I love the compelling titles to the posts. Trying to name them is my
big challenge of the day. For this article I have _Aqumin's_
AlphaVision Landscape that I want you to pull up first below.
Earnings Landscape
(If you want to learn more about 3D visualization of financial data
visit www.aqumin.com/thestreet)
_Aqumin's_ landscape shown is the earnings landscape, where each city
block is an earning date. This type of view allows an AlphaVision
subscriber to never get run over by an earnings date. I wanted this
horizon view of the landscape to illustrate a point. The building
height of each name is the one-week price percent change. Building
color is current normalized 30-day implied volatility over its
one-year average normalized 30-day implied volatility. Green is a
premium and red is a discount.
We can see *Apollo Group*(APOL) is up on the week but many of the
other education names are down (highlighted, bottom of the landscape)
for the week. Setting myself up for more post-earnings calls, I can
easily monitor the group in total. Is this finally the bottom for
these names?
APOL is the big daddy of the group and I believe sets the tone (maybe
that is why I think there is a short-term bottom for the space) going
forward. While lots of bad news has come down on the company and the
sector, the model still earns money and the founders own big pieces
which mean they want to make things work. I think this reversal is
important as the industry slowly comes out of all this. Think *Goldman
Sachs*(GS) last year. Once things are settled, you are left with
companies and models that generate real cash and off they go.
After catching the move in AlphaVision, I hopped over to the option
landscape for APOL and identified the February 36 put for a 41
volatility bid which is 29% over (green color) the trailing 3O-day
historical volatility (ex-earnings). I see the low of the year in APOL
as a good entry point. I have had two good swing type calls in the
sector before (*ITT Educational Services*(ESI) and *Education
Management* (EDMC)) and looking for a third.
Apollo Group (APOL) Landscape
*Trades: Sell to open 2 APOL February 36 puts for $0.51, or better,
with APOL trading $40.83, or better, on a 16 delta.*
Risk Level 2 for the short put. You must be comfortable owning APOL at
$35.50, or lower.
At the time of publication, Andrew Giovinazzi held no positions in the
stocks or issues mentioned.
Andrew is the Executive Vice President of Business Development for
Aqumin, where he participated in the design team to apply AlphaVision
to the financial markets. For 15 years he was a member of the Pacific
Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where he actively
made markets and traded in both equity and index options. At the same
time Andrew started and ran the Designated Primary Market Marker post
for Group One, Ltd. on the floor of the CBOE where it became one of
the highest grossing posts for the company in 1992 and 1993. While in
Chicago and San Francisco, Andrew was instrumental in creating and
managing a training program that allowed Group One, Ltd. to
dramatically increase its trader count over an eight year period. He
left Group One, Ltd. to co-found Henry Capital Management in 2001.
_OptionsProfits For actionable options trade ideas from a team of
experts, visit TheStreet's OptionsProfits now._
Source: Thestreet.com
