BBRY shares just crossed a key level on the charts
From March 31 to June 1,
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) was on fire, rallying from $6.95 to a two-year high of $11.74 on June 1. It's been nothing but downside since, however, with BBRY stock last seen trading at $8.53 -- down 1.8% for the day. In fact, the shares just crossed below a very notable technical level. Check out the chart of BlackBerry stock below.
With today's decline BBRY has fallen below the $8.59 price point, which represents a 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of its 2017 low and high. This has the security testing support at its 200-day moving average, one of Wall Street's favorite
technical indicators. The stock bottomed earlier at $8.47, two pennies above this trendline.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry call options are trading at a slightly accelerated rate today. This is mostly due to heavy interest in the January 2018 10- and 11-strike calls. Data gives the impression of buy-to-open activity here, suggesting traders are anticipating BBRY will move back into double-digit territory in the coming months. The January 2018 10-strike call is already second on the equity's top open positions list, trailing only the 12-strike call from the same series.
For shorter-term traders, data would suggest it's a fairly good time to be buying premium. Specifically, the stock has a Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 34%, ranking in the bottom quartile of its annual range. This means volatility expectations for near-term options are unusually low right now, from a historical standpoint.
Outside the options pits, short interest on BlackBerry continues to unwind, falling another 11.1% during the past two reporting periods to 39.95 million shares -- the fewest since early 2012. And most
analysts remain skeptical, with seven of nine recommending to hold or sell the stock, versus two "buy" or "strong buy" ratings.