A great day! 4.6% in the RUT or 4.3% in the TWM. If you don’t know, TWM is an ETF that gives you 2x inverse of the RUT daily close. I cutback my index short at the close significantly to protect profits. I went from being heavy or all in short to lightly short. I might be early exiting that trade, but I plan to get back short eod tomorrow.

I covered all of my TWM and my IWM puts (which I forgot to mention I purchased yesterday). All for large one day gains. 4%+ for the TWM and 30%ish for the IWM puts.

I sold out of the LLNW and RTK today. Market isn’t in the right place to try this long type of strategy that I was attempting. It worked on VCLK and CPSL when the daily trend was up. Now that the daily trend is down, forget this nonsense. Took small losses on those two.

I bought GG and GG calls today as well as the GLD. Gold looks interesting.

• 0 Comments

This move is really nice today. Glad to be short and RUT heavy. Market is NOT selling off on any news that wasn’t already in the market. Not the Jobless claims or home sales or any other of that bullshit. Its because the market was short term overbought and the shorts got fluffed out from 7-16-08 to 7-23-08. The fluffing may or may not be over, but this move is clearly technical. TWM is rolling, but I wish I was in my old favorite SRS or SKF which I mentioned last night

• 0 Comments

Markets look ready to reverse for a day. I went short both my favorite indexes, the NDX and the RUT. I’ve been wrong this week, but getting out of the short yesterday at the close helped me avoid todays extra pop in the markets. I’m doubting it goes on everyday this week and I’m seeing some temporary overbought signals.

Najarian mentioned he owned SKF calls tonight on Fast Money. I’m pretty loaded up on the index short here.

Two stocks that look very interesting here for a long swing trade are LFC and MATK. I’m adding them to the watchlist. LFC seems like it would be better if a pullback happened before a buy, but MATK looks great right here.

• 0 Comments

I’m likely putting on a short for the index funds eod. I’m short TWM right now @ 71.35.

Dry Shippers look great today for the start of a new upswing. DRYS and GNK look good.
*Don’t want to leave out TBSI and EXM.

AMZN looks like crap on the daily and weekly timeframes and good on 5minute time frame in case anyone is interested.

• 0 Comments

Wow the RUT was curiously strong today….my RUT short got spanked for -5.5% today while the NDX although was looking at a 3% gain this morning turned into a flat pancake by the close. A very strong move came into the close and who knows why? IMO, we didn’t move up enough last week to relieve the hemorrhoidal tension that was building up for weeks prior. Now, that condition as of today is likely relieved so you can put the baby wipes down and take a breather. Seriously straining is bad for your health.

The price action is certainly supporting a possible longer term bottom may have been put in, but I’m not convinced yet. However, I was convinced enough to cash in my short today at the close and step aside. I would look to fade a market gap up though tomorrow.

BRCM reported afterhours and something must have come off the conference call because the stock was up 3% ah and then went down 6%. So that is going to suck anoos tomorrow for my calls and common that I held onto. The BRCM chart was looking great up until the last two days of trading. Ah well tomorrow is likely a get out point.

Things that worked today: Not being in the CVX, ACI, and BTU calls today because they got re-pummeled after yesterday’s poppage, profiting on the CPSL pop today (it looks like another day left in this run at least - I sell too early), profiting on VCLK mini-pop for a 21% hit in the calls, LLNW seeing some volume into the close (getting back to even on that one). I did try to short with some QID, but dumped it before the market went bonkers. I ate around a 2% loss on the trade.

Bought RTK (again) and PWAV (again). What I’m looking at here is turn ups in the PPO and a very nice pattern in PWAV which is consolidating at the highs and potential break could occur here. Normally people buy the break, I like to get in before the break and do a quick risk analysis to see if its worth attempting the buy ahead of the confirmed break. On RTK I like the price pattern, plus the PPO is turning on stronger volume than yesterday. The PPO and ROC are crossing 0 at the same time.

• 0 Comments

Took the VCLK calls off for 21%+ gain @ .85. Purchased @ .70.

