We're closing our short calls for Rover and Traeger , and I've personally covered my short in COOK.

Our thesis on COOK — that it had rallied based on illogical enthusiasm toward the proposed buyout of peer Weber — has played out. COOK has declined 33% to finish regular trading Thursday at $2.74. That’s reasonably close to our $2.50 estimate of fair value, and close enough in this still-volatile market to take profits.

For ROVR, we wrote in our November call that we weren't looking for a home run, but rather to scalp a short-term run that had left the stock overvalued. The stock since has dropped 28%.

One of the points we made in that piece was that, despite being a pet-sitting company, ROVR is more of a travel stock than a pet stock. With travel demand still intact — at least judging by strong Q4 earnings reports from major U.S. airlines — risk/reward here looks much more balanced.

Both stocks may still have downside going forward, particularly if the broad market weakens further. We’re certainly not swinging bullish on either name. But in this market, there appear to be better opportunities elsewhere — both long and short — to deploy capital.

As of this writing, Vince Martin has no positions in any securities mentioned.

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Overlooked Alpha

Trade Update: Covering ROVR and COOK