Archive for
January, 2010
by markettamer - January 31st, 2010 8:33 pm
Courtesy of Market Tamer
Market Snapshot
ECONOMIC REPORTS
MONDAY 2/1 Personal Income, Personal Spending, Construction Spending, ISM Index
TUESDAY 2/2 Pending Home Sales, Auto Sales, Truck Sales
WEDNESDAY 2/3 Challenger Job Cuts, ADP Employment Change, ISM Services, Crude Inventories
THURSDAY 2/4 Initial Claims, Continuing Claims, Productivity-Prel, Unit Labor Costs-Preliminary, Factory orders
FRIDAY 2/5 Nonfarm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Average Workweek, Hourly Earnings, Consumer Credit
EARNINGS OF NOTE
MONDAY 2/1 ACV, APC, GCI, HUM, MNKD, PCL, SOHU, TUP
TUESDAY 2/2 AFL, ADM, CTRP, CMI, DHI, FISV, JDSU, MTW, MAN, MRO, MEE, MET, MYGN, NETL, PBG, SU, DOW, HSY, UPS, UNM, GRA, WHR
WEDNESDAY 2/3 AKAM, AMP, BDK, BRCM, CBG, CSCO, CMCSA, EFX, HMC, INSP, IP, MWW, NOV, NVLS, PFE, RL, BCO, TWX, V, WLT, YUM
THURSDAY 2/4 BEBE, BKC, CME, CI, DB, DO, GSK, HIT, K, MA, MCO, NOC, PENN, PBI, SLE, SNE, HOT, SUN, TM, UIS
FRIDAY 2/5 AET, AON, BZH, PC, TSN, WY
Stock Market Insights: The Cash Flow Statement
Cash is king! Liquidity in the form of cash tells us that the company can meet its obligations. The Cash Flow Statement is the third and last statement that we will touch upon. The statement is filed quarterly and year over year in concert with the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet. The Cash Flow Statement is a measure of incoming and outgoing cash from its business operations for a specific point in time. The statement further defines the cash flow of the company that is indicated on the Balance Sheet. There are two methods of accounting that are used 1) accrual and 2) cash. Most companies use the accrual method which accounts for goods delivered as sales regardless of whether they have been paid for or not. The outstanding balance is shown on the Profit and Loss Statement under accounts receivable.
The Cash Flow statement typically divides the accounting for cash into…

Tags: Add new tag, market analysis, market tamer, Options Education, stock and options training, Stock Market
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by Zero Hedge - January 31st, 2010 8:20 pm
Courtesy of Chopshop
As James Cameron’s brainchild, Avatar, continues to light up the box office the world over, relentlessly charging towards a date with damn near every conceivable box office high score imaginable (like Billy Mitchell on the 255th level of Pac-Man), the Chinese government has (rather predictably) succumb to the specter of Avatar’s most elementary symbolism and attempted to Short Circuit it’s unparalleled success.
Good luck with ‘that‘ CFGC ~ China Film Group; ask the RIAA how ‘that‘ worked with N.W.A.
The quasi-communist / quasi-mercantilist nation’s state-run movie distributor, China Film Group Corporation, has pulled the film of the year from 1,628 2-D screens (what a humorously random #) in favor of a biography of the ancient philosopher Confucius.
Way to get around to that, after the fact, and then half-ass it by leaving 3-D … what other brilliant big screen gap management / market timing ideas might those genii have ?
” China’s top State-owned film enterprise, the China Film Group Corporation, will attempt to get listed before July of next year, Securities Daily reported …. citing Jiang Tao, the group’s Chief Financial Officer.
Jiang said the group will set up a joint-stock company …. and try to go public before the end of the first half of [2010]. “
Great timing, mo rons; sure that half-assed Red herring will be a GEM
The LA Times reports that:
” The communist nation’s state-run movie distributor, China Film Group, unexpectedly began pulling the blockbuster science-fiction picture from 1,628 2-D screens this week in favor of a biography of the ancient philosopher Confucius.
Paul Hanneman, co-president of international distribution for 20th Century Fox, the movie’s distributor, confirmed the move, which the studio learned about Monday evening.
According to the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, the switch was made at the urging of propaganda officials who are concerned that “Avatar” is taking too much market share from Chinese films and drawing unwanted attention to the sensitive issue of forced evictions.
Millions of Chinese have been uprooted to make way
…

