This post was written by Minyanville contributor Smita Sadana (position in NFLX).

My trading-experiences have shown me that the strong usually do not fall without putting up a good fight. In that spirit, I am looking for a long position in Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), that we had let go in the vicinity of $42.

Now that NFLX has rewound some of its dramatic ascend and come to the 20-day moving average and is trading just around $39.30, it might re-attempt to scale higher. I would have really liked if my entry had been closer to the lateral trendline (around $38.20), but one can only react to the moves of the market, not predict them.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Steve Smith.

Someone seems to think shares of Apache (NYSE: APA) could go on the bullish war path. Even after the stock moved up some 18%, from $52 to$61 last week, investors are still after the energy producer.

This morning saw a big slug of the April $70 calls purchased. The notable transaction was 2,000 contracts trading at $1.15 which was the offer price at that point. The stock has continued higher and those calls are now fetching $1.55 a contract.

This post was written by Minyanville Contributor Steve Smith.

Pharmaceuticals have been alive and merging. The most recent deal is this morning's news that Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) wants CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CVTX), which comes on the heals Roche's purchase of Genentech(NYSE:DNA) and Merck's (NYSE:MRK) proposed merger with Schering Plough(NYSE:SGP).

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Minyan Peter.

This morning UBS (NYSE: UBS) reported that it was amending its 2008 financial statements to increase the prior period loss by another Sf 1.1 billion.

I would remind readers that Citigroup (NYSE: C) did the same thing at the end February when it "booked" an incremental $9.6 billion charge for goodwill impairment in its 2008 results. And there have been several other situations where, with hindsight, financial institutions have adjusted their 2008 results lower (versus their initial earnings releases) prior to filing their 10-K's with the SEC.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Fil Zucchi.

To highlight defense names in the face of the current spending priorities feels like soaking in gasoline and walking around smoking a cigarette. With that visual as a backdrop, it is also fair to say that Obama is probably just as focused on protecting the motherland as Bush was, and, much as he may dislike it, that will force continued if not increased spending in certain areas of defense. The one name I have been drooling over for years and which is finally coming together in many respects is L-3 Communication (NYSE: LLL).

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Jason Goepfert.

Regarding an observation I saw on the Dow's six straight losses, I show it's happened roughly every 20 years since 1896.

The last occurrence wasn't that long ago, September 2002, though a couple of those months were just barely negative and may actually show a positive return depending on who your data vendor is.

Anyway, what I think is interesting is that the Dow's performance after the others was mixed when looking out one to three months -- sometimes up, sometimes down. After six months, only two of the six were positive and the average risk during those six months was -11%, compared to an average reward of +8%.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Minyan Peter.

I have been asked whether there was anything in Chairman Bernanke's speech yesterday that changed my outlook on the prospects of nationalization for some of our largest financial institutions. In a word "no".

From my perspective, all Chairman Bernanke did was to confirm Monday's Joint Statement from the bank which offered that what the Government was hoping to implement were "temporary capital buffers" "to provide a cushion against larger than expected future losses, should they occur due to a more severe economic environment, and to support lending to creditworthy borrowers." And that the Government's security of choice would be "mandatory convertible preferred shares."

This port was written by Minyanville contributor Minyan Peter.

I think the Government will try at all costs to create the impression that only a limited number of banks are going to be nationalized. To achieve this, Secretary Geithner has requested that the top 15-20 banks in the country undergo a stress test, where regulators will review banks' capital positions under a variety of economic scenarios. And, based on these reviews, those banks that fail will be given convertible preferred stock to boost their capital levels to some yet to be determined level.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Smita Sadana.

On 2/2, a trading buddy asked me if I would short MasterCard (MA); reason being that financials are looking weak and MA has reached 50-day moving average which could act as a possible resistance and might turn the stock down.

My reply was a unequivocal NO, I wouldn't short MA. Here were the reasons.

1) Financials are weak, down 11% from the high; but notice that MA has not given way. Reaching 50-day moving average is another sign of strength. I don't engage in horse racing, but placing a bet that a strong horse among a group of weak horses will lose, didn't seem right to me!

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Lance Lewis.

