What the $%@&* Trading!

The market’s a bitch and then you go broke Crazy, crazy! Four hundred point moves seem so mundane now…..any many times in just the last hour. A/D was at -2800 and A/D volume made it to -50:1 !!

Many indicators don’t seem to be indicating anything they used to…. definitely not predictive. We had many TICKs of over -1000 today. I use +1000 and -1000 readings to open trades in the opposite direction of the tick. Didn’t work well today.

So here’s one we’ll look to see if it’s still working….TRIN. The TRIN closed at 3.37 today…and it is said, “TRIN closing over 2.0 results in a bounce the next day 9 times out of 10. No bounce? Market in real trouble!”

Wednesday of opex week is usually bullish, but the Dow declined for the tenth Wednesday in a row today. And did you see those financials? UYG and XLF getting new lows again. GS catching a sub-60 handle. And a Happy Meal from MCD costs more than a share of GM or F.

Oh well…hang tough everybody

After a great Thursday, and almost identical Friday and Monday, we’re back to the closing low of last Wednesday….actually a couple points lower. This stinks, peeewwwww! And a real scary part is the financials/banks. Just look at UYG, XLF, GS, MER. If they breakdown tomorrow, Dow 7700 here we come.

On the flip side, China seems to be the first to turn around…or at least try to….look at FXI, GXC, CHNR. They were the first to crash, so maybe they will also be the first to recover.

On a closing basis Nasdaq and S&P500 is at new lows for the year…that is telling of more downside But stocks are cheap. Some major stocks are selling at low book value and paying the highest yields in dividends.

It’s scary out there. You have to be able to play the markets both long and short and be able to switch on a dime. Futures are holding the lows as of now, but if they break it may be time to go short again. Asia opens on the downside looking like they want to continue what we started. I’m wondering if we may have a day like last Thursday…making new lows in the morning and rocketing in the afternoon

It was a lousy day, but looking at the charts, I can’t see why! It was a very ambiguous day. Both the Dow and the S&P500 had higher highs and higher lows compared to Friday, but still closed lower than Friday’s close.

The good news, I guess, is that we tested last week’s S&P500 lows and we didn’t breakthrough….so maybe we bounce on Tuesday. Y’know, the last 2 Tuesdays have produced big up days…we don’t want to break that pattern, do we?

Yes, I know we’ll have to test, and probably break the recent lows, but not now and not this year. We need the rally we so justly deserve….no, demand! There are lots of charts, all that look good…oversold and ready to pop. So, like microwave popcorn, I’m waiting and eager to hear those pops to start. Happy Trading

Friday was a nice ending to a lousy week. The week started out okay, but Wednesday and Thursday really sucked….but, on lower volume. Friday came back up…but again on lower volume. Although there were some crazy swings, I’m still thinking we just saw some profit-taking after the previous week’s run-up. I guess it is strange to call a weekly Dow range of a thousand points as “basing.”

I’m looking for an up week though….well…an up Monday at least. But if we close at the upper portion of our range, the week should setup for a bullish tilt!

Asian markets have opened to the upside and U.S. futures are continuing their late-Friday bull run. Time to go scanning and looking at charts. Live long and trade everybody

The Dow down 5, the Naz up 5…the S&P500 down 2, the Russell up 2….let’s call it even…a doji day. But a good day after last week. The markets were in a tight range and very low volume.

Now, what’s the guess on the election? What’s it mean to the markets? Is it priced in? I’m thinking everything is priced in but a McCain win. If, miracles of miracles that should happen, then Wednesday may be a 1,000 point up day. Otherwise, I think it’s in there.

Didn’t place any new trades today, but EYE, UYG and QQQQ calls are still doing their job. I’m over half in cash, biding my time and chart patterns. Let’s see how election Tuesday shapes up

It was a bit scary about noon today, but after we bottomed out we had a nice move to the upside, continuing from the the last two days. We’re still in search for 2 green days together in the Dow and S&P500, while the Naz and the Russell have had 3 in a row! The Russell 2000 looks the strongest of them all, closing at the high of the day today after making new lows just 3 days ago. C’mon, let’s go for four-in-a-row.

