Mid-Day Update

Reminder: Harlan is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

So was that it? Is it time to roll over and retest the lows? I have no clue but I can tell you its not looking all that great. We used the last few days of strength to lighten the load on the longside and started to nibble a bit on the short side via an inverse ETF.

One look at the daily charts show that we tagged the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement zone and instantly got a reaction off of it to the downside. The question now is whether we work higher by going sideways to consolidate the recent strength or that was it. The leaders may be talking though and they sure don’t look all that great in here.

Right now we still need to treat this as just a Wave 4 bounce. We’ll know in the next few days if that was it and a retest of the lows for Wave 5 down is in the works. Should that occur? Well then we’re glad we used the strength to clean house.

I will say this, for the most part once you have a market that does what it just did and crash you don’t just go back to "Ok everything is all right" overnight. More often than not some sort of retest is in the works be it a full retest, new lows or some sort of serious pullback. That’s what we need to see next if we are going to continue the script. Of course this assumes we are done going up and wont even make it to the 50% or 61.8% Fibonacci levels.

What does look good here are the inverse ETF’s as they are all fresh breakouts recently who have done nothing but stage POH (Pullbacks Off Highs) patterns. If all the inverse ETF’s look good on the longside what does that say about the overall climate?

What also looks to be transpiring are the amount of names who in this recent bout of strength have done nothing but rally back up to resistance levels and overhead supply. That too is information we can use. At the least its telling you these names (short side watch list) sure aren’t worth going long here.

8-16 The game plan WAS to work with what we currently HAD all per last week’s game plan of getting back to even. We said we’d use strength to walk away from names and that is exactly what we’ve done. We also said we are going to start to reposition SOME assets to the short side of the market and that too is what we have started to do. Any further strength in markets and we’ll start to add to positions on the short side.

Yesterday We Said:

For those of you who like ETF’s leveraged or not. In the longside watch list we’ve added a few that bear watching here. Keep in mind that going long the featured ETF’s is the equivalent of gaining short exposure.

As for the short side we’ve added another three of names for you to keep an eye on.

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Short Side Coming Attractions

Last Week We Said:

On a snap back rally (Wave 4) up to NEW resistance we’ll have a ton of names setting up. Let’s get to the snap back rally mode first. Our gut says it’ll be fast and furious and wicked just like we’ve been seeing since first of the year.

8-16 And here we are, a ton of names setting up.

LNKD

NEW NAME

8-16 Who knows, maybe we get a retest of highs then jump all over it on the short side.

TSLA

NEW NAME

8-16 This one looks decent right in here, but remember trade size risk management. And 90% of this is getting in the zone and the other 10% is sweating it out while in the zone. For some its the other way around- 90% of it for them is sweating it out while in the zone.

ULTA

NEW NAME

8-16 There is a good possibility this name gets taken off the list as its way too far away from an optimal entry point on the short side which is as close to 60 at possible.

SRCL

NEW NAME

NTAP

NEW NAME

8-16 Who knows, maybe we get a retest of highs then jump all over it on the short side.

APKT

8-16 Who knows, maybe we get a retest of highs then jump all over it on the short side.

CXO

8-16 Who knows, maybe we get a retest of highs then jump all over it on the short side.

HUM

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LONG SIDE WATCH LIST

"Only The Best And Forget The Rest "

"We Trade What We SEE, NOT What We Think, Hear Or Fear "

NOTE: All of the names on this longside watch list are INVERSE INDEX ETF’S. This means that if you go long any of them you are essentially going short the indexes. Keep in mind all of the below are LEVERAGED that means 2-3 times market risk. It works for you and against you.

SDS

NEW NAME

QID

NEW NAME

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FEATURED BUT NOT TRADE TRIGGERED BY US LIST

SLV

GLD

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All About Options In The World According To All About Trends

Over the weekend we posted an article in this space entitled:

OPTIONS — Your best friend and worst enemy

That article is at the bottom of this newsletter for reference anytime you need it.