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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 8:02 pm
Pharmboy, member of our team at PSW, has been writing a book on Technical Analysis. Here is the first chapter for your enjoyment/educational experience. - Ilene
Understanding Market Cycles: The Art of Market Timing
Courtesy of Pharmboy
Experts and the main stream media say that market timing is impossible. That much is true, but when TA is used, timing market movement is very profitable on a consistent basis. As a technical trader, the purpose is to find the best trades and to time the entry and exit points. After all, any trader can find the best trade in the world, but if it is not timed well, it may turn into a loss. Every stock or asset class goes through a classic market cycle. Figure 1 is a diagram of the four stages of the market cycle:
Figure 1. Four stages of the market cycle.
When looking at the charts of any stock or index, notice that it moves in cycles. By observing cycles, what to expect next is easier to comprehend. Figure 2 shows two stocks that have completed each of the four stages.
Figure 2a and b. Market stages of two companies.
2a. Amylin
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2b. MEMC
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For a long-term investor or trader, understanding market cycles can greatly benefit their portfolio.
Stages of a Market Cycle
- Accumulation Phase – This is the bottom (or near the bottom) of a particular stock, sector, or general market. At this stage, prices do not move upward but rather stay within a neutral trading range. At this level, the smart money begins to buy up large blocks of shares to accumulate a large position for their portfolio. They are patient enough to wait years, if needed, because it is difficult to determine how long a stock or sector will be in this stage. Regular individual retail investors do not even consider buying at this level because, in most cases, they have recently sold into the lows. At PSW, this is the stage where stocks are nominated to the Watchlist and the biggest
…

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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 6:59 pm
Courtesy of Jesse’s Café Américain
And that is the nature of Goldman. Gather up as many customers as possible, aggregate the available information to achieve a superior market view and then relentlessly extract rents from the marketplace. Better yet, tell yourself you’re smarter than everyone else and you’ve earned the rents from the symbiosis."
James Rickards, former General Counsel of Long Term Capital Management
This is a nice, concise, albeit somewhat simplified description, from a more mainstream and highly credible source, of how the markets are operating today to the extreme disadvantage of the public and the real economy. Between front-running and naked short selling the banks have things pretty well under their control.
The market makers are the Wall Street banks are the prop trading desks, trading at high frequency slightly ahead of the markets while peeking into your accounts, gaining just enough unfair advantage to defy the odds of winning and losing in a fairly regulated market.
From James Rickards, The Frog, The Scorpion, and Goldman Sachs:
"Now consider another example of data mining, not done by retail firms, but by giant investment banks such as Goldman Sachs. These banks have thousands of customers transacting in trillions of dollars in stocks, bonds, commodities and foreign exchange daily. By using systems with anodyne names like SecDB, Goldman not only sees the transaction flows but some of the outright positions and whether they are bullish or bearish. Data mining techniques are just as effective for this market information as they are for Google, Amazon, Wal-Mart and others. It’s not necessary to access individual accounts to be useful. The data can be aggregated so that the bank can look at positions on a portfolio basis without knowing the name of each customer.
One need not be a market expert to imagine the power of this information. You can see which way the winds are blowing before the storm hits. You get a sense of when momentum is draining out of a trade so you can get out of it before the market turns. You can see when bullish or bearish sentiment reaches extremes, suggesting it may soon turn the other way. This use of information is the ultimate type of insider trading because it does not break the law;
…

