Monthly Archive for April, 2011

Weekend Reading 4/30/11

Published on April 30, 2011, 8:29 am in reading. Closed

“Better to be a geek than an idiot.”

I spent a day without electricity this week and all I did was complain about the lack of technology. Came across this video which I thought was apropo: Everything’s Amazing & Nobody’s Happy.

Keep the baby, faith! Losing Faith In The U.S. Economy.

Uh oh! For the Fed, a Narrowing of Options.

A story in charts: Signs of Trouble Ahead in the Ags?

The week ahead: How Far Can the Bull Run?

How to Profit From the Shrinking Dollar. At this rate the dollar will be worth nothing in about 2 years!

“It’s the 75th anniversary of the introduction of Social Security checks. For the younger viewers who don’t know what a Social Security check is, you’ll never see one in your lifetime, so don’t worry about it.” — Jay Leno

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I’m useless!

Published on April 28, 2011, 9:54 pm in Trading. Closed

Finally! My power has been out for 18 hours so I don’t even know what happened today. I can now finally look at the charts! I’ve never felt so helpless. Hope everyone had a good day….I didn’t.

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What was that?

Published on April 27, 2011, 9:51 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

So I was listening in on the historic FOMC news conference and I thought I heard Ben say….So the better the economy the lower the dollar will go? Did he really say that? When the dollar is worthless we should be having a great economy? I almost yelled out sitting in the jury room…oops.

Here’s another crazy…SLV the silver ETF, traded more volume than the SPY….WTF? When’s that bubble going to burst? I guess if the dollar keeps going down, the commodities will keep going up!

Let’s see if DX catches a 72-handle overnight :evil:

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Anybody home?

Published on April 26, 2011, 9:19 pm in Opinions. Closed Tags: , .

Well, volume was 2 times yesterday’s volume, but that still is not saying much. Traders still on Easter vacation?

S&P at new highs…follow through or do we bang our heads up here and tumble down?

History to be made tomorrow as the FOMC rate announcement will be followed with a Q&A with Ben Bernanke in the spotlight. Could be a scary moment :twisted:

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Were the markets open?

Published on April 25, 2011, 9:02 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , .

SPY volume was down -60% below average! ES contract were at 597K about 25% of the average day! So it’s easy to say that no trading went on today! I wasn’t around to trade today…so that works for me. Tomorrow may be a lean day for me also…but at least the Eurozone markets will be back after the Easter Monday holiday. Gee, should the U.S. markets take off on Monday instead of Good Friday?

President Obama’s 2010 tax return shows he made 1.7 million yet paid only $453,770 in taxes, thus allowing him to keep more than one million bucks in his own pocket. Economists say it’s the first budget surplus anyone has seen in the White House since the Clinton administration. — DailyComedy.com

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Back to work…maybe

Published on April 24, 2011, 9:05 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

After an ugly Monday, good earnings reports propped up the market for the rest of the shortened week. The last few Mondays have been downers…will this Monday be different?

The U.S. Dollar continues to dig a deeper and deeper hole, catching a 73-handle early this evening. Lots of markets still to open over the next 12 hours, but S&P futures are moving up along with silver, gold and oil. Anybody thinking in terms of “bubble.”

Sure would like to see the banks/financials pick up a bit…Can’t go too far without them.

I’m carrying a light load this week as I’m on jury duty call, not knowing when my number comes up. So I may only do some futures scalping in the evenings and early mornings….gotta make some lunch money because the county sure isn’t going to pick up the tab!

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Weekend Reading 4/23/11

Published on April 23, 2011, 9:18 am in reading. Closed

Happy Easter!

Charting the markets: Macro Week in Review/Preview.

It’s still oil, oil, oil: Oil Technical Analysis For The Week Of April 25, 2011.

Or is that gold, gold, gold? Gold Technical Analysis For The Week. Happy Easter!

The guessing game: Apple’s 92% earnings windfall: The bloggers nail it, the pros miss by a mile.

Up or Down? Earnings optimism extends stocks rally.

Now quit reading and go color some eggs with the family!

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Bobbing for AAPL’s

Published on April 20, 2011, 11:21 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Wow! Those were some blowout earnings reports…both from AAPL and QCOM. The tech sector should do well on Thursday, the last day of trading this week.

Thursday has the usual reports with Jobless Claims included, but also a boatload of earnings repports including GE HON PCX NUE NOK and several airlines. Wondering if we have some low volume in the afternoon as traders start the long weekend.

Oil, gold and silver are in takeoff mode this evening! And the U.S.Dollar, well it’s crap while the Euro also takes off …another big wow! It’s a long time until the European open and even longer for the US open, so all this will change. But trading overnight is where all the action is in futures :!:

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Don’t short a dull market

Published on April 19, 2011, 9:24 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

And it was a dull market. It looked good in the premarket with GS’s good report. And GS took off, but it, along with most of the bank/financials turned around and went down. For much of the day the market hung around unchanged, but in the afternoon began a steady climb up and closed near the high of the day.

I got out of the USO puts first thing in the morning, but re-entered and re-exited twice during the day. F didn’t do much but C was strong. AAPL also was strong and popped afterhours. Don’t forget they report on Wednesday.

After hours we had some strong earnings reports from IBM INTC YHOO JNPR which bodes well for the markets tomorrow. Seasonally it’s looking good also. According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, The Nasdaq is up 14 of 16 the day before Good Friday and up 10 straight since 2001. Should be an interesting couple of days.

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Slippery Slope?

Published on April 19, 2011, 8:23 am in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Ok, we’ve known about our debt problems for a long time. Today sure seemed like an overreaction and this Debt Market Reaction Raises Some Questions??

The panic sure brought up the volume, especially for a Monday and a holiday week! I picked up some USO puts and F calls to hold for a couple days. My bank/financial plays may be helped out by a great GS report this morning.

“Obama called on Americans to have more grandchildren. Probably so there’s more of them to pay off our debt.” — Jay Leno

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