NOTE: The exchanges recently started WEEKLY EXPIRATIONS of options. Going forward, make sure that you check to see which ones you are buying. Let’s stay with traditional options expirations which are the ones that expire the 3rd Saturday of every month.

Current Holdings

NONE, but any that show up here in the next few days will be SEPT. and PUT OPTIONS.

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CURRENT POSITIONS

Let Your Stocks Tell You What To Do By The Action They Exhibit"

LONG SIDE POSITIONS

Today is the 16th of the month and that gives us still another two weeks to work with. Plenty of time to go to month end and plenty of time to reposition and make the most of the chart action.

This morning we used the last few day’s worth of strength to clean house and start to reposition on the short side. We will continue to add to the short side as we see them.

TZA (We are now LONG 125 shares at 46.13 as of 8-16-11)

RUE (We are now LONG 200 shares at 33.69 as of 7-19-11)

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To our NEW SUBSCRIBERS

What we’ve tried to do is break our watch list down into chart pattern recognition structure from a visual standpoint. Learn the patterns and the components of patterns and you’ll blow those Wall Street MBAs away. You don’t need a $3,000 software program either. All you need is a BURNING DESIRE to be the best that you can be and we’re here to help.

We have a lot of new folks here and we thank you! We want you to take it easy, get to know how the routine works around here for awhile and to feel comfortable.

We hope you all aren’t here because you are chasing performance. For us it’s more about educating and making you the best you that you can be first (that’s what we focus upon!). Like many of our long time subscribers they have all found out that they have no use for traditional Wall Street (and we don’t blame them) and it’s our hope that over time you’ll have acquired enough knowledge from us to say the same with conviction.

One of the most important things we want to stress is that of RISK MANAGEMENT via POSITION SIZING. You don’t need to stack your account with just a few big positions as we’ve seen it time and time again that those who get into trouble are the ones who take large positions and do not employ any risk management system IE shoot for the fences. Those are the people who live on the fringes of extremes and yes ultimately get burned.

As a guideline a good initial system is that of the following example.

Let’s say you have a $100,000 portfolio and let’s say that as a guide you never place more than 10% ($10,000) into any one position. Now let’s say that one day a news driven event hits (over which you have no control over anyway) and one of the positions tanks 20%. On its own that position is sporting a $2,000 loss, while that may seem devastating on its own its really no big deal overall.

Why? Simple its all about risk management being properly employed. What is the impact of a $2,000 loss to the TOTAL VALUE of the portfolio in this example.

Answer: A whopping 2% LOSS. Now you know why we say no big deal.

We can also tell you new people here that you will get stopped out of names and you will take hits. There is nobody on the planet living that has ever hit 18 holes in one and there never will be. We’d rather get you grounded in reality right away vs talking about pie in the sky all the time like a lot of other sites. In so doing your head is screwed on straight from the start and when those days happen (and they will) mentally it won’t mean a thing to you. To us that’s what’s most important is YOUR state of mind as it’s your most important asset. We hope you appreciate our honesty.

We have a very good retention rate here at All About Trends and a lot of great outstanding people here. We like to think that a part of that is being upfront about what can happen (in both directions). Verses those up 500%, I turned $50,000 into $3 million or some other absurd number to get you to bite. That’s not who we are.

WELCOME ABOARD!

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Lastly with regards to taking any trade:

Remember the moment you take a trade you are at the mercy of the market and have no control except when to sell. If you are not willing to take the risk and are not willing to pay that price do not take the trade. We are willing to take that risk knowing full well the end result could be a loss. That said make sure that portfolio management trade size is used accordingly. With any position you may take make sure that should something go awry the amount of total impact to your account does not devastate your acct. Try to stick to a 5% position That’s the key to portfolio management, not biting off more than you can chew.

Remember the mechanics of reality with regards to the stock market states a stock can only do one of three things: Up, Down, Nowhere. The moment you hit the enter button you are at the mercy of the market therefore the only control you have is when to sell/cover. You can’t manage your gains as you have none to manage initially. Knowing this in advance it allows you to stay in outcome, that being you will either:

1. Make a gain
2. Wash
3. Get stopped out at a loss

Remember the market IS the boss. IT is going to do what IT wants to do.

