As you know I was long ADTN for a few days recently but sold it because they were due to report earnings. The reason I get out ahead of earnings is that I have no clue what the company is going to say nor, more importantly, how the market will react to what they say. ADTN is a great example today. They reported real late last night (6:39 PM), although everything I saw said they were supposed to report this morning. This morning there were what seemed to be decent comments from a couple of analysts. The stock was trading down about a dollar to $28.50 in the pre-market. But all of this is before the conference call which started at 10:30 this morning. That’s when the bottom fell out:

Of course I’ve also had situations where I got out of a stock (PLMO was a recent example) and it went in what would have been my favor. But I’ve found that it’s just a roll of the dice to stay in through earnings reports, and I don’t like gambling… I speculate! :-) Even once the report is out it’s often wise to wait for the conference call and then the analysts’ post-conference call comments. So I like to wait until a day or two after earnings to consider a stock. There’s enough risk in trading without adding another unknown into the mix.

Let me add that I’m pissed about RHAT! I had that short nailed a couple of weeks ago but got shaken out. Argh!!!! It’s now down 28% from where I shorted it. Frickin’, frackin’… :-)