Monday, January 25, 2010

1/26 Lookahead

I'm reading an AP after-market story, by Stephan Bernard and Tim Paradis, saying stocks recovered today because the chances have improved that Ben Bernanke will be confirmed for another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. ("Recovered" is the AP's term, not mine. I would prefer, "bounced gently".)

I mean, if Bernanke is only worth a 0.46 percent rise in the S&P500, then he must not be much of a Fed chairman in the eyes of the market.

No matter. On a day when 3.2 billion shares were traded, I'm always impressed when anyone can peer into a sufficient number of minds to know why they were traded. Uh huh.



On Tuesday, look for two major economics reports, the Case-Shiller housing price index at 9 a.m. Eastern, and the consumer confidence at 10 a.m.
My focus will be on the blue chips (SPY) and the high-volume exchange traded funds and corporate shares to see which way they'll move after the recent decline from a high of 115.14 on Jan. 14 to a low of 111.56 on Friday.

On Tuesday the February options will have 24 calendar days before expiration; the March options, 62 days; and the April options, 80 days.

My trading months are February for the multi-leg spreads and covered calls, and April for straight options purchase and sales without any hedging.

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