Now I am confused..so a question

According to Bloomberg ISRG robotic surgery is causing a lot of harm.

Article:

[www.bloomberg.com]

So why is ISRG up? Is it the tax reduction on surgical supplies? What is going on with this?Anyone know?

That's very interesting... being a GW follower I've ignored the news, played it yesterday for earnings, RTT data was helpful for identifying it as an up trend for earnings... so I'm still in it so far with 6month options, also played it today for a quick continuation gain which ill post in the other thread when my trades are complete...

I've been watching it for the last few days. Not to trade, but just to see what happens. At this hour is appears to have given back most of the days gains.

I'm sure the "Street" have already factored in that tidbit of "news" :-) Maybe the market makers are waiting for the public to get wind of it. Reminds me of an old Cadence I used to call. Blood in the water! :-) lol.

I love trading the news when it is around Pharma. They make for great Peak plays.

lol, Yeah I can see where peaks and slams would work well on big Pharma stocks:-) I remember GW's story about Viagra. Wasn't funny that some folks died, but it was funny the way he tells it.

If ISRG closes at or near the open, I'm gonna call it a "meteorite" candle. I haven't see a "Star" or even a "Shooting Star" with a wick that long on top. :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2013 02:09PM by RichieRick.

And there it is. The Meteorite Candle. Hehehe... Wow what a long wick on ISRG!

well good thing it was a practice trade, I'm still up in the position, however I got all my exit criteria by the end of today's trading... I have much to learn when it comes to GW trades

Hum...Short sellers? Really odd...maybe down tomorrow. We'll see.

Open Letter to Intuitive Surgical

Investor Relations

Sunnyvale CA

Dear Management and Officers:

We note with great interest Intuitive Surgical’s having posted on its corporate website a chart purporting to show an analysis of adverse event rates related to use of the da Vinci surgical suite.

[www.intuitivesurgical.com] and [www.intuitivesurgical.com]

In particular, we note gross misuse of statistical data, flagrantly disregarding of the FDA’s own guidance with regard to the use of the MAUDE dataset.

A couple of points in particular stand out:

· Your computation and graphing comparison of MAUDE adverse event rates is misleading. As you well know, it is extremely unlikely that FDA Adverse Event Reports on surgeries performed outside the United States will ever be filed. Nevertheless, you choose as a denominator “completed worldwide surgical procedures”.

· Further, the FDA site itself warns specifically “the incidence or prevalence of an event cannot be determined from this reporting system alone due to potential under-reporting of events and lack of information about frequency of device use.”

The only point confirmed by the graph published at the link above is the still unanswered question regarding the massive increase in backdated adverse events reports in August. Since the over 97% of AE reports filed this year in MAUDE are filed by the company, clearly only the company is capable of answering this question.

As the FDA site itself states:



Although MDRs are a valuable source of information, this passive surveillance system has limitations, including the potential submission of incomplete, inaccurate, untimely, unverified, or biased data. In addition, the incidence or prevalence of an event cannot be determined from this reporting system alone due to potential under-reporting of events and lack of information about frequency of device use. Because of this, MDRs comprise only one of the FDA's several important postmarket surveillance data sources. As stated clearly by the FDA

· MDR data alone cannot be used to establish rates of events, evaluate a change in event rates over time or compare event rates between devices. The number of reports cannot be interpreted or used in isolation to reach conclusions about the existence, severity, or frequency of problems associated with devices.

[www.accessdata.fda.gov]



The public deserves a higher degree of accountability from a company whose products are of such widespread impacts with regard to health outcomes. Is this an example of bad science or investor relations out of control? It is about time your company understands that propaganda and share buybacks do not mitigate the usage of your machine by untrained surgeons. You have a problem on your hands – and this is only making it worse.



Very Truly Yours,

Andrew Left

Editor, Citron Research

P. S. September MAUDE reports have just been posted. Another 102 injury-type reports and another 4 death-type reports. This exceeds August's record high, which was itself four times any previous reporting period in the company's history.

Ouch!

A bit off to me, but it opened higher, and traded higher this morning, but it seems to have backed off now almost to the open. I would have expected a lower open this morning, not a higher one. Guess the MM is still playing his games.

ISRG still working for me, it at least made it above the 50ma on the D, its fighting with the 200ma on the 144 currently, my entry chart was the 233 on 10/7... we'll see what tomorrow brings

just for the sake of completeness.. ISRG exit on 10/15, close of the 233 9:30 candle, MACD collapse signaled the end

Hey ChairmanFaust,

What kept you in that trade after how indicators responded on the 10th? I follow this trade up until the 10th when everything shows me a reversal, but obviously it was a headfake because it rallied after the 10th. As I continue to study big charts, I am trying to learn as much as I can. The one thing I see is that the MACD did not officially cross on the 233 on the 10th, but you exited on the 15 and the MACD lines merged on a reversal candle. Is that the reason? Again, I am just trying to learn a bit more about how to hold positions a bit longer.

Yep short sellers before bad earnings.

rookie you are correct about the macd... the reasoning is having plenty of exit signs but none of the 4 indicators crossing on the 233/D/W, you stay in the trade... on 10/9 the RSI on the 233 crossed and that could have been an optional exit, but seeing it was still moving up and the MACD on the 233 and D was still wide open I stayed, at the close of the 9:30 candle on 10/15 the MACD on the 233 collapsed, and that was my cue to exit... I would have made about the same as if I got out on the 10th... waiting for an indicator to cross or the macd to collapse doesn't always guarantee more $, but it can most of the time... and should only be used when you're up quite a bit in your position... otherwise take your 5 exits and run

ChairmanFaust,
Thanks.... that helps a lot. I am studying these charts because I do not want to live my life in the trading leg. The quick money is good, but in 5 or 6 years, I plan retiring from my 9-5, well, maybe not retire, but work from home. If I am never comfortable trading on bigger charts, I will probably never be successful in W/O. I will continue studying trades such as ISRG.

I do not totally understand how time decay REALLY works, but I know when in a position for a longer period of time, the position picks up steam really fast. The option price was different when reaching the same stock price as it was several days ago. It was more when coming around the second time. I know I am not explaining that very well, but I experienced something different while holding my FB position. I simply cannot explain it. I just know I liked it, and I was not as stressed.

rookie30, I'm with you on this... doing these short chart trades are a great way to boost your trading leg on days when large chart trades are not available, I too do not intend to do short charts forever, GW wants us to buy options 5-6months out ideally, this is to minimize time decay and offers the best price/theta ratio for 233/D/W chart trades... if you're doing big charts, never buy options anywhere close to 30 days expiring, as stated here: [optionalpha.com] time decay picks up steam around the 30 day mark and moves quickly every day after that, compared to the days prior to the 30 day expiration