Reminder: Harlan is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
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If you are wondering why we stopped where we did look no further than the short term one minute charts below.
   Yesterday we said:
We’re still in the channel so anything goes till we get a decisive break. Even if that break is higher we’ll still stay in the channel BUT we’ve got massive resistance above on multiple fronts.
9-15 And this is where we find ourselves today.
  That all said, if it wasn’t for next week being the Fed’s operation twist meeting we’d be extremely bearish. Remember this whole climate is dominated by news driven events, they work for you and against you. Now keep in mind we have no clue how the market is going to react to the fed next week. The trend has been any sort of QE has been cheered. Should that be the case they could run us higher (All within the channel mind you) on that.
HOWEVER short term here (remember the short term trend has been 2-3 days up, 2-3 days down, wash rinse repeat. Great for a scalper very difficult for an investor long or short) we are extremely overbought in the 60 minute time frequency charts and have tagged a resistance level as shown in the daily and one minute charts.
That all said we could easily sell off here. But to where? Ahhhh baring a news driven event? How about trend channel support right into the fed. In so doing over the next few days it would allow the Full Stohcastics in the 60 minute time frequency charts to reset themselves to oversold just in time for the magic pump up the volume.
Keep in mind this is a forward thinking assumption based upon the current chart action and future news driven events we know that are coming our way. Whether it comes to fruition is another story as nobody really knows. Call it a potentiality, one that should it occur we would be prepared in advance for.
So assuming something like that transpires ? We’ll use market weakness to cull our holdings on the shortside and look for something to potentially sink our teeth into on the longside as we go into that event all from a chart pattern perspective.
So while we are forward thinking in the world of a potentiality what happens after the famous QE pump? Well that could be the final run of the channel. Keep in mind the QE that they are talking about isn’t of the caliber or strength of the last few hence the Fed is really running out of bullets so I really don’t think it lasts long if it is going to be the rub.
What does that mean for GLD and SLV? Well they could continue pulling back into and thru the operation twist QE3 or whatever you want to call it. IF IF IF that is the case? Once that final QE bounce runs it’s course? (assuming the market is impressed by it) Then we for sure jump on some and who knows maybe on really nasty downside weakness if it were to show up we’d consider building exposure then. BUT lets just not get ahead of ourselves and take it one step at a time and adjust if necessary as we go.
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SHORT SIDE WATCH LIST
9-11 Folks its all about channels. Downside breaks of them that is. There are TONS of names sporting channels out there. Downside breaks of those channels are the "What we need to see to take a trade on the short side". Given how many we are seeing? The market is talking so you better listen to IT as the market IS the boss vs a talking head or worse someone from the government here or abroad.
SFLY
 9-13 I hate to say it but I’d rather short on any retest of the 55 level. BUT the market doesn’t care what I want, its going to do what IT wants regardless. Still though the other trade on the shortside is a full fledged break to the downside of the pink line.
ALXN
 ATHN
 EZPW
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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 "
None currently
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FEATURED BUT NOT TRADE TRIGGERED BY US LIST
NOTE: All of the names on this long side watch list are INVERSE INDEX ETFs. 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.
TZA
SDS
 9-14 Just one big wicked news driven POH here folks. Same goes for the other inverse ETFs
QID
SLV
 9-15 Weakness today is SLV and GLD comes compliments of ALL central banks staging a coordinated effort to shore things up.
Makes one wonder just how bad things really are out there in Euro land. I mean if they weren’t really bad then why would they all have to intervene? Just a random thought folks.
GLD
 Below is one that is also pulling back within the same theme as GLD, gosh 50 looks interesting.
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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
GMCR We are now long 1 September 105 put option to open at 12.95
As we post they are currently trading at 1.00 bid
9-15 These expire this week, as in by tomorrows close. As you can see the action today in GMCR is that its all over the place today. We lows in the 103 range and bounced off of it and are stalling again. In the morning tomorrow should we get a gap down we’ll use it to salvage the position.
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CURRENT POSITIONS
Let Your Stocks Tell You What To Do By The Action They Exhibit" Short Side Positions
TSCO (We are now SHORT 200 shares at 65.19 as of 9-12-11)
 9-15 Here we are still sitting up against the trend channel resistance but also look at the thin pink line. See it? Its a rising bearish wedge.
Over the weekend we said:
Lets talk about risk management for a moment from an educational standpoint.
What’s the risk? Well if it retests its highs in the 72 zone we’d be down 11% BUT then what? I mean its major resistance so are you going to stop out? Also knowing that the climate is wild in both directions and can easily roll right back over like we’ve see a lot of issues do? On top of that what if one were to take a 5% position (5% of your total portfolio) in it? Know what impact that would have on your portfolio should it make a run to 72? For illustrative purposes, on a 100,000 portfolio an 11% loss on a position that makes up 5% of the overall portfolio is a whopping 5/10ths of 1% loss to the whole. Really? that’s it? Yep. Folks, THIS IS THE POWER OF TRADE SIZE RISK MANAGEMENT.
This is exactly what will allow you to make it thru turbulent times! , Emotionally speaking.
GMCR (We are now SHORT 100 shares at 94.90 as of 8-25-11)
 SRCL (We are now SHORT 150 shares at 80.69 as of 8-17-11)
HUM (We are now SHORT 175 shares at 74.22 as of 8-17-11)
 9-13 Still in the channel so it can still chew around.
CXO (We are now SHORT 150 shares at 85.19 as of 8-17-11)
9-13 This issue MAY have finally broken the channel, that’s a good thing. See that minor support at 80? If this issue doesn’t break the 80 level if it gets there it can go right back up. The risk of covering a short sell at 80 is that 80 breaks to the downside and this issue falls apart without us being short. The other risk is we don’t cover at 80 and it takes off again back to 90. I think the proper phrases are: "We’re Damned If We Do, Damned If We Dont" and "We’re All Doomed to Make Decisions"
LONG SIDE POSITIONS
TZA (We are now LONG 125 shares at 46.13 as of 8-16-11)
9-13 Just one big wicked wide range Pullback Off Highs (POH). That’s a nervous market for ya.
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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. 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! ================================================ 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 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. 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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Don’t forget you can view updates in the middle and the end of each trading day complete with current charts, along with our current performance at our subscriber only web site.
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