I watch out for nice short plays on big companies and blue chips. Often when you know a company is going to get into trouble with earnings sometime in the near future, and it isn't already factored into the share price then you can short it and make a killing. Notable examples from last year: MXG (Multiplex) FLT (Flight Centre) TLS (Telstra) BSL (Bluescope Steel) VLL (Village Life) Even if you get into the short on the first day for any in the above list then you can clearly see from their charts that percentage wise you would still be making a killing as it continues to fall over the proceeding days after. An observation I've made is that a reported 30% earnings downgrade which surprises the market, on the first day it will drop about 7%, and then the next week or so it will still drop another 15-20% ... too easy. Anyone interested then make a study out of it like I do and have a look at the above charts and you'll see that in bad news situations which surprise, then the only way is down for about a week or much longer... I treat this like a science!
This year's first big short for me has been AWB. Easy money!
