Thanks Phil, for banging the table on getting short and getting to cash. Usually when this happens in the market I am freaking out but I actually made money this week thanks to you. That HOV trade was a great way to re-deploy some of my cash.
Julian
Being on this board is better than successfully completing the Times crossword. Phil's panoply of comments manage to excite, illuminate, frustrate, exasperate, confuse, enlighten, outrage, invigorate and stupefy (and that's par for the morning session only!). But goddammit, it's addictive, informative and when it all goes right extremely profitable.
Winston
I thank you for the years of being my teacher, always took the time to answer my questions. You are the BEST !
QCMike
Thanks for the USO mention, Phil, 140% on my USO lottery ticket in 12 hours, and no hesitation in taking the money and running — you have trained us well. Sometimes it's teaching, but with this kind of stuff, where you get whipped like a dog if you let 250% profit melt away, it's definitely training. Happy Fourth!!!
Zeroxzero
You guys gotta give it to phil–the voice of reason yesterday, last nite and this morning.
Corleone
Speaking of the "Man Who Planted Trees", it really works. I bought BTU back in March at $49.87. I practically bought it at the tippy top. However, I soon afterward found this site, started learning Phil's methodology(and those in the strategy section) and began selling calls/puts regularly against my bad position. As of yesterday, I still own the original 100 shares, but have brought my basis down by over $11.00. Couldn't be happier, what started out as a really bad entry, I have managed to work down to a good basis. Had I not watched that video and learned your system, I would sold out of the position, and been kicking myself for making such a bad entry.
Hoss
Phil, I've got to give you props on the ICE spread play. Tremendous call! I jumped in on Friday when you made the recommendation and closed out today. Nice 57% return ($2,300) over a mere 3 trading days! This is why I dig your site!
Samlawyer
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
Wishing Phil and all fellow PSW members a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year 2017! Thanks to all of you for your insights and comments which help make me a better investor every day. Wishing everybody the best of luck for 2017
Learner
Its been a "perfect" month. Every stock I wrote calls against looks like it will be called away next week, every put I wrote will expire worthless. Thanks Phil, now I need some new buy/write candidates, or the new 100K portfolio….
Barfinger
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
GMCR – Just bought back my Jan $90 callers on GMCR for a nice $10,000 gain. Thanks for the recommendation Phil! It was nice to cash in on a momo.
Palotay
GOOG, NFLX and AAPL all bought last hour Friday. Sold into the excitement the first hour today for an average of 15% on the options. And lots of them. Thanks again Phil for teaching me so well.
lflantheman
Oil – thanks Phil, got in late at 0.53 on the 38p today, set a sell for 0.75 and took the dog for a walk – 70% gain and more than enough $$ to buy dog food. TZA Aug 35/40 BCS – closed out for a 100% gain in under a month – thanks again for introducing me to these trades.
CanuckBob
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
I have followed a lot of Phil's picks over the last several years and made money using the exact option strategies he outlines. Of all the contributors on SA, he offers the most actual and ready to implement advice that has put money in my account. Many of us on SA actually are sad when we don't see Phil's postings for an extended period.
Brenteaz
Phil fantastic call on the markets… I owe you BIG…thanks and have a great weekend!
Kustomz
Phil/ et al- Thanks for the answers to my spread questions last night, as I really needed that little piece of knowledge to crystallize my understanding of spreads. Your help is much appreciated and I have been doing really well for the last couple of months with fewer and fewer missteps as I embrace the PSW ways and watching my portfolios grow.
Craigsa620
Phil, those OIH $80 p that you recommended last week for ~$1 are now worth $5.50!
Greg
Man, what a week: Bought C at 1.40, sold half at 1.59 (relatively big position), another quarter at 3.04 just now. Ran SKF down from 270 with one April put, still holding some 115's expiring in a couple days. I'm going to gamble this position like a champion Friday. Bought FAS at all sorts of levels and started cashing out. Long HOV, stock and some nickel calls for fun - Mocha up your buy-out from 5 to 8 and that's 10,900% return for the May-2.50's . Ha!
