March 2008 Archives

I just closed my open put contracts for a small gain. I was in at $1.25 and out at $1.35. It got as high as $1.40 as I suspected but I wasn't able to close at that level. There is probably still some downside to play for the next couple of days but I'm done for now.

I'm now off the rest of this week and all of next for Easter vacation, so no trading for a while.

I just bought 10 contracts of the April 43 puts on the Q's at a price of $1.25 (QQQPQ.) My indicators just went negative and I want to take advantage of a quick day trade. I may hold till the open tomorrow, but I'm thinking I maybe out in the next couple of hours or so.

My stop is at $1.10 and I'm looking for about $1.30-1.40 on the upside for this trade.

The action yesterday in the markets was interesting to watch. Right after the fed announcement of a 3/4 decrease in the rates the Q's quickly went down. However Mr Market wanted to go higher so it did. The Q's ended up closing at the high of the day.

Right now the charts are telling me the Q's may start to head down the next couple of days. The futures are currently pointing to a negative open.

S&P 500 (MAR) -3.00  | Nasdaq (MAR) -8.75  | Dow (MAR) -32 

I may look at a quick trade today but I will be taking next week off for Easter so anything I do in the meantime will be closed by Thursday.

I just closed my open QQQQ calls before the Fed announcement. The street is expecting a full point decrease in rates, but I think they will only get 3/4. The market is also at a high right now and is at the very top of my trend channel. I would normally be selling at this point anyway.

I would much rather book my profits rather than risk the chance of loosing them all if the fed reacts differently than expected.

So I sold 20 contracts of Mar 42 in at $0.65 and out at $0.95 for a 46% gain.

Everyone is planning on an interest rate cut again today by the Fed. Many are expecting a 3/4 rate cut and anything less than that will be seen as a negative in the market. The futures are pointing to a higher open and the Q's are currently trading up over 1% in pre-market.

S&P 500 (MAR) +16.50  | Nasdaq (MAR) +20.00  | Dow (MAR) +119 

It looks like we are still inching up towards to fill the gap that was created on Monday and it looks like it will fill on the open. I may just book my profits on my open trade at that time, or I may hold out till the fed announcement. I don't have any meetings this morning, so I should be able to stay nimble today.

I just bought 20 contracts of the Mar 42 calls (QQQCP) for a play on the gap fill today. I'm in at $0.65 and will have a stop at $0.35.

This may only be a daytrade but we are near the bottom of my trend channel and it looks like we are going higher the next couple of days.

Last night around 9:30PM I checked my twitter feeds and discovered some amazing news. JPMorgan to Buy Bear Stearns for $2 a Share and the Fed Cuts Discount Rate. This all happened on Sunday night.

I then checked futures and NQ was down over 40 at the time and YM was down over 200. The asian markets were down over 3%. I ended up watching the futures till after mindnight. The stock tweets were also a buzz all night last night as well.

Currently futures are showing we will have a big gap down and the Q's are currently trading in the $41.30 level but they are up from the lows.

S&P 500 (MAR) -25.25  | Nasdaq (JUN) -37.00  | Dow (MAR) -188 

I may play a call on a gap fill for a daytrade, but will just have to see how the trading looks in the first 30 mins or so, we could just head down from here and not look back.

The Q's are down again today and I decided to sell my puts and book a nice profit. It may continue down some more, but they seem to have found a base of support at the current $42.20 levels and there is no reason to hold them over the weekend. The fed is also doing some dramatic things recently (i.e. bailing out BSC) and unannounced fed cuts. So no reason to watch my profits vaporize.

I purchased 40 contracts of the March 42 puts yesterday at $0.42 and just sold them now for $0.80. This represents a 90% gain or $1500 in less than 24 hours. Now if only I could do that everyday.

The Q's gap just filled and I just went short by purchasing 40 contracts of the Mar 42 Puts (QQQOP) at a price of $0.42. The Q's have made a nice move up to fill the gap down open but seem to have stalled at the $43 level. the Q's are now back at the top of my 15 day trend channel. So now is the time for me to go short. I'm looking for a move back down into the $41-42 level sometime next week.

I will use a stop of $0.30 for this trade.

The Q's had a big gap down this morning and have been steadily spending the day trying to fill that gap. As I type this that gap is about 6 pennies from being filled.

I'm now looking at going short once this gap fills. My charts are telling me we are at the top of the short term trend channel and I estimate we will see the Q's near $41 sometime next week.

The strong move on the Q's yesterday got me back to breakeven quickly on my 20 contracts for the Mar 43 Calls. I just sold them this morning for an 11% gain on the trade. I think we will start to see some pullback today.

So for this trade in at $0.68 and out at $0.75.

This morning the Q's opened lower again but have been steadily building steam for the first hour of trading. This is the type of movement I like to see at points where a short term trend change happens. I'm now starting to feel confident in this change and I decided to add more onto my existing position.

I bought another 10 contracts of the QQQCQ this morning at $0.65 and now have a total of 20 contracts with an cost basis of $0.68. Now that I have more money on this trade I will place a stop loss at $0.50 for these 20 contacts.

The market has been moving steadily down most of the day and one of my indicators just turned positive. We are also at the magic hour in the day where buyers (if there are any) start to come into the market.

So I just bought 10 contracts of the March 43 Call on the Q's (QQQCQ) with a purchase price of $0.70. I'm not going to set a stop on this trade. I'm only risking $700 and the Q's should see higher prices than now before expiration. If we can get back up to above $43 on the Q's I should easily double my money on this trade. If I'm reading everything correctly, we should see the Q's back above $43 sometime next week and I will close out this trade.

Yesterday the Q's languished most of the day to the downside. I wanted to play the gap fill in the morning and it just wasn't going to happen. But at the magical 3:00 PM mark Mr. Market decided it was time to fill that gap and it did so with some decent volume. This is the type of turn I was looking for to signal a change in the short term direction.

The futures are pointing to a strong open this morning and the Q's will have a nice gap up.

S&P 500 (MAR) +7.75  | Nasdaq (MAR) +15.00  | Dow (MAR) +54 

The problem with gaps is they always need to be filled. So we may see a strong start, but don't be surprised if the Q's come back down early this morning to fill that gap. That would actually be a very positive and healthy sign for what I think is a short term direction change. I will probably be buying to go long if that happens.

The Q's don't feel like filling the gap this morning, so I took an early stop loss at $1.28 or 8.5% loss on the 10 contracts.

I still expect that we will form a short term bottom over the next couple of days. All of my indicators are showing an oversold state, but things can remain oversold for a while. So I will just sit it out for a while until the market decides to change directions.

The markets opened up with a gap down open again this morning. So I just entered an order to by 10 contracts of the March 42 Calls (QQQCP) to play the fill the gap game today. I'm in at $1.40 and my stop is $1.25. I expect this will be a quick day trade to catch the move on the Q's from the open at $42.38 back up to $42.70 sometime today.

I wish I could have been short the last couple of days. It was looking juicy to me but with now time to follow the market, it just went along and played without me.

The futures are pointing to another down start this morning. However, I'm now looking to go long. Sometime this week maybe?

S&P 500 (MAR) -0.75  | Nasdaq (MAR) -1.00  | Dow (MAR) -52