Pretty mixed on the whole…
I was distracted all day by silly Google trading but I made a few bucks so I can’t complain. If you want to read all about it you can get the play by play in the morning’s comment section.
The markets held up pretty well but mostly on the energy, commodity, builders – not the way we like it to go but it was exactly what we said would happen so I guess we’ll take it!
Oil shot up an extra dollar at the close to finish at $63.50 but the oil stocks didn’t seem to respond to it as you might have thought.
Gold finally crossed $570 and our gold picks went crazy. I apologize to those of you who didn’t read the comments in the morning as I forgot to put the gold picks in my regular post.
I ended the day about 75% in cash, it will be a tough go to get the markets over the hump tomorrow (maybe impossible with OPEC and Iran to be dealt with next week).
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I was so distracted with Google today I missed a lot of perfectly good day trades.
CHK got way overbought in the morning and I did buy the puts on it but a combination of greed and distraction caused me to ignore a clean double with an obvious signal from VLO at 1pm.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1d&s=VLO&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=chk
RIG popped 2.7% and the $80s finished at $2.05 (up 66%).
THE exploded out of the box and blew through 6% in the morning before settling back at a 5.8% gain. The Apr $40s ended the day at $2.05 (up 50%)
Our other oil picks were flat to down which really indicates to me that most shareholders are taking advantage of this possibly last-gasp runup to dump their positions.
UPL was indeed a good indicator all day and the indication was to stay away from oil!
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=upl
BZH started the day very low and I meant the $60s this morning for $5.80, not the $65s, which were just $3.10 (first time I’ve done that) but either way they ended flat although there were much cheaper entries to be had. This is another one I should have taken the profits on but was too distracted by Google nonsense…
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BZH&t=1d
DHI had a similar up and down day but TOL was our shining star with a slow start and a 2% gain on the day. The Jun $35s ended at $2.45 (up 10%). If the stock has trouble with resistance at the 50 dma of $34, it might be smart to sell the Apr $35 calls for $1.30 to lock in profits or at least the March $35s for .50 just in case it comes back a bit.
BCRX had a very weird day, if it were a roller coaster you would have lost your lunch for sure but the Sept $20s ended at $4.80 (up 10%) but you will really be thanking me tomorrow as the overnights are leaping on continued bird-flu mania.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BCRX&t=1d
COST had another great day although there was a slight drop in Q2 earnings that rattled it early the stock finished up 1.2% for the day. Now that’s a strong stock!
PLAY looks like a disaster, perhaps Apple is dumping them – I don’t know but this is the very definition of catching a falling knife at the moment so stay away. It’s too bad, I really love this company…
TXN, bless them, put up another half a point today!
NT put up another 3.65% today, looking very, very good to me!
Cramer put enough people into LVS last night to allow heavy selling early in the day that took the stock down $2 from the pumped up open. We discussed this at length in last night’s comments and I took the opportunity to add to my own put position.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=LVS&t=1d&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
PD gained 1.5% but the $145s shot up to $4.40 (up 20%).
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Well the Google meeting is finally over and I’m not very impressed. They had nothing new to say and they were very, very careful about their financial statements and the analysts gave them very, very soft questions.
The after hours markets are treating it like the conference was some kind of triumph but we will have to wait and see where it shakes out.
I ended up with a spread between the $380 calls for $10.50 and the $370 puts for $9 but I only took 75% in calls so I’m still hoping for down.