Biodieselchris
Why were the analysts wrong? If I were a Japanese investor who purchased US stocks prior to November at Y80 yen to the dollar, with the US market up an average of 15% or more and upon selling the asset I covert dollars to Yen, also realizing an additional 25% gain (one dollar now converts to 100+ Yen rather than the 80 I used at time of purchase), I think I would be unloading US assets also. But analysts never do the math in their articles nor very rarely bring up or discuss the ramifications of currency fluctuations. I don't include Phil in this group as this is a valuable lesson I am learning from him.
Denlundy
I remember that call (to sell gold at $1,850) as well... and the many Buy-Writes that were created on your site during that period... thanks to you, I had an average ROI of close to 70% for over 2 years, averaging 4,000 trades per year. Busy trading, but lots of fun and memorable trades.
1234gel
Phil: Once again thanks for those inciteful comments, and the old links to Sage's portfolio management (I hadn't read before). I'm an experienced stock trader, but over the last 3 or 4 months have come to appreciate options trading here at PSW, and the consistency of your many premium-selling strategies. It is liberating to have to worry less about getting direction right and being able to generate 5% MONTHLY returns with close to delta-neutral positioning. Much appreciated!
Neverworkagain
Phil - I am 3 month follower and shout a big thanks for all the good advice and training. I read all the materials and posts as suggested. I am retired CFO and took over my investments 2 years ago from broker after frustration with returns. I followed some conservative advice for retirees and have 60% bonds currently in a 5m portfolio. I had been doing covered calls on my stocks to boost returns and slowly am getting more aggressive after following your site and my son who has been with you for 6 months. I allocated 1.5m to stocks and am scaling up from 30%. I did some of the trades suggested in early June using Aug & Oct buy/writes on CSCO, WMT, MON, WFR, DO in addition to calls on XOM, CVX, PEP, PG, WM, T that I owned. Most are doing very well (4-24%) in 60 days. My good problem is that instead of getting longer, I will be making 6% quickly (50% plus annualized) and getting called away on many positions. What would you advise for getting long again. Thanks again for such a great job advising all of us!
TXChili
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
/NKD- Kownichiwa Cowboy!! One week of patience and scaling in and out pays off. This is a testament to Phil's fundamental analysis with the PSW technique. Thanks Phil.
JohnO
Started my membership in mid-Oct and have since then learned so much about options by reading the site's articles and postings, members' chats and suggested trades – as a bonus, the articles are entertaining as well! Phil's long-term investing strategy makes really good sense as I've seen its effect on my GLW positions. Phil – thanks for sharing your knowledge of the market! I've worked as risk analyst for the investment dept of a $19B insurance company, and the scope and depth of your daily commentaries blows away what I have seen and heard from the PMs and even the chief investment officer! Most of all, I will continue to be a member because you have your priorities right (from my POV) – it's not all about money and power.
Bai2r
BTW Phil, I wanted to relate a conversation I had with my business partner yesterday. I told him that I have been much more relaxed about my investments ever since I joined your site. It's funny how a 15-20% cushion does to your nerves. My returns have increased dramatically and my risk diminished. Many thanks for the guidance and patience. Good thing I am doing better financially as you might have increased my life expectancy as well!
StJeanluc
Phil/CLK4 – Perfect! Saw the answer 1 min after my post…out with $740 on two contracts. Thanks again for the education.
Jeffdoc2004
SPY/Phil, I took a big swing on January 26th following your advice to another member and bought 1615 contracts of Mar 185/190 BCS on SPY that will expire ITM today paying $290,700 on the $500k bet. I thought it might be fun to see what a winning trade looks like. Great call on your part and looking back it seems pretty obvious.
Sibe14 (premium)
by ilene - July 5th, 2010 9:16 pm
Courtesy of The Economic Collapse Blog
The Standard & Poor’s 500 50-day moving average stands poised to cross beneath the 200-day moving average. To those in the financial industry, this is known as a "death cross", and it is a very powerful indicator that we could be entering a bearish period. So is this yet another sign that we are on the verge of a recession? Well, anyone who has spent much time trying to interpret financial charts will tell you how inexact that science can be. Financial markets can be wildly unpredictable, and there is always a tremendous amount of manipulation going on behind the scenes. However, when you add this impending death cross with all of the other signs that we could be entering a recession, there certainly seems to be reason for alarm. The truth is that financial markets across the globe are full of fear and panic right now. In fact, as noted in another article, the dominant force in world financial markets in 2010 is fear. When fear rules, markets become very volatile and they can fall very quickly. Anyone who has spent much time trying to squeeze profits out of world financial markets knows that they tend to fall much faster than they ever rise. So are we now approaching one of those times of panic when financial markets across the world fall at breathtaking speed?
