Tag Archive for 'XLF'

Banks continue to close

Published on October 26, 2009, 7:46 am in Intraday, News, Opinions and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

FDIC Friday brought the closing of 7 more banks, bringing the list to 106, the most since 1992 and there is still 2 more months to go through.

Bank failures hit 106 for year; many more are weak

All this goes on while the banks and the government get and make more money.

2009 US economy: largest transfer of wealth to financial/political elite in global history.

I think I’ll be looking at bank and dollar and interest rate ETFs for some action today: TBT UUP UYG XLF. Futures were up overnight but began to weaken as the spotlight turned to European, and now, U.S. markets.

It’s almost time…

Published on September 17, 2009, 10:26 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Another uneventful day in the markets and options expiration Friday upon us. Oh boy, this should be a good one. If the markets go any higher, it just means that Monday should be a bigger drop….the time is coming and I think it is close at hand. Futures are already down this evening, but we’ve been here before. The bears need some follow-thru when the markets open in the morning.

I’m short the market this evening holding XLF puts along with TZA, QID and ES futures short. I am also long OPXA, which just happened to crap on me today. It pulled back to the 34ma and will watch how it opens in the morning. Another biotech CRXX pulled back to the 8ma so I entered and it bounced…nicely. I’m net even between the 2 biotechs and will see how I dispose of them tomorrow.

I’m too tired to rant this evening, so here are several stories to read:
    Double-Digit Unemployment As Far As The Eye Can See
    SEC Proposes Ban on Allowing Stock Flash Orders —-finally :!:
    The myth of the jobless recovery

Let’s get the party started!

Published on September 13, 2009, 10:44 pm in Opinions and Weekly. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Who in the hell would talk about protectionism during a world-wide recession? It would just have to be one of those socialist/marxist type countries. What did you say? The U.S.? You’ve got to be kidding. Chinese tire makers? Oh, who cares….we don’t need anything from China! What’s that? You say they’ve been lending us all that money for TARP and bailouts? They wouldn’t stop lending us money just because we don’t buy their tires……would they?

Oh boy….this is gonna hurt….unless of course you’re short the markets. Futures gapped down at the open this evening and continue to make new session lows. After cashing out a short position in ESZ9, the S&P emini December contract, this evening, I am still short XLF with some puts and a small position in TZA, . Now I just need for the futures to stay down until morning. But that is contrary to recent actions when daily lows are usually seen in the early morning hours.

I apologize to all the regular readers as I have been incommunicado for a couple days….and thanks for your kind words. I need to get back into the groove of scanning charts and watching a crazy market. Happy trading y’all :P :

A week of nothing.

Published on August 28, 2009, 10:08 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Just look at the charts….I’ve got the S&P 500 here, but any index will do. Every day closed at about the same place as the day before. It was a week of nothing….a bunch of dojis. Are we taking a rest before making the big move up or just a topping process to roll over?

S&P Aug 28, 2009

S&P Aug 28, 2009

Every day I bet on the rollover. This morning I panicked..after seeing how ugly all my positions looked in the premarket, I saw an opportunity to breakeven, so I did. I took a loss on DXD but hung on to DUG and SMN…and they continued to take off. What a reprieve….cashed out and felt good.

Near the close I went short again: EDZ DUG SMN XLF puts and IWM puts. I’m hoping for some bad news over the weekend. Eight out of 10 taking the short overnite position. I’m gonna have a great weekend…no matter how Monday shows up. Enjoy the weekend and have fun :!:

One for the bears?

Published on August 6, 2009, 9:32 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Yesterday we went down during the day and recovered most of that trip by the close. Today we went up first, but quickly reversed down, and again we tried to get positive by the close…again falling short. Volume was down as traders wait for the Non-farm Payroll on Friday…..which reminds me, does anyone care about the Farm Payroll?

Again, BGZ was very good to me, and QID tagged along. I’m still dragging some XLF puts around that got a bit closer to breakeven. By the end of the day I went flat with just the puts left.

Now tomorrow I’m looking for the bears to take one more….no matter what the numbers come out. If they come out bad we sink from the get go and keep on diving. If numbers are better than expected, I think we do a gap or a run up, and then we start our trip down again. So report time will decide how we play, go short immediately or wait for a rally to enter…it’s a plan anyway.

Now to see if the market cooperates. :roll:

Sense coming to the market?

Published on August 5, 2009, 9:59 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

It looked like some common sense was coming into the market today as the indexes moved down for most of the day. The stupid stuff was that the banks were running up as the markets moved down. There were more declining issues than advancing issues in the NYSE, but the advancing volume was much greater…I think by virtue of those rampant banks. C alone traded 2+ billion shares, the same bank that took all our tax money to be saved. Here’s one even better, AIG up 63%, yep, that’s no misprint! And if you want to see how good this recovery will be, read this: About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011 from Reuters.

For me, the day was not bad, but not good either. I had an ES trade that made a couple hundred and traded BGZ about 5 times to scalp some more, both up and down. Near the close of the day I positioned myself into some BGZ and QID for overnite. QID was my bet in CSCO and BGZ was my bet on overbought markets that need to correct so we can move up with a real bullish stampede. I’m also still underwater with some XLF puts, but I’ve got until September to get that one right. :oops:

Futures have continued their downward move as I write this….getting ready for the Chinese markets to open. Initial Claims in the A.M. and we’ll see if CSCO brings the rest of tech down with it and maybe pull some banks down too.

What was that?

