After a crazy week with sucky news, try to relax, eat, drink and be merry!
When bad is good.
How to read Bernanke’s Jackson Hole Speech.
Stocks Surge, And Bonds Get Crushed: Here’s What You Need To Know.
Perception Versus Reality.
Ever wonder what a “prop trader” does? Wall Street Whispers: A Proprietary Problem.
Beware That New Credit-Card Offer. Have you noticed a whole bunch of credit card apps in your mail box?
I hope these definitions put a smile on your face:
Momentum Investing - The fine art of buying high and selling low.
Value Investing – The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E ratio - The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
I fought the market today, and the market won! Do you ever feel like the Black Knight in the Holy Grail movie? I was the knight today and King Arthur was the market.
The individual investor has left the marketplace…computers and HFT are in charge! This can only help the bears ravage the market. Did you see some of those whips in nanoseconds? The bid/ask spreads were pretty wide also. Nobody can click a mouse that fast.
I spent most of the day just trying to get to cash with minimal losses. I was zigging and zagging as snipers kept shooting. 
I think I’ll trade futures this evening and take it easy during the cash market hours. Seems like the futures markets are much more reasonable and orderly during the night sessions. Night time money spends just as well as day time money!
New Home Sales report Wednesday…hoping it’s not as big a stinker as existing home sales were today. But we also have Durable goods before and oil inventories after. Oh boy, another quiet day! 
Let’s start with a funny:
“This week in 1861, the first federal income tax was instituted to pay for the Civil War. These days, we don’t worry about that kind of stuff. Our wars are paid for by our grandchildren.” — Jay Leno
Ok, now start reading:
`Hindenburg Omen’ Suggests Another Leg Down in Stocks: Technical Analysis.
More HO stuff: The Hindenburg Omen did NOT Volley & Thunder from Ian Woodward’s Investing Blog.
How Stocks Have Done On Friday The 13th Since 1900.
The Geography of a Recession, or, what does the unemployment rate look like since January 2007?
Rising Profits Are Good, but There’s a Catch.
Obama defends ground zero mosque plans. Our President couldn’t find the time to attend the National Day of Prayer which is completely non-demoninational, but he can schedule to host an Iftar dinner? Asshole!
BofA, Citi added as lead GM IPO underwriters.
Financials Now Attractive for First Time in Months.
Before you run off to read all those, here’s another laugh:
“The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.5 billion loss in the last quarter, which established it as the federal government’s most successful enterprise.” — Jay Leno
The low of the day was put in at the open on Thursday, moved up quickly and then just meandered in a narrow range for the rest of the day. Can we have an up day on Friday the 13th? I’m thinking we can and should!
Yesterday I bought TNA afterhours, looking to hold on for a week maybe. Instead I sold at the pre-market open for about 60 cents profit, which was nice. But before the cash markets opened, TNA had dropped precipitously and I got back in and got back out an hour later. Man, that was crazy…and lucky…oh yeah, and profitable!
Speaking of crazy, have you seen NFLX over the past 2 weeks? It’s been going straight up and making new highs today! Judging by that action, the market is thinking everyone is going to be unemployed soon and watching movies from home….confirming the jobless claims and employment reports! 
Tomorrow will start with CPI and retail sales reports. And soon after the open we get Consumer Sentiment. That should make for a wild Friday the 13th. And watch out for black cats and don’t walk under any ladders.
One more thing….Trade what you see not what you think. Here is a funny cartoon video:Trading what you think. 
Markets sucked today, diving overnight and then continuing at the open. By the close they erased all their year’s gains! And then CSCO came out with a crappy report, missing expectations and futures crashed…again…going down another 12 points on the S&P (via ES) or 90 points on the Dow (via YM) afterhours. What a pile of bear poopy!
So the Dow is down 1000 points from last week’s high, and feeling a bit uncomfortable. A wise old sage told me the best trades are made while your finger is shaking when you hit ”enter”. So, while that finger was shaking I nibbled on some TNA afterhours for maybe a 3-6 day hold. I’m looking to do some shopping tomorrow (Thursday) to pick up some long positions.
Initial Claims in the morning will be the catalyst for a gap down or just a boring breakeven kind of day. The Stock Trader’s Almanac still gives tomorrow a bear face, but Friday and most of next week gets a bull face.
So I hope you didn’t get hurt too badly today, but better days are in store. Of course, if you’re bear, today was heaven. Thanks for reading and good luck tomorrow!
Oh, and here’s an interesting statistic to keep in mind….
The latest survey shows that three out of four people make up 75% of the population!
Really?
Ok, yesterday it was paint drying and today it was grass growing….slow and boring….until 2:15PM! Then all hell broke loose. There was a minute or two that I thought we would actually go for a green close, but no. Still, it was not a bad recovery off the lows.
We still have some consolidation, or better yet, bottom probing to do here. The big question: if we test a bottom will it hold? Seasonally, the second half of August is better than the first, or should I say more bullish. Also, August options expiration is generally a strong week. So we should have a good couple of weeks going into Labor Day.
Now for some wacky stuff: Here’s an OMG! Tony Robbins is now doing financial coaching! Check out his Business and Finance Blog where he has a “quick” word of caution for you. The “quick” word takes almost 22 minutes! OMG 
And in closing, here’s a funny:
“In Portland, Oregon, a 7-year-old girl’s lemonade stand was shut down by the police because she didn’t get a $120 business license. On the bright side, by closing her business, she’s now eligible for a $108,000 government bailout.” — Jay Leno
We had the same king of morning action as yesterday, but the afternoon was completely different as the markets continued going up after lunch. And looking at this chart of the S&P, just look at the size of those candlesticks the last 3 weeks, all within a fairly wide channel.
And if you follow advance/decline volumes, the NYSE had a positive +40:1 advancing volume. I guess that’s dwarfed by the recent -124:1 declining volume, but that just reflects these long candles in both directions.
The S&P is coming up on its 20 day MA and then the 200dma, which also happens to be the top of the channel, so that’s a lot of resistance to break through and may take several attempts. In the mean time we can just trade the channel up and down.
A funny I saw on StockTwits today:
BREAKING NEWS!!! BP stops the leak! they put a giant wedding ring around it and all of a sudden it just stopped putting out ! ! !
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....
