Earn it

Now that we are well into earnings season, today seems like a good day to address the common question that I get regarding earnings reports: "are you holding in to earnings". Truth be told, it not possible for me to answer these questions in a general sense (although some say never do this) but certainly I can answer on an individual stock basis.

My strategy for the most part is to hold up to the earnings release, what many call the earnings run up. I then assess the stock movement in the last hour or two before the release to determine what I want to do. Depending on the situation I will:

• Sell the equity and move into calls or puts.
• There are occasions where I sell a partial and hold the rest into the earnings release.
• On some particular stocks, I choose to hold all - especially if I have great conviction - and back that up with a heavy bet (long or short).

Today is no exception. There were several known names releasing earnings today, here are a few I watched during the day:

AKAM
CSCO
WFMI

Which one would you choose to hold into earnings? I went with WFMI for several reasons. One, I was stalking it all week for a Break Out over a key resistance level. But more importantly, I liked the earnings report and reaction last quarter - I expected it to be similar (or better) this time.

I did take some off after hours already and have moved my stop up to 57 on the balance for now.