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Swing trading virtual portfolio – Optrader

New post-May 11th. +275% in 2 months.

 





Swing trading virtual portfolio – Optrader

New post-May 11th. +275% in 2 months.

 





(Lessons From) A Trader’s Diary

Dear Diary,

Last week’s Market Commentary to members concluded:

"Technical analysts will cite bullish breakouts and push retail traders into bullish trades now.  We spoke in recent weeks of the potential for the stock market to remain bullish through early May, which would lull investors into complacency, believing that "Sell in May and Stay Away" would not materialize.  Everything is going according to plan in that regard.  The markets remained bullish through last week and optimism is high again that 13,500 will be just around the corner…..we are highly skeptical of any meaningfull bullish follow-through.  By week’s end we will be very surprised if the strength has been maintained and, as a result, are entering bearish positions"

As it turned out, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 3 of last week’s 5 trading days lower and ended the week substantially lower. 

On April 14th we wrote in our Monday blog that we expected "strength over the next couple of weeks in the markets assuming the 1325 level can hold…we’re looking for anything above that key threshold level to signal high likelihood of a bullish follow through to the end of the month."

 

As expected, the bullish follow through materialized once the critical 1,325 level held firm.

One of the factors we consider heavily when trading is general sentiment in the market.  In early May, optimism was high.  The Volatility Index, for example, had not been quite as low since the December and October peaks in the market.  Had all the pessimism of recent months really been eroded?  Had we forgotten so quickly the problems of the past?  We didn’t think so. 

 

While many were optimistic about the Dow crossing 13,000, we exercised extreme caution and refused to abandon discipline, preferring to stay safe than risk a big correction.  And the correction from approximately 13,100 to 12,745 soon followed. 

Although the correction so far has been just under 3%, it is still almost 3% in 1 week!  If all you could do was improve your virtual portfolio performance by 3% at the end of the year, the effect on compounded gains would be substantial over time. 

For example, $100,000 compounded at 10% over 20 years amounts to just over $670,000 (assuming a qualifed account) while $100,000 compounded at 13% over 20 years amounts to over $1,150,000, almost twice the amount! 

When making big money in the market, the devil is in the details and saving…
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Weekend Reading – Always in Progress!

Interesting report from Factset titled: "An Oil Bubble to Rival the Internet Boom."

It’s got lots of stats and charts, very nice and the author concludes: "Technically speaking, the energy sector could outperform further in the months ahead, but the correction could be brutal, as is the case with cyclicals. We recommend neutrality on the sector, and sales in line with bad news on the economy."  These are guys who provide top-level reports for hedge funds but it came out last weekend and it seems everyone ignored it

I was saying in comments on Friday that the price of oil is much like the Terminator robot in the first movie – no matter what bearish fundamentals turn up to stop it, it just keeps coming and coming and it grinds and crawls and claws ever higher…  Here’s the clip.

===========================================================

I was looking at copper (because of my BHP puts) last week and it went down hard on Friday, touching 370 again and it looks primed for a nice fall.  Far be it for me to bring up fundamentals but there was a 10% increase in stockpiles this month, the most since Aug 2005.  Apparently the Chinese have reached their limit as to what they will pay and have just stopped ordering and a strike that was supporting prices at record levels in Chile just ended (from 4/16).  Here’s an interesting comparison of Copper, Gold and Oil.  Note oil has decoupled from everything – If oil is trading up on international tensions, why not gold?

Again, my premise is that Food, Metals and Oil are currently using ALL of the spare money in the world and for any of them to go up, other things must come down or WAGE inflation must start to really kick in to help us pay for this stuff.  China’s PPI jumped 8.1% and their currency is UP 10% over the past year, which should have kept it down a bit.  They release CPI on May 12th, possibly close to the record 8.7% increase.  “The falling U.S. dollar exchange rate and interest rates and excessive global liquidity’‘ require China to take extra steps to safeguard financial stability, Vice Premier Wang said. “If we don’t handle financial risks well, this could cause turbulence in the overall economy and undermine social and political stability.”  The PBOC’s…
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Weekly Wrap-Up

That was a rough week.

I said in last week’s wrap up: "Hopefully we won’t regret not selling in May and getting out of here" as we expected a consolidation back to 12,750 and, with oil topping $125, we are so far lucky that’s all we have.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is an inverse relationship between Dow performance and energy prices – what’s surprising is how the MSM seems to be surprised to see it in action.

