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Freshly Squeezed
Days like today tend to turn smack talking bears into nervous nellies with itchy trigger fingers. This gives rise to a nice little stock market pop that makes everybody wonder if we really have seen th worst of it and bottomed. Maybe we have, though I seriously doubt it. More…
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Monday’s Gameplan and a Look at Some Energy Plays
Not much has changed for me heading into this week. I still plan to short strength and cover weakness. Much of the market is looking oversold, so I won’t initiate anymore shorts until I see a decent sized bounce. I am interested in watching for longs in energy, especially oil…
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Was John Lennon an Atheist?
Today I watched a DVD I’ve been meaning to check out for quite some time, U.S. v. John Lennon. What a brilliant movie about a brilliant man. It left me wondering why there are no John Lennon types today, considering the parallels between the Nixon and Bush administrations. The best…
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Strong Chart: BOLT
BOLT has one of the better looking bullish charts that I’ve been able to find. Take a look at the increased money flow, which indicates institutional interest. I’d be hesitant to enter, as the stock is a bit extended. A low volume pullback to support would be an ideal entry.
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Tell Us Something Mr. Market
Heading into options Friday, I don’t have much that’s new to say. Right now, it looks like we’re in the midst of a low volume dead cat bounce that will likely lead to another thrust down. However, we wont’ have a true tell until the recent lows are eclipsed or…
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Trade: Playing the Lehman bounce
Investment banking stocks such as LEH and MS have been crushed over the past couple of weeks. It’s always risky to go counter to a strong downtrend, but I think LEH is a low risk bounce setup right now. LEH almost broke down below to strong areas of support: the…
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Chart: Analyzing the Nasdaq Composite
Wow, that was some fakeout we saw today. Once the Nasdaq broke down below 2350 and the recent low, I was sure we were headed for a retest of the 200 day MA. Now I’m not so sure. The Naz (and other indexes), printed quite a powerful candle today on…
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Another update: QID and HAL
I bought 350 shares of HAL at $31.55. I bought 500 shares of QID at $56.64. See the last post for the rest of today’s trades.
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Trade Update: QID, VLO, AAPL, SSRI, STLD
I sold 1000 shares of QID at $57.21 (entry at an average price of $55.55) for a $1660 gain (+3.0%).I covered 500 shares of SSRI at $29.79 (entry at $32.24) for a $1225 gain (+8.1%). Yesterday I went short 500 shares STLD at $39.08. I am still long 200 shares…
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Trades: AAPL and VLO
Today I shorted 200 shares of AAPL at $90.10. Sunday night’s post explains the setup. Yesterday I bought 400 shares of VLO at $60.24. I sold 200 shares today at $61.29 for a $210 gain (+1.7%), and am holding on to the remaining 200 shares. I’ll post a chart later…
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New High Failure Trade and AAPL
One of my favorite short plays is the “new high failure” trade. There are three elements to this trade: 1) That stock makes a new high2) RSI peaks at a lower level than the previous high3) Take a short position if and only if the stock dip below the previous…
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Today’s Trade: SSRI
I’ve been eying metal related stocks for a short, and SSRI (Silver Standard Resources, Inc.) seems to be rolling over for a retest of last week’s lows. More than a few elements make this an attractive short. 1. The low volume pullback seems to be stalling right at resistance. 2.…
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It’s a Small World – ETF Style
It’s amazing how similar almost every single market looks, whether we are talking sectors or countries. Let’s take at some country ETFs. I’ll start off with Brazil, since EWZ is one of my favorite trades. It is not surprising that we see a death defying drop followed by a low…
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Quality, Trading and Bruce Lee
My dad used to tell me never to do anything “half-assed.” Bruce Lee put it more eloquently: I have found, after much soul searching, that deep down what I honestly value more than anything else is quality; doing one’s best in the manner of the responsibility and craftsmanship of a…
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Today’s Trades: VLO and QID
I covered my 400 share position in VLO at $60.21 (entry at $59.06) for a $460 loss (-1.9%). I bought 500 shares of QID at $55.23. I now have a 1000 share position in QID. Today’s gap up has the look and feel of a “fade the gap” short squeeze…
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Today’s Trade; VLO and QID
I’ve traded these stocks so much that past few days, they feel like family. I bought 500 shares of QID at $55.86. I’ve been trading in 1000 share blocks, but I’m not sure that there won’t be more of a bounce in the Q’s, so I’m keeping the position size…
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Get Ready to Short the Bounce
Hopefully this bounce can last another day or two. I will use market strength tomorrow to deploy a few short plays. A lot of sectors are setting up the same way, so I’ll stick to QID and a few select sectors and stocks. Financials, commodities (not oil), tech and China…
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Losing My Flow and Today’s Trades
I panicked. As I watched QID gap down this morning, I could feel myself losing my flow. All the Zen stuff I write about went out the window. As my highly developed flight reflex kicked in, Mister Self Awareness (that’s me) was thinking like a four year old being chased…
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Tuesday and Off Topic Stuff
There isn’t much new to report with regards to my strategy going into Tuesday. I plan to try to unload my QID position into strength, and possibly repurchase on weakness, as I did today. You know the saying: keep striking while the coal is hot. Until this strategy ceases to…
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Today’s Trade: QID and VLO
I sold 1000 shares of QID at $57.98 (entry at average price of $55.23) for a $2750 gain (+5.0%). Over the weekend I placed a sell limit order at $57.50. My thinking was if the market opened weak, there would be a bounce later in the day where I could…