CSCO: A Long Term Options Play

Apple's earnings are coming today after the market closes. We will have the results as soon as they hit at this page, so tune in. In the meanwhile, here's what to expect.

By John Mylant: For those who enjoy long-term investing and short-term trading, we have another perfect opportunity for short- to medium-term option trading with General Electric (GE). GE operates as a technology, service, and finance company worldwide.They are coming off a very important support level and if history is consistent, GE will give us opportunity to create an option play that could bring a nice profit in.

By Kevin M. O'Brien:While I am for the most part a short-term options trader, I occasionally buy long-term LEAP call options (also known as Long-Term Equity AnticiPation Securities) on a company that I feel represents great value. I am especially cautious when I go this route as I must have complete confidence going forward that the stock will have a considerable move upward within a full year time-frame.

Cameron Kaine submits:"We are very pleased to report another strong quarter of subscriber revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth together with improving margins and increasing cash flow. We added 118% more subscribers in Q1 2011 than in Q1 2010.

By Matthew Dow:A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on various opportunities to play the explosive growth of Big Data. In that article, one obvious industry that I did not touch upon is the hard disk drive makers. Clearly as more and more storage space is needed both in enterprise and consumer markets, it would seem logical that those companies who are creating disk drives could stand to benefit.

By John Mylant: Cobalt International creates the perfect opportunity for a short term income play as it has been in a trading channel for some time now. With the recent mishaps in the company's rig in West Africa, the stock may hit the bottom rung quickly and then turn itself around and start moving up again as it has so many times. This opens the door to a nice short term income play using options to add to a nice long term investing portfolio.

By John Mylant: Crocs, Inc. (CROX) has been on a incredible run since December. Here is a nice option play for the year that could net the savvy investor a nice gain.

Dr. Stephen Leeb submits:Earnings season is hitting its stride. Over 100 of S&P 500 companies have already reported first quarter results, and it appears we’re on track for a relatively positive season.