Thank goodness we called the top last Friday when the Dow topped out at 13,150 or things could have been pretty ugly, even as it was we pretty much treaded water for the week riding as many callers as we can into expiration but by Friday we were getting a little worried that our current covers would not be enough and we went into this weekend with a fairly bearish plaza.  Although we closed just 49 positions this week, very few of the ones we have left are the most covered we have been all year to the point where a rally next week will be somewhat annoying.

Our smaller virtual portfolios suffered most this week as they are, by nature, bullish since it’s hard to make progress when you don’t commit to a direction with limited capital:

  • Our $10,000 Virtual Portfolio fell 8% to $16,199 as we head into our final week.  We are right on target for our Applefly and that will give us a great finish if Apple holds close to $180 and the rest of our positions are, if anything, over-covered.  All of our $10KP positions are in the $25KP so we will start with a fresh $10,000 after this week’s expirations.
  • The $25,000 Virtual Portfolio has no luck and fell 8% for the week as well.  We also have a nice pickup ahead if Apple holds $180 this week and there’s nothing to do here but roll our callers and grind this one out next month as most of our positions have moved to longer spreads.
  • The Short-Term Virtual Portfolio is very flexible and gained 11%, much of it thanks to although, out of 35 positions there are just 6 naked calls remaining which are dwarfed by the value of our 5 naked puts  – by far our most bearish posture of the year!
  • We made a lot of good calls this week but


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Today’s tickers: NKE, BJ, FCX, IVN, CSCO, CROX, JAH, ENER, PSUN

www.interactivebrokers.com

NKE- “Swoosh” went the sound of short volatility this afternoon as option traders took advantage of a momentary blip higher in implied volatility of athletic shoe giant Nike. Shares pulled back 2.5% to $65.10 on no apparent news catalyst today as implied volatility ticked in at 26% – slightly above the 22.8% historic reading. An increase in option trading volume to 8 times the normal level showed traders keen to write the January 65 straddle for a combined premium of $12.10 – fully 18% of the current share price – exceeding existing open interest at the January line. The short straddle strategy is a popular one among traders anticipating minimal share price movement within a given timeline – the trader in this case wagers that Nike shares will remain at current levels heading into the New Year, leaving both positions unexercised.

 

 

BJ- This morning’s better-than-expected April sales figures from the likes of Wal-Mart and Costco affirmed the notion that cash-strapped American shoppers are on the hunt for bargains. While the news was good for shares in some big-box retailers, the gains weren’t wholesale. BJ’s Wholesale Club, the East Coast discount and remainders chain, is an instructive case in point. With shares down 2% to $38.15, option volume soared to nearly 9 times the normal level as traders took a defensive stance by positioning in June 40 puts. These puts, which convey the right to sell BJ’s Wholesale Club shares for $40 next month, are nominally in-the-money, but the $3.45 premium requires another $1.60 drop from current levels just to break even. Consider the volatility setup, where the 44% implied volatility reading indicates more than 25% more price risk to the company’s shares than have been proven historically.

 

 

FCX- Freeport McMoRan Copper – Shares in the world’s largest publicly traded copper company rebounded 3% to $117.85 after declines earlier in the week on labor issues and concerns of a slowdown in Chinese demand owing to prohibitively high copper prices. The 10,000 lot position in the January contract that we observed earlier today appears to have involved the sale of 110 puts for $15.43 and the purchase of 130 calls for $13.60. This suggests a short collar strategy employed by a trader with a short position in the underlying stock who wants to protect the position against an unexpected move higher. The purchase of the out-of-the-money call…
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Friday Thump?

Well, we’re getting our $125 oil pre-market.

It’s funny how we’re getting it as the Wall Street Journal runs a cover of good old fashioned yellow journalism, with Karl Rove-style attacks on Hugo Chavez as they headline: "A cache of controversial computer files closely tying Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez to communist rebels seeking to topple Colombia’s government appear to be authentic, U.S. intelligence officials say."  Well, when have US Intelligence officials ever steered us wrong before?  This is, by the way, something that has been going on since March, it’s only news today as they need a reason to take oil over $125 but this may be the Journal’s last chance to wave this flag as Interpol (at Columbia’s request) will release an independent analysis next week.