Tags: Bank bailouts, financial reform, regulatory capture
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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 6:46 pm
Courtesy of Jesse’s Café Américain
"The banks must be restrained, the financial system reformed, and balance restored to the economy before there can be any sustained recovery."
We have been saying this for some time. The report below from Neil Barofsky says essentially the same thing.
"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car," Barofsky wrote.
The US is heading towards a double dip recession, and the next leg down may be more fundamentally damaging than before.
The reason for the decline will be the abject failure of the Obama Administration to address the roots of the problem, instead wasting trillions to prop up a banking system that is a useless distortion.
Worse than useless really, because it actually presents a huge negative influence by stifling the recovery, channeling funds to the crony capitalists and non-producing wealth extraction sector, who tax the people like feudal lords under license of a corrupt government.
So far, Obama has failed the people, but preserved the banks. A source of his failure has been his weakness in listening to Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, the Rubin-Clinton wing of Democrats, who have well established their incompetence and inability to act at a level suitable to their positions. They are captive to special interests, locked into the ways of thinking that brought the world to the point of crisis.
In response to the next leg down, Bernanke will monetize debt at an even more furious and clever pace, perhaps in alliance with the Bank of England and Bank of Japan. The ECB resists, and all who balk will be chastised by the monied powers and their demimonde, the ratings agencies and global banks. This is modern warfare of a sort.
We do not expect the corruption of the world’s reserves to be so blatant that the inflation will immediately appear, except in more subtle manner. At some point it may explode, especially if Ben is particularly good at concealing its subtle growth.
Monetary inflation is the growth of the money supply in excess of the demands of the real economy, not nominal growth of the supply. The US has been shifting…

Tags: bailouts, Bank bailouts, Barofsky, Financial Engineering, financial reform, monetary inflation
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by Zero Hedge - January 31st, 2010 6:30 pm
Courtesy of Gordon_Gekko
The recent decline in Gold has not only caused mayhem in goldbug-land (especially those holding mining stocks), but also brought deflationists of all stripes – with, not surprisingly, Prechterites at the forefront – out of the woodwork shouting $400 Gold from the rooftops. Funny, all I remember is a deafening silence at $1200. Emboldened by the recent decline, Mr. Prechter has predicted a 40% decline in Gold prices from here. For those not in the know, Bob Prechter has been forecasting declining prices for Gold all throughout its decade long bull run. For example, in March of 2006 when Gold was about $560 he said, “Gold is in the final stages of a speculative surge…technical factors, in conjunction with a complete wave pattern and sentiment, point directly to a decline to at least $460 and probably close to $400″. It reached $730 in May and closed that year at around $650. In 2003 Alf Field – who beat Prechter at his own game forecasting Gold prices much more accurately than him using the Elliot Wave Principle – wrote, “In mid 1999, when the gold price dipped towards a low of $253, Bob Prechter forecast an extended rally in the gold price that would be followed by a final decline to below $253 to a low point approaching $200…he forecast (at the start of the move) that the peak would be about $360 and he recommended short sales in gold after the price moved above this level in February 2003. He now believes that the market is on its way down to new lows below $253“. Gold closed that year at around $430. What would have happened if you took his advice and shorted Gold at $360? You would have gotten reamed, that’s what. Ironically, for all his blathering about “sentiment” and being “contrarian”, Mr. Prechter has become a great contrary indicator for the Gold market. His long term stock market forecasting isn’t that great either (yeah, I know he’s made 4-5 correct predictions in the last 40 years), but we’ll leave that aside for now.

For those with a long-term horizon, the picture hasn’t changed at all and should keep buying the dips no matter what. But buy physical only and in your personal possession. I cannot stress this point enough. Even if you are a short term investor and…

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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 5:30 pm
Joshua Brown says its time to disgorge oneself of one’s garbage. Maybe idiots made from this rally will finally be right. - Ilene
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker
So you gorged yourself on garbage, chased the china plays, munched on materials and binged on beta…
Now that everything on earth is breaking 50 and 200 day moving averages, your junk food holdings are producing the inevitable tummy ache.
The good news is, you’ve got company. Fight the urge to rationalize these holdings before they do more damage.
With the big leadership like Apple ($AAPL) and US Steel ($X) under enormous pressure, what hope do the trashiest stocks really have right now? The answer is that they will be sold even faster than they were bought should this market continue to sell off on both good and bad news.
Greater Fool had worked fairly consistently for months as traders learned that each afternoon, regardless of the news, positions could be turned over to their new owners at ever-higher prices.
The mantra was "follow price" and "it’ll work until it doesn’t work" and "don’t fight the tape". This led to a broadening rally that rewarded the worst of the merchandise – from small caps to functionally insolvent entities like $AIG, $FNM, $FRE to emerging spec stories to developmental biotech and cleantech companies.
Sitting in more defensive plays like Waste Management ($WM) and Wal-Mart ($WMT) and remaining disciplined with some cash made you look (and feel) like a chump while the dashing trader on the other side of the desk played Chilean fertilizer names or Peruvian silver mining names for triple digit gains on a regular basis. The temptation to say f&*% it and get in the game was pervasive.
If you dabbled in junk and were then caught blindsided by the change in this tape that began 12 days ago, consider this weekend your chance to make things right. Even if this just proves to be a dip and the rally resumes through February, at least this will have been your chance to take a hard look at some of the junk you’ve accumulated.
Without having a…

