Crocs (CROX)

Company

"Crocs, Inc. is a designer, manufacturer and retailer of footwear for men, women and children under the Crocs™ brand." (company website)

crox(1-1)
CROX 4-month chart
crox(1-1)_1yr
CROX 1-year chart

Buy

14 January 2010. Bought 500 at $7.11.

A sharp downtrend was broken in December, and CROX has been climbing steadily since then. News that the company expected to become profitable in 2010 sent prices upward on very heavy volume

  • Percentage price oscillator (PPO) — above the signal line for several weeks and starting to diverge from the signal line again
  • Volume — price jump on very heavy volume following news

Based on technical analysis, MarketEdge calls CROX a "neutral" but notes "strongly improving conditions."

Sell

gain Bottom line
1%

26 January 2010. Sold 500 at $6.76.

After the jump on good news, CROX has pulled back enough that it triggered my stop-loss order. Since I had a double-lot of CROX, I sold off half inasmuch as CROX is just above the support level.

23 February 2010. Sold 500 at $7.57.

The average sell price for the two lots together was $7.17, which means that I got out of this position with about enough profit to cover the trading costs. With earnings due in two days, it just seemed more prudent to get out than to stay in. Although CROX has said it expects to turn profitable this year, that doesn't rule out a nasty surprise on earnings day.