Phil's Stock World, Stock Options Trading & Information

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

Phil - DIA 107 Calls. As suggested I am taking the money and running to home depot for some shelter supplies! This is the grand finale of several successful trades from you through this roller-coster and as you have further suggested it is time for me to sit back and relax in cash. May even be able to talk my wife into the premium membership after these intelligent trades in a stupid market.

- DOStrade

Thx Phil. Lightly moving in the bullish direction. Took PFE for $14.35 and sold the Jan 11 C/P for $2.85 giving me a net entry below Mar 09 low. And I bought back those calls on BTU and JPM I asked about the other day and am leaving them uncovered for now, so feeling better. Still just learning the rhythm. In the three months I have been using your system, my little portfolio is up 9.9%, so not only am I learning, but I am APPLYING that knowledge, and it's paying off. Thanks.

- Hoss

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

- Doro165

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

Great calls this week!

- SNS1

USO, QQQ- Phil, thanks for these plays. Out of USO for about 65% gain today and just keeping 1/4 QQQ.

- Ksone88

Phil, Passed a milestone today since joining 2 months ago. 25% of my account is in buy/writes, bull call spreads and disaster hedges. A majority of the trades were taken directly from your ideas or someone else`s contributions. Some were daytrades that became spreads. That part of my account is up 30% as of today. I don`t worry about it, or mess with it much, did a few rolls etc. Rest of the account is there to day trade, cover the writes and take advantage of opportunities. Thanks to everyone who contributes here, what a sweet way to trade, so many opportunities.

- Ben1Be

Phil: I am always able to figure out your trades, including the rational when put in the right context of previous comments, etc. Keep doing what you're doing. It is much appreciated, and invaluable. Your hit rate of successful trades has been very high in my 1.5 months as a member, but even more importantly is your teaching of how to repair and DD positions that haven't gone your way yet. As with most members, we all have our ‘pet' trading interests, and learning how to think about trading is much more important than a specific trade, which could see the conditions behind it change an hour later. This is the classic case, of ‘Teach us to Fish', rather than just giving us a fish once in a while. Thank you!

- Neverworkagain

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

I have been a member of Phil's site for three years and counting, and my advice is that all investing takes time. There are o shortcuts, no secret way to riches. Same with Phil's site- you need time and patience to start benefitting fully from his advice. But it is often spot on and also very useful, especially to me as I try to keep a level head in this turbulent stock market environment.

- Jordan

On Optrader's section yesterday he was asked how he works with AAPL as an investment. He replied that he just ‘plays with the covers'. I've got a separate portfolio where I use primarily this technique over the past 6 months. Up 60% The principles involved are stock selection, patience, patience, using covers to protect profits, rolling covers to maximize premium return, and exiting when covers are gone and stock price is high. Sometimes it's hard to remember where you learn to do this stuff, but much of it is from integrating principles I've learned here with thing I already knew. Thanks for the help on this, Phil and others.

- Iflantheman

Phil - Another excellent teaching article - when you write like that it blows me away. Thank you! I had the ideas from earlier articles but what I didn't have was enough understanding. The familiarity of ideas through repetition, re-working, revision - over time - the variation, the pulling out of implications - it all contributes to understanding and mostly thats on the student - but a good teacher (worth their weight in gold) makes understanding a pleasure. I wanted to learn about trading options because it makes my brain feel better - fitter, healthier. Actually mostly it makes me happy to think about the trade and trading options. You are a good teacher and I know that or I wouldn't value the subscription the way I do. It pays for itself through the pleasure of understanding alone.

- Redfern1

Thanks for your thoughts against buying BP ahead of earnings (yesterdays' member comments). It announced a loss of $3.3b and is down 3% in pre-market but still just above the bottom of the chaneel of $40-$50.

- mSquare

You guys gotta give it to phil–the voice of reason yesterday, last nite and this morning.