Well, the truth is that nobody knows. Anyone who says that they can predict these things with 100 percent certainty is either a liar or they are unbelievably rich.
But certainly the mood in the financial markets is grim. If a death cross does happen on the S&P it is going to make things even more tense.
For those not familiar with investing terminology, Investopedia defines a "death cross" this way….
A crossover resulting from a security’s long-term moving average breaking above its short-term moving average or support level.
In this case, the death cross would be happening on the S&P 500, which is a weighted index of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The S&P 500 is one of the most commonly used benchmarks for the overall U.S. stock market.
So how soon could we see a death cross on the S&P 500?
Well, some analysts believe that it could happen almost…
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by Chart School - April 22nd, 2010 9:15 pm
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
A few weeks ago we joked that the SEC had banned all downticks. That might not sound so funny now as there have been almost zero downticks over the last two months. Stocks have rallied on 75% of all days and ever 0.5% dip has been aggressively bought into. This market is an unstoppable bear killing machine. Equities have reversed their full 1.5% losses from this morning as the “buy the dip” trade continues to dominate every minute of every day. The truly amazing rally just doesn’t quit:
******
As an aside, you might ask, who ISN’T buying?
Corporate insiders, that’s who. Look at these charts from Insider Cow:
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by Chart School - March 23rd, 2010 2:45 pm
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
Lord help you if you’ve been short for the last 4 weeks. Over this time period, stocks have risen on 85% of the days and the market has felt entirely invincible. Small dips are quickly gobbled up by aggressive buyers. I would argue that this has been the most impressive portion of the entire 70% move from the lows in March 2009. Stocks have surged 8% (that’s a 96% annualized rate for those keeping track) in less than 4 weeks as the market has risen in 22 of the last 26 sessions. Impressive might just be an understatement.
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by Chart School - October 28th, 2009 4:24 pm
Mish thinks the top is either in or should be, if fundamentals matter anymore. He’s made a lot of good calls in the past. – Ilene
Courtesy of Mish
Professor David Waggoner posted the following chart yesterday on Minyanville that I think is worth noting.
click on chart for sharper image
Professor Waggoner commented "The next intermediate level pivot down is around 882. It is a 50% retrace of the entire move up from the low and is a possible pivot for an extension of the entire A-B-C pattern off the low. It is also a natural support level as shown on the chart.
These intermediate level targets are based on the interpretation that the move up from the March low is a corrective retrace of a 5 wave set down from October 2007.
I concur with Professor Waggoner’s analysis.
The important point in above chart is that the move up from the March low is likely a correction, not the start of a new bull market. That information alone is worth far more than any details as to how the market may decline from here. Many patterns are still in play.
Depending on the index, you can count these moves off the bottom as a simple A-B-C correction as shown, or as an A-B-C-D-E wedge. We’ll know which one was correct in hindsight, but both suggest stocks will eventually make new lows – either sooner (in 2010) or later. A multi-year top could be in. Fundamentally, it should be in.
In the short-term, if we have in fact seen the end of the rally, the SPX will likely decline to the 200 day moving average, currently at 916. By the time we get there, it could be in the neighborhood of the 38% retrace line near 933. If things go quickly, it could be down there by the end of the year.
This is not a recommendation to short; this is a notice that risk is tremendously high and a top could be (and in my opinion should be) in. The market may have other ideas.
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by ilene - October 1st, 2009 2:58 pm
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
Some good thoughts here from David Rosenberg on the current state of the market:
It is really amazing to sift through the fund flow data because it is so apparent that it is the “pros” that are chasing this market higher. The private client is fully aware that two bubbles burst seven years apart as Wall Street product-pushers came up with back-to-back new paradigms — the first being the tech mania followed by a new era of housing and credit finance…
It is not lost on the individual investor that equities have generated no net return over the last 11 years and that we are very clearly in the middle of a classic secular bear market. What is amazing, and indeed, encouraging, is that the long-term resolve of the investor is not being overwhelmed by greed as Wall Street strategists push the theory of pricing the market on “mid-cycle” earnings and economists push the theory that data that come in “less negative” is actually bullish.
