When a Bad Outlook Makes a Good Buy

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Baker Hughes' (BHI) stunningly bad guidance Tuesday morning continues a litany of bad reports and stock action from the major oil services companies in 2012.

In light of this guidance and subsequent downgrade by two large brokerage firms, Baker Hughes traded briefly under $40 in the premarket, a level that has served me well in the past to find value in the shares.

Why would I be looking to buy this stock on the back of such a bad outlook from the company?

Because as an investor or a trader you have to understand that even when the fundamental picture is bad, there are levels at which the stocks are good values and great buys.

So, despite the dropping rig counts, the flood of pressure pumping equipment trying to leverage fewer shale gas drilling opportunities and a moribund natural gas market price, there are going to be trading chances in the three big oil-service giants, Schlumberger (SLB), Halliburton (HAL) and Baker Hughes.

I give some solid targets and reasons for those targets in the video above.

At the time of publication the author had no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Dan Dicker has been a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange with more than 25 years of oil trading experience. He is a licensed commodities trade adviser.

Dan is currently President of MercBloc LLC, a wealth management firm and is the author of ¿Oil¿s Endless Bid¿, published in March of 2011 by John Wiley and Sons.

Dan Dicker has appeared as an energy analyst since 2002 with all the major financial news networks. He has lent his expertise in hundreds of live radio and television broadcasts on CNBC, Bloomberg US and UK and CNNfn.

Dan obtained a bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1982.