Trade Alert: Moves from the hedge fund (with commentary)

Amaris has been on the mend but she remains in ICU on a ventilator.

Here are most of the trades I’ve made lately in the hedge fund — this time with at least a sentence or two of explanation.

Longs:

I bought a starter position in AAOI. The stock’s down big, is now trading at about 10-12x next year’s probable earnings. Inventory issues might be fixed, margins would expand if so.

I trimmed some APRN. The stock popped 50% from where I had put some on last week, so I took some off.

I bought some DELL common and some DELL call options with strikes ranging from $45 through $55 and dated out from July through next January. Just recently came public again, very complicated share structure with lots of debt. But I have read hundreds of pages of filings and financials to get my head around their structure and the opportunity here. At 6x next year’s earnings estimates and big doubts about Dell’s ability to get into the cloud business, there’s big upside potential for anything decent fundamentally in the next year. Perhaps my favorite long right now.

I bought a starter position in OPRA. Strong cash flows, stock’s down big, people want an alternative and more private browser solution, which is what Opera is.

I bought the tiniest of starter positions in SPOT. Revolutionary music leader. Too expensive to get into big yet.

I bought some more SNAP after it got it on the news that its CFO is leaving.

Shorts:

I shorted some APHA. Hyped up cannabis play with questionable arms-length dealings.

I shorted some SVMK. High valuation, questionable model.

I shorted some VHC. Looks like a silly pop on a supposed win against Apple for — get this — $400 million. I highly doubt it.

Disclosure: At the time of publication, the firm in which Willard is a partner had positions in some of the stocks mentioned above although positions can change at any time and without notice.