Trade Alert: TXN pops, semi’s look ready to drop (and a change to my TV schedule)

Texas Instruments, the calculator company — er, the chip company, says business isn’t bad and that’s got most chip stocks rallying hard on top of the big moves they’ve just had the last couple weeks. I think I’d rather sell chips than buy them right now and that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m shorting a little more SMH outright and am buying a few SMH puts dated out into August and September, with strike prices 3-5% below the current quotes (say $115-118 or so). I’m also nibbling a few SPY puts. I’m not bearish overall and I’m not expecting these puts to pay off big, but I think a little more hedging here makes sense. So that’s what I did this morning, taking advantage of the SMH pop.

My Fox News appearance got pushed back to tomorrow — I’m now scheduled for an appearance of Fox Business Thursday in the 12pm ET hour and on Fox News Thursday in the 4pm ET hour.