Earnings Radar

A results calendar for the companies this desk covers. It answers two questions. When does this company report, and what happened at its last few reports. This is one of the Market Radar screens in RingMaster, the product Ohey Inc publishes. Open Market Radar

At a glance

• What the screen is. A list of covered companies with results due inside the number of days you choose at the top of the screen. Rows sit in date order, grouped by day.
• The timeline. A row of bubbles above the list, one per upcoming report, placed on the days ahead. The bubble's size is the priced move; its fill is the IV rank; a solid ring is a confirmed date and a dashed ring is estimated.
• Why the date matters. Public companies report four times a year. Results day is often the most volatile day of a company's quarter.
• The date at the top. The earlier of when we rebuilt this screen and when the option chain behind the straddle column was captured.
• Confirmed date. The company announced this date itself.
• Estimated date. Nobody announced it. We worked it out from when this company reported in past quarters. It can move, sometimes by a week.
• The estimate. Analysts who follow a company publish a figure for the profit they have worked out for the quarter, for each share. That figure is theirs. Ohey does not produce it.
• The last four reports. For each of the last four quarters, how far the reported profit landed from that estimate, in percent. So +12.3% means the report came in 12.3% above the estimate that stood before it.
• Moved, beside each report. Under each of those four figures, how the shares moved on that report day, close to close. It is a record of what happened.
• The share price the next day. How much the share price moved from one closing price to the next, as a percentage. It covers the first trading day after each past report.
• Priced move. A straddle is a matched pair of option contracts. One pays if the share price rises, the other pays if it falls. Both are set at the same price level and the same end date. The row leads with what that pair costs as a percent of the share price, as priced, with the dollar price and the strike alongside it. It only appears where the rules below are met.
• IV rank. Where the name carries options coverage, how tonight's own option price sits against its own weekly record, 0 to 100. The same figure Market Scan and the Options Screener already show.
• No view of any kind. Nothing here is ranked, flagged or scored. Ohey says nothing about what a report will contain. Key difference. Confirmed = the company's own date. Estimated = worked out from its past pattern.

Which dates the company announced, and which we worked out

Most calendars on the internet show every date the same way. You cannot tell which ones the company actually announced. A large share of the further out dates were never announced by anybody.

A trader planning around a worked out date usually does not know they are doing it. So every row here carries its mark, and the two counts sit in the header above the list. Set a longer stretch of days and watch the split shift. The far end of any earnings calendar is mostly worked out rather than announced.

What each row shows

• How many days ahead. Buttons at the top set seven, fourteen, thirty or forty five days. Fourteen is the default, because that is what most people plan around.
• A day heading. Each date gets one. It says how far away the day is and how many companies report on it.
• The company and its ticker. Click the row and the whole desk switches to that company.
• The mark. Confirmed or estimated, on every row. The date itself sits once, in the day heading above the row, and is not repeated on the row.
• When. Before the open or after the close, where the feed carries a time. Where it does not, the row says the time is unstated.
• The estimate. The consensus earnings per share figure for the quarter. Consensus means the analysts who cover that company, taken together. They publish it. Ohey does not.
• The last four reports. Four small boxes, one for each of the last four quarters. Each box holds one percentage: what that quarter reported, less the estimate that stood before it. Under it, "moved +6.2%": how the shares moved on that report day. For a report after the close, that is the close that day to the next trading day's close. Before the open, the prior close to that day's close.
• The row's hover. Rest on a row and one sentence sets the straddle beside those four moves. First the straddle, as a share of the share price. Then how the shares moved on each of the last four report days. The straddle is a price. The four moves are a record. Neither is a prediction.
• The share price after each past report. The move over the first trading day after the report, close to close. It comes from the price record this desk holds.
• Splits and large dividends. These change the quoted price without the company being worth any more or less. Every move is checked against a record of those events before it may print.
• The priced move. Where the rules below allow one, the listed straddle covering the report, as a percent of the share price. The dollar price, the strike and the expiry sit beside it. Otherwise the row shows a dash.
• IV rank. A number 0 to 100, or a dash where the name carries no options coverage.

The straddle, and the rules it obeys

A straddle is one call and one put at the same strike and the same expiry. A call is a contract that pays if the share price goes up. A put is one that pays if it goes down. The strike is the price level both are written against, and the expiry is the day they run out. Together the pair spans the report. This screen prints what that pair cost at the close, as a percent of the share price, with the dollar figure alongside it. Each of the two contracts is priced at the midpoint of its published closing buy and sell quotes. The row states a price, restated as a percent. These rules are what keep it honest.

• One real strike. Both quotes come from one listed strike near the share price. Nothing is blended across strikes, and no price is filled in between them.
• A current snapshot. The quotes come from the desk's nightly record of option prices, and the capture date is printed above the table. If that snapshot is not from the last completed trading day, every straddle cell is blank.
• Announced dates only. A straddle is shown only against a date the company has announced.
• Both prices must be usable. Each of the two contracts needs a live buying price and a live selling price. The gap between the two must be narrow, and enough contracts must be held. The pair is checked against the screen's own sums as well.
• A dash where a rule is not met. A row that fails any one of these rules shows a dash instead of a price. The priced move prints as a percent on the row, one published price divided by another, with the dollar figure alongside it. The row's hover sets it beside the last four report day moves. It is never called an expected or implied move, and it is never blended into the moves beside it. It is a price the market is asking, as priced, never a forecast. Key difference. The last four reports are a record of what happened. The priced move is what the options market currently charges.

What is deliberately not here

• No move of ours. The straddle is what two contracts cost, and the hover states that cost as a share of the share price. Nothing here says what the report will do, and no figure on the row is Ohey's own view of the move.
• No ranking, no highlight, no badge. Nothing here marks a company out. The order is the calendar's.
• No signal on the coming quarter. The last four reports are arithmetic on two published numbers, about quarters that have already closed. A company whose reports came in above the estimate four times running has told you about four quarters. It has told you nothing about the fifth.

Real world use

1. Knowing what is in front of you. If you hold shares in a company and it reports on Thursday, that is worth knowing on Monday. The date is the fact. What the report will contain is not something this screen, or Ohey, says anything about.
2. Reading a calendar honestly. The confirmed and estimated counts show what the dates alone hide. Much of any earnings calendar is worked out rather than announced.
3. A way into the other screens. Clicking a row takes that company across the whole desk. You can go from a date to the option chain and the volatility history for the same company.

Frequently asked questions

Where do the dates come from? From company announcements where a company has made one. Where it has not, from the pattern of that company's own past filings. Every row says which. Does a big gap at a past report say anything about the next one? Nothing this screen can tell you. Four observations are four observations. Is the priced move a forecast? No. It is what two listed contracts cost at the close, stated as a percent of the share price. The dollar figure, strike and expiry sit alongside it. The row's hover sets it beside how the shares moved on the last four report days. Many traders read a straddle as a movement gauge. That reading is theirs to make. This screen states the price and the record, and stops. What is IV rank? Where the name carries options coverage, how tonight's own option price sits against that name's own weekly record over the past year, 0 to 100. A high number means tonight's price sits high in that record; it says nothing about which way the shares will move. How old are these numbers? The option quotes are from the last completed trading day, and the capture date is printed above the table. A confirmed date is as the company announced it. An estimated date is worked out from that company's past quarters and can move. The estimate is the analysts' consensus figure as they publish it.

Related panes

• Priced Range, what option prices imply for movement over each expiry, for the same company.
• Company Events, what that company has actually filed.
• Volatility History, where today's implied volatility sits against that company's own record.