To be chasing the market after a 60% rally that is now priced for a V-shaped recovery is clearly not the strategy being deployed by the private investor, at the margin. So, what we see as evidence is the record $42.91 billion that flowed into U.S. bond funds in August, on top of the $34.7 billion intake in July. Year-to-date, bond funds have taken in a net $180 billion, about double the $92 billion during the comparable period in 2008.
It’s not as if people are selling equities — they are just watering down their already-high exposure in the stock market. Equity-based funds attracted $3.86 billion of new inflow in August, bringing the cumulative tally to $15 billion. So, it is very interesting to see where the “mountain of money”, “cash on the sidelines” and “dry powder” is going. Into fixed-income. For every dollar flowing into equity funds, twelve is flowing into bond funds.
To be sure, some will point to this as some sort of a bullish contrary data-point. Then again, maybe there is a secular demographic development that needs to be understood — a survey recently conducted by AARP (American Association of Retired Professionals) found that 49% of those between 45 and 64 years old are not confident that they have saved sufficiently for retirement. Fully 12% of this
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by Chart School - September 17th, 2009 7:41 pm
Click here for a FREE, 90-day trial subscription to our PSW Report!
Rob Hanna follows up on his previous article, "Never Have So Many Stocks Been So Stretched Above …," showing that the number of stocks trading at prices two standard deviations above their 200ma was at an all time high. – Ilene
Courtesy of Rob Hanna at Quantifiable Edges
With Wednesday’s big rally, we are now seeing even more extraordinary numbers. Not only is T2111 up to 58.51%, but T2112, which measures the % of stocks trade at least 2 standard deviation above their 40-DAY moving average, is also in record territory. It is showing that a remarkable 57.19% of stocks are now stretched far above their 40-ma’s.
The action in T2112 truly exemplifies the uniqueness of the rally since March. Below is a long-term look at the indicator. Note that from 1986 through 2008 the highest reading this indicator ever registered was 37.22% in November of 2004. That record has been blown away repeatedly over the last 6 months.
There simply is no comparison over the last 23 years to what we are seeing in this recent rally. There have now 5 distinct periods in the last 6 months where T2112 has rallied through the old high. And now we’re seeing the most extreme breadth numbers of all.
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by ilene - September 11th, 2009 11:52 am
Have you wondered, is it true, is the rally really due to tons of money lying around with nowhere else to go?
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
Is the real economy rebounding or is this just a liquidity/stimulus driven rebound? David Rosenberg has an opinion:
IT’S ALL ABOUT LIQUIDITY, ROSENBERG!
This is what we are hearing. The fundamentals take a back seat because there is so much liquidity to be put to work, and it all must go into equities. This reminds us of all the liquidity talk during the bubble peak of late 2007. The reality is that the mountain of money is no higher or lower than it was when the market was plumbing the depths through 2008 — money market mutual funds back then were $3.5 trillion and guess what? Today they are $3.5 trillion. Go figure.
So you see, liquidity is a catch-all term when nobody can really explain why the market is going up. This rally is based on a lot of hope that we are going to see a V-shaped economic recovery in the U.S. The S&P 500 is priced for 4% real GDP growth. We don’t see it. Try 2%, which is what the investment-grade corporate bond market is priced for. If we get 4% GDP growth then the equity market is fully priced, but that sort of economic expansion would take Baa spreads of U.S. Treasuries down another 100bps to 200bps, if historical relationships were to hold. But if we see 2%, then at least you will clip your coupon in the fixed-income market. The S&P 500, which at one point would have licked its chops over such a possible outcome (back when it was priced for -2.5% growth last March), would now see 2% growth as a disappointment and would correct down towards 850, again, based on our models.
