Short squeeze plays

[chinaman711]

Watching SPF and HOV for a short squeeze this week. SPR reports monday and has a float of 63 mil shares and 31 mil shares short. HOV 31 mil float and 26 mil shares short. Could catch them on sale this morning as market looks real weak again. Also watching the mortgage stocks. Good luck

[chinaman711]

Watch spf it it gets thru 4.62 fridays high

[chinaman711]

SPF look for a test of resistance at 5.09 looking good so far at 4.85, news from sept looks good for fridays report but don't know how much they cut prices to get sales. Standard Pacific New Home Orders Rise
Monday September 17, 5:12 pm ET
Standard Pacific Says New Home Orders Rise During July, August


IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- Homebuilder Standard Pacific Corp. said Monday net new home orders in July and August rose 20 percent due to a strong showing in several markets, particularly California.
Standard Pacific said its cancellation rate for the two-month period was 33 percent, down from 51 percent in the prior-year period.

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Home orders were particularly strong in California, where they rose nearly 100 percent during the two months, the company said. Orders also rose by 42 percent in Arizona.

Meanwhile, orders fell 24 percent in Florida, 5 percent in Texas and 13 percent in the Carolinas, said Standard Pacific.

"Despite the positive comparisons in some of our markets, our absolute sales absorption rates continue to reflect the difficult housing conditions in most of our markets which were exacerbated during the quarter by the further tightening of available mortgage credit for homebuyers," the company said.

Standard Pacific expects to take additional impairment charges in its third quarter citing continued pressure on home prices.

Standard Pacific shares rose 27, or 3.3 percent, to $8.50 in electronic after-hours trading. During regular trading hours, the shares rose 20 cents to close at $8.23.

[chinaman711]

SPF hit 5.22 is a weak market and then pulled back to 4.98. If 5.09 holds in this weak market today look for 6 plus imo.

[chinaman711]

CHLN a chinese home builder another 1 to watch look for 6 plus imo and more l/t. Good luck and go SPF go

[Bman409]

Watching SPF and HOV for a short squeeze this week. SPR reports monday and has a float of 63 mil shares and 31 mil shares short. HOV 31 mil float and 26 mil shares short. Could catch them on sale this morning as market looks real weak again. Also watching the mortgage stocks. Good luck

Nice call... all of the home builders are putting the squeeze on today

HOV is up about 8%.. BZH something like 11%

[Lou]

Beazer has a 25% short interest.

[Bman409]

Beazer has a 25% short interest.

Big put/call ratios outstanding on those as well... all of the home builders

[chinaman711]

CHLN hit 6 Just needs some volume and it will run

[Lou]

CHLN hit 6 Just needs some volume and it will run

Hey Chinaman, what platform do you use and how do you screen for your stocks?

[Bman409]

SHRP looks like a squeeze might be on there ... heavily shorted

[chinaman711]

Lou most of my picks don't come from a stock screener they come from alot of research. Friday in the chatroom we were talking about plays going into the fed meeting. Over the w/e i did a lot of research on builders, mortgage companys and the banks. I was also watching some of these stocks trade friday and the builders were looking good in a ugly market. What really got my interest in SPF was the 49% short position on the float and the news that came out in sept. SPF reports friday but i won't be holding any that long. Hope to be out by wed but who knows, might stick with it till thru if the volume keeps up. I watch about 70 stocks on 2 screens and i am always looking at pre market movers like today CDS on news. Some of the chinese stocks were coming back today and i will be looking for another chinese runner at 8 am. and looking for fed plays going into the meeting and rate cut.

[chinaman711]

4:20 pm : Monday was a day that traders can appreciate as the market had a roller coaster session that was accented by a noticeable downturn at the start of trading and an equally noticeable comeback effort.

At their lows for the session, which were established just after the start of trading, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P fell 114, 27 and 10 points, respectively. The declines followed on the heels of Friday's steep losses and big percentage declines in a host of foreign markets.

Interestingly, the declines abroad were attributed to G-7 finance ministers' thinking over the weekend that global economic growth will moderate. The reasoning for those declines, though, was poor considering the IMF cut its global growth forecast last week. In other words, the G-7 ministers weren't telling the markets anything they didn't already know.

The declines in foreign markets were little more than a reflex response to the large losses seen on Friday on Wall Street.

Early selling efforts in the U.S., though, were quickly met with bottom-fishing interest that was plain to see in the attraction to homebuilding, financial and retail names that were among the hardest hit issues last week.

The energy sector (-1.3%) was a notable laggard again as oil prices dipped 1.2% to $87.56. With an excuse needed for every move, concerns about a slowdown in growth got the call for explaining the pullback in crude prices. That excuse, however, doesn't jive with the stock market's performance on Monday as the financial (+1.0%), consumer discretionary (+1.0%), industrial (+0.5%) and technology (+1.0%) sectors led today's action.

