Monthly Archive for September, 2010

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I hear the Fed a’coming

Published on September 19, 2010, 10:30 pm in Charts and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

On “normal” opex Friday’s it usually gets wild about an hour before the close and volume zooms as traders even out their accounts. But, just as the rest of the week went, volume was below average….neither humans or computers want to trade anymore!

While the markets had an up week, the S&P still has not broke through the June and August highs.

But the Nasdaq has busted through the August highs and has its sight on the June highs.

So Nasdaq may be the new leader in this game.

Commodities look to be booming this evening, gold, oil, wheat, corn…oh my! Is inflation on its way? The FOMC has a meeting this week, and we’ll find out a lot more about the housing market as well.

Be careful out there…and happy trading :!:

Weekend Reading 09/18/10

Published on September 18, 2010, 10:00 am in reading. Closed Tags: .

“President Obama spoke to students this week and told them to stay focused and stay in school. You know why? Because there are no jobs out there.” – Jay Leno

Oh wow! Let’s do the math: Employment generation disappointing: LA City Controller.

Coming to you next week: Market Will Watch Fed, Then Politics and Economy.

Obama Will Set Tone for Markets Next Week.

Dimon in the rough: New Fed Rules Are Being Questioned.

In Great Recession, Other Nations Have Suffered More. It really wasn’t that bad, was it?

Where’s all the money going? Cheapest Stocks Fail to Lure Investors as Bullish Signs Mount.

Obama, the jig is up! Why didn’t any of this show up during the election in ’08?

“The White House announced today that the stimulus package saved three million jobs. But they said there’s still more jobs that need to be saved: President Obama’s, Joe Biden’s, Harry Reid’s, Nancy Pelosi’s…” – Jay Leno

Groundhog Day again?

Published on September 16, 2010, 10:40 pm in Opinions, Tools and Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

This is getting to be a broken record…or is it Groundhog Day, the movie…no volume…over and over again! And it’s opex. Tomorrow has to show some activity, and at this point I don’t care if it’s the bulls or the bears or both.

Did you see that bullish sentiment hit 51% this week in the AAII survey. That’s the highest reading this year. And you know what happens when there are so many bullish people? That’s right, markets go down. Be wary out there….it’s not instantaneous, but the signal says time for some downward movement.

It was miserable for several hours…no Internet and no television….the cable was out. I’m at a loss when all my communications is gone. The Internet connection is back up so time to update all my charts.

“According to government auditors, the stimulus money is being held up because there aren’t enough government workers to oversee the spending. So follow this, in other words, government workers who aren’t there are needed to spend money we don’t have to create jobs that don’t exist.’ – Jay Leno

Where is everybody?

Published on September 15, 2010, 11:03 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Here we are, hump day in options expiration and no one came to play. Monday had a nice pop in volume, but it has sloughed off again. Sure, I can understand the week before Labor Day holiday…and the shortened week of the holiday, but what gives now? Are all the computers broken? Are all the “retail” traders scared out of the market?

Gold and the dollar and oil meandered around…and so did the indexes, which by the way ended green after starting in the red. Futures this evening are moving down. Morning holds the Jobless Claims…will it it bring the markets back up or send them deeper in the hole. Either way, we can always blame it on OpEx :!:

Strange Brew

Published on September 14, 2010, 10:37 pm in Charts, Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Today was a strange day in the market. The S&P went down to the 200ma bounced up to the August highs and then ended where it began the day….stuck in a range.

This will give you an idea of what the charts looked like today…Strange Brew.

Oil, gold and the dollar went wacky today…the dollar dove and gold soared. This evening, the Bank of Japan began intervening in the currency markets making the dollar soar and the yen dive. Dramamine anyone? Japan Intervenes in Forex Market for First Time in 6 Years.

Looks like September options expiration week is going to be a wild one!

M&A Monday

Published on September 13, 2010, 11:16 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: .

Mergers and Acquisitions were a main ingredient in today’s bull rally. Does that make Turnaround Tuesday primed for a down move? We’ve had 10 up days out of the last 12, somethings gotta give. At worst case, a collapse…at best case some consolidation and some backing and filling. Of course we could just keep going up also, but probabilites are weak on that one.

Oil was a leader today as it hit $78 and then retreated.

We’ve got Retail Sales and Business Inventories on Tuesday.

And that’s all he wrote! 8)

Weekend Reading Part Deux

Published on September 11, 2010, 7:24 pm in reading. Closed Tags: , .

Watching college football but still browsing the web. Found a couple more interesting tidbits:

40 Professional Stock Trading Tips.

The Mindset Of A Losing Trader.

This is the Mindset of a Successful Trader.

Here’s some news that may affect Monday’s markets….well at least futures Sunday evening: China’s August CPI rises to 22-month high, PPI up 4.3%

Yeah! Ohio State! Saw a neat placard in the stands:

Miami can have Lebron, the real kings in Ohio wear scarlett and gray!

Weekend Reading 9/11/10

Published on September 10, 2010, 10:13 pm in reading. Closed Tags: .

Take a moment and a prayer. Remember what you were doing when you heard. God Bless America!

From UpsideTrader: My Remembrance….always remember, always.

Has political correctness gone too far? Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let’s stop fulfilling bin Laden’s goals.

GoDaddy Is on the Block. Gee, it may be worth it just for the GoDaddy girls!

If you follow CANSLIM: Leaders, Not Losers.

Are all those programmers at MSFT really that dumb? Microsoft Throws A Crazy Parade To Celebrate The Birth Of Windows Phone, Death Of iPhone.

And for you football fans and/or Cleveland residents….

“President Obama was in Cleveland pitching his latest economic plan. He picked Cleveland because those are the Browns fans, and in September, they’ll believe anything.” – Jay Leno

Oils well that ends well

Published on September 10, 2010, 8:53 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Not much you can say about today except….oil, oil and oil! Which meant that UCO USO ERX were the place to be. And of course the calls I bought yesterday were golden.

Speakin’ of gold, it didn’t do so well today. Sure it closed in the green, but it took a dive. And if you look at the daily chart, it has a bearish evening star candle pattern. Better watch out!

Oh yeah, and the volume today just sucked. Can’t say more than that.

I’ll have my weekend reading out soon! Have a great weekend. :mrgreen:

The 3R’s

Published on September 9, 2010, 7:35 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Talk about a confluence….Rosh Hashanah, Ramadan, Rollover :!: The market was an ugly place to be….well at least after that morning run up.

Sure the Jobless claims were encouraging, but then reports came out saying it was all a big guess since several states didn’t have enough time to get their numbers in. Expect revisions next week.

DB needs money bad. Deutsche Bank Said to Weigh Share Sale of Up to $11.4 Billion.

And again volume was down…a couple holidays and index futures rollover. How screwed up was today?

I dumped some UCO when oil ran up in the morning and before it dumped on itself. I did take some of the profits and picked up some UCO calls when oil ran down….playing with house money.

Another low news day on Friday, with only Wholesale Inventories scheduled. Don’t forget, Options Expiration next week.