- Corleone

100KP dividend plays - FYI, I'm loving them...thanks, Phil!!! Including the $0.848/share dividend, I am up 100% on my $2.38 net entry on LYG...that's pretty cool!

- SSDirk

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

Phil: I have 263 positions - 70% in options ( balance stocks) in three portfolios with a value of 3 mil. YTD profit is about $750,000. Thanks!

- Gel1

Joined last year and and started profitably trading options thanks to everything I have learned here. THANK YOU!!

- OnWisconsin

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

- MrMocha

Phil...The hundred grand portfolio updates are helpful...Fun ..and have been profitable...really like em... made some nice entries into USB, KEY today... and I better add those FAZ calls tomorrow... Really glad you put that up this morning...

- Becker

Phil: I cleaned up today. A rather stark contrast to my untutored performance April/May 2009, after I had written to you to explain how wrong-headed your bearishness was. Many thanks. I ran into someone once who played on the Bulls with Jordan for quite a few years. He was asked what he had learned from playing with MJ for so long. He smiled and said "Give him the ball."

- Zeroxzero

Hello Phil, Thanks for the heads up on the comming sell off on friday, and the bs job yesterday. your our guiding light!

- Microflux

Don't expect to get rich quick here, but you can get easy 30 - 50 % per year, just by buying good stocks at discount (as we often discuss), selling monthly premiums of calls and puts.

- Tchayipov

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

thanks for the DNDN recommendation last week phil. that was moneeeee….

- Kwan

Looking over your main themes last week, the "China may fall first" and "if you missed it previously, Thurs am gives you a second chance to short" were absolutely on target. I had to rely on stop-losses because of my schedule but just those two calls could have been worth a small fortune. Keep it up and I look forward to your new portfolio.

- Ocelli

WOW, look at DRYS go. Nice call on the entry the other week Phil. I got 200 at $6.66 and sold a 7.5 call for $.50, then on the tear today sold another 7.5 call for $1. This should puts me in at an average of $5.91 and called away at $7.5 for a profit of $300+ after commisions. Once again another Phil trade pays for this months membership.

- Craigzooka

Phil, I don't know how I can thank you enough for your guidance this past week. I'm up significantly in my portfolio and I've never been so relaxed watching the market panic. Thanks once again for being here for us.

- thechaser

Hi Mr. Phill, I am a Venezuelan lady tormented by our politicall situation, who use to be an emerging market trader, and many other executive positins in the finance "arena" and now is trying to built a new concept and service for asset management for clients on my own, I am in the trial and learning process at the moment, I also invest for some friends and myself. I want to congratulate you , because reading you fill my days with a touch of irony (besides ,of course the spectacular market insight) that happens to give me energy, its a joy the remarks and comments even the pictures used, sometimes I just read it for the fun, I completily agree with your thouhts, though we belong to totally different cultures and enviorements and certanly realities Your readings is like a little hand helping me out to be in the market and fight for my devastated country where every single day we looe inches and yards of liberty. You shoul try to writte a book!

- Mindeyes

Wow, Phil, we pretty much made your levels. Your levels: Dow 7,404, S&P 775, Nas 1,466, NYSE 4,839 and RUT 402 My sceen is showing: Dow 7,404, S&P 777, Nas 1,462, NYSE 4,868 and RUT 404

- Jordan

Posts Tagged ‘The Oxen Group’

Oxen Pick (SHORT SELL): LUV

by David Ristau - July 17th, 2009 3:40 am

Courtesy of David at The Oxen Group

Oxen Pick (SHORT SELL): LUV

The Oxen Group is looking for a short sell on Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) tomorrow. The market may move green or red, and it really comes down to Bank of America, Citigroup, and GE. Those three giants release earnings tomorrow. If all three are splendid, the market will really take off, even Southwest Airlines.

