February 2008 Archives

Being in the website management and launching business seriously impacts my ability to trade on a regular basis. But the day job pays the bills and trading just pays for the toys. So work always comes first.

I have not been following the markets the last couple of days but a quick check this morning shows that futures are pointing to a negative open.

S&P 500 (MAR) -7.00  | Nasdaq (MAR) -3.00  | Dow (MAR) -57 

The Q's have been trading nicely up the last couple of days but the $45 level may be a point of resistance for this current upside move. If I had the time I would probably be looking for some puts if we get to that $45 level. However it maybe a couple of days before I can get back into the market.

I have been busier than (make up your own euphemism here.)

The Q's broke out below the triangle yesterday and I was stopped out of my calls at $1.05. I set my original stop at $1.15 but was not able to watch the market during the day yesterday so I had to sell at a greater loss than I wanted. So I was out with a 17% loss or down $460 in the portfolio. I really don't like to use automated stops, just mental stops that I take an action on. This is one of the cases where an automated stop would have come in handy.

Today the Q's have continued to move further down. It looks like the next near term support would be at $42 and I may look at going long again in that area sometime next week.

The word lunatic is borrowed from Latin "lunaticus", which gains its stem from "luna" for moon, which denotes the traditional link made in folklore between madness and the phases of the moon. -- Wikipedia

Last night I spent four hours standing in the freezing cold taking pictures of the lunar eclipse. Call me crazy or loony, but it was fun. To some people the markets can also be crazy or loony as well. Just like the moon, I have found that the markets move in cycles. Once you have tuned into the cyclical patterns, you can take advantage of them with profits in your account.

I went long the market yesterday when the Q's were in the red. The last hour of trading proved that the short term direction has changed and as I look at the futures this morning, it looks like we are heading to the moon!

S&P 500 (MAR) +7.25  | Nasdaq (MAR) +17.00  | Dow (MAR) +55 

The market action seems to be working nicely at forming a near term bottom. It looks like the $43.25 number on the Q's is a magic number for near term support today. We are also trading in an triangle pattern that can break out nicely to the upside. Two of my short term indicators also went positive (MACD and Stochastic.)

I spent most of my day yesterday in meetings (and that is the schedule for today as well.) The action yesterday was interesting. We had a nice gap up in the morning and spent the rest of the day heading down. This morning futures are pointing to a lower open.

S&P 500 (MAR) -11.00  | Nasdaq (MAR) -11.50  | Dow (MAR) -74 

I expect the market to continue heading down today but is at the point that it will start its next leg up. I will be looking to go long sometime today, most likely in the afternoon or at the close.

I just sold my March 44 puts for a nice 46% gain in a couple of days. I was in at $1.09 and out at $1.60. I was only able to get into 10 contracts so that was only a $500 gain to my portfolio.

But still, not too bad for a couple of days holding. The markets are still looking week and there maybe some more downside today and also on Tuesday. I just didn't want to hold without being able to watch the markets the rest of the day. I also didn't want to hold over the long weekend.

So I'm out for now an I'm heading to lunch.

I will probably be looking for long positions on either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

I'm looking forward to this long weekend. I woke up this morning and took a quick look at futures and they are all pointing down. That is great news for me. The Q's are trading down about half a percent pre-market.

S&P 500 (MAR) -4.75  | Nasdaq (MAR) -9.00  | Dow (MAR) -33 

My plan is to take my profits on my current puts sometime today. I took a quick look at my schedule today and I have meetings from 1:00 till about 4:00, so I should be out of my positions before noon. Today is options expiration so we should see some nice volatility today, hopefully to the downside this morning.

I was awake and out of bed at 4:20AM this morning. I just couldn't sleep any longer. So I was into work extra early today and already finished some of my daily projects.

The markets are looking to open up this morning with futures currently trading higher.

S&P 500 (MAR) +1.75  | Nasdaq (MAR) +7.50  | Dow (MAR) +13 

The Tuesday gap was almost filled yesterday and I expect it will be on the open this morning. My guess is once that gap is filled we will start to see some market weakness. I already have 10 put contracts to play this move and I may add 10 more if the open plays out as I expect.

I took a short position on the Q's 5 minutes before the close. I'm setting myself up for a quick turn I expect in the market tomorrow.

I bought 10 contracts of the QQQOR March 44 put at a price of $1.09. If we gap up tomorrow I may add another 10 contracts at the open tomorrow.