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OPTIONS- Your best friend and worst enemy

Let’s talk about options for a moment. First off this is a big universe with a lot of advanced strategies and terms like theta, delta , straddles, butterflies and the whole gambit. For the purposes of this conversation we’ll keep it real simple and not try to get to deep.

We’ll approach it from simple buy puts (short side) buy calls (long side). The first thing I want to mention is that options attract the fast money crowd in hopes of turning 500 into 10,000 overnight. This is also the get rich quick crowd. And more often than not these type of people get broke faster than they get rich. Please don’t be one of them as greed kills.

Time and time again we hear from people who like to trade options, and time and time again we hear the horror stories too. When we hear the horror stories nine times out of ten we can guess as to why their option went to zero. Nine times out of ten it was because they bought out of the money options or at the money options. This is the reason why 80% of those who do options lose money by the way.

Sure there are folks who use out of the monies and at the monies but those are experienced traders that know the ins outs ups and downs.

You see the trick is to NOT pay for time. You want as close to a point for point move as possible with the stock because there is nothing worse than seeing your stock move yet your option does nothing or very little, know the feeling?

So for All About Trends we only want to look at IN THE MONEY CALLS OR PUTS and we DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR TIME, sure they cost more BUT we want to be as close as possible to being able to see a point for point move with the stock.

We hate paying for time. We want true value without the time. We’re not saying our way is any better than others, we’re just saying it’s what works for us.

Now let’s touch upon how we would build a portfolio dedicated to options and how to make it a piece of your overall portfolio via allocation. Keep in mind this is more geared towards beginners so you advanced people might be bored with it but then again it never hurts to revisit the basics every now and then.

At All About Trends Trends we talk a lot about never biting off more than you can chew and trade size position management. We do that for a reason, we do it so as to when Murphy’s law shows up it never devastates us or blows us up. Typically we try to stay within a 5-7% position size when we do a trade. The same thing goes for options. If we were to start a portfolio of options or shall we say allocate a portion of our overall portfolio to options the way we would look at it is the following:

For example, let’s say the total value of your portfolio is $100,000. The most we’d consider allocating towards an options strategy is 10% of the whole portfolio. In this case $10,000. So now you’d have a $10,000 option portfolio to work with. Now let’s say that you are the worst trader on the planet (we doubt that!) and you lose the whole option portfolio, what’s the risk to the total value of the overall portfolio? 10% in which case you live to play another day. Now let’s touch upon that $10,000 you allocated toward options. Let’s reduce the risk even further (and we haven’t even talked about what stocks to trade yet). Let’s take that $10,000 and split it up into no more than 10% ($1,000) can be allocated to anyone position as a guide. (Sometimes 1000 can get you 3-4 contracts you know). Now let’s say that one of those positions goes bust (and they will! and sometimes more than one at the same time we assure you.) What is the total impact to the overall options portfolio? 10% right?

Now let’s take that a step further. What’s the total impact to the overall investment portfolio of 100,000? 1% – that’s right 1 measly percent. When it comes to options you need to employ some sort of portfolio risk management structure parameters as this way you can get in trouble and you don’t lose sleep – you just have a bad day that’s all.

As for getting rich overnight? Forget about it. That’s just a marketing ploy. As for taking 50,000 and turning it into millions? Ain’t happening overnight but it sure sounds good doesn’t it? And that is why people bite on those marketing ploys.

As for time? We never go out months. As a swing trader we’re in positions for only a couple of weeks best case so why pay for the time to go out further in time when you don’t have to. When the stock moves whether it’s right away or not they sure seem to suck that time out of you just as fast anyway right?

Typically we’ll look at the front month (current month) or the next month but not months. When we say front month if options expiration is a week or sometimes even two weeks away we’ll look out to the next month and not the current. While time is our enemy in most cases, in this case it’s your friend. It’s just that you don’t want to pay for it

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