Trading thoughts, ideas, tips, musings, and pontifications. . .not necessarily in that order.
As soon as the news hit from Greece, it looked like a “sell the news” event. The markets wavered for a bit, but soon recovered its bullish ways. There was good news from the housing report also.
It was great to see TBT finally pop…4 days in a row. Perhaps bond traders are leaving for the stock market?
And even though volume was up today, I expect to see declining volume heading into the long weekend.
Markets closed near their highs as traders anticipate good news from Greece by Wednesday morning. And we did have some good news on home prices, although consumer confidence was down a bit. The VIX closed at its lows. Both Monday’s and Tuesday’s rallies were on fairly low volume, both days about the same. Can’t complain though, unless you were short.
I didn’t like the way the news reported all the riots going on in Greece without mentioning that the Greek markets were up along with the Euro as well as other European markets. I finally turned off CNBC and concentrated more on the charts. I think I’ll look back to this week as the moment I turned off financial news while trading! Should be a good habit.
Remember Thursday is the End of the Month, End of the Quarter and End of the First Half 2011. Lots of window dressing going on, and could be the reason for the buying. Money managers want to get stocks into their portfolios before the reports need to be sent out.
Earnings season is about to start again….in about 2 weeks. And next week we have the monthly Employment reports. The big question, is this the summer rally and how long will it last?
I sure hope we haven’t used up all the summer rally in just one day. A nice up day on Monday usually looks for a nice down day on Tuesday. But do we really have to?
Took profits on some QQQ Jul 54 calls, then just sat on my hands.
ES futures sitting in a narrow 3 point range so far, but we have the whole night before us.
Down 7 of the last 8 weeks, but it’s time to at least bounce some here, if not reverse direction entirely. The techs and financials have been basing for the last couple weeks and I’d really like to see them take a lead in this marketplace.
In the meantime, I’m watching and doing some light scalping waiting for the summer rally. Eco news is light this week as we lead up to a long holiday weekend. Maybe a patriotic rally on low volume? We’ll see.
“Congress has rejected raising the debt ceiling, so if China calls, let it go to voicemail.” — Stephen Colbert
Light at the end of the tunnel? New Jersey Lawmakers Approve Benefits Rollback for Work Force. Or is that a train?
The next time you’re eating some corn on the cob, think about The Great Corn Con.
It’s all Greek to me….Don’t Believe These Greek Myths.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world….Why Is the Chinese Economy Sputtering?
Oh, that explains it: Why the U.S. Recovery Is Lagging.
Do I have to change phones again? The Verizon iPhone Halted Android’s Surge. The iPhone 5 Could Reverse It.
“The White House says that the unemployment rate is good news because it means more people are looking for jobs. More good news like that, and everyone at the White House will be looking for jobs.” — Jay Leno
What a morning dive! Ugly….but hope springs eternal….and the techs and semis came through in the afternoon, dragging the rest of the markets behind them. Let’s give them applause: RIMM AAPL QCOM SMH USD. Good job gang!
Oh yeah, we also got help from the Greece’rs as they came to term with the EU and IMF. Oil took a beating but helped the markets by giving airlines and other transports a boost.
Europe should be happy in the morning and maybe we can keep it going.
Are we done or are we not? Reading this New York Fed release, Statement Regarding Purchases of Treasury Securities, it looks like it will continue as a “once-a-month” version. At least for a while, maybe the next Jackson Hole get together, and then announce something a bit more definite.
The day was mediocre, low volume, no action until the last 90 minutes, when everything just went down. The indexes hung around breakeven all day, but when Ben Bernanke explained how awful our economy will be for the next 2 years, traders bailed. Oh well, there goes out 4 day winning streak!
Hey, looky there….4 up days in a row! I could get used to this. But, we should be so lucky to see a continuation of this. Of course, we did do 6 down in a row, so turnabout is fair play. 
Been sitting on my hands though missing this run up as I concentrate on other things around the office. Still like to keep track as I practice swing trading in my simulated accounts.
Big FOMC news conference on Wednesday will gather everyone’s attention. Let’s see how that acts out. Be careful out there.
Yes, another low volume Monday like we’ve had for the past 2 months. But, this one closed in the green! So that’s a change of character…for the bulls maybe?
A news driven week coming up with lots of Housing news, and FOMC meeting and press conference, GDP and Durable Goods reports all on tap. Should see a lot of spurts and drips all week long.
Let’s not forget all the Greece news also. I found this article explaining a lot of what is at stake with that little country: Did You Know Greece’s Economy is Smaller Than Michigan’s?
Again a rating agency decides to announce on options expiration Friday, that they will be doing a “Ratings On Review For Possible Downgrade By Moody’s.” WTF? Isn’t that their business? Why do they have to “announce” that they will be doing that? It’s amazing to see ratings agencies move markets like they do. Such interesting timing — did Moody’s just figured out on Friday afternoon of options expiration just before the close to announce what they should be doing all the time? 
| INDU | 0.00 | |||||||
| NASDAQ | 2933.17 | |||||||
| S&P 500 | 1357.66 | |||||||
| ^RUT | 816.50 | |||||||
| QID | 34.81 | |||||||
| QQQ | 63.32 | |||||||
| QLD | 104.42 | |||||||
| TZA | 19.134 | |||||||
| SSO | 54.266 | |||||||
| SDS | 16.39 | |||||||
| BGZ | 22.71 | |||||||
| BGU | 77.73 | |||||||
Sometimes, entranced by the screens, watching equities, options and futures change colors, charts moving in a wave, and indicators pointing in every direction, I just have to scream....
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