The issue for Southwest is that even if that does occur, this stock is going to come down. In after hours today, Moody’s Investor Ratings commented that they were putting LUV on a possible credit downgrade due to the weak demand and market for airfare. The airline industry has been struggling, but Southwest Airlines always seems to be a step in front of the competition. This news of a likely downgrade spells bad news for Southwest, especially because the stock has really no upside right now.

What will Southwest do? If the market is looking to trend down after the earnings reports, LUV will drop right away and continue to trend down on a red day. If, however, the market jumps out of the gate and looks bullish, LUV will most likely have some type of small gains into the day, but it will not be able to sustain those gains and move backwards. Further, one has to wonder even if the earnings are positive, how much more this market has to go with four straight days in the green and a lot of quickly overvalued stocks. Additionally, if CIT goes bankrupt it could add more fuel to a downward market. LUV technically is, outside of its upper bollinger band, way overbought. So, its technicals all point towards downward movement.

Entry: Recommend selling 15-30 minutes into session if earnings are good, right away if bad.
Exit: We recommend exiting after a 2-4% increase.
Stop Loss: We recommend a 3% stop loss on all entry in prices
Upper Resistance: 6.60 (lower)
Oxen Rating*: 5

Tags: LUV, The Oxen Group, Trade

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The Oxen Group – GS

by David Ristau - July 13th, 2009 3:46 am

What dip? Ironically, GS gets upgraded by Meredith Whitney in the middle of our dip buying plans… Goldman Sachs upgrade gives world markets a boost,

Europe had been trading only modestly higher while Wall Street futures had been pointing to a lower opening. That changed after Meredith Whitney told CNBC Television that she had upgraded her recommendation on U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to "buy" and raised her price target to $186 a share — a day before it reports its second-quarter earnings. Whitney, who has been viewed as bearish on the sector, also said Bank of America Corp. could be good value.

In early trading, Goldman Sachs was up 2.9 percent at $145.98 while Bank of America rose 3.9 percent to $12.34…

*****

Today David of The Oxen Group’s buying our favorite evil company, GS, on a dip. – Ilene

What to Buy: GS

GS, Goldman Sachs chart Courtesy of David at The Oxen Group

The buy pick is made every evening at Midnight before the next day begins. The pick is a single day trade of a stock or ETF. The Oxen Group provides analysis, entry/exit points, resistance levels, and a rating for the pick. Picks are only single day trades.

The Oxen Group is going to recommend the evil stock on Monday, as it seems to have become more and more in the past few years. Goldman Sachs (GS) may be a very solid play on Monday as buyer interest will be rising on the stock going into earnings. The stock is expected to hit a ridiculous $2 billion profit for the company’s Q2 on Tuesday’s earnings release.

The market is looking bearish for tomorrow. Going into the weekend, we got bad consumer sentiment reports, a sell off in the market, and nothing to spark our interest over the weekend. Until we see a multitude of companies giving investors reason to buy, the market will continue to be sideways to slightly bearish. Monday morning, the only company reporting earnings of any concern is Fastenal (FAS), and it does not have the capabilites to move a market.

Economic news is limited to a budget report. It will be another day of investor’s anticipations. Well, what company is going to have better anticipation than Goldman Sachs? We believe the stock will dive in the morning, but it should trend at a nice pace up from…

Tags: Goldman Sachs, GS, The Oxen Group

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What to Buy: HOTT

by David Ristau - July 9th, 2009 2:48 am

What to Buy: HOTT

Courtesy of David of The Oxen Group

The Oxen Group is trying out another new style of investing tomorrow. In this market, finding a single day trade you can count on pretty difficult. Tomorrow, however, we are fairly confident the market should have a solid increase. Alcoa earnings came out kicking for the beginning of Q2 earnings, and the market has responded with some of the first green futures we have seen in quite some time. With bargains in the market, Alcoa looking great, a positive report from the Fed about consumer credit, and the possibility of positive earnings from a number of tech companies,I would say this Thursday is looking as good as the market can look.