• 0 Comments

Sold CPSL on the pop today. Took a 11.6% gain. I’m considering getting more short here this morning. I don’t know the reason for the minor rally off the bad news, could just be typical counter trend stuff.

Still own LLNW, BRCM, and VCLK calls are up about 14% right now, considering taking it, but I expecting considerably more up than this, so I may just sit in it. Waiting on LLNW to make a move already. Its just consolidating here.

RUT, like Altoids, is curiously strong here.

• 0 Comments

Afterhours all three of these companies reported earnings and it looks are going to cause a nice drop tomorrow morning. This is good for me since I added to my shorts. I wish I didn’t get rid of the intraday QID position today.

I forgot to mention that I dumped PWAV taking about a 1% gain this morning. Forgot to add that to the post earlier today.

I did manage to sell the CVX calls for a 5% gain. CVX made a nice push into the close and closed out on its highs.

ACI and BTU had huge bounces. Although I sold my coal stock call options for a1 day gain in the low 30% range they went as high as 60% for BTU and 50% for ACI as they both closed out very very strong.

I own CPSL, LLNW, BRCM, BRCM Aug 30 calls, VCLK Aug 10 calls (bought at the close), and am short the indexes with leveraged funds in the NDX and RUT. I’m at a half position there. So not heavy, but definitely not lite. The point is the big money is positioned short and it looks like the market will be don tomorrow.

On Friday I said, “I flipped to a small index SHORT position today. I know we have AAPL and a host of other earnings next week - I don’t care. We got a big clue from MSFT and GOOG. On any early week up movement I’ll short the shit out of it.”

• 0 Comments

Took 30%ish or more on the ACI and BTU calls. Very nice 1 day bounce there.

Still holding the CVX calls, but considering dumping those taking the small loss and being happy with the big gains in the coal stocks.

Went short with QID and upped my index fund short position this morning. Just sold QID though for around 1.4-1.5% gain on the intraday basis.

Bought CPSL, sold SNTS, covered the DAR short for small loss, still have BRCM and LLNW.

DAMNIT SPF move today. Just gravy.

What did I tell ya about biotech stocks? DNA gets a bid from ROCHE today!

• 0 Comments

Well on the week to week basis we got the rebound I was expecting.

On a week over week basis, the RUT gained 19 points, and the SPX gained 21 points. However, things like the UYG did 14.6%. So certain items this week exploded while others were just good.

I flipped to a small index SHORT position today. I know we have AAPL and a host of other earnings next week - I don’t care. We got a big clue from MSFT and GOOG. On any early week up movement I’ll short the shit out of it. Don’t get me wrong, it could go up another week and in that case I’ll short into it and is the reason I went lite with the trade. I only wanted to be long for 1 week and this was it. Now the market has to prove itself from here. If the market dumped hard on an AAPL report then I would look to the middle of the week for a bounce. To me it looks like the market could just have a really tough rest of the month that ultimately ends in a sideways move with a lot of volatility in between. However, August would continue that theme early in the month and then dump to new lows. After that final dump I’m betting we see true capitulation with volume in the sectors like tech and really start to see a turn in sectors that have been red hot like commodities such as oil, coal, and the ag stocks.

Sold: SPF @ $4 for a 6% gain, GOOG @ 484 for a -2% loss, RTK @ 1.61 for -4% loss earlier today, DAR @ 15.95 (thats a short position). I actually tried to short my beloved CPST, but Ameritrade wouldn’t let me.

Bought: ACI Aug 55 calls, BTU Aug 65 calls, CVX Aug 90 calls, all three of these plays are for an oversold bounce and nothing more. Most likely a 1 week max trade.

Holding: PWAV, LLNW, BRCM, and BRCM calls.

Overall the week was very good. I made the forced trade on GOOG which was just lacking all intelligence. Nothing behind that trade at all. No planning, no analysis (in fact I went against the analysis), just flat out guessing. Much more was made this week over what was lost though on that GOOG trade and other tiny losses so all in all happy.

