Monthly Archive for November, 2010

Boring

Published on November 30, 2010, 9:19 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Sure there was the usual gap down with a crawl back up the rest of the day…volume was even decent. But, it was a boring day. All I did was nibble on some calls in QQQ and XLF and NOK…just enough to make me feel like I did something today. We’ll see how that turns out.

News starts to pick up tomorrow about jobs…ADP Employment report on Wednesday, Jobless Claims on Thursday and the BLS Employment report on Friday. Tomorrow also has Construction Spending, Auto Sales and Crude Inventories. When does that Santa Claus rally start?

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Bad PIS

Published on November 29, 2010, 10:03 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

It was a trader’s day on Monday. The gap down was there as I thought and got out of the rest of the SPY puts. I then started buying QQQ calls, but they didn’t do much….until later in the afternoon. I was out of those by the close. Yes, a good day!

Futures were real happy Sunday night when Ireland got a bailout, but thinking about it overnight traders said…what about Portugal and Spain?…completing the bad PIS. So if Ireland gets saved, where does the money come for the other two? So futures came down overnight and continued for an hour after the cash open. But a bottom was hit and a base built for several hours until the climb up started. Sure the markets closed in the red but way up off the morning lows.

We get a few economic reports on Tuesday, inclusing Chicago PMI and Consumer Confidence. I’m sitting in cash now so I’ll just wait for the market to show itself. And don’t forget Friday brings us the monthly Employment report. 8)

Funny….What Do HFT Bots Fight About?

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What’s up?

Published on November 28, 2010, 11:33 am in Charts, Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Now that we are done with the festival of dead birds and undone trouser buttons, it’s time for shopping! And it looked good at the malls, but the markets were scared about Euro debt and Korean war. With the big gap down I thought my few remaining long positions would be toast…but no. Indexes ground upward giving me a chance to still get a decent profit.

For the rest of the day I nibbled on SPY puts on every rally thinking when everyone got back next week the market would continue down. But, with that huge selloff at the close I was able to take 13% on half the positions. Why not….it was a real gift-horse! Still kept a few puts just in case there’s a gap-down Monday morning.

So we had a down day on a historical good day….days around holidays are always green! Even more interesting is how the S&P futures and VIX acted after the cash close.


As the S&P futures crashed after the cash close, volatility moved up!

So, what will next week bring? Was Friday’s close a premonition? We only have 2 more trading days in November and only 24 more trading days in 2010.
There should be some tax selling while volume starts to dwindle…through Chanukah, Christmas and New Years! Oh, and one more options expiration. Volatility should come into play…but isn’t that what the VIX is telling us?

Season’s Greetings and Happy Trading!

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Weekend Reading 11/27/10

Published on November 27, 2010, 10:49 am in Trading. Closed Tags: .

Hope you’re enjoying a wonderful holiday weekend! Here’s some interesting reading…..

Here’s A Rundown Of Everything That Just Happened In The Huge Insider Trading Scandal

Fear and Lawyering Up on Wall Street.

Inside trading everywhere! China starts crackdown on insider trading.

Gold as an Underwater Investment? Aye, Aye.

Market Rules, Made to Be Broken.

Something to smile about: Reasons for optimism.

“Do you own it because you like it or do you like it because you own it?”

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Published on November 24, 2010, 9:09 pm in Opinions. Closed

I’d like to thank all of you for reading the blog showing interest in my trading, strategy, equipment and tools. And thanks for giving me the opportunity to share with you my experiences.

I’d like to take a few minute more to really give thanks to my family, my health, a nice soft bed, my friends, my freedom, a roof over my head, and for every new morning!

Enjoy your day and remember to eat excessively!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Bombs away!

Published on November 23, 2010, 8:52 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Better than expected GDP and Existing Home sales could not overcome the Korea conflict today as the major averages started in the red and stayed there all day.

I closed my MOO puts position for a cool 63%. Unfortunately that was the only position I had left from yesterday. As it turns out I got out way too early from QID calls and SPY puts.

But tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving and is usually a green day, as is the day after Thanksgiving. So late this afternoon I loaded up on SPY and QQQ calls. I’m looking these to last until Friday, but, if they take off on Wednesday I may just grab what I can.

Wednesday is loaded with economic news. All the weekly reports, like Jobless Claims that normally come out on Thursdays are moved up to Wednesday this week. So there should be a good deal of volatility as reports come out rapid-fire in the morning. There is also news coming from Asia and Europe overnight. Futures are green this evening!

If I don’t hear from you, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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Short AM, Long PM

Published on November 22, 2010, 9:48 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

The tactic today was short the morning and go long the afternoon…it worked well. The major averages were mixed red and green.

I played options today for quick leveraged moves using SPY MOO QID puts and calls. Still having a tough time concentrating while fighting this cold/flu/allergy or whatever it is. Seems like it’s getting better, but my coughing sounds worse than a smoker’s hacking :oops:

Volume was decent today and the major averages had more 52-week highs than any day last week. Lots of economic news over the next 48 hours so markets could get a bit volatile. Another early to bed night. Happy trading!

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Time for turkeys

Published on November 21, 2010, 10:16 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Another low-volume options expiration day…SPY volume was nearly 50% below average! There was no economic news nor important earnings reports so I guess traders just didn’t show up.

I’m sure volume will be down for the holidays. We only have 2 days with eco news. On Tuesday we get GDP Second Estimate, Existing Home Sales, and Minutes of the last FOMC Meeting. Wednesday’s economic reports include Personal Income and Spending, Durable Orders, Initial Claims, Michigan Consumer Sentiment, and New Home Sales.

Some crazy stuff going on in futures this evening!

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Weekend Reading 11/20/10

Published on November 20, 2010, 10:32 am in reading. Closed Tags: .

Google Engineer Gets $6 Million For Not Going To Facebook. It’s nice to be wanted :roll:

Got a fantasy of seceding from the union? Reader Poll: Which State Would You Kick Out?

Boy this sounds stupid: Safety concerns lead to shared use of one end zone at Wrigley Field

Commodity ETFs: even worse than you thought.

Oh boy, now the world hates him! Bernanke Takes Aim at China.

12 Facts Showing How Obscenely Wealthy Many Members Of Congress Are While The Rest Of Us Are Barely Getting By.

“This will be a rough week for President Obama. He’s got a lame duck Congress, he has to pardon a turkey, he has to eat crow, and the Chinese just flipped him the bird. It’s been a fowl week.”– Jay Leno

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Sure looked exciting

Published on November 18, 2010, 9:35 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , .

You wouldn’t think of GM as a penny stock, but it sure looked like a pump-n-dump! But the markets were excited about the new IPO and seemed to rally around the government diluting its stake.

Still feeling a bit under the weather, I didn’t do much trading…just a few scalps in ES and TF futures…needed some cash for some cold medicine. 8O

Remember next week is Thanksgiving and usually an up week. Market closed Thursday and open just a few hours on Friday.

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