Therefore, Hot Topic Inc. (HOTT) may be a very nice play for some large movement. The company actually had very negative after hours news, lowering their Q2 earnings outlook and lowering their revenue estimates. The company will definitely take a stumble tomorrow morning on the news, with a 6% decline in after hours. However, if the market really does make a move up tomorrow, Hot Topic may be in a position where it can significantly move up from valley. The stock is very near a lower bollinger band, it is oversold, and it really has little room for downward momentum.

The Oxen Group is confident the stock should bounce off a bottom and move upwards from there. How low it goes is the challenge, but we think a 2 to even 3 percent move downwards should be a nice play to buy in. The stock is not a great long term play, but it is a nice play off a bottom tomorrow.

Entry: Recommend buying in around 2-3% decline from opening price or 20-45 minutes in.

Exit: We recommend exiting after a 2-4% increase.
Stop Loss: We recommend a 3% stop loss on all buy in prices
Upper Resistance: 7.25

Tags: HOTT, The Oxen Group

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What to Buy: ERX

by David Ristau - July 7th, 2009 2:36 am

What to Buy: ERX

Courtesy of David at The Oxen Group

ERX DD Energy Bull 3x David at The Oxen Group recommends a purchase of Direxion’s Oil and Energy Daily Bull ETF (ERX) for Tuesday. The oil market may be ready to make some positive gains which should light a fire under this ETF.

Oil is looking slightly bullish on Tuesday to begin with because of a technical correction that is needed. The market has fallen over 10% in a week, and prices have moved down too low, too fast. A lot of sellers have sold and are becoming buyers again. Gerard Rigby of Fuel First Consulting believes oil is ready to move back to $70 per barrel as the economy is in the same place and there really is no reason for it to move down any further. He believes the profit taking and correction is done. At least for tomorrow, this makes sense.

Tomorrow, there is really no significant economic news once again and no primary earnings, which should send the market into a similar seesaw that it was in today. This is a perfect opportunity for a purely technical correction. More bad news from Nigeria’s militant operations, analysts’ saying crude inventories are falling again, and speculation on the EIA data on Wednesday could all be catalysts to help drive up crude prices slightly.

The price of oil gained in Asia, which is a telling sign that a technical correction should be on the way. The futures are slightly negative, but with no positive news in the after hours, this seems logical. ERX will benefit greatly from any movement positively in oil prices. The stock has dropped over 10% in just two trading days, and it looks poised for a pop. Get in early and ride a nice 3-4% gain.

Entry: Recommend entering 10-25 minutes into session.
Exit: Recommend exiting on 2-4% increase from buy price.
Resistance: Upper at 28

David’s Results Charts

date

stock

entry

…

Tags: ERX, The Oxen Group

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The Oxen Group: Trading Results and Strategies

by David Ristau - July 5th, 2009 1:47 am

The Oxen Group: Trading Results and Strategies

stock trading By Ilene

David, of The Oxen Group, has been giving us high-probability trade recommendations that have been a terrific addition to our trading strategies – simple stock selections, great for single day trades. If you haven’t been following, or wish to see David’s updated results, there’s a summary of results table below. As you can see, out of 23 trades, 20 were breakeven (two) or profitable (18), and only three ended in losses.

In our experience of a little over one month, we’ve identified a dynamic factor to keep in mind: market moving news. News that can change the premise of a trade may come out between the time of David’s recommendation and the opening of the equity markets. This has occurred with TYH – the Direxion Daily Technology Bull ETF. A similar situation occurred recently when the trade was an either-or trade, but a specific pre-condition changed.

On the day of the TYH trade, in pre-market comments, Phil suggested passing on the trade due to news that came out prior to the opening. Phil wrote: "Well I’m generally worried and David is bullish so that’s a "no play" to me. Also, note that he took that position around midnight, when the Hang Seng and Nikkei still looked good and oil was pumped up to $73, all that collapsed with the World Bank report. If we do hold our floor, then it can be a fun trade but I sure wouldn’t be jumping right into a 3x bull tech this morning." In this case, TYH drifted down all day - the premise for the trade was over powered by the intervening World Bank report.

