Intel's stock jumped because the company posted good earnings. That's it. Revenue grew faster than it has in fifteen years. Analysts are calling it a blowout quarter. Retail traders are now convinced they understand semiconductors.
They don't.
The chipmaker rode an AI boom to these numbers. Same AI boom everyone's been riding. Same AI boom that's been in the headlines for two years. But sure, this time the chart pattern predicted it. The head and shoulders formation saw it coming. The moving average convergence divergence indicator whispered sweet nothings about gross margin expansion.
Revenue growth hasn't moved this fast since 2011. Know what else happened in 2011? Retail traders lost money buying stocks based on earnings reports. They'll do it again now. They always do.
The guidance was strong too. Management said things will continue going well. Traders heard this and immediately drew support lines on their phones. They updated their Discord servers. They posted rocket emojis. Not one of them read the 10-Q.
Here's what technical analysis would have told you about Intel before earnings: absolutely nothing. The chart showed a stock that went up sometimes and down other times. Breaking news, that's every stock. But someone somewhere looked at volume bars and RSI and Fibonacci retracements and convinced themselves they had an edge.
They didn't have an edge. They had a gambling problem and a Robinhood account.
Intel makes chips. Chips are in demand. Company reports this fact. Stock goes up. This required zero crayon drawings on a price chart. It required reading one earnings release. Maybe two if you're slow.
The fastest revenue growth in almost fifteen years, and technical traders are taking victory laps because their MACD crossed over three days ago.
Photo by Brecht Corbeel on Unsplash
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