One thing that failing companies like Twitter (TWTR) do to scare the bejesus out of sweet bears like me is to yammer on about how they’re going to sell themselves to the top bidder. This causes most bears to break out in a cold sweat about the giant premiums that other companies will pay.

I’ve learned to get over this fear. For instance, one of my 75 short positions is Kate Spade (KATE), shown below. Word on the street is that Coach is going to buy them (who else but a seller of overpriced handbags would want to buy another seller of overpriced handbags?)

However, the chart screams “sell” to me, and so I am short it. I would also point out that, as I am typing this, the stock is down about 8% after hours, even though the whole COH/KATE thing is well known.

All I can say is that I’m very bearish retail in general, including XRT, which I am massively short and whose chart is shown below. My view is that retail is (a) screwed and (b) tattooed.