What the $%@&* Trading!

Asia markets way up! Futures way up! Now let’s see if we can hold it and continue through Monday. Remember that pop and drop last week?

The markets continued their downward momentum the first couple of hours on Friday, but soon realized the error of their way and turned around and slowly trudged up. Afterhours, after the Treasury said they were close to shoring up FRE and FNM, those stock surged but retreated. XLF and UYG ended the AH session well above their close. This sounds like a setup for a Monday pop!

SIRF was my reprieve today and made about 25% on it. But being Friday and all, I wasn’t all that active in the market, especially after yesterday’s big burn.

We’ll have to see if the financials continue their up move and if they can drag the indexes up with them. I’m gonna study charts this weekend, not only find some stocks for next week, but also to do some forensic analysis of the indexes to burn those chart patterns into my brain. Have a great weekend

Boy my cheeks are rosie My stops kept getting triggered….even on the ones I moved down. By early afternoon I was back to all cash, licking my wounds and muttering “what happened?” My stock picks on my watchlist were doing alright….PAET, DSL, ABAT, SIRF, but I was heavy into the indexes, QQQQ and SPY.

Volume was finally up…. unfortunately it was all down volume.

The market always catches you at the most inopportune times. After several winning weeks, and anticipating another winning week, the market bitch slapped me and is now wondering if I’ll come back….And yes, I’ll be back tomorrow to try to slay the dragon, a few teeth missing, but ready to fight. But right now, I need some medicinal liquids to soothe my wounds from inside out

Yeah I know, this is no place for politics, but I’m listening to Sarah Palin….and I like her! No wonder Hillary supports Obama….In 4 years there will be no Hillary, it’s Sarah all the way

Well we had a drop and a sorta pop. My QQQQ calls are in the red, but I think they’ll be okay tomorrow. Volume is still on the low to average size. We may have to wait until next week to see any trend changing volume.

I still like the looks of the ABAT and PAET charts from yesterday and may add AXL and SIRF. Time for some zzzz’s.

Pop ‘n Drop, or whatever you want to call it, that was some move today My QID and USO calls were so under water. But the high of the day (or my low of the day) was reached in the first 15 minutes, the indexes starting moving down and oil started moving up. I closed my QID calls for a 100% gain…and I’m still holding the USO, still under water, but not as bad as early morning. Good thing I took some time off last week…today was stressful.

So I’m thinking Wednesday may be just the opposite of today…gap down in the morning, with the momentum, but then turn up and close in the green. What d’ya think? A very plausible scenario? Well, I’m thinking that, so I bought some QQQQ calls late in the afternoon. I just took a partial position thinking that we might have that gap down, but didn’t want to miss it if we started up right from the start.

A couple charts I found that looked good: ABAT, SPRD, PAET and CT. A lot of the financials look good, but that whole sector is volatile. But for quick day trades, you may want to check some of those out. Happy Trading

Well looky there…oil down big today even while the hurricane clears the gulf rigs and Russia shuts down supplies to Europe…what a strange marketplace. Early U.S. market futures are up slightly. Not looking good for my USO spec play

Gustav looks mean, and thoughts and prayers to all on the gulf coast.

QID worked out for me on Friday, but HAL did not…..and I picked up some USO at the close.

Time to start winding back into the groove. I really haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention to the market and even less to my trading…but besides fighting a bad summer cold, it has been relaxing to take some time off. I’m feeling re-invigorated and feeling confident returning to trading as many managers and brokers come back from the Hamptons and back to work. We’ll probably see some volume come back and satrt to build on Tuesday and throughout the week….and really come back full force a week from Monday.

There is some economic news coming in this shortened week: Fed Beige Book on Wednesday and Non-farm Payrolls on Friday. By tomorrow afternoon (Monday) we’ll have a good look at the damage caused by Gustav and if any of the oil and gas platforms will be out for any extended time. I got the USO just in case.

I’ll have some hot dogs and beer on Monday, but it’ll be time to attack the charts by evening and get into that trading frame of mind again after a brief hiatus. Happy Labor Day to all.

We broke an 11 year pattern. I betted on a continuation of that pattern and lost…but not bad. My QID closed at the same place as it closed the day before. I also betted on some HAL when it dove down and was green by the end of the day. So what will Friday before a holiday weekend bring? Probably not much because everybody is gone fishin’. Have a wonderful holiday weekend

…on low volume. The Thursday before Labor Day has been a down day for 11 years…so I bought some QID, the UltraShort QQQ ETF. We’ll see if that string continues for a 12th year

What if they opened a market and nobody showed up? Low volume days are just boring. I actually started to clean my office today, while watching charts….and not trading.

There is a time to go long, a time to go short, and a time to go fishing.
–Jesse Livermore

…but I didn’t trade anything! After being bogged down with a summer cold, or maybe bronchitis, or maybe allergies, I just didn’t feel like doing a damn thing…just coughing, blowing and sneezing. I hate being sick in the summer, but better now than after Labor day.

Actually, there wasn’t much trading at all Friday nor today, nor probably for the entire week. The indexes are looking down and I believe we may meander down until some traders come back into the market. The S&P500 had a big downer, giving back the last 3 days of upside advance. Today it still found support at that magical 1265 area, but looks like it wants more…maybe 1250 here we come…and if that doesn’t hold, July lows here we come!

I got out on Friday from some QID and TWM calls at just about breakeven. Today, I would have been a hero but didn’t do nothing, just sat there. Oh well, didn’t feel like doing nothing so I played my plan.

I’m going to continue my “take it easy” attitude this week, maybe watch some double ETFs like QID, DXD, DUG, SSO, QLD and UWM, if anything perks up either up or down. Otherwise, I’ll nurse my cold while my wife says, honey do this and honey do that

All week the bears have been trying to break through 1265 on the S&P, and it keeps holding even in this low volume marketplace. Again, I was not active in the market and hung on to my QQQQ and UYG. Actually I added a bit more QQQQ near the low, so I’m still happy. I’m hoping the late afternoon rally has some follow through…at least in the morning, just to get out and back to cash for the weekend. Of course if we follow through all day, I just may have to keep holding on…at least onto UYG, thinking that something may happen over the weekend.

Hope you’re not spending too much time in front of the screens. It’s a perfect time to take it easy and enjoy the fruits of your labor….happy summer