Tag Archive for 'QID'

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Manipulation?

Published on October 21, 2010, 10:18 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

When you look up “manipulation” in the dictionary these days, you see the financial marketplace….be it the Fed printing money or the PPT or all the governments playing with their currencies….Any which way you look at it, this market is screwed up!

Good news is good, bad news is good…one day either the bulls or the bears will be disappointed. Just look at the latest earnings reports. Companies are doing better at the expense of Main Street. They need to continue to layoff and shed expenses to keep the EPS going higher. The toplines are hurting. How much longer can this go on?

Time cycles are being compressed in the markets. What took weeks to happen years ago, is now happening in days, and today it felt like hours. Of course, most trades are now taking fractions of a second by computers placed at the exchanges.

Oh well, you got to just trade what you see….and I still see a topping pattern so I’m still net short. I added some DZZ to take advantage of a gold pullback.

Futures are quiet this evening and there is no economic reports on Friday. Let’s see what the markets think of that! Have fun.

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Buy the rumor, sell the news

Published on October 19, 2010, 11:10 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

It’s not just a catchy trader’s blurb….”Buy the rumor, sell the news” is a real thing. You see, if everyone buys in anticipation of good news, much like AAPL and IBM, there’s no one left to buy when the good news hits….as in yesterday’s earnings reports. So if no one is buying, they must be selling…and they did, not only in AAPL and IBM, but the indexes in general.

It was a big down day, but the markets closed well off their lows. Was this a fluke or do we need to stretch those downside legs? I’m still banking on more downside. I question though…how much more and how soon? A lot will depend on our US dollar…maybe catching a bid and showing some strength.

Still in QQQQ puts, VXX calls and QID. I also picked up some FXI puts, thinking that China may not like that rise in interest rates they got today….which by the way may also help our dollar.

Thanks for reading and good luck tomorrow!

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Happy 23rd!

Published on October 18, 2010, 10:21 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Yes, it’s been 23 years ago that the market crashed….with the Dow down almost 23% in one day! I wasn’t trading back then, but I do remember listening to news breaks on the radio that was playing in the office. Of course I was working in northern New Jersey at the time and living among many Wall Street types, so the news may have hit harder there than on Main Street.

Traders with AAPL or IBM may have thought another crash was going on afterhours today when they reported earnings. AAPL took a $20 dive while IBM went down 5 bucks. This of course helped push my short market positions via QID and VXX back into the green. I’ll have to wait until the market opens to see how well the options are affected! They were all green when the market opened and for the first hour. But then it started to get messy and that slow grind up whittled away that profit feeling.

Futures are looking a bit down this evening…but they were also down yesterday evening. Volume sucked again on Monday…about 35% below average. So, do we get a turnaround Tuesday :?:

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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.

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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:

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Slow!

Published on October 11, 2010, 11:14 pm in Tools and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Gee, were the markets open today? Not many trades…SPY and ES trading was less than half the average volume. Ugh! Makes for a boring day. But I was busy loading Tradestation and Infinity on the new machine. Tomorrow I start trading with it…I’m excited. Plus I can give my backup PC a breather.

The Beige book comes out tomorrow is all the news, but INTC reports after the close. Futures this evening are under the weather, which is just fine with me.

I did make some trades today, buying some November VXX calls and a position in QID….yes, I’m looking for some pullback here.

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