Shorting RIMM or JCP?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Anyone thinking of shorting RIMM (Blackberry) or JCP (J.C. Penney). CNBC has been reporting grim news about these two companies. Which would be the better short? BTW, T-Mobile just announced that they will no longer carry Blackberries due the low volume of sales of these devices.

[KTP]

I am not sure there is enough meat left on the bone to short those.

Look at Nokia. If you had gone short at $4 a few weeks ago, you would have a huge loss since it is trading today at $6.60.

[QuarterMillionMan]

News reports saying BBRY may be bought out & the CEO compensated with a $55 million golden handshake. Huh?

[bjl584]

I think you missed the boat on those two. They have been getting hammered for months now.

[bigdaddybus]

I agree with others, I think the boat has sailed on those.

But I dont time my shorts so well, the last homerun I hit was shorting best buy doubling my money in 18 hrs. I'm not right often, but enough to beat the market averages pretty good.

[MatthewC]

It is hard to find, as a group, any group making up 10% of stocks that have historically consistently lost money over the long run in the stock market. If you aren't sure, don't short the stock market. I stay away from that stuff myself. I've never taken anything but a long position in the market.

[JBinKC]

Logically, the time to short JCP was when Ackman was dumping his position and was the institution who kept JCP grossly overvalued IMO. I think the negative momentum will carry it through to the end of November as tax loss selling usually bottoms out at that time. Then I expect it will likely rally in anticipation of the X-mas season results in Feb. Ultimately, if things aren't improving fundamentally on that report I think JCP could be in the process of trading as low as 1/2 of book value in line with other retailers that have operational issues like RSH.

RIMM I would be too afraid to short as I think it has take over potential.

[FrugalSensei]

I think JCP is the better bet for a short. I agree with the 'shoulda, coulda, woulda's but you posted your question on 09/27 so as of that date I would say JCP has a better chance of sinking further.

I think their recent share offering and increasing markdown strategy will do more to hurt than help. I also agree with the analysts who say that the current economic situation is pointing towards a lot of hurt for the sector in general. To make matters worse, the current mgmt seems to think they've got things under control and good times are on the horizon even as another officer leaves the company and the stock price drops below the recent stock offering price, just a day after they commenced offering of 84 mil shrs.

Recent trading activity is showing that the optimistic investors are trying hard to turn this situation around but I would say that the current political situation is combining with everything else to stack the cards against JCP. I would look at the Oct19 puts if you think the politicians will continue to prolong the mess they've gotten us into and the Jan puts if you think JCP and the economy are really headed for the dumps.