What the $%@&* Trading!

Well for the last 2 weeks I’ve been thinking we are at a bottom and that we are due a relief rally. And every day we get a few fleeting moments of upside movement until the rug gets pulled out from underneath the market.

And I’ve been trading what I’ve been thinking…I get a few index calls and eventually get stopped out. On Friday I loaded up on QQQQ calls and also I picked up UYG….both were paying off by the end of the day and I think this week they will pay off handsomely.

Earnings season picks up some steam this week and the Fed beige book comes out too. It goes without saying that we’ll be having another wild week, but perhaps the bulls will finally get some relief

That was some midday swoon, but the bulls came back in style. The conundrum is why did the market go up when oil was making such a big up move also? I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

Lots of good earnings after the market closed: FSLR, CLF, SYMC, V, while SBUX…well just sux’d. Surprise surprise, people don’t want $5 cups of coffee anymore. If the morning earnings continue like this and the initial unemployment claims come inline, we should continue our upward move….a lot of ifs.

I got a chart of the S&P showing how this is the 2nd time in a week that we have reached the 34ema. The first time we were turned back. Tomorrow we’ll get the answer for the 2nd try….and maybe we’ll go for the 50sma, say another 20 - 25 points in the S&P

As a rule, I close anything I’m holding that has an impending earnings announcement….rules are rules. Yesterday, I made a few bucks on IAR during the day. Although I closed half of my position, I was thing it was acting pretty well at the close and I’ll play the 2nd half as an earnings play. Famous last words. Oh well…I hate earnings

Today wasn’t as nice as yesterday….but still a very productive day, kaching $$$. It was a snoozer overall. All the indexes hit their 34ema’s, as did many stocks…and now we need to see if we pullback or break on through to the other side

I expect some consolidation…which would be a good thing. Been having a whole bunch of fun with the financial sector, MBI, ABK, FED, IBCP. After a week of great upside, it’s time for a pullback or at least some sideways moves.

Tomorrow is the biggest day, I mean the greatest amount of earnings reports. We’ll see early on how they shape the day. Of course yesterday was a lousy earnings day but the market recovered lickity-split. Let’s watch how this story unfolds…

In the pre-market I was lining up a bunch of stocks to short today. At the open they gapped down or were going down pretty hard…XL, FNF, CAKE, BARE to name a few. I didn’t go short today at all. Within 15 minutes the bottom was hit and it was up up and away…slow but steady, until the last hour when it took off

Had a great time with CPSL, DNDN, IAR, and CHINA, which I’m still holding.

To me, today was amazing…I didn’t expect it. Actually, I was looking for a much harder down day….like I said yesterday, a panic…with maybe a slight recovery near the end. I didn’t think the marketplace would discount the bad earnings last night so fast. Did you see that recovery on AAPL ? I didn’t have the kahoonas to buy in at the open. And with oil coming down, the airlines were magnificent!

But, always a big but, can the financials continue? Some of them have doubled in a week! Take a look at HBAN, PFBC, CBON….like wow! Even XLF has been nice to us. When they turn, we go test the July lows….and hopefully we bounce.

Remember, this is the biggest week of earnings announcements this season, and Thursday will be the biggest (greatest number) day of the week. Be nimble…and practice safe trading

That’s about all to do, except for watching the grass grow or the paint to dry. We are teetering, swinging gentley and slowly, side to side, waiting for 2:15PM EDST Wednesday when the Fed tells us they are cutting another quarter point before they stop …or maybe they will take the high road and say they are done. We can wait another day and a half, but we do have a whole bunch of earnings reports tomorrow that has just got to put some waves into the market. Doji’s all around for the markets today on very low volume…and I expect the same for Tuesday.

Some indiviudal winners: (NURO) (SYNM) (MVIS) (XRM) and losers: (SIGA) (STEM).

Anybody signing up for CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge?

But this time with a few winners in my pocket (FCEL) (ANAD) (STEM) (HYTM). The market had some good earnings this morning, but the after hours reports were less than enthusiastic. We’ll see how tomorrow pans out. The Nasdaq had a strong day but can we continue with those (AAPL) and (AMZN) earnings. Volume was up a bit, but still below average. C’mon everybody….BUY!

Tomorrow we have the biggest quantity of earnings in one day…in the biggest week of earnings. Good for that, because we don’t have any economic news.

Looked like a strong day for a while there, but it dwindled in the afternoon, ending in yet another doji day….well at least for the Dow and the S&P. The Nasdaq had an ominous bearish engulfing pattern, along with the QQQQ.

AA and AMD did not have good news afterhours, and am wondering if that will bring in a bad mood to the market tomorrow. Futures are down a little this eveing as well as the Asia markets.

MVIS was my winner today, a bigger winner than my loser, IDMI. Oh well, just keep plugging away

We haven’t lost any of Tuesday’s run up. The last 2 out of 3 Tuesdays when we had big runups, we always gave it back. Even all the bad news did not bring the markets down. Big gain, lower volume consolidation…are we getting ready to move up in a tradeable rally? Markets up 3% for the week.

Steel stocks and tech look to be moving up. And did you see the 1st quarter biggest percentage gainer was a homebuilder? Yes, PHM, Pulte Homes was up 47% And it added another 3% the first week of the 2nd quarter. The other big homebuilders were up 20+%. The Steel Index, STQ.X, has been a double since Jan.’07 and AKS is up 75% in the last 12 months.

Earnings season begins Monday after the bell with AA. If earnings start showing some consistency with an upward bias, we may be in for a good rally

Some profits I took last week: SIGA IDMI NSTR USU. All in all a good week. Now, to make next week even better. Happy Trading!

It’s a good earnings day, BMC ATVI TIF MCD MFE, but…futures are down. Asia had a down day and European markets are having a red-green-red-green kinda day, as we had yesterday. And who wants to hold - long or short - over the weekend? I think I’ll try to unload the few stocks I have and just watch. Maybe I’ll even clean the office