in the Super Bowl

This year, the American Football Conference [AFC] champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference [NFC] champion New York Giants are in the Super Bowl XLVI held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The game used to be a popular indicator of the future of the stock market. The indicator states that if the NFC team wins, we will have a bull market this year, but if the AFC team wins, it will be a bear market. The indicator has been correct about 80% of the time.

Corporations are shelling out $3.5 million for a 30 second television commercial. Most of the companies that have chosen to advertise during the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast are publicly traded stocks, so if you think these companies will benefit from this advertising, now is the time to take a closer look at them and get a touchdown with your picks. Here is a list of the advertisers along with their stock ticker symbols.

Toyota ( TM ) has a couple commercials promoting its Toyota Camry, plus a Lexus ad. Toyota trades at 11 times forward earnings and yields 1.2%.

General Motors ( GM ) advertises the Cadillac, plus it is really pushing various Chevy brands including the Chevy Volt, the Chevy Silverado, and the Chevy Sonic through three different Chevrolet commercials. GM has a forward price to earnings ratio of 7 but does not pay a dividend.

Anheuser-Busch Inbev (BUD) is marketing Bud Light beer though its commercial. The stock has a forward PE of 15 and yield 1.5%.

Pepsi ( PEP ) tries to show how Pepsi MAX is better than Coke Zero. Pepsi pays a nice yield of 3.1% and trades at 15 times forward earnings.

E*TRADE ( ETFC ) used the famous baby to promote the E*TRADE's new 360 investing dashboard. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 13.

Groupe Danone ( DANOY ) is the company that makes Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt, another Super Bowl advertised product. The stock has a forward PE of 16.

Bridgestone ( BRDCY ) is another advertiser. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 12.

Honda ( HMC ) is pushing its Acura NSX and Honda CR-V. The stock has a forward PE of 9 and a CD beating yield of 2%.

Procter & Gamble ( PG ) is publicizing its Downy Unstopables product. It trades at 15 times forward earnings and has a fairly high dividend payout of 3.3%.

Coca-Cola ( KO ) has its 'Polar bears like Coke' commercials. Coke yields 2.8% and trades at 17 times earnings.

Skechers ( SKX ) is promoting, guess what, Skechers. The stock has a forward PE of 28.

If you like interesting stock lists like this one, don't forget to check out the other lists available at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns TM and PEP at the time the article was written.

Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the NFL.

By Stockerblog.com

Top Super Bowl Stocks

The Big Football Game is this Sunday, February 6, 2011, between the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the NFC champion Green Bay Packers, held for the first time at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The event involves sports and fans and celebration, but beyond that, it involves money and in a big way. I'm not just talking about the $135,000 seats still available in the Hall of Fame Suites at the stadium, I mean the amount of advertising dollars generated. It can cost a few million dollars for a 30 second ad.

Most of the companies that have chosen to advertise during the Super Bowl XLV broadcast are publicly traded stocks, so if you think these companies will benefit from this advertising, now is the time to pick out a few good ones and jump on the bandwagon. Here is a list of the advertisers along with their stock ticker symbols.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD)
Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY)
Bridgestone Corp. (BRDCY.PK)
CarMax Inc. (KMX)
Coca Cola (KO)
Disney (DIS) Pirates of the Caribbean
E*TRADE Financial Corporation (ETFC)
Ford (F)
General Motors (GM) Silverado, Cruze, Volt
Hyundai Motor Co. (HYMTF.PK)
Kraft (KFT) Planters Nuts. Wheat Thins, Chips Ahoy
Motorola (MOT)
PepsiCo (PEP) Doritos
Salesforce.com (CRM)
Skechers USA Inc. (SKX)
Sony (SNE) Just Go With It, Battle: Los Angeles, Priest
Viacom (VIA) Paramount Pictures: Kung Fu Panda 2
Volkswagen AG (VLKAY.PK)

If you like interesting stock lists like this, don't forget to check out the other lists available at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns DIS and F at the time the article was written.

Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the NFL.

By Stockerblog.com