That was an amazing 30 minutes of market action from 3:45 Friday afternoon through 9:45 Monday morning. Friday was lackadaisical all day until the end. Then Monday morning exploded for a few minutes and then got lackadaisical for the rest of the day. But that 30 minutes was crazy 
The S&P500 broke thru what I thought would be resistance of 944. Of course, it did not close above it, but it is still close. And because it is at resistance and overbought, I’m looking for a turnaround Tuesday….to the downside. I started picking up SDS around $53 and TZA at about $22. By the end of the day both positions were in the green, but I am looking for much more….if not Tuesday, then by the end of the week.
Financials and shippers had some early upside but experienced some selling into the afternoon…..GS DRYS EGLE, while down a bit from last week’s close, were down a lot from their highs….helping to bring the indexes off their highs.
From the Trader’s Almanac – First trading day in June, Dow up 9 of last 10. I guess it’s 10 out of 11 now 
Actually it was good…except for that last half hour again. That is getting boring, having to stop trading and just watching. Yeah I could go short, but I keep thinking, today is the day that it won’t sell off into the close.
Banks were a mixed bag, some green, some red, UYG was down a couple pennies.. The bulk shippers like DRYS and EGLE had a big oversold bounce.
The big question, will we see any follow-thru on Thursday? So far, the futures are continuing their downward trek in afterhours, but it is still several hours before the European markets open.
And one more thing, I wonder if I can use a share of GE to buy a pack of light bulbs? 
Published on
February 16, 2009,
2:21 pm in
Trading.
Tags: BIDU, BRCD, CEG, CHK, CVS, DE, DRYS, GM, HPQ, JCP, LOW, NGS, RIG, RIO, TSO, WMT.
…this week may cause a stir…..besides being options expiration week. On Tuesday look for WMT, RIG, CHK; Wednesday is CEG, BIDU, DE, HPQ; Thursday find GM, CVS, NGS, BRCD, RIO, DRYS, TSO; and on Friday JCP and LOW. Yes, there are a whole bunch more, but these will be noticed enough to move the market, if not the stock.
The S&P futures, ES, took a tumble for the few hours Globex/CME was open, down 11.25 points…but only 115k contracts traded today in a product that usually has 2 million plus. Futures open up again at 5PM today, so a better read can be made later.
Wasn’t much of a day today. No big up moves…no major damage. The indexes held above their 50 day moving averages on lower volume than yesterday…..ho-hum 
Some exciting action though in DVAX…up 590% today! I notice it because I owned it a year or so ago, but like most biotechs they are great moneymakers or disasters. If you bought in at 15 cents you would be pretty happy…but most likely you sold out after some big misery 
The “usual’s” did well today: DRYS and EGLE. I also had success with RIMM, QLD, UYG. We got options expiration on Friday so there’s no telling what might happen….more volatility, but I’m thinking volume will be decreasing as we get closer to next week…a holiday week. But keep enjoying that Santa rally
Futures took a dive after the “no vote” announcement late this evening. I went short 1 ES contract at 851 and got out at 841…not bad for 20 minutes work 
Both DRYS and EGLE reversed their crummy opens to again cash out for the 5th day…but, it was scary in the early going!
Going back to watching the Senate get stuck in the Tarp Pit.
I didn’t do much trading today because I was pre-occupied with some other work in the office. But, I did get in a trade in the pre-market hours with 2 ES contracts for 16 points. After the market opened I bought DRYS and EGLE, set a stop-loss and off to other work I went. My stop-losses were never hit during the day, but neither were my targets. So, I’m holding overnight….the first time in a long time 
On the other hand, markets are acting well and I’m looking for more upside.
As a side note, I use to have several clocks on my screen so I could see when markets open around the world….until I found this website: World Market Hours. Check it out
…from riding a bucking bull….market that is and the market fell off today! But giving back 242 points after 1,000 point run-up is not bad at all. Now just get back on that bull and ride!
Guidance was being cut all over this morning, including FDX and TXN. FDX got clobbered and TXN actually went up…with the rest of the semi’s. I think semi’s, as in SMH, INTC, USD, will be pretty good over the next months.
I played DRYS everyday for the past 4 days. For the past 2 days it has gapped up. If I would have held the entire time I would be up 100+%. Since I closed every day (so I could sleep better) I “only” made 50%. It would have been nice, but I can’t complain. That is one of my big hurdles…feeling bad about money I “coulda” had, rather than feeling good about the money I made…and I’d be real happy making 50% every week
There’s never a point when a trader can say that I’ve read it all, or know it all. There is no time where I will “finally get it.” There are just learning more, reviewing your trades, adjusting and improving. I’m going to clean the saddle so I’m ready for the morning.
And speaking of learning, check out the Kondratieff Wave. It is a theory based on a study of nineteenth century price behavior….interesting reading. Happy trading
Published on
December 9, 2008,
12:10 am in
Daily and Trading.
Tags: DJ30, DRYS, ES, FAS, GNW, GS, QID, SIMO, SP500, UYG, volume, XLF.
Markets gapped open and never looked back! It was a beautiful continuation of Friday’s rally…on increasing volume. The close wasn’t that pretty but did give me an opportunity to buy some QID and short 1 contract of ES for about 30 minutes.
The financials, GS, UYG, XLF, FAS pulled the market up along with techs. But, my big winners were DRYS, GNW and SIMO.
I’d like to see the Dow move up and hold 9100 and see the S&P hold 945…but, I went flat at the close, as I always do the last couple of weeks, and will see what the markets give us in the morning. Because we all know, the markets will do what they want to do…not what I would like to see 
After a waffling morning, it seems everyone wanted to sell tomorrow’s employment report….and they are expecting a real lousy report!
There were a few good plays today for me: AMZN, DRYS, NM, QLD. All were short term, like 15 to 30 minutes, but at least they outnumbered the losers
Financials had a great day until the afternoon sell-off…but not a whole bunch of damage, so let’s get some more tomorrow.
Looking for at least a short-term bounce for Friday, thinking that the employment numbers may not be as bad as today’s selling envisioned.
I’m stuffed!! After watching some football and some James Bond movies on the Sci-Fi channel, I thought I’d review the last couple days and see if there is anything to do for the shortened session on Friday.
First of all….4 up days in a row!!! Let’s go for 5. Wednesday was great for a couple of ES (S&P futures) trades, SSO and DRYS…all profitable trades to pay for a turkey dinner
Volume is going to be low on Friday, but I will be checking in and watching the markets to see if anything develops. You would think that maybe Black Friday will be an up day also…even a doji day would be okay…just no big swoosh down please.
Looks like maybe the shippers have bottomed out. Check out DRYS, TBSI, EGLE, GMR, ACLI, HRZ. Oh hell, just look at the charts of all of them in that sub-industry!