Mr. Chávez has repeatedly said the files were faked by Colombia. "We don’t recognize the validity of any of these documents," Bernardo Álvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a Wednesday interview. "They are false, and an attempt to discredit the Venezuelan government."  FARC itself has suggested the files are fake. A FARC statement published on the Web site of Venezuela’s Information Ministry ridiculed Colombia’s claims about the computer files, saying computers couldn’t have survived the Colombian army attack "even if they had been bullet-proof."

Perhaps the documents are true, perhaps they are not, but are we going to be marched headlong into another war (even if it’s only a trade war, with sanctions) rather than sit down and try to work out our differences with Chavez, who has been a Bush attack target since he took office (kind of like Saddam)?  Either way, any escalation of hostility with Venezuela will be a jackpot for traders who bought $150 July oil options yesterday and death for the US and perhaps global economy.  I know we’re all trained to go blindly nationalistic at the first mention of terrorists but there are tremendous costs to our actions and the possibility that the administration may be "wagging the dog" to distract the public is very scary at this point.

Note the WSJ headling is very definitive: "Chavez Aided Columbia Rebels, Captured Computer Files Show."  This is very much like the "proof" they had that Saddam had WMD’s but it’s been a whole 5 years since then so I guess we’ve all forgotten how well that turned out.

Of course Chavez…
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WTF Headline

Sorry, I think we’re still getting email alerts for these articles.   So, for now, after this note, let’s return to the backup site for more reading.  Thanks!  – Ilene

We all know about this already, but here’s Barry’s Ritholtz’s comment on the oil forecast. 

WTF Headline of the Day? GS Says Oil ‘Likely’ to Reach $150-$200

Excerpt:  "Today’s WTF headline isn’t a criticism of the financial media so much as a disturbing forecast:

Goldman’s Murti Says Oil `Likely’ to Reach $150-$200
Crude oil may rise to between $150 and $200 a barrel within two years as growth in supply fails to keep pace with increased demand from developing nations, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by Arjun N. Murti said in a report.

New York-based Murti first wrote of a "super spike” in March 2005, when he said oil prices could range between $50 and $105 a barrel through 2009. The price of crude traded in New York averaged $56.71 in 2005, $66.23 in 2006 and $72.36 in 2007. Oil rose to an intraday record $120.93 today on speculation demand will rise during the peak U.S. summer driving season.

Before you blow the guy off as an energy extremist, his $105 target 3 years ago was widely derided ("another Henry Blodget wannabe")…."


And an excerpt from Paul Kedrosky’s article on the Infectious Greed blog:

The Oil Bubble, Self-Organized Criticality, etc.

"My earlier post about the possible oil bubble seems to have touched a nerve, so here is more. The good people at Factset have out a fascinating new report on the same subject — how energy markets are becoming awfully bubblish — and it’s worth a read in its entirety.

Here is one quick figure from the report showing how profits are growing so quickly that oil companies can’t keep up by raising prices. It creates an interesting box for energy companies and is one sign of a crack in the market."

pe-rations

"To be clear,  I see no reason why oil prices tumble materially tomorrow. Matter of fact, I’m usually two years too early on these calls…"


Another perspective on GS’s call on oil prices, courtesy of Trader Mark.

Goldman Sachs: Gasoline Not Driving Oil Price – Oil Going to $150-$200


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Thursday Wrap-Up

I’m way behind so I’ll keep this short and not-so-sweet.

Today’s "rally" was stupid, I said so all day.  Even though we closed a full 16 points above my morning target of 12,850, I got very bearish during the day as oil looked poised to test $125 with CNBC running a day-long pump-fest, trotting out every oil bull on the planet to tell us how $200 oil would somehow be great for investors.

Are these guys on crack?  I’m not sure, but I will say it again and again:  There is not enough money on the planet earth to pay for $200 oil without taking that extra $3Tn OUT of the revenues of other industries.  If you couple that with a conservative $2Tn worth of food inflation (caused by oil), then you are talking about a global depression where the only companies that survive are the oil companies. 

Of course that’s ridiculous as one would thing that wiping out every disposable penny on the planet would hurt the demand for oil and drive down prices – but that’s not what energy traders believe!  They are buying July $150 futures contracts in bulk!!!  Forget the fact that we need a war with Iran to justify $150 crude (word is Bush is working very hard on this as we speak) – I am telling you the market cannot handle $125.

I see no justification for this rally and I said to members yesterday as CNBC had a discussion that $120 oil was a good thing for the economy: "Yet another BS justification.  Come on guys – the last time we got this much "good news" about an investment from the media was housing…  Oil $124.33 and a Rebel Attack in the morning should punch us through $125."

