What the $%@&* Trading!

That was some ugly morning…but a beautiful afternoon. And man ‘o man, was it tiring. All I traded today was the S&P500 futures contract (ES)…and I traded 15 round-trips, short and long, and I don’t think any trade lasted more than 20 minutes…most were in the sub-10 minute range!

Now most of you probably don’t remember but 79 years ago, on November 13, 1929, the market reached it’s low after the crash, to rise up until April 1930. After that came the depression. So I’m thinking we’re on the same train.

BRKA went sub-100,000 for the first time since 2006. GOOG hit 280 before returning back to over 300. It was a day for milestones and hopefully the day we look back on and say, “wasn’t that something?”

Japan and Australia opened up, but we’ll have to see how they close and how Europe opens, but I’m looking for some follow-thru on Friday….yeah, that’s the ticket…we’ll can call it Follow-thru Friday. Happy trading

Did anyone watch the activity afterhours? AAPL halted trading before its earnings report. After it announced, techs took a dive, especially RIMM, but so did IBM, GOOG and others. AAPL’s earnings report wasn’t that great, and after it re-opened, took a dive to $85 and then proceeded to move up…and fast! As I’m writing this it is already over $104. What the hell? RIMM has recoverd, the QQQQ’s have recovered…all techs and futures have recovered What the hell?

I’m not complaining, I hold QQQQ calls…but I don’t understand…It is the very definition of a rally on bad news - the kind that starts something larger…and confounds the bears and bulls alike I can’t believe that tech will turn on a dime….especially with the horrible tape today.

Today was the exact opposite of yesterday….yesterday strong on low volume….today weak on even lower volume. What the hell?

Big earnings report days coming up and next week probably another rate cut. We’ve got to put 2 up days together someday…won’t we?

The biggest up move since April Fool’s Day Two to three percent up on all the indexes….wow! And it’s not as if the FOMC said anything unexpected, three-quarters of the up move had already been achieved by the time we heard that there would be no change in rates. Oh yeah, oil went below $120 per barrel. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq have formed morningstar-like candle patterns and are on their way to their 50 day moving averages. What to expect now?

There’s been a pattern that after a big move, the next day goes in the opposite direction…sometimes with a similar veracity. But we’ve been looking for a nice trade-able rally for quite a while, so I’m looking for a bit of continuation here. At least pop above this 2-week congestion we’ve been in and take a close look at their 50ma’s We can hope, can’t we?

CSCO had a good earnings report and popped another 2 bucks after hours, which in turn upped the Qs, GOOG and other tech stocks. Early futures looking good for Asia and Europe and US, so maybe, just maybe, we’ll have some follow-thru. See if XLF can break through its July highs and banking shorts may need to cover causing some more upside.

Tonight, with a clear head, I’m gonna look at charts.

The market did alright today on summer Monday volume….until the market closed…and then all hell broke loose. AXP dumped, then AAPL dumped, then SNDK dumped…GOOG joined in and dumped…and they all sucked the QQQQ down big time. Oh yeah…and Dow futures down -100. Ugly after hours.

There are thousands of excuses…AAPL always lowballs guidance, initial news sometimes gets ignored the next day, tropical storms, oil, elections, etc. Looks like morning may see some panic, but I’ll wait and see what happens. Took some good profits on SIL and DNDN today, so I’ve got some room to play.

Of course there were some good after hour moves: BXG, FDRY and LNCR, but nothing big enough to overcome the “big guys.”

Overall, we need a pullback to go higher. The questions is, how far back will we go

Looks like the bounce continues….some profit taking today, including me. Overall it was a good day. Look for some more upside next week!

The techs took a beating from the GOOG and MSFT debacle, but that will turn around in a day or two. Many charts looking good and prices moving above their 8ema. I’m salivating!

Have a great weekend!

Wow, two 200+ up days! Is that a bounce or what? But is it over now? I did close out all my positions and am back to cash.

I also expect a gap down in the QQQQ because of GOOG and MSFT and other tech stocks. But also because it bonked its head on the 20-day and 500-day moving averages. The Dow and S&P still are looking pretty strong, on increasing volume, so maybe the market can recover. Those earnings reports after the market closed were nothing to write home about….although I thought IBM was pretty good.

Tomorrow we have C starting the day and HON, SLB, MAT, and MAN among others with their earnings reports. It’s also options expiration. I do expect some consolidation / profit-taking, but I don’t want to see it go back to the lows. The charts are looking good and we’ll just have to see what fortitude the bulls have. Happy Trading

That’s all you had to do today….play the airlines and the financials. Did you make money? The best day since May for me

The first hour was choppy with good earnings and lousy inflation data, but once the build in oil was announced, we never looked back. Will we follow through on Thursday?

I’m still in my financials, ABK and MBI and was in and out of the airlines, UAUA, CAL and AMR. The QQQQ Sept calls are still percolating.

Big, big earnings tomorrow that can push and pull the market in any and all directions. Some of the biggies are GOOG, MSFT, KO, JPM, MER, IBM and a whole bunch more….one of the biggest earnings day. And the news: Building Permits, Housing Starts and Unemployment Claims..May be a crazy one….hang on

…a great day in the market…for me anyway. Tagged a lot of winners today: (CAR) (HYTM) (PGNX) (XRM) and (DCR). It started lousy with some bad reports in housing and durable goods, but some good earnings reports and a great performance by the U.S. Dollar (USD) set off the rise in the stock market. Volume did start to creep up all the way to average

The Nasdaq continued its strong move with (AAPL) moving up and (GOOG) having a pretty wild ride, although ending in the red. And that VIX is pretty low, bullish. This exciting week comes to an end tomorrow, so it may be time to take the profits and run. This should be interesting….happy trading

ORCL dragged most of the technology stocks down today, and thus bringing down the Nasdaq and the QQQQ. Looks like the 50dma has broken, except maybe for the Qs, so the next hope is for the 20dma to act as support.

In the mean time, individual stocks, on both the short and long side, are making us a few bucks. VNDA has been good all week, and even DNDN was nice. Both are in the biotech industry. SIGA took off early, but retreated throughout the day. The RMBS pullback was good for 2 bucks and even GOOG shaved 3% off the top.

The Dow has been down the last 3 days on below average volume….and tomorrow is Friday. Hope the mood is better

Today I even impressed myself

We had an immediate 192 point drop in the Dow and then a stair step climb up 452 points, and taking out yesterdays post-Fed spike, before fading 52 points in the last few minutes to close at 12,650.36, up 107.53 for the day. Even better, I took advantage of some of the buying and selling opportunities, even though that last minute dive at the close caught me and I left some money on the table. SCA ININ and MNTA were my big winners today.

After hours, GOOG is taking a big hit at the moment (4:30PM EST) with the less than stellar report. It’s probably heading for 515, but remember what AMZN did today. They (Amazon) just announced they are buying ADBL…pop there. And, we all better be drinking Bud Lights tonight…since BUD missed