I would argue that it’s all about psychology really. As the global economy began to fall off a cliff last summer and fall investors began to worry. When we saw some of our most prominent financial institutions vulnerable investors panicked and sold everything. Now, we’re seeing the return of rational thinking and cooler heads. The government has certainly helped to steady the markets, but what has really returned to the market is some semblance of confidence. What the government needs to start worrying…
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by ilene - September 1st, 2009 10:17 pm
Courtesy of Jesse’s Café Américain
The observations herein regarding the nature of this stock market rally are quite in parallel with our own.
Buying the dollar to play the debt deflation trade may also be a good one in the short run, especially if leveraged foreign punters have to quickly raise cash to cover bad bets made in the US markets.
However we would have to add that this scenario assumes no black swans with regards to the heavy overhang of US dollars being held by overseas central banks.
If we were in such a position, we would be selling the rallies, given the huge amount dollars on the books.
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Wrong on Economic Recovery, Macro Hedge Funds Say
By Cristina Alesci
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire hedge-fund manager who outperformed peers last year, is wagering that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley got it wrong in declaring the start of an economic recovery.
Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp., Clarium Capital Management LLC and Horseman Capital Management Ltd. are taking a bearish stand as U.S. stock and bond prices rise, saying that record government spending may be forestalling another slowdown and market selloff. The firms oversee a combined $15 billion in so- called macro funds, which seek to profit from economic trends by trading stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities.
“If we have a recovery at all, it isn’t sustainable,” Kevin Harrington, managing director at Clarium, said in an interview at the firm’s New York offices. “This is more likely a ski-jump recession, with short-term stimulus creating a bump that will ultimately lead to a more precipitous decline later.”
Equity and credit markets have rallied on hopes that government intervention is pulling the U.S. out of the deepest economic slump since the Great Depression. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 51 percent from its 12-year low in March through yesterday.
The economy will expand at an annualized rate of 2 percent or more in four straight quarters through June 2010, the first such streak in more than four years, according to the median estimate of at least 53 forecasters in a Bloomberg survey.
Tudor, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm started by Jones in the early 1980s, told clients in an Aug. 3 letter that the stock market’s climb was a…
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by Chart School - August 29th, 2009 4:45 pm
Here’s a comparison chart of this market rally with market rallies during the 1929-1932 bear market. Today’s rally is slightly longer than the longest. But is there any reason to expect greater similarity or, for that matter, that things will be different this time around? – Ilene
Courtesy of Prieur du Plessis’s Investment Postcards from Cape Town
How does the nascent stock market rally compare with the 1929-1932 bear market, which also included bank failures, bankruptcies, severe stock market declines, etc.?
For some perspective, Chart of the Day provided the graph below, illustrating the duration (calendar days) and magnitude (percentage gain) of all significant Dow rallies during the 1929-1932 bear market (solid blue dots).
As the chart shows, the duration of the current rally of the Dow Jones Industrial Index (hollow blue dot labeled “You are here”) is longer than that of any of the rallies that occurred during the 1929-1932 bear market. The bear market rally that began in November 1929 lasted 155 calendar days and occupies the second position. However, as far as magnitude is concerned, the November 1929 rally (+48%) resulted in a better performance than the 46% gain of the Dow since the low of March 9.
Source: Chart of the Day, August 28, 2009.
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by ilene - August 25th, 2009 5:53 pm
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
* weak data = Fed ease, stocks rally
* consensus data = lower volatility, stocks rally
* strong data = economy strengthening, stocks rally
* bank loses $4bln = bad news out of the way, stocks rally
* oil spikes = great for energy companies, stocks rally
* oil drops = great for the consumer, stocks rally
* dollar plunges = great for multinationals, stocks rally
* dollar spikes = lowers inflation, stocks rally
* inflation spikes = will inflate all assets, stocks rally
* inflation drops = improves earnings quality, stocks rally
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March 31st, 2020 10:56 pm
Breaking contracts over coronavirus: Can you argue it’s an ‘act of God’?
The NBA suspended its season on March 11, citing the coronavirus risk. A force majeure clause in the NBA contract means players could lose money with each canceled game. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Courtesy of Andrew Schwartz, University of Colorado Boulder
The coronavirus pandemic has prevented countless people from fulfilling their contracts, from basketball players to babysitters.
Could all of these people be sued for breach of contract, or are they e...
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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