Thursday, February 25, 2010

2/26 Almanac

Friday, Feb. 26, is 21 days before March options expire, 49 the April and 84 the May.

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session at $110.67, down 0.1% from the prior close.

In total, 3.3 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, up 6.5% from yesterday.

On the jump, mediawatch, rules, econ reports, portfolio and a good book...


Mediawatch: The narrative combines economic concerns and Greek debt. AP and Reuters. Another way to state the narrative would be as a heartfelt shrug and a big btsoom.

Economic concerns are with us every day these days, and have been for the past couple of years. The slight decline from yesterday's close signifies nothing in that regard, no? I mean, a 0.1% increase in economic concern?

As for Greeks bearing debts -- Beware! They are with us always. Ambrose Bierce said it, "Forgetfulness - a gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience." Not for nothing is the Goddess Lethe prominent in the Greek Underworld.

My rules allow trades in March iron condors and covered calls, along with butterfly and calendar spreads, and both March and April vertical spreads. I allow myself to trade unhedged call and put option purchases that expire in May or later.

The Gross Domestic Product report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. This is the measure of all the goods and services produced in the nation, and is the key measure of how fast the economy is growing, or not. It seriously lags, however. The consumer sentiment report will come at 9:55 a.m., and existing home sales 5 minutes later at 10 a.m. Both do exactly what their names say, and will be more important for traders than the GDP.


So what good are big wins in the market if you don't get to enjoy all that wealth? LA Times writer Ben Sherwood learns from survivors, from lion attacks to the Holocaust, and from experts to understand what determines whether we live or die.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke does not testify on Friday. Rest easy.

My portfolio consists of . . .

March expiry:
  • AKS, iron condor, p19/-p20/-p25/p26
  • CAL, covered call, s/-c19
  • CSCO, iron condor, p22/-p23/-c25/c26
  • GCI, covered call, s/-c15
  • WFC, iron condor, p26/-p27/-c29/c30
  • XHB, bear call spread, -c15/c16
Shares for dividends: AOD, NLY.

Zombie shares: MCO, PALM.

Good trading!

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Topics: S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, AK Steel Holdings, Alpine Dynamic Dividend closed-end fund, Continental Airlines aviation, Cisco Systems networking, Gannett newspapers media, Moodys bond rating, Annaly Capital Management, Palm smartphone Pixi Pri, Wells Fargo bank financial homebuilders.

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