I was bearish much earlier than that though, at 11:16 I said, regarding whether it was a good time to enter Apple: "I don’t think anything is ready for an entry right now."  We decided to roll our oil puts up (to higher strikes) and out (to longer months) and sell front-month puts against them as it was obvious crude was going nowhere but up, despite a good build in natural gas at 10:30.  At 11:25 I warned: "Don’t forget that until we bounce more than 50% of yesterday’s drop this "rally" is nothing so we need 12,900 at least ."

At 2:32, into the NYMEX close I said: "Wow they
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Fannie Mae

One more from Mish, and yes, all’s working!

Fannie Mae Cumulative Defaults (and other disasters)

Inquiring minds are checking out the Fannie Mae 2008 Q1 10-Q Investor Summary. There are plenty of charts, graphs and other data to consider.

For example, please consider this graph on page 27.

Cumulative Default Rates Overall Originations from 2000 thru 2007

click on chart for sharper image

Minyan Peter, former treasurer at a major US bank had this to say:

From experience, vintage data doesn’t lie. A group of loans that starts out badly ends badly. And as the chart shows, the most recent vintages are deteriorating faster and to higher levels than older vintages. Further, all of the loss and delinquency data is for a pre-recessionary period.

Professor Kevin Depew was talking about Fannie Mae yesterday in points 1-4 of Tuesday’s Five Things. Let’s take a look at point number 1.

Fannie Mae Executives Only Ones Surprised by $2.19 Billion Quarterly Loss

Fannie Mae (FNM) this morning reported a wider loss than many analysts estimated, cut its dividend to 25 cents a share and said it will raise $6 billion in capital before it eventually burns to the ground while the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight plays a fiddle. We’re paraphrasing… but only slightly.

Even as Fannie Mae reported a wider-than-expected (for Fannie Mae executives at least, the rest of us seemed to know better) $2.19 billion first quarter loss, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulator that oversees the government-sponsored mortgage giant actually lowered… yes, lowered… the amount of capital Fannie must hold.

The OFHEO said it will lower requirements for surplus capital to 15% from 20% once the $6 billion in capital is raised, and may reduce it even further to just 10% by September. The move by OFHEO to relax capital surplus requirements for Fannie Mae essentially enables the mortgage-finance company to buy more mortgages and take on even more risk.

"The lowering of the prudential cushion was appropriate in line with the company’s progress and with the need to maintain safe and sound operations," OFHEO Director James Lockhart said in a statement, presumably to guard against not being able to maintain a straight face. For if there is one thing we know with absolute certainty, it is this: Fannie Mae is the antithesis


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Chart School

Corporate Share Buybacks: How Timely Are They?

Courtesy of Doug Short.

Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.

Factset Buyback Quarterly has an interesting series of charts and facts on corporate share buybacks.

Here is my favorite chart in the series.


 


Click for a larger image

 

Aggregate Buyb...



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Insider Scoop

Wireless Ronin Common Stock to Move to OTCQB; NASDAQ Delisting Based on Insufficient Shareholders' Equity

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Wireless Ronin Technologies (NASDAQ: RNIN), a leading marketing technologies provider, announced today that it has been notified by the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ) that trading in the Company's securities will be suspended on NASDAQ effective with the open of trading on May 31, 2013. On that same date, the Company's common stock will become eligible to trade on the OTCQB, which is an electronic trading platform of the OTC Markets Group. The Company's trading symbol will remain RNIN. The Company does not intend to appeal NASDAQ's determination since it believes its efforts are better directed towards the Company's core business operations.

"This move will not affect our ability to service our clients, impact our operations or affect our employees, nor will it change our adher...



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Zero Hedge

Government by Eurocrats: The Olive-Oil Dispenser Debacle

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by testosteronepit.

Wolf Richter   www.testosteronepit.com   www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter

Like so many debacles in the EU, it started with the unelected European Commission. It’s immune to voters, but not to lobbyists and corporations. Under the guise of “consumer protection” or “food safety” or some other harmless moniker, it generates zany laws that tend to benefit large corporations. But last week, it went too far, even for Europeans – not that they don’t already have enough crises on their hands. It passed a law that banned restaurants from se...