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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 5:17 pm
My belief is the benefits of TARP and the entire alphabet soup of lending facilities was not as stated by Bernnake and Geithner, but rather to shift as much responsibility as quickly as possible on to the backs of taxpayers while trumping up nonsensical benefits of doing so. This was done to bail out the banks at any and all cost to the taxpayers. – Mish
Courtesy of Mish
Inquiring minds are reading the SIGTARP Quarterly Report To Congress. The report is a massive 224 pages long. I will do my best to condense it down to the critical highlights involving Fraud, Money Laundering, Insider Trading, etc.
Let’s start with the SIGTARP mission, then the findings.
Mission
SIGTARP’s mission is to advance economic stability by promoting the efficiency and effectiveness of TARP management, through transparency, through coordinated oversight, and through robust enforcement against those, whether inside or outside of Government, who waste, steal or abuse TARP funds.
Let’s dive into the 224 page report and see how well TARP, and the alphabet soup of lending facilities met their stated goals.
On the positive side, there are clear signs that aspects of the financial system are far more stable than they were at the height of the crisis in the fall of 2008. Many large banks have once again been able to raise funds in the capital markets, and some institutions — including some that appeared to be on the verge of collapse — have recovered sufficiently to repay their TARP investments years earlier than most would have predicted. These repayments and the sales of the warrants associated with them have meant that Treasury (and thus the taxpayer) has turned a profit on some of the individual TARP investments; as a result of these repayments, among other positive developments, it now appears that the ultimate cost of TARP to the American taxpayer, while still substantial, might be significantly less than initially estimated.
Mish: The idea that there are "profits" is fictitious. It’s effectively praising making 10 cents on a dollar while not counting hundreds of $billions lost on AIG and Fannie Mae, and ignoring $300 billion worth of loan guarantees at Citigroup still in effect.
Moreover, the only reason banks…

Tags: AIG Coverup, bank fraud, ccounting fraud, Congress, false statements, fraudulent advance-fee schemes, insider trading, Mish, money laundering, mortgage fraud, mortgage servicer misconduct, obstruction of justice, public corruption, securities fraud, SIGTARP Quarterly Report, TARP fraud
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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 5:11 pm
Courtesy of Tom Lindmark at But Then What
Via the Glittering Eye, I was directed to this post on the breakdown of the American employment model. It’s an inciteful piece of writing that’s going to leave you with a lot to think about. Here is the opening:
Here in the quiet precincts of the stately Mead manor in exclusive Queens, as the dew gently falls over the mist-shrouded lawns and the pigeons coo soothingly from the historic-landmarked eaves, it is sometimes hard to believe, but out there in the workaday world the long and graceful decay of the American social model is accelerating into a more rapid and dangerous decline. The core institutions, ideas and expectations that shaped American life for the sixty years after the New Deal don’t work anymore, and the gaps between the social system we’ve inherited and the system we need today are becoming so wide that we can no longer paper them over or ignore them.
In the old system, both blue collar and white collar workers hold stable jobs, a professional career civil service administers a growing state, with living standards for all social classes steadily rising while the gaps between the classes remain fairly stable, and with an increasing ’social dividend’ being paid out in various forms: longer vacations, more and cheaper state-supported education, earlier retirement, shorter work weeks and so on. Graduate from high school and you were pretty much guaranteed lifetime employment in a job that gave you a comfortable lower middle class lifestyle; graduate from college and you would be better paid and equally secure.
Life would just go on getting better. From generation to generation we would live a life of incremental improvements — the details of life would keep getting better but the broad outlines of our society would stay the same. The advanced industrial democracies of had in fact reached the ‘end of history’: this is what ‘developed’ human society looked like and there would be no more radical changes because the picture had fully developed.
Call
…

Tags: american life, Economy, Employment, life style
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by ilene - January 31st, 2010 4:57 pm
Courtesy of Vitaliy Katsenelson at Contrarian Edge
I have tremendous respect for Mr. Buffett. But every word that comes out of his mouth should not be looked upon as prophecy, or the gospel truth. I get a feeling that Buffett has been canonized into a value investor saint – investors and the media worship the ground he walks on and the air he breathes. The media are unable to get any critical quotes from his investors, and nobody wants to be caught disagreeing with the Oracle of Omaha – after all he’s been right more often than wrong – and so we only get positive puff pieces. On the rare occasion when Berkshire Hathaway stock declines more than the market, you see an article asserting that “Buffett has lost his magic touch,” but these articles are usually followed by stellar performance by Berkshire. Though Buffett deserves admiration – he is brilliant and likable and he has achieved incredible returns for his investors over the last half-century – he should not be canonized, and not everything he does or says is the ultimate truth.
Most investors agree with Buffett’s criticism of Kraft’s decision to buy a fairly valued (or overvalued) Cadbury at 22 times earnings (over the past 15 years, its average price-to-earnings ratio has been 21), using Kraft’s undervalued stock. Cadbury runs a global, noncyclical confectionary business that, if properly managed, should have a very high return on capital. Buffett, a shareholder of Kraft, was very public about his dismay – he said he felt poorer when Cadbury accepted Kraft’s increased offer.
But though many agree with Mr. Buffett’s assessment of the Kraft/Cadbury deal, investors and media are completely ignoring Berkshire’s own, $30-billion-plus acquisition of a very cyclical, capital-intensive, not terrifically high-return-on-capital business – Burlington Northern. A railroad for which Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire will lay out 18 times earnings (over last 15 years its average P/E was 15); and to make it even worse, part of the deal will be financed by issuing what Buffett recently called “cheap” Berkshire stock. Burlington stock is not cheap, it is fairly priced at best, and likely overpriced. Also, Buffett owning Burlington Northern will not make the railroad business any more valuable. There is little value to be unlocked in this business, and Buffett will practice his usual hands-off approach.
Though Mr.…

Tags: Berkshire, Burlington acquisition, Burlington Northern, Cadbury, Kraft, Mr. Buffett, Oracle of Omaha
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February 23rd, 2012 12:07 am
Courtesy of www.econmatters.com.
By
EconMatters Oil futures spiked more than 2% in one day to their highest level in nine months on Tuesday Feb. 21. WTI front month contract closed at $105.84, while Brent ended at $121.66 on ICE, primarily on investors fear of potential conflict over the escalating tensions between the US, Europe, Israel, and Iran. A second Greek bailout deal of €130bn (£110bn; $170bn) also helped to inject some optimism into the market (which would seem totally mis-placed as we may need to
relive this Greek drama in two years). Nevertheless, the fact remains crude oil market supply and demand has not changed a bit to warrant a 2%+ price jump in one day.
...
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February 22nd, 2012 12:15 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
Earlier today, we learned the first stunner of the Greek bailout package, which courtesy of some convoluted transmission mechanisms would result in some, potentially quite many, Greek workers actually paying to retain their jobs: i.e., negative salaries. Now, having looked at the Eurogroup's statement on the Greek bailout, we find another ...
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February 22nd, 2012 11:05 am
Courtesy of Benzinga.
In recent years, traders and investors have increasingly turned to social media to discuss their investments. Now, interested parties can get a scientific look at what is being discussed on a weekly, monthly, and even hourly basis.
Provided by Social Market Analytics, here is the morning social media outlook for Wednesday, February 22.
Most Bullish
Sentiment has been most bullish this morning on two tech companies.
Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE) reported stellar earnings yesterday afternoon, which prompted several analysts to upgrade their price targets on the stock. The company hit a fresh 52-week high earlier this morning, as shares surged over 23%.
Procera Networks (NASDAQ: ...
http://www.insidercow.com/ more from Insider
February 22nd, 2012 11:03 am
Courtesy of David Grandey.
In today’s market, it’s more important that ever to have a mindset to maintain a sane mental state and stay peaceful calm and centered.
Keep in mind with the markets as stretched as they are, we are in a high risk zone for pulling back as we have been in an accelerated uptrend with barely any pullback to speak of which as we all know can not continue forever — it never does. That said the music can stop at a moment’s notice and odds favor when it does it will be a gap down. So using that as a backdrop let’s look at SXCI. SXCI — SXC Health Let’s say that issue breaks above the pink line and triggers a long side trade. That’s all fine and dandy HOWEVER it’s what happens next that we have no control over. At that point it either follows through or it doesn’t. WE NOR YOU HAVE ANY CONTROL ...
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February 22nd, 2012 12:00 am
Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysis
AGBUYAn increasingly attractive expected long term growth rate and a significantly higher projected valuation from just a few weeks ago make AGCO a company to watch.
PCUBUYThe recent earnings history for Southern Copper shows significant improvement while projected valuation continues to rise.
PAGBUYAn increasingly attractive expected long term growth rate and a significantly higher projected valuation from just a few weeks ago make Penske a company to watch.
FEICBUYAn increasingly attractive expected long term growth rate and a significantly higher projected va...
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February 21st, 2012 2:23 pm
Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
Other than that rally last Thursday that caught a lot of technicians flat footed (i.e. post the Apple reversal) the breadth in this market has been relatively poor the past 5 sessions or so. The Russell 2000 has been lagging the major indexes dominated by large caps, and my watch lists have contained far more red than green. Some people have been calling it the NBA market ("Nothing but Apple") but it's been a bit broader than that – i.e. Microsoft has acted well, and some groups are still working.
A bearish take on this is of course what I cited above – breadth is narrowing which usually happens near tops. Fewer and ...
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February 21st, 2012 1:40 pm
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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February 21st, 2012 1:39 pm
Today’s tickers: WYNN, CTRP, DTV & WMT
...
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February 21st, 2012 8:58 am
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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February 20th, 2012 10:36 pm
Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Monday comes and goes with no agreement on Greece until late night settlement on Greece.
European finance ministers met in Brussels Monday and deep into the night and finally, in the wee hours, apparently have struck an agreement for the next round of bailout money for Greece.
In overnight trading, the European indexes were up with the DAX gaining 1.46%, the STOXX 50 adding 1.2% and the FTSE climbing 0.7%
In Asia, major indexes were down slightly as the world waited for an answer on Greece.
The U.S. Dollar (NYSEARCA:UUP) declined after announcement of the agreement while the Euro Dollar (NYSEARCA:FXE) jumped.
The issue remains the same as it always ha...
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February 19th, 2012 3:12 am
NEW: Elliott and Ilene are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.
Here's the most recent Stock World Weekly, Balancing Act. Click on this link to sign in or sign up to read.
...
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January 30th, 2012 7:22 am
Here is a quick update of past trades and our current position.
AA Money
No trade this week as we wait for AA to settle. Phil remarked last week that AA seemed overvalued. In the meantime, it looks like we might have to roll our Feb 9 calls. Good thing we sold only 5 of them against our position.
Last week P&L - 310.00
We lost ground last week, but we still have 11 months to sell premium!
FAS Money
Very good week for FAS Money as we benefited from the large amount of premium sold the previous week. We covered most of the shorts in advance of the Fed speech, but sold another set of options on Wednesday after the speech - 2 FAS calls that expired worthless on Friday, 2 FAS put that we are still holding and 2 FAZ put that we bought back for a profit on Friday. A late stick comparable to last week's almost gave us problems at the end of the day though!
Last week P&L - $4277.00
IWM Money
A decent week in this virtual portfo...
more from Strategies
January 18th, 2012 1:09 am
Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Finding new and exciting Biotech companies that target novel mechanisms is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Sure there are many companies working on cutting edge science, but investing in those companies to reap the rewards of their work is a very dangerous game. More often than not, companies fail because the mechanism does not pan out, the compound(s) do not have pharmacokinetics (get into the body or last very long in the body), or an adverse event happens that knocks years off a development timeline. In addition, the stock can be manipulated by market makers so investors don't know which way is up. I approach investing in biotechs as a long term prospect. I continue to like our current portfolio of biotech companies (join in chat for many of those plays), and we continually add/subtract shares and sell/buy options on ...
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