We will try to notify readers when we know of events prior to the open that may affect a pending trade idea. However, even if you don’t see anything specific, remember that over-riding and unforeseeable market forces may come into play after David’s analysis.

The second incident was last Thursday. David’s premise didn’t change, but the number he was initially looking at was preempted by other numbers. The jobs report was worse than expected, resulting in the actual trade being ERY (not ERX).

While we work on ways to get information to traders quickly, please be sure to check The Oxen Group’s site for trading…

Tags: stock trades, The Oxen Group

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The Oxen Group’s Pick: VIA – B

by David Ristau - June 29th, 2009 2:39 am

The Oxen Group’s Pick: VIA – B

Courtesy of David at The Oxen Group

On Monday, to start the week, Viacom Inc.’s Class B (VIA-B) stock looks ready for a nice move. The stock should benefit from some fundamental and technical analysis. The market is in a sideways trend, currently, waiting for the Q2 earnings to be released to see where the market is at, and the market is no longer able to move on just about anything. Therefore, fundamental news will really make it for this market.

Viacom will benefit from the bullish news coming out from "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." The movie has been a box office smash, which was released by Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. Transformers made $112 million this past weekend, winning the box office, becoming the top grossing movie thus far this year in the first weekend. Most analysts and studios were not expecting as outstanding results, and the movie is falling just short of "Dark Knight" last year. In just five days, Transformers II did 2/3 the total earnings of Transformers I, and it performed well besides weak reviews. The next closest movie, "The Proposal," only accrued $18.5 million. Technically, this news should send a shot into Viacom. The stock has been oversold, near its lower bollinger band, and it has been trending up on fast stochastics, meaning there are a lot of potential buyers ready to enter the stock.

Monday’s market is not looking bullish or bearish, with little fundamental news on the horizon and nothing too important as far as earnings. Asia is mirroring an expected sideways market that should play out in the USA. The last bit of positive news would be that this is the July 4th week, and this week tends to be bullish. Wait for a pullback on VIA.

Entry: 15-30 minutes in, after pullback
Exit: 2-4% increase from buy in
Resistance: 25.50 upper

Table of Results

DATE

Stock

…

Tags: The Oxen Group, Viacom

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Buy Pick: SONC

by David Ristau - June 24th, 2009 4:07 am

Courtesy of David at The Oxen Group

Today’s Buy Pick: SONC

Sonic Chart,SONC Tomorrow [now today], Sonic Corp. (SONC) looks to be a very bullish for tomorrow. In after hours, Sonic reported very positive earnings, beating expectations on revenue and EPS. The reason we like Sonic is because the company should be able to move up significantly. First, the market looks pretty positive for tomorrow. The Fed’s expected announcements should be extremely positive for the market as they should confirm rates and give bullish news on the economy.

Futures are already up strongly for the Dow and S&P as they expect good news from the Fed. Even if the Fed news is not extremely bullish, the market should move SONC up higher before the announcement, which should come sometime in the early afternoon. Sonic’s earnings beat EPS by 0.04, even though the company did see a dip in profits and sales. However, the company was highly criticized for their pricing in the last quarter and introduced a cheaper menu to draw in customers. Typically, when a company reports strong earnings, The Oxen Group does not like to recommend it because the stock will move down from a gap up. However, with Sonic, the stock has a low volume, which means that the stock should be flooded with more investors, making it easier for the rise.

Further, Sonic has strong technical indicators that should also help the stock move up. It is slightly oversold, undervalued, and towards its lower bollinger band – it has a lot to room move up. After the stock gaps up, and moves down, with a bullish market, Sonic earnings should continue to advance the stock.