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Phil's Favorites

The Mother of All Painted-In Corners

The Mother of All Painted-In Corners

BY JOHN MAULDIN, Thoughts from the Frontline

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

– Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

I wrote several years ago that Japan is a bug in search of a windshield. And in January I wrote that 2013 is the Year of the Windshield. The recent volatility in Japanese mar...



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Option Review

Bearish Options Play Paying Off As Abercrombie Shares Lose Their Cool

Today’s tickers: ANF, XLU & XLV

ANF - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. – Shares in teen retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch Co., are getting hammered today, down 10% at $48.92 in early-afternoon trading after the company reported a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss and missed topline estimates, lowered its full year earnings forecast and said same-store sales would be down slightly for the rest of the year. A review of pre-earnings report activity in Abercrombie options yesterday indicates one trader was prepared for the pullback today. It looks like the strategist initiate...



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All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Click here for the full report.




To learn more, sign up for David's free newsletter and receive the free report from All About Trends - "How To Outperform 90% Of Wall Street With Just $500 A Week." Tell David PSW sent you. - Ilene...

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Market Montage

Even Markets Where Central Bankers Directly Buy Stock Can Get Overbought

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

While the S&P 500 has had quite a year already the Nikkei has been the story of the globe as they are performing acts of central banking that even put the U.S. Fed to shame.  And Japan's central bank can buy ETFs and REITs directly per their charter versus the U.S. bank.  Combined with a yen in free fall it's been a heck of a move for the Nikkei since last November.  I noted last week we were seeing extremely rare weekly and monthly type overbought readings on bo...



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Sabrient

Sector Detector: Fed tries to refill bulls’ fuel tank as cyclicals lead

Courtesy of Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics

The market went through some gyrations on Wednesday in reaction to Fed Chairman Bernanke’s testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. He first defended continued quant easing by warning, “A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily but also would carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery.” Stocks dutifully rallied and all major indexes hit new intraday highs.

But alas, consensus is apparently not a given over the longer term. The minutes hinted that a tapering off could start sooner, “A number of participants expressed willingness to adjust the flow of purchases downward as early as the June meeting if the economic information received by that time showed evidence of sufficiently strong and sustained growth.” So …...



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OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of May 20th, 2013

Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current  trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

...

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly

NEW: Newsletter writers are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.

Here's the latest Stock World Weekly! Just sign in with your PSW user name and password, or sign up to try it out. 

...

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IRA Strategy/Income Trader

The IRA portfolio

Reminder: Craigzooka is available to chat with Members regarding his virtual portfolio performance, comments are found below each post.

By Craigzooka

I am going to share with you how I manage my IRA and the power of reducing your cost basis.  My goal each year is a 20% return in my IRA.  Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't, but I believe that all of my success is due to reducing my cost basis.  To illustrate the power of reducing your cost basis here are some trades we did last year.  These trades are taken from an educational portfolio we ran in a paper-trading account for a little more than a year.

  • We bought RIG on 5/15/2012 for $44.13, sold it on 1/18/2013 for $46 but booked a profit of $1,154.
  • We bought MT on 1/4/2012 for $19.24, sold it on 12/21/2012 for $15 but booked a profit of $454.
  • We bought CHK on 1/27/2012 for $21.93, sold it on 10/19/2012 for $18 b...


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ETF Selector

Stock Market Gets Big News After Friday’s Close

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Stock market posts another record setting week, but the big news came after Friday’s close.

Courtesy of NASA

The stock market put on another record setting show with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) closing at a record high 15,118 and the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) closing at 1633.70, another all time closing high.

For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) gained 1%, the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) climbed 1.2%, the Nasdaq Composite (NYSEARCA:...



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Pharmboy

Give Them an Inch, They Will Take a Mile

Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Well, well, well....it is good to know that there are others in the scientific arena who believed that YMI Bioscience's data (cough - Gilead) is a better drug than Incyte's Jakafi.  Now, the definitive data are still unknown, but there was enough evidence from a Phase 2 trial to take a small risk for a huge reward.  So, let's forget about Apple (AAPL), and do nothing but biotechs from now until Congress passes universal health care coverage for prescriptions....and drive the prices down so that research and development is no longer feasible to conduct in the US. Even Seattle Genetics (SGEN) has been on a tear as of late...



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FeedTheBull - Top Stock market and Finance Sites



About Phil:

Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...

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Ilene is editor and affiliate program coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site (blogroll, archives, more). Contact Ilene to learn about our affiliate and content sharing programs.

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