What the $%@&* Trading!

I had to leave for most of the day, but before I left I thought we were close to a bottom for the day. I bought some calls in the Qs and SMH and put a trailing stop 10 cents below the price when I left. When I got back, I was stopped out of both for a loss, but that was a lot better if I had not put in the stops

I also played an earnings play, buying CNTF before the announcement after the close. They swung to a profit, but guidance sucked…so down it went. Screw it, I’m just not an earnings player and I vow to stop. But after a while I think, “Gee that would have been a good play”…but for me it never works. So I sold CNTF after hours for a loss. Today sucked for me

I did have some green stocks, I just didn’t get out of them….DNDN, IAR, CPSL, were all good. I’m looking for them to continue. They acted well for a down market day.

I think I’m also going to reduce my trading for the next 2 weeks as volume goes down, and wait for after Labor Day when all the players come back. Not that I won’t trade, but I will be reducing my positions and I also won’t be in front of my screen all the time as I finish up some business and personal items. Seems like the best time to do it.

Happy Trading! …and if you have a fishing pole, put the line in the water

Trading days are so much more fun when there is a big up day…isn’t it? Sure I short once in a while, but I’m mostly a long guy. I picked a few shorts last night, but none of them even started on the down side. One that I thought would be a great short was AIR, but it gapped up in the morning and continued up for 8%….nice.

All the indexes I track went up to 2 to 2 1/2 percent today…the stocks I watched went up on higher volume. That sure looks good for a continuation….but I’ve said that before

My winners today: CNTF, AMR. CAL, CHINA and CPSL. My loser, as I said earlier, was IAR….boohoo…but I learned a lesson. Tomorrow I’m liking NLS, MTU, NWY and HOTT. But there are so many charts to look at…some of them have got to be winners…and I’ve got a night of reviewing to go through. And watch those airlines if oil continues down

Oil inventories were bullish all around, but the oil market dove down $4+ for no reason at all. Maybe all the traders believe there is a bubble. The indexes loved that move and went up in tandem…but got real tired by the end of the day with gains cut in half by the end of the day. The S&P held above its 8ema, but the Dow couldn’t quite make it. The Nasdaq was trying to move through its 200ma, but it too could not sustain by the end of the day.

Had some winners in (ULBI), (IAR), (CNTF) and (KOSN). But I had some losers: (IDMI) and (BCON).

Tomorrow I’m looking at: (BIOS), (ENT), (FRPT) and (MVIS). Working on several new scans on TCnet, so I’ll see if more pop up. Happy Trading

All was going up up and away until (SNDK) made an announcement that oil prices were going to hold back the purchasing of flash disks in the next quarter and / or year. The Q’s came crashing, pulling the Dow and S&P with it. There was a bit of a recovery within the closing minutes, but still it left a bad taste in the market mouth

I took some profits on part of my position in (CNTF), but whatever I made during the day, I lost after hours when the market did not like the earnings report of a profit as compared to last year’s loss. I just don’t get it. Hopefully when everybody has a chance to sleep on it, they’ll like it in the morning when the market opens

I didn’t get into any of my other stocks on the watchlist, but did like (AVR) and (PGNX). Now to wait and see if I should be long or short tomorrow….time to look at charts.

The Nasdaq has poked through the 200 day moving average, but the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 are still attacking from underneath. So we should see what happens this week…march through or turn back. Remember we should see volume slip as the week goes along as traders start extending their long Memorial Day weekends.

The week was pretty good for trading…loved the action in (CNTF) on Friday which way more than offset my losses in (DVAX)

My CNBC Millionaire’s Contest account has been growing, but only because I’ve been answering the bonus trivia questions

Gonna keep an eye on (HYTM) (WATG) (XFML) and (PLM) on Monday. See you on the trading field

Nothing can get this market down…not an earthquake, not an ugly loss by (S) or even a warning by (FDX). The only thing keeping this market lackluster is the volume…there isn’t any!

All the major indexes closed above the 8ema, which for me gives them a positive direction. And I had some decent winners: (MVIS), (DVAX), (SUPG) and (CNTF). I held them over so we’ll see how they do tomorrow. We have morningstar candles on the (QQQQ) and Nasdaq, while the Dow and S&P500 are close to bullish engulfing patterns. Plus I’m also going to watch these: (HYTM), (BCON), (DXCM) and (OWW). It’s good to be a trader right now

I tried to make some trades in the CNBC Millionaires Challenge, but I guess they had troubles with the website. I was finally able to get in near the end of the day and place some trades, but only completed 3 of the 5 daily trivia bonus questions….at least I got them right See ya’ in the market tomorrow.

Nice….and profitable! Almost back to the April Fool’s close. Thank you Coke, JPMorgan, Intel and the consumer price index. We needed that. And all on higher volume. Yeah, baby

We should see follow thru on Thursday because IBM and Ebay came thru big time afterhours.

My winners today: VNDA MVIS CNTF and even better…no losers

Going to spend the evening going thru charts and line up tomorrow’s buys. Don’t want to waste any time tomorrow. Happy Trading.

Wasn’t that fun Right from the get-go we were looking to go long…and we landed a couple of good ones: GGC TONE and CNTF were winners for me today. I’m still in GGC overnight, so I hope tomorrow has some more follow-thru. The only downer I see was the light overall volume in the markets

It’s been a month since the Dow was above 12,500 and what was really nice is that the SP500 closed above it’s 50 day ma. I guess some profit taking should be expected tomorrow, but I hope it’s in the morning and the up move continues in the afternoon.

Luckily or unluckily, the day started down for the first half hour…which means that the day just had to end in the green And it did…way in the green.

My winners today: DVAX CNTF PEIX. Loser: VNDA. Winners far outweighing the loser.

Crummy news started the day with C calling for more layoffs, housing data bad, and LOW earnings bad. But all that was forgotten when the S&P announced it will keep ABK and MBI bond ratings at AAA late in the afternoon. Buyers came out of the woodwork, but total volume was just average, a bit lower than Friday’s. The QQQQ and Nasdaq are still below their 20ma, but the S&P and DOW are above the 20ma and heading for the 50ma.

Now will those buyers stick around or will Tuesday be one of those start green and end up red days?

Well wasn’t that fun? It was an all day bull. Only issue was that the volume was not so great.

My big mistake today was DNDN. I bought it since it gapped open above the 8ema and rode it up with all intentions to be out by the end of the day. But, at 2:15 came a report that Congress would not open a special meeting into FDA inconsistencies until the FDA was done with their approval process of Provenge, the miracle prostate cancer drug. The stock collapsed and couldn’t get out fast enough…took a loss.

But there were some winners that were bigger than the loss: SIGA VNDA CNTF LMRA PEIX. I suspect selling will increase going into a 3-day weekend and Friday is options expiration. BIDU had a good earnings report that will probably help tomorrow.

What an ugly day for the markets But, it has been good if you’re a trader, a stock picker.

My good picks made more than my bad picks lost. My winners today: STEM PEIX SIGA IDMI RFMD URZ. My losers today: LMRA CNTF SCA DVAX. So, I call it a good day…even though the Dow was down 370 points, on increasing volume, and accelerating into the close.

The Nikkei has been open 2 hours and is down -567. Futures are only down a little, but there’s 12 hours for a lot of change. Looks like momentum may take us down again tomorrow, maybe enough to bounce back.