Banro (NYSE: BAA) jumped 13% yesterday after the company announced that it had finally completed its bankable feasibility study on its Twangiza project and proved up nearly 4 mln ounces of its 10 mln ounce resource. Thus, we can now calculate an NAV for BAA.

BAA has no debt. So, assuming $1,000 gold, 3.67 mln ounces of Proven & Probable reserves, an average cash cost of $429 per ounce over the life of the mine (which is based on the feasibility study), and the estimated $410 mln required for cap ex, we get an NAV of almost $15 a share (which gives zero value to the company's current cash balance of around $20 mln and its remaining 5.6 mln ounce resource at Twangiza, not to mention the resource estimates at its other properties).

This post was writtenby Minyanville contributor Ryan Krueger.

Looks like Verasun Energy Corp. (NYSE: VSE), a formerly popular ethanol stock and second largest producer, has won court permission to cancel contracts signed to purchase corn. It is now in bankruptcy. I'm also hearing about a lot of excess ethanol funded by your tax dollars being sold to other countries. That worked out well.

The mistaken policy and debates are endless, the trades are what I am chewing on instead. I think consumers of corn at lower prices are set up for some awfully tasty '09 comparisons for their bottom lines. Corn Products International, Inc. (NYSE: CPO), after Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) backed away from its take-over, is a name I have re-entered from the long side after closing out my position just after the non-merger was announced and shares traded twice what they are now. They sweeten something you'll eat or drink in the next hour.

Longer term, however, I am even more interested in the ingredients, not the end products. But it's still early. I have been long gone from 2008 corn contracts for quite some time, but am starting to poke around out on the futures curve. On the same day this court ruling was announced abolishing artificial demand, quiet real demand emerged as Mexico was a big buyer of corn.

I'll take a few billion eaters over several million drivers any day.

Minyanville Professor Sean Udall dares to share the kind of keen insight and actionable information you won't find in any prospectus. For more original thought, visit www.minyanville.com.

While Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) is starting to get compellingly cheap on a valuation basis. It's also supposed to be one of those names that beats numbers like clockwork. AKAM's forward numbers are still sporting plenty of growth, but they have been lowered. Now many analysts will also lower numbers.

Unfortunately, we're not in a market that is looking forward. It's discounting companies that "could" have a re-acceleration of growth when the economy materially picks up steam again, or when the world realizes that we're not in recession/depression. The market we're in still overly punishes stocks that "feel" like they might have the bad news mostly (or fully) priced in. AKAM around $30 was feeling like a miss that was priced in. However, after hours the stock traded down a quick $5-6 and from this current level the near term direction will likely be determined by how much love is still left in the analyst community. If the analysts defend the name we could see a quick snapback.

Wow, the Fox Business Network hasn't even been on the air for a month, and its critics are already writing its obituary because the channel has made some boneheaded moves.

First, as Fox-hater Keith Olbermann noted, the News Corp (NYSE: NWS) channel did some "creative" editing of negative newspaper reviews and turned them into positive ones? Yesterday, Olbermann, the host of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, "awarded" network honcho Roger Ailes the title of "Worst Person in the World" because presumably mortal enemy Bill O'Reilly's evilness just wasn't up to snuff. This bit is part of Olbermann's shtick on his program which regularly outrages conservatives.

Of course, Ailes is far from the worst person in the world. At best, he and his boss Rupert Murdoch are in the top 10% of evil-doers, well behind the likes of Osama bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and people who dress up their pets in Halloween costumes. But unlike many arch-villains, Ailes is a very creative and resourceful guy.

For instance, he's lined up Minyanville.com characters "Hoofy the Bull" and "Boo the Bear" to host a segment on the network's critically derided Happy Hour program. Is this idea going to win a Peabody? Of course not, but it's not the end of the world, either. Still, this feature wasn't a smart PR move, because it plays into the hands of Fox's many critics, including Joe Nocera of The New York Times, who have blasted the network for being too upbeat.

"Good traders know how to make money, great traders know how to take a loss," Todd Harrison advises in the latest edition of StockWatch: Between the Bells. The prudent founder and CEO of Minyanville Publishing and Multimedia recommends always working with the market: "Trade to win, never trade not to lose."