On Aug. 11, Tom Ronk’s algorithm generated a report on Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNRC), a maker of power generation equipment often sought after natural disasters.
“That was far before the current news about hurricanes in Texas and the Atlantic,” said Ronk, co-founder of Buyins.com Inc. in Corona del Mar.
The report suggested the stock, then trading at $37.35, could reach $38.29 by Aug. 14, citing the seasonality of hurricane season. It predicted a short-squeeze price of $40.20.
Ronk’s key product, SqueezeTrigger, identifies a price when short sellers may begin to panic. In a short squeeze, short sellers betting stocks that will fall in price try to buy the shares that are rising to cut their losses.
The SqueezeTrigger is based on factors like volume, weighted average price, and the cost basis of all of the short selling in each U.S. stock, Ronk said.
In the case of Generac, the stock reached a high of only $37.84 by Aug. 14 and fell as low as $35.94 in subsequent days. As the extent of Hurricane Harvey’s damage in Houston became apparent, the shares began soaring. After it hit the SqueezeTrigger price on Aug. 31, it continued rising. By Sept. 6, it closed at $43.59, a 17% climb in under a month since the report.
— Peter J. Brennan