You can play the Russell with IWM and UWM, both the stocks or call options, which both have been working well these 3 days. Those plays along with ES and YM futures have made for a very nice week. ES futures were so volatile today, I didn’t have a trade that lasted more than 15 minutes until the last half hour…and that was because I walked away from my screens when the markets took a big dive. I waited it out and it worked by the close

Did some chart scans this evening and found a few I’m adding to the watchlist: BMII, EYE, ERES, LPNT. Still hanging on to UYG. Also added some stocks into my long-term account: CVS, CVX and MRK. These looked like they have bottomed and seemed like good recession plays.

Sure would like this market go up for another couple of days running up to the election. That’s what the Stock Trader’s Almanac says anyway.

…closing at the high….yeah baby!!! Those bears are shaking in the bushes

I bought IWM and UWM calls about 2 o’clock this afternoon. Within the hour they were up about 60% so I cashed out. Oops, close to a double by the end of the day. Oh well. I’m still in my QQQQ Jan calls and also in UYG. I doubled down last night in UYG and it turned into a big winner. I still see it as a double over the next several months. And again, ES futures were a wonderful play

The afternoon today was really something! With no selloff, it then became an amazing sight to watch 500…600…700…what the hell 800….and oh my god 900! But, just look at the Dow chart…we’re right back where we started last Tuesday!

And another thing….the markets have not been able to put two green days together for a month! The Fed will tell us tomorrow if we can do it! So let’s make a proclamation…the markets do not go down any more this week Let’s see if that works

Newsletters, chat rooms, blogs and magazines are all bears…or at least many of them. I’ve never seen so many bears, gloom and doom. So, does that mean we are near a bottom? Is it rally time?

Today was ugly, especially those last 2 hours….even though we did have a 200 point recovery at the end….but still the DJ30 was down over 500 points

I’m bullish, but I’m out of everything…except for some January calls in the QQQQ, which for now are underwater. I hate being part of history

Everybody selling to raise cash, banks not trusting each other, and global financial chaos….other than that, wasn’t this a fun day?

Although not a coordinated effort, it looks like rate cuts are coming….probably starting about 3-4AM EST. I’m wondering if our own Fed Reserve will be stepping up tomorrow (Weds).

We’ve had 5 consecutive down days for a total of 1400 points shaved from the Dow. We can only have 19 more 500 point down days before we hit the big zero! So by Halloween we should know if the U.S. financial markets will be around for Thanksgiving.

And while all this turmoil goes on around me with bloodletting on Wall Street, I’ve keep picking up some index call options on the cheap…biding my time. The biggest money is made at the bottom. I may be a little early, but I’ll keep to my plan.

So will Day 6 be in the red, or will we get a little green on our charts?

The Dow had a 450+ point rally late in the day…and the index still closes down -369 ! I just sat around and watched. This is history breaking, once in a lifetime market action going on here. I was busy moving from chart to chart checking out the action. I did do a daytrade on DNDN just to make some lunch money

Some of the indicators I was watching were incredible: Advancing issues vs declining was at one time -3000 and A/D volume was 1 to 270! The VIX almost made it to 60. New High/Lows was 1 new high to 1627 new lows…wow!

Oh where oh where is that bottom

Following a report that showed a steeper-than-expected drop in pending sales of existing homes, the indexes said goodbye. The Naz 100 closed lower and below key support also known as July’s low….which also means a possible test of March’s low at 1693. The S&P closed sharply lower actually filling yesterday’s gap. If we continue down, we may see July’s low at 1201….And the Dow gave all of yesterday’s gains back

Enough’s enough already! Remember, cash is a position and looks like a pretty good one right now. Practice safe trading

…for me anyway. First, DNDN I thought was reporting after the close. But no. They reported before the open, only the conference call was after. The report wasn’t bad, so I hung on. It closed above its 8ema so I guess I get another day at it. Then the indexes were all wacky. While the Dow and S&P were going down, the Nasdaq was in the green. Thinking the it would eventually follow the rest, I bought into QID. And for most of the day I was sitting in the red…until about the last hour. Then the Naz started to dive and QID moved up… I was able to take half my position off with a profit. I’ll see how the the rest does on Wednesday. The DXD I got into on Monday is still growing greener

I dumped FRE with a loss early on, making me happy when I saw where it finally ended the day. Financials were dragging the whole market down. I didn’t get in or out of anything else since I had some other things to do.

I haven’t had a chance to go through my stock screeners to see what’s going on. I’ll do that later. If anything grabs my attention, I’ll let you know….maybe in the morning.