• 1 Comment

I sold my RTK position for a 4% loss. Didn’t like the way it was acting. Plus using a new technique is making me more skittish than usual.

• 0 Comments

The long worked again today. On my trimmed long from yesterday I added another 1.9% in the mutual funds which I’m still holding and the ETF’s of UWM and QLD were sold this morning for a variety of gains ranging from 4.5% to 7%. Loving this long trade, but what little exposure I have left is likely to get smacked tomorrow unless C has a ridunkulous quarter tomorrow and who is expecting that sheet to happen? Never know though maybe it won’t be THAT bad.

This was my escape from ICEcatraz. Managed to get out near the open while the trade had positive value. I got out @ 5 while the same calls closed out at 1.7. Sweet and I didn’t have to use a dummy in my bunk, chisel through the wall, and use a rubber raft made of raincoats to get out of the trade.

Escape from ICEcatraz

I made some other buys besides SNTS and VPHM today. I felt like anything I mentioned got hit, so I didn’t want to mention anything else till later on, which is me being superstitious. Traders tend to be superstitious anyways.

Bought and still own: BRCM, BRCM Aug 30 calls, SNTS, RTK, LLNW, PWAV, and SPF. I’m testing a new technique out so I want to see how these little puppies perform over the next two weeks. I also bought some GOOG AH @ 498. This was after the drop and I saw it bouncing. I took a stab at it and it was a forced trade. All day I’m saying the chart looks like shit, the weekly, the daily, the shorter term charts though were looking good. The trade was unnecessary and I tied up capital for no reason. I despise forced trades because it highlights my lack of discipline which has been rather good lately. I’ll probably cut the GOOG and be happy with the lesson.

Bought and lost on: VPHM today. Took the 4% loss intraday.

• 0 Comments

Dumped VPHM @ 10.68 for a 3.9% loss. In between postings I bought RTK which is doing well @ 1.68.

DELL and SPF look interesting.

• 0 Comments

Sold all of my QLD and UWM positions into this strength. Still have the chopped mutual fund position that I talked about yesterday.

Bought: SNTS @ 2.44, VPHM @ 11.12

Both of these are drug/biotech stocks.

**Late edit. Don’t know if RSS readers see this once a post is published, but Sold the July 90 ICE calls @ 5 for a gain of 13.6%. I should have had the August calls on this one, but alas…

• 0 Comments

RUT gave us longs 7.36% with the UWM giving out even more @ 7.73%. The NDX gave us 5% while the QLD gave out 4.78%.

If you’re new to my site, I’ve been long since Friday.

Today I trimmed back my index longs in the mutual funds (because the timing I have to trade them is only twice a day), but kept all of my leveraged ETF positions. I wanted to take advantage of being up and not be as committed to the long as I was. On what I trimmed back today was around a 2% gain. On a drop, though I’d put that powder to use.

The ICE calls are also up fractionally, but I held on for one more day, because I think ICE could put in a larger pop.

In the previous post I talked about BRL and the watchlist. It reminded me that I never calculated the performance of the previous watchlist that I had on the sidebar before erasing it. I’ll say like I’ve said before that it wasn’t maintained very accurately, however, the watchlist, if closed out today, which is what I did, still produced a gain of 30% for the total list/portfolio. Some of the big winners were CLF with a 103% gain, JRCC with a 348% gain. The big losers were well, check out this spreadsheet for those. Now there was plenty of room to get out, in fact I said to take the profits on the coal stocks on June 19th in those names.

Its pretty amazing to me that I can somewhat haphazardly stumble on a 30% gain in this crap market where most pros are not making any money, but in fact losing money, and the StockRake watchlist crushed them all. Now you could call it lucky or whatever. Maybe so on that particular list, but the buys were well planned, while the sells off that list were never really posted about except for the coal stocks. I’m not bragging though just proud of the performance.

I could brag about this ridiculous performance though because it was documented and posted about. I just personally didn’t participate in it.

Old watchlist spreadsheet

• 0 Comments