Entry: Recommended entering 10-25 minutes
Exit: 2-4% increase
Resistance: Upper resistance 9.50

Table of David’s Results

Date

Stock

Entry

Exit

…

Tags: SONC, Sonic, The Oxen Group, trading results

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Pick of the day: SRS

by David Ristau - June 17th, 2009 1:36 am

Courtesy of David at the Oxen Group

Pick of the day: SRS

The Oxen Group, for Wednesday, is looking at a continued bearish market for a third straight day. With today’s bullish economic data, investors still sold off stocks, pointing to a bear market that should continue as a bland day continues tomorrow. Most analysts think that Obama’s financial regulation plans will not do much for the market. Futures are up, in after hours, but with this data, if a rally cannot be held, then there is no reason to expect a positive day at this time. The CPI will determine the day.

One industry that really looks bearish tomorrow is housing. The housing industry got a shot with, on the surface, bullish news. Instead, the housing market ended up with minimal gains or in the red. Light volume shows that investors are not excited about the market.

Tomorrow should continue a downward trend for housing sparked by a downgrade of Beazer Homes to ultra-junk status by the S&P. That sent the stock down 10% in after hours. This is really a market that needs some very bullish jolt to get it going, and it until that happens this market is fundamentally bearish. With that said, Ultrashort Proshares Real Estate looks to be a strong play as an inverse to the housing industry, which should fall after its run up today. Technically, the ETF has been moving and is trending upwards with more buyers getting involved. Buyers are still on the sidelines to short housing. Buy in early and watch the run!

Entry: Recommend buying within first 5 – 25 minutes.
Exit: We recommend exiting after a 2-4% increase.
Upper Resistance: 22.50

David’s Oxen Group Picks

Date	Stock	Entry	Exit	%Change
5/29/2009	GPS	16.99	17.67	4.00%
5/30/2009	TM	80.77	81.72	1.18%
6/2/2009	SRS	18.06	18.6	3.00%
6/3/2009	DUG	16.68	17.35	4.00%
6/4/2009	TLAB – SS	5.95	5.84	2.00%
6/5/2009	XOP	35.84	35.85	0.00%
6/8/2009	BLK	164.76	168.87	2.50%
6/9/2009	USD	20.3	21.12	4.00%
6/10/2009	SINA	30.17	31.07	3.00%
6/11/2009	SRS	18.39	19.3	5.00%
6/12/2009	NSM	13.23	13.56	2.50%
6/15/2009	SKF	18.32	19.05	4.00%

Tags: The Oxen Group, Ultrashort Proshares Real Estate

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Phil's Favorites

MF Global: Francine McKenna of re: The Auditors Gives a Plausible Explanation

February 11th, 2012 3:44 pm

Courtesy of Jesse's Cafe Americain

Francine McKenna is an ex-auditor from Price, Waterhouse Coopers.

McKenna has a blog called re: The Auditors, and also writes for Forbes.

MF Global is a slowly boiling scandal. It is always the cover up that brings the most damage, rather than the initial criminal acts that are committed by a few.

She provides a very plausible description of what really happened at MF Global, and I find it to be entirely consistent with my own thoughts and extensive reading on the subject.

She does not address the actual cause of the MF Global bankruptcy but that is another matter.

It is a dirty business. And Francine is a highly credible source.

This will start viewing at 13:...

Chart School

World Markets Weekend Review: The Rally Slows

February 11th, 2012 3:35 pm

Courtesy of Doug Short.

The 2012 rally slowed last week as the average gain of our basket of eight markets dropped from 2.01% the previous week to a flat finish of 0.06%. Geographic rotation was the dominant pattern, with the world leadership moving from Europe to the Asia Pacific. Thus, the top performing Nikkei 225 had been the worst performer at the end of the previous week, while the three European indexes were demoted from stellar to cellar. The S&P 500 again finished near the middle of the pack, but in the spirit of the overall slowdown, a finish near the middle was a week-over-week close (fractionally) in the red.

