Akamai Technologies

After exiting half of our remaining position  at 22.45, we hold a round lot whose costs basis has been reduced by profit-taking to 11.01. Let's continue to have fun with this one, shorting one November 24 call (UMUKZ) for 1.05 or better, good-till-canceled. The offer is based on a 24.47 rally target being reached by Monday or Tuesday. I've included a snapshot of an option calculator that shows how fair value for the calls was determined. ______ UPDATE:  Cancel the order for now, since AKAM hasn't shown enough moxie lately to reach the target.

We hold 200 shares with an adjusted cost basis of 16.73. Shorting some option premium against them on the last run-up might have been warranted, but having missed the opportunity, we can take encouragement from the fact that Friday's high slightly exceeded the look-to-the-left peak at 19.46 recorded on the way down a day earlier.

We hold 400 shares acquired on Tuesday for 17.07.  (The stock bottomed the next day at 16.76, somewhat lower than the 16.97 stop-loss I'd given, but we canceled it and let the trade ride.)  For now, use a stop-loss at 16.62 while offering 200 shares at _____. That's a penny below a Hidden Pivot target on the 10-minute chart, and we should infer that it will be reached if AKAM can get above its sibling midpoint resistance, _____.

We took a flyer on this stock a while back and lost $200, but there's a midpoint support where we can try again that will afford us better protection against risk. Bid 17.07 (3 cents above the actual pivot) for 400 shares, stop 16.97, day order.

Akamai's rally is approaching the point where we might soon be able to spread off the risk of the four August 25 calls we bought a while back for 0.90. Let's offer four August 27 calls short for 0.95, good till canceled. If the order fills, we will have legged on a $2 vertical bull spread for a small credit. It will give us a position with no possible loss, a minimum gain of $20, and a maximum gain of $800 with the stock trading above 27 come August expiration. My guess is that AKAM will have to reach $24 (or so) to fill our short offer at 0.95 by mid-June.

A Motley Fool e-mail promotion that I received yesterday piqued my interest in this former "cloud" computing hottie, which they rate as the best investment opportunity since Microsoft's first stock-split. Coincidentally, AKAM's recent high at 23.58 created a "camouflaged" impulse leg that looks