Tag Archive for 'volume'

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Hurricane Rally

Published on August 29, 2011, 11:17 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Well, Irene was not as bad as the TV networks thought last week, and so, markets rallied today. There was some decent economic news and the VIX continued to give up ground. Overall, a win for the bulls…but on low volume.

It is a week leading up to a long holiday weekend. But there is also quite a bit of news this week…with a biggie on Friday!

Last year at this time…ala post Jackson Hole…we began a pretty big run up in the markets. Of course, there is no notice of QE coming on, so I’m not sure we can re-create the euphoria. But at least we can get happy and hope things will get better. Friday will be the big clue!

What happened?

Published on August 25, 2011, 10:03 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , .

The BAC / Buffet news looked like the markets would take off….but no. We opened at the high of day and then went down for the rest of the day.

Big speech on Friday!

AAPL sauce

Published on August 24, 2011, 10:32 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Earlier this evening, news broke that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of AAPL. It looks like he’ll stay on as chairman, but the stock sold off hard afterhours. It will be interesting to watch this over the next couple of days.

Indexes had a lacksidasical opening and chopped around breakeven until the last hour, when a push put them solidly in the plus column. Volume was less than impressive.

Gold bugs were squashed as margin calls went out on the biggest gold drop since 2008, sending the gold bugs scurrying for cash. Buyers of gold last week or even yesterday, are hurting today…bitch-slapped more like it!

Is it Friday yet? With only 2 days remaining until the highly anticipated Jackson Hole speech, it seems that investors have grown weary of waiting. Is everyone expecting a QE3 type speech?

Double bottom?

Published on August 23, 2011, 11:40 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Looking like the market has created a ‘W’…but we need follow through and then breakthru that 1200 region in the S&P.

Although housing data wasn’t that good today, China’s PMI was good. Asian markets and the Eurozone lead us into a a very up day. Neither hurricanes, earthquakes nor Greenspan could stop the bulls. Volume was decent for a late summer rally.

Fat Bottomed Stocks make the world go round!

Up, down and around

Published on August 17, 2011, 12:07 am in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

It was a day that accomodated the bulls as well as the bears….and a great day if you go both ways! Volume increased a bit from yesterday, about a half-million contracts in the ES.

While economic news in the US was good, Europe continues to be a world-wide downer. So if Europe could get its sh!t together, I think we could be doing a lot better.

It still is options expiration week….a week designed to take as much money from as many people as money managers can. Watch those puts and calls!

Remember, after Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says W T F . . .

Wipeout?

Published on August 15, 2011, 8:34 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Three days in the green…we haven’t seen that since June. Well if you were a put surfer, it looks like the markets are here to WipeOut all those puts that were bought over the past 2 weeks! …in options expiration week no less. Expect more up and down to clear out calls as well as puts :!:

The last three days have given us the biggest three day percentage gain for the Dow since March of 2009. Today was the lowest volume in 2 and a half weeks…what a change of pace. But if we can grind up slow but sure, well, I’ll take it!

“They say the price of gas could soon be under $3 a gallon. Do you know what that means? You can now afford to drive by the house you used to live in, go by the job you used to have, and go see the bank where you used to have money.” — Jay Leno

Quiet Friday of a wild week

Published on August 12, 2011, 8:35 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

We had a follow-thru day on the lightest volume in 2 weeks. Been a long time since we’ve seen that. Doesn’t say much though. Retail sales were good, but U of M Consumer Sentiment took a dive…but no one cared. The Dow “only” had a 200-point range…how boring! Looks like the bulls and the bears are tired.

Now it’s OpEx week. Will It Go Round In Circles just like last week? And along with OpEx there’s a lot of economic reports all week long: Housing Starts, Industrial Production, PPI, CPI, Philly Fed Survey, Existing Home Sales. We just may go round in circles.

C’mon markets, Don’t Let Me Down!

Let’s try it again

Published on August 11, 2011, 11:31 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

We recovered everything we lost on Wednesday, plus a little bit more. During the day we even went higher than Tuesday’s high and close. There’s only one thing missing…a follow-through day! We haven’t strung together 2 up days in a row since early July.

It looked scary in the premarket as again trouble in Europe rattled traders. But rumors and facts started growing throughout the day that got traders juiced…although it was the lowest volume day of the week. But it also was the 4th day of 500+ range in the Dow…WTF?

The banks, after getting bitch-slapped yesterday, were the frontrunners to the upside today. Gold took a big dive as did U.S. Treasuries…and thus, interest rates via TBT went up.

Let’s see if we can string 2 in a row!

“The stock market had its biggest one-day drop since 2008. Remember how the experts said we had to raise the debt ceiling or the market would crash? Well, they were half right.” — Jimmy Kimmel

Crash continues

Published on August 10, 2011, 10:57 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

As has happened the last three times the markets have had a green day, the following day was a big downer…no follow through. Volume was a “meager” 4.8 million, a let down after 3 days of over 6 million contracts traded. TRIN though was at an extreme 5.13 … looking for a bounce on Thursday or we’re in real trouble.

Because of SocGen’s problems and the Eurozone going down the tubes, the entire financial sector was crap. Stocks, and associated call options, such as C BAC MS GS, all withered in the bear stampede.

VIX is still elevated and I’m sitting on my hands just watching 987 tick charts and playing in my demo accounts. Sure, the pressure is off and I do great, but playing the charts and watching what happens is good practice….and you don’t lose money!

“By the way, the ratings agency is Standard & Poor’s. Who’s going to listen to a company whose name translates to Average & Below Average?” — Jon Stewart

Welcome back…

Published on August 9, 2011, 10:25 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

So is QE3 coming or not? Maybe not, but the “Bernanke put” is back! A song comes to mind… Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends. We regained two-thirds of what we lost yesterday, so that’s nice….but why? Stealth QE3 Is Upon Us, how Ben did it and what it means.

It was definitely a rollercoaster day as indexes moved in both directions all day long. It took about an hour to go from the low of the session to the high, closing near the highs…and the futures continued to go up after the cash close. Boy was that last half hour ever exciting!!

Volume was the highest in the last 3 days and the VIX returned about half what it gained yesterday. Some wild and crazy action for the last 2+ weeks…it’s getting frustrating. :!: