No Picks Lately

I haven't seen any columns on thestreet.com for Dykstra's option picks for the last 2 Mondays. Maybe a vacation or has he been dropped?? Anyone that knows anything I would be curious to hear.

August 14th 2006 - AMAT

Dykstra picked the January 12.50 Call for AMAT Applied Materials Inc.
Read the column here.

Option price: $3.30
Stock closing price on Friday August 11th: $15.17
Approximate premium: 63-cents ($15.17 - (Strike $12.50 + $3.30) = $0.63)

Big volume on this particular option today, most likely due to the fact it is reporting earnings tomorrow after the closing bell. The volume was just over 2000. The option traded today between $3.38 and $3.70 according to Yahoo! finance, so technically Dykstra couldn't have got in at his price target (but benefit of the doubt and maybe Yahoo! is showing me the wrong numbers). Either way, this is a play on earnings. If AMAT reports well tomorrow, I would say there is a good chance it will go up much like CSCO and his other recent picks that were right near earnings. Of course if they miss or give some bad news, this could turn into an AMGN situation where the stock never recovered and the option expired much lower.

August 16th Update - AMAT reported good numbers but gave some soft guidance and the stock closed the daily around even. The option did reach a high of $3.81 today, so made it half way to the target with plenty of time to climb.

September 11th Update - A little behind in updating, but AMAT hit a high of $17.00 on August 30th, putting the stock up well over $1 and therefore increasing the Call option by at least $1. Today the option traded at $4.30, which just happens to be an increase of $1. Another good one from Dykstra...but the question is...why is he not doing thestreet.com anymore!!?!

August 7th - CSCO

Dykstra picked the January 12.50 Call for CSCO Cisco Systems Inc.
Read the column here.

Option price: $5.10
Stock closing price on Friday August 4th: $17.24
Approximate premium: 36-cents ($17.24 - (Strike $12.50 + $5.10) = $0.36)

Some volume on the option today already and with the stock up twenty-odd cents, the option is up 40-cents to $5.50 already. This is another earnings report pick as CSCO reports Tuesday. He has been dead on with his last few earnings report picks with TXN and MIXM.

August 9th update - CSCO reported strong earnings and the stock soared. The option traded as high as $7.70 easily beating Dykstra's target of $6.10. Hard to argue with these results!