Ocuphire Pharma Plunges Following CEO Termination, New Appointment: The Bull, Bear Case

Ocuphire Pharma Inc OCUP was plunging over 22% at one point on Friday after the company announced it appointed Rick Rodgers to the role of interim CEO. An SEC filing, which stated former CEO Mina Sooch was terminated suggested there could be an issue at the company, which sparked fear.

The massive downturn in Ocuphire caused the stock to negate an uptrend it had been trading in since April 3, when it broke up from a long period of sideways consolidation.

An uptrend occurs when a stock consistently makes a series of higher highs and higher lows on the chart.

The higher highs indicate the bulls are in control while the intermittent higher lows indicate consolidation periods.

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The Ocuphire Chart: Ocuphire negated its downtrend by making a lower low under the April 14 higher low of $5.01. For a new downtrend to confirm, Ocuphire will need to eventually bounce up to print a lower high under $6.50.

• The move lower on Friday came on higher-than-average volume, which indicates the bears have taken control, at least temporarily. Bulls will want to see the stock trade sideways on decreasing volume to indicate consolidation has started to take place and the bulls have become exhausted.
• The drop caused Ocuphire to lose support at the eight-day and 21-day exponential moving averages (EMAs) and on Friday, when the stock bounced up from its low-of-day, it was struggling to regain the 21-day EMA as support. If the stock is unable to regain that level over the next few trading days, the eight-day EMA will eventually cross under the 21-day, which would be bearish.
• If Ocuphire continues to drop further, the stock is likely to find support at the 50-day simple moving average. If that happens, bullish traders can watch for Ocuphire to print a bullish reversal candlestick at that level.
• Ocuphire has resistance above at $5.34 and $6.52 and support below at $4.40 and $3.89.

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