Rudolph Technologies (RTEC)

Company

"Rudolph Technologies, Inc. is a leader in the design, development, manufacture and support of high-performance process control metrology and macro defect inspection equipment used by semiconductor device manufacturers around the world." (company website)

rtec(4-1)
RTEC 4-month chart
rtec(4-1)_1yr
RTEC 1-year chart

Sell Short

10 December 2009. RTEC peaked in August but has been trending down since then. A modest earnings surprise in November was enough to arrest the freefall from the October peak, but not to change the trend. Right now it is in a squeeze play between the falling 50-day moving average and the rising 200-day.

  • Percentage price oscillator (PPO) — above the signal line but showing signs of converging back toward it
  • Volume — volume peaks since earnings are decreasing

Based on technical analysis, MarketEdge calls RTEC a "short candidate" in a "weak downward trend."

Buy to cover

gain Bottom line
3%

18 December 2009. In early trading today RTEC seemed to bounce off yesterday's big drop and it looked like it was getting support from the trend line — I decided to cover and take modest profits. As luck would have it, of course, in late trading RTEC dropped back to close the day at $6.45 on very heavy volume.

Although I left some money on the table the volume puzzles me. I'm getting better at short trades, but I always fear that I've shorted just before a reversal, so I'm hypersensitive to the slightest bullish signal.