Tag Archive for 'QQQQ'

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Boring

Published on November 30, 2010, 9:19 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Sure there was the usual gap down with a crawl back up the rest of the day…volume was even decent. But, it was a boring day. All I did was nibble on some calls in QQQ and XLF and NOK…just enough to make me feel like I did something today. We’ll see how that turns out.

News starts to pick up tomorrow about jobs…ADP Employment report on Wednesday, Jobless Claims on Thursday and the BLS Employment report on Friday. Tomorrow also has Construction Spending, Auto Sales and Crude Inventories. When does that Santa Claus rally start?

Bad PIS

Published on November 29, 2010, 10:03 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

It was a trader’s day on Monday. The gap down was there as I thought and got out of the rest of the SPY puts. I then started buying QQQ calls, but they didn’t do much….until later in the afternoon. I was out of those by the close. Yes, a good day!

Futures were real happy Sunday night when Ireland got a bailout, but thinking about it overnight traders said…what about Portugal and Spain?…completing the bad PIS. So if Ireland gets saved, where does the money come for the other two? So futures came down overnight and continued for an hour after the cash open. But a bottom was hit and a base built for several hours until the climb up started. Sure the markets closed in the red but way up off the morning lows.

We get a few economic reports on Tuesday, inclusing Chicago PMI and Consumer Confidence. I’m sitting in cash now so I’ll just wait for the market to show itself. And don’t forget Friday brings us the monthly Employment report. 8)

Funny….What Do HFT Bots Fight About?

Bombs away!

Published on November 23, 2010, 8:52 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Better than expected GDP and Existing Home sales could not overcome the Korea conflict today as the major averages started in the red and stayed there all day.

I closed my MOO puts position for a cool 63%. Unfortunately that was the only position I had left from yesterday. As it turns out I got out way too early from QID calls and SPY puts.

But tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving and is usually a green day, as is the day after Thanksgiving. So late this afternoon I loaded up on SPY and QQQ calls. I’m looking these to last until Friday, but, if they take off on Wednesday I may just grab what I can.

Wednesday is loaded with economic news. All the weekly reports, like Jobless Claims that normally come out on Thursdays are moved up to Wednesday this week. So there should be a good deal of volatility as reports come out rapid-fire in the morning. There is also news coming from Asia and Europe overnight. Futures are green this evening!

If I don’t hear from you, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I did it again

Published on November 12, 2010, 8:50 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Yes, going short last night worked out well…again…..3 days in a row! Cashed out of TWM QQQ puts and IWM puts. Although today, near the close, I went long via SPY, not much, but enough to put me in a net long position. Also long a few UUP and short XLE.

I’ll see Monday how that worked out! :mrgreen:

What’s going on?

Published on November 11, 2010, 9:54 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

got out of CSCO put options right at the open for a mere 398% profit. Like clockwork, CSCO always goes down after a report, but never like this! It was wonderful! Oh yeah, and there were a few dollars to be made in QQQ puts as well. :mrgreen:

CSCO collapses, the markets go down, and the VIX is standing around doing nothing! What’s going on? Doesn’t all this activity warrant a bit of volatility? Crazy dollar, Korea trade collapse, too many bulls, low volume, lotsa call buying….something is about to happen! Or so it seems.

So after getting out of all those shorts in the morning, again by the close I have started short positions via TWM, QQQQ puts and IWM puts. It’s been working for two great days, I’ll try for another.

TGIF and happy trading!

Ran the table

Published on November 10, 2010, 10:27 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

The markets dumped in the morning allowing me run the table and get out of all my positions within the first hour: UUP calls, QQQ puts, QID and ZSL. . . pumped me up more than a double espresso. I was a little bit hesitant thinking I might miss a bigger move down, but as it turns out I was getting out near the bottom. So I went out and had a long leisurely lunch!

When I got back, I see the markets have had a slow grind up…the Nasdaq and Russell seemed to be strongest. So as they popped into the close I thought I’d go short again via TWM the Russel inverse ETF and a few QQQQ puts, the same ones I got out of earlier. 8)

After the close, CSCO and KLIC came out with some poor earnings reports and the Qs moved down and TWM moved up. That’s the one thing I don’t like about options. While the QQQQ traded for 4 more hours, the options did not. So I’ll have to wait for the morning open before I can trade the puts.

Futures, after taking a dive on the CSCO report, are doing the slow grind up thing again. With banks closed on Thursday, along with the bond market, volume may be light.

Thank you Veterans and your families for your service and your sacrifices!

Finally!

Published on November 9, 2010, 10:48 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Yesterday I talked about a bubble bursting….and today it finally did. A lot of money was made if your were short gold or silver. I was short silver via SLV puts and ZSL and yes, money was made! Woohoo!

Trading was lacksidasical for the first half of the day, but volatility sprang into action as the market performed a rollover. The question is, is this a short term correction or have we hit a major top? Now we need some follow through. What I would like is a gap up on Wednesday morning so to short again. I’ve added some QQQQ puts and QID in hopes this happens.

Think I’ll go celebrate a winning day!

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!

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 :?:

Let’s try that again

Published on October 17, 2010, 10:52 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

Well my October puts didn’t do so well by expiration day so I rolled them into November….QQQQ and VXX….and I’ve still got some FXI puts from way back. So I guess I wasn’t wrong, just early! :D

GOOG brought the Q’s up big on Friday…helped along with AMZN and AAPL. But besides these big caps, the smaller techs really didn’t do so good. And if the rest of the market isn’t so happy, we may be just experiencing a bit of that irrational exhuberence. Tomorrow’s reports from AAPL as well as IBM will give us a hint.

S&P futures are down this evening as the US dollar shows some strength….short futures so far so good and puts looking good too. Let’s see what morning brings.