Tag Archive for 'INTC'

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.

Breakout?

Published on January 12, 2011, 10:34 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

The S&P made a statement today when it ran through the resistance area of 1275. The only trepidation I have is that it was on low volume. But then again the entire move up over the last 30 days has been on low volume! S&P Jan 12, 2011
I guess the statement was not enough for me to dive in long. I’m still a bit short but mostly just sitting and watching. Maybe a follow-through day will get me going. Lots of news and eco data on Thursday…plus INTC report after the close and then JPM on Friday morning going into a long weekend.

If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of payments.

Just waiting

Published on January 10, 2011, 10:28 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

While the S&P had only 5 down days in all of December, there have already been 4 down days out of the 6 trading days in January…. just waiting for the pot to boil. These afternoon run ups from the lows are getting boring. Something’s gotta give.

AA had a decent report this evening, but, as always, it was selling off in the afterhours. NVDA popping on INTC deal. Will they become one someday?

“Borders bookstores are struggling to stay in business. This could be the first time in our country that borders are actually closed.” – Jay Leno

Hump Day

Published on October 13, 2010, 9:32 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The sun rose this morning … INTC did what it always does…drop after earnings. AAPL held on to 300 barely, and I added to my short positions via SDS QID and VXX … so it was a slow day. I also took profits on C calls and DRYS calls I’ve been holding for months.

So why did the markets go up today? INTC had a good report…but INTC didn’t go up. JPM had a good report…but JPM did not go up. I guess it must be AAPL…as goes AAPL so goes the market? I did see a report today that AAPL’s weighting is two-thirds of the QQQQ. The markets were cut in half from the highs today…so does that mean something? I’m not sure, but I am now net short and will continue to take profits in the longs that I have remaining…if they show themselves.

Now that AAPL hit 300 I guess all the people on CNBC will be pumping $400 for a while. Of course it looks like it went down to $298 after hours. Speaking of which, the US Dollar continues to tank and Index futures are moving up this evening. Gold continues its trek to $1400 and the grains are moving up also.

I’m starting to feel queasy about this market….irrational exhuberence comes to mind. If all these companies are doing so well, why is the economy still in the gutter? There’s a correction coming, I just don’t know if it’s sooner or later.

Roller coaster OpEx

Published on October 13, 2010, 8:15 am in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

We rolled down hard and then ground up click by click on Tuesday. Although I would have rather stayed down, but I had enough time to cash out on the shorts purchased on Monday. Then with that move up I reentered the same shorts at an even lower price.

Unfortunately, that deal is not working out this morning…yet! Futures are up big Wednesday morning, as good reports from INTC CSX and JPM injects some euphoria into the marketplace. INTC ‘s history shows that it likes to pop ‘n drop on its earnings…and JPM took money out of its reserves to make the beat. I still can’t get my head around this irrational exhuberence on QE2. Doesn’t printing more money just mean that the economy still sucks?

I’ll probably add onto my short positions as the market pops and look for a drop into options expiration Friday or the morning after. QID VXX SDS

Congratulations AAPL for breaking the $300 barrier this morning! :mrgreen:

Slick oil

Published on August 25, 2010, 10:34 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

One of those weird days when gold, oil and the dollar, along with stocks, were up! As expected Durable Goods and the New Home sales sucked. Unexpected was the big oil inventories build-up, which sunk oil prices. But, like the last time this happened in late May, traders saw opportunity and started buying oil futures. And like it has done all year, oil led a move to the upside for stocks.

Keep an eye on oil to see which way we go stockwise. If oil continues its bravery, watch UCO USO and ERX.

Semiconductors also had some oomph in its step, most likely with the help of AAPL and INTC, but also watch XLK and SMH.

The crash for the day belongs to golfer Jim Furyk: Jim Furyk is disqualified from Barclays for missing pro-am tee time. Gee if he traveled more often he would know wbout hotel wake-up calls! :cry:

What Fun!

Published on July 13, 2010, 10:55 pm in Charts and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

I hope everyone had a great day trading today! It looks like tomorrow may get a little wild also. INTC had blowout earnings and the futures reacted with splendor immediately, gapping up at the open and staying up there.

The SPX closed while wrestling with its 50ma.

Sure, it’s a speed-bump maybe, but a test of the 200 should be in the cards.

And look at these Advance/Decline volumes today: Russell 2000 +16:1 and both NYSE and Nasdaq +12:1 Those are some impressive numbers. Do they continue? I think tomorrow should be a high volume day…all the people sitting on the sidelines will say, “What the fuck? I’m going in!” and all the shorts will say, “I’m fucked! Let me out.”

And people wonder how I got the name of this blog. 8)

Kickoff time

Published on July 11, 2010, 11:21 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

AA will kickoff earnings season on Monday after the close, and then we got some biggies the rest of the week: INTC GOOG JPM GE BAC C. Earnings for the 2nd quarter should be good, but it will be the guidance for the 3rd quarter and 2nd half that will control the market direction.

Futures this evening have been quiet with no volume….Asia still waking up….have to wait for Europe to kick it in the ass.

Only 3.6 billion shares changed hands on the NYSE tape on Friday….not much. This is definitely a contributing factor: Small Investors Flee Stocks, Changing Market Dynamics.

Guess I should rest up for the morning. 8O

Party like it’s 1999!

Published on April 14, 2010, 9:19 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , .

The futures hit new contract highs and the indexes hit new highs and there was a large number of stocks hitting new 52-week highs. I’ve been here before…in 1999! CBOE Equity put/call ratio today hit .35 – you have to go back ten years to find a lower closing reading. The cumulative TICK on the Nasdaq hit an all time high, never ever seen before.

So what did I do? I’m giving this market enough rope to hang itself. Something is going to trigger a down move…maybe Greece, maybe interest rates, maybe a missed earnings report. Whatever it is, this cannot continue. I picked up more on the short side and cashed out half my long positions. I’m now cash/long/short at 50/10/40%.

Besides the great earnings reports we had today, there was news that hiring is picking up. INTC said they would add 2000 people, and JPM to hire 9000. So if some other companies can come up with another 9,989,000 jobs, we should be in good shape! ;)

And read up on some of the other encouraging news:

US home loan demand slumps to lowest in 3 months

Optimism at Small Businesses Falls

Lehman Brothers Was Insolvent Well Before Bankruptcy, but amazingly all fed officials admit that their biggest mistake in this whole crisis was NOT saving LEH…the one thing they did right in this mess, they now wish they hadn’t? What the $%@&*!

Crazy Train!

Published on April 13, 2010, 10:43 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

As Ozzy Osbourne sings, “Crazy, but that’s how it goes…. I’m living with something’ that just isn’t fair.” And boy was today a crazy train!

The top 5 active stocks represented 20% of the volume today. Four of those stocks are under 5 bucks, ABK C BPOP FNM. Only BAC was over five dollars. Not what you would call a healthy market. Pathetic volume to begin with and then 5 most active are government-welfare financial stocks! :cry:

One trade I made today was to cash out some UNG calls for 38%. A nice take on a two-week hold. I also sold my SPY puts on that morning run down. I felt particularly good about that after the reversal and continuing grind up in the markets….crazy.

In case you haven’t heard, Recession is not over yet, says US panel.

And I find this disturbing: For Consumers, Time to Shop Until the Mortgage Drops. You’ve got to wonder how we have record consumer spending and record housing defaults.

INTC blew away its earnings and went nuclear after hours….which isn’t unusual for them. Actually that’s very predictable. And more often than not, it gaps up the next day and then reverses. So we’ll see.

Okay, we’ve reached the hump on OpEx week. Remember, after Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says W T F . . .