The adjacent table shows the 2012 year-to-date performance of our gang of eight. Three markets have maintained their double-digit gains at the end of six weeks, with the BSE SENSEX overtaking the DAXK (i.e., the DAX ex dividends) for the lead with the Hang Seng in...

Zero Hedge

Apple at $1000/share? Oh, at LEAST!

February 11th, 2012 3:18 pm

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tim Knight from Slope of Hope.

(Note - I got an invitation from Tyler this morning to contribute to ZeroHedge, which completely made my day. I've got a little blog called the Slope of Hope, wrapping up its 7th year. I hope to become a regular here over at ZH; thanks, Tyler!)

Most of you have probably already seen the bullgasm happening over at Barron's. Here's their cover for the week:

...

Sabrient

Sabrient Risers - 2/11/2012

February 11th, 2012 12:00 am

Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysisICABUYThe projected value for Empresas ICA is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.XBUYThe projected value for US Steel is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.FEICBUYProjected value continues to rise for FEI while long term increases in earnings growth are also becoming more widely expected.ASBCBUYMany analysts are expecting higher than previously expected long term growth from Associated Bancorp, and its near-term earnings outlook is also improving....

more from Sabrient

Insider Scoop

Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Friday February 10, 2012

February 10th, 2012 6:20 pm

Courtesy of Benzinga.

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday February 10, 2012:

Actuant Acquires Jeyco Pty

The Deal:
Actuant (NYSE: ATU) announced Friday that it has acquired Jeyco Pty Ltd (“Jeyco”). Headquartered near Perth, Australia, Jeyco designs and provides specialized mooring, rigging and towing systems and services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Australia and other international markets. Additionally, its highly engineered products are used in a variety of applications for other markets including cyclone mooring and marine, defense and mining tow systems. Jeyco generates annual revenues of approximately $20 million.

Actuant shares closed at $27.33 Friday, a loss of 0.18% on average volume.

...

http://www.insidercow.com/ more from Insider

Market Montage

And Still Not a Single 1% Down Day in 2012

February 10th, 2012 4:14 pm

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

A little flurry of buying in the closing 5 minutes tacked on 2 S&P points and took the major indexes off the lows. Only the Russell 2000 finished with a greater than 1% loss (1.4%) as it has been relatively weak versus the senior indexes for the past few sessions. While today was the "worst day of the year" – it was quite a low bar as the previous biggest loss on the S&P 500 was -0.57%.

The S&P 500 held well above the 10 day moving average (didn't even really touch it) and did not even attempt to fill the gap from last Friday's employment report. The teflon market rolls on for now. Specul...

ETF Selector

ETFs Skid On Greece (VGK, EWG, FXE, DIA, SPY)

February 10th, 2012 4:11 pm

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Greece was “saved” for less than 24 hours but now major ETFs around the world skid into the weekend on Greek fears

After wangling for a week or more, Greek took their new deal to the European Ministers meeting, only to have it promptly rejected and so as we go into the weekend, major global markets and ETFs have again hit the skids on Greece.

After two years of wangling, the European zone is demanding yet more and deeper cuts for Greece to qualify for the next round of bailout loans that will keep the country from going bankrupt on March 20th.

Major European and United States ETF responded negatively to the new developments:

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial ETF (NYSEARCA:...

All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

February 10th, 2012 1:40 pm

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Option Review

True Religion Falls Apart At The Seams After Earnings

February 10th, 2012 1:22 pm

Today’s tickers: TRLG, KR & IGT

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OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of February 6th, 2012

February 6th, 2012 9:02 am

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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.

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly: The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics

February 5th, 2012 5:19 am

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Here's the latest Stock World Weekly, called "The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics."

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IRA Strategy/Income Trader

Weekend Virtual Portfolio Update 1/30/2012

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...

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Pharmboy

Biotech Investing for 2012

January 18th, 2012 1:09 am

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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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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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