Open Interest February Expiration for Momentum Stocks

The following are the open interest graphs for February 22nd expiration on $AAPL $AMZN $BIDU $FB $GOOG $LNKD $NFLX $TWTR. Keep in mind that because this is monthly expiration, many of the puts or calls could have been bought a long time ago. For further understanding of how to make use of these please read What is Maxpain and visit the education section of my site.

See here for SPY and QQQ open interest as well as market commentary regarding what to expect next week. And before you ask, yes I will get to PCLN and TSLA in another post so you can take a deep breath.

AAPL: My comments last week (see below) are similar to this week. The only difference now is we have had huge gains recently and it could pause. I don’t know:

Is the accelerated buy back over now that it has been revealed? No idea, but if it’s not then be weary these high open interest calls week after week may not hold as strong (will be interesting to see how it plays out). With the company buybacks, Cooks confidence, Icahn, and possible new products perhaps the tides will finally begin to turn again. 

AMZN: I really doubt this will stay down too long. When will it regain momentum again? Can’t give you an exact date, but I imagine it won’t take too long if this market stays bullish. Plus it made a higher low last week so that’s a step in the right direction. One to keep an eye on. 

BIDU: Here is my prediction for next week (predictions are worthless, but fun so take it with a grain of salt)….we start to see upgrades next week, which helps fuel a rally.

FB: Starting to get overbought and may pause. Whether it does or doesn’t, it’s very bullish longer term. And there was a huge roll from February to March calls last week. As I’ve been saying for weeks, buy any dips you get.

GOOG: If you read my post last week the two stocks I said were my favorites going into last week were this one and TSLA. I still like GOOG. It may fumble around here since we know how trader psychology creates a bit of volatility around round numbers. Regardless, overall it still looks good.

LNKD: What a dog. It’s definitely getting oversold and will likely stage a bounce soon, but not sure it’s worth it to try to catch an oversold bounce. 

NFLX: The chart looks fantastic and has created a bull flag. The anticipated House of Cards 2 came out Friday and that could create some stock drama (I don’t know in what direction). Furthermore, it was confirmed Friday that Ichan sold half his stake. I don’t know if that will have any impact on current investor psychology, but for those reasons I will be staying out and missing any potential moves next week. 

TWTR: A little over a week ago in #sassymusings here I said it would be chased again, but to a lesser extent (which is what we got). Last weekend I said that if everyone was waiting for $45, then we likely weren’t going to get there. The first lock-up (it’s very small) just expired so we will see what Monday brings if anything. FWIW, I am bullish longer term and more neutral right here.