[chinaman711]

5:11PM Levitt discloses it received notices of default from Wachovia with respect to three separate loan facilities (LEV) 2.20 -0.11 : In an 8-K, co states it's "homebuilding subsidiary, Levitt and Sons, LLC is pursuing negotiations with its principal lenders seeking to obtain meaningful concessions or agreements to restructure its outstanding indebtedness and has ceased making interest payments as of October 10, 2007. Levitt Corporation has also previously indicated that it would not make any additional material advances to Levitt and Sons unless Levitt and Sons obtains acceptable concessions or restructuring agreements with its principal lenders. On October 17, 2007, Levitt and Sons received notices of default from Wachovia with respect to three separate loan facilities. Additionally, on October 19, 2007, Levitt and Sons and certain of its subsidiaries received a notice of default from KeyBank. The first notice of default from Wachovia relates to a $125,000,000 loan made by Wachovia to Levitt and Sons. The second Wachovia notice of default relates to a $30,000,000 construction loan made by Wachovia to Levitt and Sons and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Bellaggio by Levitt and Sons, LLC and Levitt and Sons of Manatee County, LLC. The third Wachovia notice of default relates to a $26,500,000 loan made by Wachovia to Levitt and Sons and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Levitt and Sons at World Golf Village, LLC.

[chinaman711]

HMMMMMMMMMMM a short squeeze Home builder shares soar
Monday October 22, 2:30 pm ET


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of home builders soared on Monday as a frenzy of short sellers bought stock to cover their positions, giving the overall housing stock index its greatest one-day gain in about five years.
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The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index (DJI:^DJUSHB - News), a yardstick that measures home builder performance, rose 8.1 percent in mid-afternoon trading.

"When you see this kind of move it's because the stocks are over-shorted," said Alex Barron, Agency Trading Group analyst.

Investors who short stock bet that the price of the shares will fall. They borrow the shares on the hopes that they'll replace them with shares they'll purchase at a lower price.

"As soon as the stocks start to go in the opposite direction people rush to cover their gain," Barron said. "

Shares of some of the most badly beaten stocks saw hefty gains on Monday. Shares of Beazer Homes USA Inc (NYSE:BZH - News) rose more than 10 percent, or 98 cents, to $10.04. Shares of Standard Pacific Corp (NYSE:SPF - News) were up nearly 16 percent, or 69 cents at $5.11. Shares of Meritage Homes Corp (NYSE:MTH - News) were up 10 percent, or $1.38 at $14.66. Hovnanian Enterprises Inc (NYSE:HOV - News) shares rose 8 percent, or 81 cents, to $11.36.

"A lot of people have made a lot of money by shorting these names and they want to protect their gain. They rush out to buy to cover their short, but then that in turn causes the stock to move up higher, and that creates a frenzy," Barron said.

Meritage Homes, Hovnanian and Beazer are all on the New York Stock Exchange's threshold securities list. That means short sellers have had trouble finding enough of the stock to borrow over the last few weeks. That makes those stocks particularly vulnerable to short covering.

The momentum also has led some investors to think that the stocks have reached a bottom, experts said.

"What we are seeing today is classic value investing combined with short covering which many times can signal market bottoms," said Tim Biggam, lead options strategist at online brokerage thinkorswim in Chicago.

[Bman409]

SHRP looks like a squeeze might be on there ... heavily shorted

SHRP is getting another 10% bounce this morning

I'm not in the stock, because the company is garbage.. but it sure it getting a good short squeeze

[madcowdisease]

Any traders aware if the NYSE/AMEX has a public short-interest query similar to the one offered by Nasdaq? I've combed their site and can't seem to locate one.

[aiki14]

Any traders aware if the NYSE/AMEX has a public short-interest query similar to the one offered by Nasdaq? I've combed their site and can't seem to locate one.

It's very pricey, $400/month
http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/default.aspx?tabid=748

[Florida]

Any traders aware if the NYSE/AMEX has a public short-interest query similar to the one offered by Nasdaq? I've combed their site and can't seem to locate one.

I could be totally wrong on this, but my understanding is that short interest data is only compiled every 2 weeks, (used to be just once a month). This data is reflected on Yahoo Finance, and I am sure it is available at other free sites.

I just checked a few stocks on Yahoo Finance, vs. the NASDAQ site, and the dates of last update and number of shares short match, so it is likely that this is probably as accurate as any other "public" information available.

[madcowdisease]

It's very pricey, $400/month
http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/default.aspx?tabid=748

Thanks aiki. Nasdaq has something similar in report form and they also have a public (aka free) query option too as shown below:

http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=shortinterest


I could be totally wrong on this, but my understanding is that short interest data is only compiled every 2 weeks, (used to be just once a month). This data is reflected on Yahoo Finance, and I am sure it is available at other free sites.

I just checked a few stocks on Yahoo Finance, vs. the NASDAQ site, and the dates of last update and number of shares short match, so it is likely that this is probably as accurate as any other "public" information available.

Yep, you're right. Short interest reports must be made by the 15th and last trading day of the month. The NASD must receive them no later than 2 business days after.

Seems if you followed the schedule of looking at the short interest around these report & delivery times you could get a fairly accurate assessment of the short interest for a particular security.