John.. we don't do it every day. I was as surprised as anyone else. The only thing was I was pretty gung ho on both CHKP,CCMP and QCOM. I followed these plays around like a "stalker" much of the month and waiting for the bomb to fall on them. When earnings come around we make a lot of the biggest profit because of the research we do we find BOTH LONG and SHORT plays. We are still long some good swing trades although we closed a few today. There is interaction among all of us and with 3 moderators and the work I do at night on research, we have a small edge. While some others argue about BULLS or BEARS, we are trading and working. We don't care who will dominate but we are careful to take home some puts/short (usually now its a put in very liquid option that trades in a fast market) I stopped with DPMI a while because the volume made it difficult to trade. I still have a lot of companies in my list that need hair cuts, but little by little. There are also some wonderful companies like ACRT, COG, APA, XTO, MANH, ELY, ESRX.. that were earnings plays and you can barely tell from some of them we are in a bear market!!!! Earnings season is really the whole YEAR.. Thing about it.. there it pre earnings the post earnings, the ones that report in the second month like (May, August, November, February where the best plays can be hiding because we have more time and less plays to deal with).
However I was actually more pleased although I did keep those VRSN puts because they were 'eroded' so much from the day before, that we were discussing the possibilities of VRSN NOT BEING a sure thing. We bandied about the huge increase from $0.02 to $0.13. Remember most of the companies did not show those expections, the others were greatly reduced. Its an indication that maybe things aren't so cut and dried. Also in HOMS I remember in previous quarters it ALWAYS did well and during the rally in April it moved up quite well, again little sign posts.
In fact it was when the nasdaq and VRSN dropped like a rock that I took away my doubt. I had no such doubt with the other 'blimp' shorts. There was something about VRSN's resilience that I liked. By now I have back a nice portion of the put loss, but I liked the fact we were about to ABOUT FACE and go LONG. HOMS the night before was the same... YOU HAVE TO ALLOW an element of doubt and not be cocky and smug like shorters who bash each other on potentials of plays being short or long. Who cares? Even as VRSN was soaring I caught some POSTS that were denying the inevitable. In this business, there is no room for obstinance, you have to be ready to take a small loss before it turns out to be a big one.
It wasn't my only loss. I had a nice gain in CELG and thinking I would hold it as a swing trade I put in a loose stop and CELG dropped like a lead zeppelin cut the nice 2 day gain in half. Or how about the CIEN early morning short I missed because I waited a bit TOO long to get in and took the "next rung" in the ladder. But as long as you know your limitations and change your mind to correct errors, it gets better the next.
I held a postion of AMKR through earnings although a small position and I still don't have an idea where it will be in the morning. What did I learn? Don't put in loose stops even if you PLAN TO HOLD FOR a SWING TRADE. Its better to get stopped out a little early than late. I didn't put in an alert either, I just looked and it was stopped out.
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