Published on August 4, 2009, 9:47 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

A totally indecisive day…that’s what! Good news was good as bad news was good. Yes the pending homes sales was up, but almost no one reacted to personal income down 1.3%, or the biggest down move in 4 years. A few ugly earnings reports couldn’t get the bears motivated. The markets reacted with nothing. They hovered around the unchanged area for the entire day, back and forth, red – green – red and finally ending the day in the green. Pretty boring actually.

I carried 3 trades overnite but tightened stops, mainly because I’ve held on for too long: BGZ and SOMX are hanging around break-even and XLF puts that are underwater. A gap down will take me out with a profit and a gap up may just make me double down. I’ll see how I feel in the morning. :twisted:

CSCO earnings on Wednesday may muddy up the waters and then speculation on Friday’s employment numbers may make everybody just sit and wait. Hmmm, I think I’ll stock up the office fridge with some cold ones. ;)

Bears capitulating?

Published on August 3, 2009, 10:09 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Although the market indexes are making new highs (except for the Nasdaq, just barely), I’m still making headway using shorts….quickly. Today I made a few bucks on some ES short (1 breakeven and one for 2 points) and a little more on BGZ (sold half my position for 20 cents). I held overnite the other half of the BGZ and a few contracts of XLF puts.

Speaking of banks and financials, they were going like a bat outta hell, with a few exceptions. The XLF popped but stalled at 13.33….GS popped but came all the way back down closing near its lows. C also popped and came back down to close unchanged. I was shorting BAC 2 dollars ago and got stopped…fast! Oh well, who could explain the “logic” in the markets?

Still looking for a pullback…Tuesday (Turnaround Tuesday?)…but sometime this week will be acceptable. If the markets go with a confirmation day up, I’ll have to start riding the bull. (boy, that should really sink the market :roll: )

Again….

Published on April 15, 2009, 6:55 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

…don’t short a dull market. And boy was it dull, until about 2:30PM EDT, and wow, did it take off. Isn’t this a sign of a bull market when even bad news can’t bring it down? Bad retail sales, bad CPI (unless you don’t eat or use a car), bad earnings, or any news for that matter can give the bears enough energy to tank this thing.

I sat and watched through it all. Yesterday, I made several months worth of profits on DNDN, so I didn’t really have the energy to trade….yes, a hangover :oops: But, with a clearer head, I would have bought the banks, especially HBAN and FITB, or the ETFs: FAS, UYG or XLF. The morning provided for some nice entries and the afternoon provided for some nice profit taking. Yes, I paper trade when I don’t feel like using real money ;-)

Volume was down today on the upside, while it was up yesterday on the downside…a bit disconcerting. The VIX continued down, now in the mid-30’s…a good sign. The market relieved some of that overbought pressure. The Trader’s Almanac is showing that tomorrow and Friday to be bullish. In fact, April Expiration Day has been up the last 10 out of 12. We’ll see how that goes.

Big Ben to the rescue…again

Published on March 18, 2009, 8:41 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I think we need to call this “Ben’s Rally”. It started last week when Ben Bernanke hinted to Congress that the Fed was going to get tougher in playing a role in America’s Economic recovery. Then he talked nice in a TV interview over the weekend. And today he showed his hand….printing money to by the U.S. IOU’s, sometimes called Treasuries….a trillion dollars worth. Time will tell if this is a good strategy, but, at least in the short term, traders liked the news and the markets showed it, ending up, up, and away.

The day started on a down note and really meandered on very low volume. But, come 2:15PM, volume exploded and really drove the market upward. If you were in long, congrats. And even if you weren’t, you had plenty of time to get in and catch a part of the move…..and if you were on your toes, you got some on the subsequent pullback. ;)

An interest side note: Bonds went up with stocks. Usually bonds are inverse to stocks. That is, when stocks go up, bonds go down…and vice versa. But, both stocks and bonds went up today. You can follow bonds with some ETFs like TLT, TBT, TIP, and TLO.

The banks continue to outshine them all: C, BAC, HBAN, WFC, FITB, along with financial ETFs: UYG, FAS and XLF….all opening their ATM machines to traders. Did you withdraw some cash?

Some profiteering here would not be a surprise…and may even be healthy. A pullback, maybe even suckering in a few more shorts, and we could be going to the races again. Well, the Kentucky Derby is only about 6 weeks away :lol: Happy Trading!

Follow-Thru?

Published on March 11, 2009, 10:20 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

After a 379-point rally on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added another astounding 3.91….well at least it was green….and it is a follow-thru. Pre-market was strong to the upside well into the first hour. But then it trickled up and down …with a downward bent…for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t call it a strong follow-thru, but a follow-thru it is :!:

Financial ETFs, like FAS, FAZ, UYG and XLF were very active…and very productive….if you played it minute by minute. It took only minutes to trade FAZ for profits and losses.

The S&P futures were basically in channels after the early morning pop and you chould short at the top and buy at the bottom. Actually…it was a boring day, but I stuck to the screens and tried and tried….and just like the indexes, I eked out a green finish. Hope y’all did also ;)

Tomorrow we get some insight into mark-to-market and what “they” will do about it. We’ll also see the weekly unemployment report.

That was nice!

Published on January 21, 2009, 10:44 pm in Daily and Trading. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Well the dip happened in the 2nd hour instead of the first, but the reversal did take place and lasted the rest of the day. The banks went up all day and continued to do so after-hours. Maybe it’s time for that Obama rally?

I got out of UYG and XLF after hours for a good gain. I need to get into FAS, the 3X financial ETF if financials continue the move.

AAPL had a good report and really busted out after-hours…and futures are still in the green, continuing the uptrend.

I’m going to look for a continuing move up in the S&P500, at least up to 850. I’ll evaluate at that level to see if it may be time to short a pullback. Time for some chart scanning. Happy trading :!: