Phil's Stock World, Stock Options Trading & Information

Daily Stock and Options Tips & Updates; Get Our Daily Newsletter Here

Phil you are great, and not only is your market info spot on but you have the courage to call it like it is and write about it in a great tone.

- Flanger

Phil/Eric/Cwan/Matt/Cap/etc.. - I've learned so much from all of you and want to thank you. I'm up 23% this month thanks to all of your advice - Thanks, guys!

- Josiah

WOW, glad I went bearish… Phil, thanks for the help on the QID calls yesterday, I turned it into a partial cover rolling down to the Feb 52s selling the 55s 1/2 covered. Sold 1/2 and now lowered my cost basis to $4.38 on the $52s (fully covered).

- Texasmotion

I started with $250,000 in cash as of Oct 1 and have realized gains of $81,000 thru close of business. And that's in an IRA with no margin or naked trades. Whenever you are in Argentina or Chile I owe you a drink. I'm looking forward to it.

- Denlundy

Peter D: great write-up for Short Strangles, Part 1, looking forward to Part 2, particularly the adjustment part.

- RMM

PSW AC Conf: For those who may be on the bubble, I attended my first PSW LV in November. It was a real eye-opener. What I accomplished in a couple of days of exposure to Phil, Pharm, Craig, et al made my previous couple of years of hanging around the web site seem silly. If you are inclined in the slightest, you really should go. Just rubbing shoulders with other PSW members proved to be really valuable. Strictly on the basis of value, it's a great deal. You will have real time conversations with Phil and the gang and they will get to your questions and agenda items.

- Mjjwo9b

Nice intraday trading calls this week Phil. You have me hooked on trading SPY options analogously to your DIA moves. I paid some tuition the last few weeks but I think I have the hang of it. Don't be greedy and be happy with 0.05 to 0.10 and sometimes you're lucky with much bigger moves. Thanks for the training!

- TmDecay

As a fellow "low-end" investor I like Phil's Buy/Write strategy on solid stocks. Before I came here I loved to try to "figure things out" with very little success "TRYING TO FIGURE THINGS OUT"! I traded too much and fell in love with stocks that "should have done" what they didn't do. Now a majority of my accounts are in Buy/Writes suggested here or cash (waiting for a better time for more Buy/Writes). I use 15-20% of my total holding to short term trade and hedge. This is manageable with my full time job as a business owner. I have found Phil's system a more discipline way to achieve the returns I want without relying on my ability (more like inability to "figure things out").

- DCalrk41

Phil, thanks for the call on the SKF puts earlier, I'm riding that horsie downhill right now, giddyup!

- MrMocha

GLD I took out my callers and rolled down my longs this morning, woo hoo!

- Ephmen85

Phil – Not that you dont usually, but you have DEFINITELY earned your money this week. THe recommendations have been PERFECT. Selling into the initial excitement (MULTIPLE TIMES), hedges, everything. Im reading this when I get home from work and want to cry b/c I cant trade at work! I might have to start getting up at 3 AM though to catch those trades bc youre killing it then too! May you and yours have a blessed weekend!

- Jromeha

Phil has some great insight into the market. He's given me a different perspective on the market and I know I'm a better trader/investor because of it. I've been trading options since the late 80's and Phil is right. Unless you know what is going to happen (how can you, unless you have insider information), then do what the smart money does - be the house. Remember guys, we're allowed to sell options. If you're afraid to be short, then do a spread to limit your liability. When I think about the money I've made and lost on options, a good approximation is that I win 30% of the time when I do a straight buy; I win about 70% of the time when I do a spread; I win nearly 90% of the time when I sell naked.

- Autolander

Phil - I celebrate today, having reached my goal for the year, trading in sync with your education and guidance, of 1 million in profit. I learned a lot, achieved much, and am profoundly grateful. To be honest, when I set the goal I thought it was daunting, as I have for many years been an investor in equities but did very little with options. Learning and doing has for me been a blast! I reached my goal by following Phil's strategies - lots of Buy/Writes, covered calls on equities , naked put entries for income production. I did it with 2.5 mil and kept 600,000 in cash in case I got in trouble. I concentrated on stocks (many of my own choosing) that had decent dividends and wrote front month calls against (OTM) which has worked well in this market run. 25% of my gain is in dividends and premium selling, with the balance in appreciation.

- Gel1

Market manipulation…. One of the things I've gained from this site is the concept of market manipulation. I never thought it was so prevalent, but now I know it is. I actually consider its effect when I make trades. Several days ago, when AAPL was moving toward 220 I sold 210 calls. My reasoning was that they will probably pin this month at 210. They came in big time as the stock moved ever closer to 210. I agree with Phil's comment that one of the things we need to do is find out what they are manipulating, and how, and hitch a ride. They are doing this with several equities. I've actually seen one article describing several equities that were being manipulated to pin at expiration each month, and describing how it was done, and of course Phil has described it well. In some ways it's easier to figure this out than it is a ‘normal' market behavior, and thus easier to make money in certain equities.

- Iflantheman

Thanks for the USO directions today. Made it 3 times (up/down/up) for a very nice win.

- Doro165

Phil, I just wanted to say thanks for being there. The world needs more of you. Your site continues to positively change my life daily.

- Chasw

Peace of mind / I have a portfolio mainly consisting of long term long calls, short term short calls and puts, and long term BCS. Three years, ago when I started my journey on this board I would be freaking out panicking as to what to do, as many of the short calls are ITM, Three years later (today) I look at the screen and serenely process the information. Three years ago, I inevitably made the wrong decisions which cost me a lot of money. Three years on I calmly roll the positions to whatever makes sense. No drama, no hair pulling, and a great cost saver. I guess they call that the power of education.

- Winston

Thanks, after years of blood and blunders, I have reached a significant milestone – I don't lose money. Net net, I rarely have a losing week, market up, market down. And that I owe to you. Balanced positions. More premium sold than bought. Fundamental criteria applied to good companies, not momentum/ news headlines/ stock du jour/ triangle squeezies. But rather earnings, P/E, dividends, competitive position — the boring stuff that takes study, thought,….and patience. You have been a great teacher, and I have embarassed myself repeatedly day with how slowly I learn. And it's a funny thing – if you don't lose, the gains start to pile up. The arithmetic is cruel to the downside, and becomes a gift in the other direction. And I'm in this for the long run, having made myself unemployable through a need for diversification. Moreover, what I've learned here has also elided into other areas, including real estate and ex-U.S. investment. Pretty cool. Have a great weekend.

- Zeroxzero

Phil thanks. You never cease to amaze me with your thoughtful perspective on a myriad of different issues and challenges. It's kind of an embarrassment of riches since I joined this board a few years back. The ride from Dow 9,000 or was it 8,000? up to Dow 15,000 seems hard to believe. I wish I could have it all over again, except with the capital I have now.

- Winston

I have been trading for quite a few years and in good years made about 25%. After joining PSW, I followed closely the PSW strategy and my trading profit for this year is close to 70% to date. For fun, I like to mix in a few "Hail Mary" plays that really worked out well, but overall the simpler Buy/Write strategy, as presented by Phil so often, created the majority of the profit.

- Gel1

Thanks Phil, I have adjusted my position by getting rid of the IYF puts, and selling the FAZ puts. You have so many of these awesome little tricks in your playbook that it really amazes me. I toally love your analogy by the way: Do you want insurance that you have to pay for, or do you want insurance that pays you?

- Craigzooka

Thanks to Phil (again) for the lessons on the art of the roll, selling premium and hanging tight under fire (particularly in the first hour of trading-MADNESS). Watching you manage the $25KP has really helped my trading in a big way.

- Oknoman

Thanks Phil for helping make this a much, much better year this year than last. Your tutelage has been so very helpful. Don't think I can say Thanks enough. And I thanks all the members here who were work hard in helping us all to become better traders, and I would say better people as well. The support many of you offered when we evacuated during the fire this past year helped me immeasurably. Happy New Years to you all!

- JBur

Phil: well, often you say, just for FUN, great comment, TXS, closed 2 SKF positions, one with 10 % , the other with 6 % gain,

- RMM

I subscribed to Phils Stock World full service for a year or so and found that it was extremely helpful. Now I just get the Stock World Weekly summary, which I find invaluable. Phil does not baby people and certainly can't make someone into a successful stock operator who does not make the effort on their own behalf, but he is extremely generous with his time in answering newbie questions. Although I found it difficult to follow and implement all his trades in real time, what I did find was that once you got the hang of his methodology and way of thinking, you could work out your own trades and be quite successful. Even just using his patent Rule Number One* alone is worth its weight in gold. Rule Number Two is even better.

- Rookie IRA Investor

I've recently done exactly what Phil described. I upgraded my ability to trade the IRA acct. by transferring acct. from TDA to TOS. TDA would not allow spreads; TOS does. Neither will allow naked options. With spreads I am able to buy calls or puts several months out then sell front month calls or puts over and over. This allows me to collect premium, which is, of course, the goal. This wasn't an original idea. Phil put me onto it. Since the transfer I've substantially increased my performance in the IRA!

- Iflantheman

Phil, I meant to post over the weekend, but I was busy having fun . Last week was a very nice week for me, and I wanted to thank you for all that you do. I am pretty much back to cash and really feel like I am learning. I have out performed the $5kp by a very large margin. Thanks again for the service you provide.

- Scotbraze

Phil - I'm with you just little bit longer than a month and you can not imagine how happy I am now, and not just because my P/L improved ( and I'm sure that it will be even better), but I found that the worst thing in trader's carrier is a LONELINESS. Here I found so many bright good guys, I looked for this service for years. THANK YOU AND TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF BECAUSE I PLAN TO STAY HERE AND RIDE THIS CREASY MARKET WITH YOU FOR ANOTHER 20-30 YEARS

- Tchayipov

Phil Thank you very much, I appreciate your help and wisdom.

- CdsdpDean

Against all prognostics (bears) Phil pointed in the morning the correct direction, and in middle of day he pointed the possible move to 2.5% Incredible… I'm starting to serious believe on the program trading and the human nature behind the programing those "trade-bots".

- Spider

Archive for 2011

The Sun Chairman, What’s Future Is Prologue, And Why The Second French Revolution Is Coming To America

by Zero Hedge - August 14th, 2011 10:40 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

For our closing post of the day we once open the floor to Sean Corrigan who proves that just when we thought all historical comparisons to the current deplorable economic miasma have been used up, a new one springs up, this time perhaps the one most indicative not so much of the past but of the future. Indeed, if history is any indication, and it is, America’s catastrophic and untenable position is worse than even that of one Louis XIV, better known as “The Sun King”, whose rule set the stage for the downfall of the French monarchy and which ultimately culminated with the French Revolution of 1789. For arguably the best indication of historical parallels to the present, and yet another confirmation that there really is nothing new in this world, especially in the world of central planning of monetary affairs, we present the following summary of the practices of Louis XIV which is verbatim applicable to the actions of the current central planning cartel: “The administration of the finances appears to have practised a subtle and ingenious tactic… [and] by modifications in the monetary unit, attempted to influence economic phenomena. Changes… were made to prepare for the issue of loans or to audit the circulation of the treasury notes, or to regulate exchange, to modify the balance of trade… to effect a redistribution of wealth, to influence the price level of commodities, perhaps to attenuate economic crises and famines…“

It may come as a surprise to some that the very same type of central planning that Bernanke, and his central banking brethren, are trying to inflict (and failing) upon the world, was the same that was attempted on so many occasions in history, most poignantly, and catastrophically in the late stages of the French monarchy. Needless to say the attempts by one man to control a far simpler French economy well over two centuries ago failed, yet ironically, not even then did the economy reach our current level of collapse. Which begs the question: how long until our own “Sun Chairman” finally forces the hundreds of millions of great unwashed out of their hypnotic trance following the realization that their “equity” in the great American experiment, their pensions, lifetime accrued benefits, retirement funds, and of course savings, have been completely wiped out, and…

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Guest Post: Bernanke Pledges To Screw Your Grandmother For At Least Two More Years

by Zero Hedge - August 14th, 2011 9:54 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform

Bernanke Pledges To Screw Your Grandmother For At Least Two More Years

“A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank.” - Ron Paul

I wonder what goes through Ben Bernanke’s mind as he sits in his gold plated boardroom in the majestic Marriner Eccles building in Washington DC and decides to screw grandmothers in order to further enrich Wall Street bankers. He just pledged to keep interest rates at zero percent for two more years. Ben is a supposedly book smart man. Does he have no guilt or shame for what he has wrought? How does he sleep at night knowing he has created bloody revolutions around the globe due to his inflationary zero interest policy? People are dying because he has decided that an elite group of Wall Street bankers who recklessly brought down the worldwide financial system in 2008 deserve to be kept alive and enriched at the expense of the many.

He uses words like transitory to describe inflation. Even as the price of gold reveals his lies he continues to promote policies that will lead to the demise of the USD and our economic system. There is only one way to counter his lies – truth. With a corporate fascist government run by the few for the benefit of the few, telling the truth is treason as stated by Ron Paul:

“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”

The storyline being sold to you by Bernanke, his Wall Street masters, and their captured puppets in Washington DC is that deflation is the great bogeyman they must slay. They make these statements from their ivory jewel encrusted towers as the real people in the real world deal with reality. The reality since Ben Bernanke announced his QE2 policy in August 2010 is:

Unleaded gas prices are up 45%.
Heating oil prices are up 46%.
Corn prices are up 71%.
Soybean prices are up 26%.
Rice prices are up 13%.
Pork prices are up 31%.
Beef prices are up 25%.
Coffee prices are up 38%.
Sugar prices are up

…

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Yahoo! Moving Higher on Business Insider Blog Post

by Insider Scoop - August 14th, 2011 8:14 pm

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) is in talks to purchase Carlyle Group’s Insight Communications for about $3 billion, according to Bloomberg sources. A deal could be announced as early as Monday.

New York based Insight is the ninth-largest U.S. cable operator, with 680,000 customers in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Carlyle took Insight private in 2005.

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Time Warner Cable Close to $3B Deal for Insight Communications -Bloomberg

by Insider Scoop - August 14th, 2011 8:14 pm

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) is in talks to purchase Carlyle Group’s Insight Communications for about $3 billion, according to Bloomberg sources. A deal could be announced as early as Monday.

New York based Insight is the ninth-largest U.S. cable operator, with 680,000 customers in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Carlyle took Insight private in 2005.

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At 50x Leverage And 2% Tier 1 Capital, Is SocGen Truly A Paragon Of Balance Sheet Invincibility?

by Zero Hedge - August 14th, 2011 7:19 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

The fact that European banks have just a tad more leverage compared to their US cousins has been well-known for quite some time. One need merely to look at the chart from our February 2010 post to see how American financial institutions stack up relative to European ones as a %-age of host country GDP. This issue came to a very violent head last week when market participants finally realized the painfully obvous, namely that even without direct Greek exposure (and there certainly is a lot of that), SocGen is simply not a viable business model for the long-run courtesy precisely of its tremendous leverage. And unfortunately, while SocGen’s CEO was quick to appear on any TV station that would have him and deny rumors of the bank’s viability, he had little if anything to say about the bank’s actual solvency and leverage. Alas, therein lies the rub. As the attached table created by Jean-Piette Chevalier demonstrates, SocGen is back at the leverage it had back in 2007 at just over 50x. As a reminder, not even Lehman was this bad when it blew up (and that excludes the beneficial boost from Repo 105). In other words, SocGen has a Tier ratio of 2.0%… a number which the bureaucrats at Basel will have no choice but tell the bank must go up. And go up it will… assuming SocGen can issue €84 billion in new capital to pad its equity (on €19 billion of market cap… mmhmmm). Of course, in order to raise capital, SocGen would have to admit that the market was, in fact, correct in its assessment that the bank was undercapitalized, which would then send the stock even lower, and so forth, chicken or egg style. While we doubt any of this is new to the market, we doubt the response will be one of buying euphoria. Luckily, the only thing that can send the price tumbling now is actual selling, as opposed to shorting. And as we all know, nobody could possibly sell stocks: after all it is simply the evil shorters who are responsible for every market collapse in history, never the long idiot money which never did its homework, and suddenly becomes the last bagholder standing and first to bail from what is obviously a disastrously…

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Eurobonds Ruled Out; Eurobong Still In Play

by Zero Hedge - August 14th, 2011 6:45 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

Not even minutes after we finished ridiculing Springer/Die Welt‘s attempt at propaganda spin whereby eurobonds were actually presented as not only good for Germany, but about to be “instituted” (and fully expected the immediate response to be one of refutation via official channels), here comes the FT with the official denial: “Germany and France are ruling out common eurozone bonds to solve the bloc’s current debt crisis, in spite of renewed pressure ahead of a meeting of chancellor Angela Merkel and president Nicholas Sarkozy on Tuesday. Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, made clear in an interview with Der Spiegel, that Berlin remains opposed to such a policy. “I rule out eurobonds for as long as member states conduct their own financial policies and we need different rates of interest in order that there are possible incentives and sanctions to enforce fiscal solidity,” he said. So, uh, Die Welt’s prognostication that “The federal government is now willing, if necessary, to accept a Eurobond transfer union” is about, oh, 100% wrong? Oops. As for those expecting an announcement of a eurobond on Tuesday following the latest round of “emergency” Merkel-Sarkozy, we suggest you put down the Eurobong: “Senior French officials also played down speculation that any firm announcement on jointly issued bonds would be issued after meetings when Ms Merkel comes to Paris on Tuesday. “Eurobonds would require a much more determined integration of budgetary policy,” one said. “We do not have that today. It could be a long-term project, but you cannot have eurobonds and at the same time national economic and budgetary policies.” Translation: “there is this thing called elections coming, and some of us career politicians, who have no idea how to do anything actually valuable for society, and still have not plundered enough in the form of bribers, pardon, lobby money, are not insane enough to propose that German and France foot the bill for the entire European bailout.” Even though that is precisely what they will do via the EFSF. And we certainly expect yet another round of eurobond rumors the next time the EURUSD tumbles by 200 pips in the span of 10 minutes (which courtesy of the broken FX market as described by Sean Corrigan earlier, is roughly every several hours).

The Four Bad Bears: Another Update

by Chart School - August 14th, 2011 6:35 pm

Courtesy of Doug Short.

During the Great Financial Crisis, I updated this chart series on a daily basis. I retired it over a year ago but have posted occasional updates on request. With the market selloff of the past few weeks, I continue to receive frequent requests for updates.

So, here again are the Four Bad Bears.

Click for a larger image

Since inflation is a favorite topic on this website, I’ve also updated a set of charts to facilitate a comparison of the nominal and real declines. See also my logarithmic scale view of the “Four Bad Bears” comparison.

For charts of S&P 500 bear market and recoveries since 1950, see this series.

Click for a larger image

For a better sense of how these cycles figure into a larger historical context, here’s a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets, adjusted for inflation, in the S&P Composite since 1871.

For a bit of international flavor, here’s a chart series that includes the so-called L-shaped “recovery” of the Nikkei 225. I update these weekly.

These charts are not intended as a forecast but rather as a way to study the current market in relation to historic market cycles.

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Latest Trading Jobs

by Chart School - August 14th, 2011 6:16 pm

Courtesy of Declan Fallon

This week’s trading jobs are available here.

Here are a sample of the trading jobs available at the moment

Junior Foreign Currency Trader
Trader, TIPS Brokerage Trader
Experienced Commodity Trader
Financial Research Analyst / Product Manager
IRC746 – Senior Business Analyst (Energy/Commodities/Gas/Oil)
Senior Analyst – Middle Office (Hedge Fund): $95-115K + $65K
Senior Software Engineer – Algo Trading (C++)
Investment Consultant – Paramus, NJ
Financial Advisor, Washington, DC
Amerivest Support Rep
Brokerage Operations Leadership Development Associate
Performance Architect
Risk Control Analyst (Night Shift)
Quant Researcher Cross Asset – Investment Management – Boston ($80-$120K)
Trader Floor Support Specialist ($85-115K)
Divisional Commodities Controller
Institutional Sales – Retail Broker – Fixed Income – Equity
Senior Trust Processor
Financial Advisor & Trainees
Strategic Relationship Consultant

Find the latest Trading Jobs here

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Guest Post: The Market From The Eyes Of An 8 Year Old

by Zero Hedge - August 14th, 2011 5:52 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

From Peter Tchir of TF Capital Markets

The Market From The Eyes Of An 8 Year Old

After two incredibly volatile weeks, where more Americans now know the ticker symbol for Gold (GLD) than its Periodic Table Symbol (AU), I’m just not sure what to write. Trying to make sense of it all is hard enough, and by this time on a Sunday, what hasn’t already been written? I guess I could have tried to write something title “Circular reasoning and cognitive dissidence in the markets” , but that seemed fairly complex. Instead, maybe looking at the past couple of weeks through the eyes of a child, is a better idea.

Son: Dad, do you FINALLY have time to go fishing?

Me: Sure, sorry about this week, but it’s been just crazy in the markets.

Son: Sure, but you always say that.

Me: No, really, it has been crazy ever since the debt ceiling weekend.

Son: Debt ceiling weekend? /raises eyebrows/ What is a debt ceiling?

Me: It is a limit on how much the government can borrow, and the market was really concerned about it.

Son: Ah, the market was worried we were borrowing too much?

Me: No, that we couldn’t borrow more to pay our debts.

Son: How is borrowing more the same as paying debts?

Me: It’s complicated, but we needed to borrow more or else we might have been downgraded.

Son: What’s a downgrade?

Me: Its something the rating agencies do, you don’t need to worry about it, since its complicated. But anyways we raised the limit and could borrow more, so everyone should have been happy.

Son: Don’t you tell me to save and not borrow? That borrowing for stuff you don’t need is bad.

Me: Well, yes, but some people think that it’s different for governments than people or families.

Son: But why is it good for me to save, but bad for the government to save?

Me: You wouldn’t understand.

Son: Okay, so what happened.

Me: Well, one of the rating agencies downgraded us.

Son: For taking on more debt?

Me: No, because our politicians can’t agree.

Son: Don’t you always say politicians never agree? And what does that have to do with debt?

Me: It’s all complicated, someday maybe you will understand, but then it got…

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The Media Admits To Ignoring Ron Paul

by Zero Hedge - August 14th, 2011 3:42 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Why? Because if "the unelectable one" were to become president, the financial kleptocratic, oligarchic status quo, which just so happens is the big legacy media’s biggest advertising base, would be wiped out overnight. Next up: big media becomes very small media. The clip below from CNN explains it all.

As for the reason why Bachmann took first, one picture speak a thousand words:

h/t John and Travis

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Phil's Favorites

Another Look at Bernanke's Employment Recovery in Chart Form

May 24th, 2013 3:38 am

Courtesy of Mish.

Reader Tim Wallace took note of Bernanke's testimony on jobs (see Bernanke's Semi-Annual Tap-Dance of Distortions, Half-truths, Lies, and Hypocrisy to U.S. Congress) and sent me the following chart.

April Employment vs. April Employment in Previous Years

click on chart for sharper image

Tim writes ...
Hello Mish

Bernanke was touting the direction of employment using the familiar "7.5%" numbers and pointing to all the improvement. While granting that more people are working now than in 2010, we recognize tha...

Zero Hedge

Despite 'Promises', Japanese Market Chaos Continues

May 24th, 2013 12:17 am

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

UPDATE 1: Japanese stocks turned negative (NKY -600pts from highs, -1.5% on day; and TOPIX down over 4% from highs); Japanese banks -11% from yesterday highs; S&P futures down 10 points from after-hours highs...

UPDATE 2: *KURODA WANTS TO AVOID INCREASING VOLATILITY IN BOND MARKET (yeah thanks... as useful as saying "we all want to avoid syphilis")

UPDATE 3: Nikkei 225 Drops below 14,000 - TOPIX down 11% from highs

For the second day in a row, and in spite of comments from Abe and Kuroda on communicating with the market (as Kuroda says BoJ Monetary easing sufficient), Japanese capital markets are out of control...

Insider Scoop

Long Setup in Herbalife Still Attractive; Stock Breaks Out as New Auditor Hired

May 24th, 2013 12:00 am

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Few stocks have attracted more news over the last six months than nutritional supplement maker Herbalife (NYSE: HLF).

Even casual market observers are aware of the circumstances surrounding the the initial bout of extreme volatility in the name back in December 2012. The shares went into free-fall at the end of the year after hedge fund manager Bill Ackman revealed in typical sanctimonious fashion that his firm Pershing Square Capital Management was short around $1 billion worth of the stock.

Amid much pomp and circumstance, Ackman laid out his short thesis at a New York investment conference and...

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Option Review

Weekly Options Constructive On Home Depot

May 23rd, 2013 9:38 pm

Today’s tickers: HD, IMAX & DOV

HD - Home Depot – Shares in the home improvement retailer are trading lower on Thursday, off the lowest levels of the session but still down 1.25% at $78.69 as of 11:50 a.m. ET, amid a down day for U.S. stocks. Trading traffic in newly issued weekly options on Home Depot suggests some traders are taking advantage of the dip today and positioning for shares in the name to resume hitting record highs next week. The stock yesterday rallied as much as 3.6% to touch an all-time high of $81.56 after the company reported better-than-expected first...

Chart School

S&P 500 Snapshot: Rethinking the Risk QE Tapering

May 23rd, 2013 6:35 pm

Courtesy of Doug Short.

The pre-market anxieties were little changed by this morning's slightly better-than-expected unemployment claims. The eurozone indexes were all down 2% to 3% when the US markets opened. The S&P 500 promptly plunged to its -1.20 intraday low in the first nine minutes of trading. But the index trimmed its losses in an irregular trend to its afternoon intraday high at 2:50 PM, when the market was just a hundredth of a point from break even. This was in contrast to eurozone, where the STOXX 50 closed its session down 2.05%. The S&P 500 saw some selling in the final hour and finished the day at -0.29%, well off its morning low. Presumably the abated selling suggests generally reduced fears about the Fed tapering QE in the near term.

Here is a 15-minute loo...

All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

May 23rd, 2013 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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Market Montage

Japan's Nikkei Down 7%+, Chinese Flash PMI Contractionary, Thoughts on "Tapering"

May 23rd, 2013 7:15 am

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

Some quick notes:

Futures down moderately after yesterday's outside day. The extreme overbought conditions on the weekly and monthly index charts are finally relenting some. Even uber bulls would prefer solid entry points on stocks rather than chasing constantly. The S&P 500 had not touched the 10 day moving average since May 2nd, until yesterday – a not common situation. In theory the S&P 500 could go all the way down to 1597 – which was its primary breakout level – and still be in decent condition, but surely dip buyers trai...

Sabrient

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

May 23rd, 2013 1:52 am

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 …...

OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of May 20th, 2013

May 19th, 2013 11:38 pm

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

May 19th, 2013 1:09 am

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

May 15th, 2013 7:35 pm

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...

ETF Selector

Stock Market Gets Big News After Friday’s Close

May 12th, 2013 7:23 am

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:...

Pharmboy

Give Them an Inch, They Will Take a Mile

January 21st, 2013 8:09 pm

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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