This Trade Targets a 100% Return in Two Months

Stocks continued to slide on Thursday and all four of the main indices saw significant losses. The Russell took the worst hit at 2.19% and it was followed by the Nasdaq with a loss of 1.58%. The S&P dropped 1.19% and the Dow fell 1.11%, and that was the best performance of the four.

Nine of the 10 sectors lost ground with the utilities sector being the lone one on the positive side of the ledger with a gain of 0.84%. The consumer staples sector almost made it to positive territory at the end of the day, but it ended with a loss 0.02%.

[hana-code-insert name=’adsense-article’ /]The energy sector suffered the biggest loss for a second straight session.

Crude fell below $60 a barrel for the first time since March and that caused the sector to fall 3.2%.

The tech sector dropped 1.74% and that was the second worst performance.

Seven of the sectors dropped over one percent on the day.

The scans made it three straight days of positive readings on Thursday with 39 bullish signals and 22 bearish ones.

The barometer moved up this time, inching up from 10.9 to 15.2.

Even though the scans were positive for a third straight day, I feel like a bearish play is necessary in order to keep things balanced.

With that in mind, today’s trade idea is a bearish one on Unitedhealth Group (NYSE: UNH). The stock appeared on the bearish list, but the fundamental ratings are actually pretty good. The EPS rating is a 95 and the SMR rating is a B. Despite those ratings, the Relative Strength rating is a 43.

Another factor in the pick was a bearish signal from the Tickeron AI Trend Prediction tool. A bearish signal was generated on Wednesday and it showed a confidence level of 73% while 75% of previous signals on UNH have been successful.

We see on the daily chart that a trend line connects the highs from December and February. The stock just hit the trend line earlier this week and has turned lower since then. We also see that the stock just hit overbought territory based on the 10-day RSI and the daily stochastic readings.

Buy to open the July Week 1 250-strike puts on UNH at $10.00 or better. These options expire on July 5. In order for these options to double the stock will need to drop to $230. That is nowhere near the recent low. I suggest a target gain of 100% with a stop at $250.

— Rick Pendergraft

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Rick Pendergraft, Trades Of The Day

Rick Pendergraft has been studying, trading, analyzing and writing about the investment markets for over 30 years. He has worked for some of the largest financial publishers in the world and he has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New York Times and the Washington Post. In addition, he has been interviewed on Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business News. Rick's analysis process includes fundamental, sentiment and technical analysis.