What a mess today was!
Even the umbrella stocks took a beating today. GLW and VLO were the only ones that were up (I knew I should have added Starbucks!).
I thought I was catching a turn in the afternoon but it was just a bottom, that is no way to make money… Today it was the President who was stock market poison with his “stay the course” policy in Iraq and on Taxes. I did say on Saturday not to trade if the DOW was down today so it’s another one of those “do as I say, not as I do” things.
It is not clear what school of economics our CEO President ascribes to where “spend more, collect less” is a long-term strategy. Of course the economy is is growing when the government leaves all that money on the table but it just can’t continue forever (stop me, I sound like Greenspan). The bottom line is that investors want to hear a real plan not “all is well, pay no attention to that deficit behind the curtain.”
Lucky for me I was in heavy bear mode:
Trade of the Day BSX was down 3.5%, the best part is that we had all morning to pick it up at its high! The Jan $25 put doubled today and still looks attractive at $1 but, if you doubled you really should half out at least….
LEXR got whacked but SNDK escaped the carnage in that sector. I would stay away from both of these stocks though, too unpredictable.
We are out of LVS with a very nice 330% profit!
I am so glad I still have my RIMM puts!
WAG almost recovered but not quite, just gotta hope that flushed out the nervous nellys.
BA also held up nicely, the planes China is buying from Airbus are very low margin and Airbus promised to build a plant in China so the whole deal is a wash (but may work out long term). The calls were an easy pick up today but we will have to wait for the puts – do not overpay – it makes it too hard to win!
GM recovered for all the wrong reasons, they raised cash by selling a part of their golden goose – GMAC! That is a carcass that will be picked clean very quickly and will leave them with a pile of bones and some money losing auto plants…
WHR went down so hard today I felt bad about writing that article. Reuters picked up on my competition thesis but in India, so these guys are having a global problem!
I still don’t know what’s wrong at ADM but it keeps going down. The Jan $22.50s are already up 20% so I would put in a sell at .60 for a clean 50% as this stock rarely stays below the 50 dma where it is now so no reason to push it.
STX gave us an entry at $18.80 today but I still want to wait to sell the Jan $20s for a $1. This will cut potential win to 11% but it is safe.
DELL is starting to look very good again! We got a bonus 1.4% today but it still looks strong.
ELN is back on the move but I would rather enter at $9.
AS expected the SG Cowen pump of the week, AV, went down another 4%. New strategy is just to dump any stock they promote heavily…
TKO had a wild ride today but held up nicely. Gives me a little more confidence. ABTG was also up 4%, but that’s only .004! 😉
No losers in oil but no real winners either. Word is that bad weather will cut down driving which will lower demand… It’s always something!
It is officially time for me to write a glowing article on SUNW – so many good titles come to mind that I can’t wait!
I called the exact bottom on Intraday trade of the Day GG but then it retraced 1/2 from a 2% gain. If you are like me you didn’t sell even though 2% a day works out to 500% a year. Even 250% is not really bad…
The fear of Intel earnings is palpable! Can’t wait till that’s over…
On the whole, this was exactly the day I was looking for as we have our two down days with a healthy retrace and test of 10,800ish and other levels. No critical levels were pierced and volume was light.
Hmm, was it me who said “Monday is likely to be a timid day where everyone searches for direction...” I should listen to that guy!
Michael Thompson himself came on CNBC and said the market is so undervalued it makes him cry (ok, I’m condensing a bit) and I think he might be on to something so I will maintain my macro bullish posture with a wait-and-see on the week.