I woke up this morning to a nice sheet of ice covering my car. However, the drive into the office was uneventful.

The markets are looking to open a little higher this morning with futures going green.

S&P 500 (MAR) +5.25  | Nasdaq (MAR) +7.50  | Dow (MAR) +25 

We should open up higher, but I expect that either today or tomorrow will be the start of a short term downtrend and I will be looking for an entry to enter into some puts. There is a gap down open at $44.95 that was set on Tuesday morning. So we may get as high as that point today or tomorrow to fill that gap before we start to head back down.

Retail sales are due to be announced today before the open so we will see what type of catalyst this causes pre-market.

The market gapped up this morning and it looks like it was starting to head down to fill that gap. So I decided to take my profits on this trade.

I bought 20 contracts at $1.30 and sold for $1.80 for a gain of $1000 or 38%.

We had a light dusting of snow last night and most of the people are out early this morning casting their ballots for the Maryland primary election. I always vote via absentee ballot, so my voting is already done.

The futures this morning are pointing to a nice green open.

S&P 500 (MAR) +9.50  | Nasdaq (MAR) +13.25  | Dow (MAR) +69 

The Q's are already trading up almost 1% pre-market and look like they will extend the gains they made yesterday. They are getting closer to my target level and I will probably close out my open call positions sometime today or tomorrow at the latest.

This is a pre-market update for Feb 11th, but I decided I needed to have more fun with the titles of my posts. A string of bought this, sold this, or pre-market update for is just not very exciting.

I know some people think that the stock market is not exciting, but I don't think it has to be that way.

Anyway the futures this morning are pointing to a positive open.

S&P 500 (MAR) +3.25  | Nasdaq (MAR) +11.25  | Dow (MAR) +16 

I already have long call positions open that are already profitable. I will see how the market opens today and may either take my profits, or let it ride a little longer. I still seem some upside from here for the next couple of days, but It all depends on how the markets open. If they gap up huge then I'm out. If they open up slow then there is a chance the market can ride up further for a couple of days.

The internet in the office is acting very sluggish today, so I'm off to a slow start this morning. That is one thing you need to consider when your doing swing or day trades, if you have a trade on you need to have backup options to your connectivity. My personal backup is a Verizon aircard which comes in handy as a backup on my laptop.

The futures are pointing to a negative open this morning, but the Q's are trading slightly up this morning pre-market. QQQQ Pre-Market: 43.19 0.08 (0.19%)

S&P 500 (MAR) -10.00  | Nasdaq (MAR) -7.75  | Dow (MAR) -84 

I still hold  20 call contracts on the Mar 44's and I'm currently up about 15%. I may close them out sometime today if we can get a nice solid up move after the open.

I added another 10 contracts of Mar 44 calls at a price of $1.25. That puts my cost basis at $1.30.

I got back from lunch and checked in with the markets. There has been some nice steady action in the Q's and it sure did fill that gap from this morning. If I didn't have meetings most of the day I would have placed an order to buy calls when I sold my puts. But that is one lesson learned that I have taken to heart. If I'm not able to watch the action through out the day, then I shouldn't have any open positions. That has really bitten me in the past.

The Q's seem to be riding up a nice channel today after the volatility in the morning, it bounced off that lower trend channel line so I enter a call position that I expect to ride for the next couple of days (or hours if it gets too extended quickly.)

I entered 10 call contracts of Mar 44 QQQCR at a price of $1.35.

I just sold my 20 contracts on the open. It does look like we are going to try and fill that gap this morning.

I entered yesterday at $1.45 and sold for $2.05 for $1,200 in less than 24hours. A nice 40% gain.

I'm still on the fence about going long from here, I may take another look at the Q action later this afternoon.

The futures are pointing to a lower open this morning. My guess is we will gap down and then head higher throughout the day to fill that gap.

S&P 500 (MAR) -5.75  | Nasdaq (MAR) -20.50  | Dow (MAR) -44 

I currently hold 20 put contracts on the March 43's for QQQQ. At the open I should be up about 50% and I expect to close them out within the first 30 minutes of trading today. I may also open a long position as well to take advantage of the gap fill I expect.

I still feel we are in a longer term downtrend and we are still not near the bottom.

I have been away from my trading concentrating on my day job for the last week or so. Today was the first day I can get in a swing trade.

So I opened up with a purcchase of 20 puts of the March 43 QQQOQ puts today at a price of $1.45.