2/2 Almanac

Tuesday, Feb. 2, is 17 days before the February options expire, 45 days the March and 73 days the April.

Historically, it tends to be the day of the week with the third highest increase, the date of the month with the highest increase and the month with the ninth highest increase.

What's the short way to say that? The third uppest day of the week on the uppest date of the month in the ninth uppest month. If you can say that three times quickly . . .

In this period my rules allow trades in March calendar and vertical spreads. Butterfly and diagonal spreads, as well as covered calls, are off the table for now. I'm trading unhedged call and put option purchases that expire in April or later. These economic reports will be released: Motor vehicle sales, all day. Interesting to see what happens to Toyota (TM), with its gas pedal probs, vs. Guvm'nt Motors (GM) with its ward-of-the-state image probs. It's like a remake of Mothra vs. Godzilla! Index of pending home sales at 10 a.m. Eastern. As goes housing, so goes the economy, or so goes the thinking of many.

In other events:

• Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker do tag-team testimony before separate Senate committees at 10 a.m. Eastern.

My portfolio consists of:

• CVS, iron condor, p28/-p31/-c34/c36
• ERTS, iron condor, p15/-p16/-c18/c19
• MCO, covered call,  s/-c30
  
• PALM, covered call, s/-c13

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the regular session at $109.06, up 1.6 percent from the prior day's close. The price closed at the 50 percent Fibonacci retracement level, a significant location in the fall from the Jan. 20 high.

Mediawatch: AP says the market rose because of the personal income and manufacturing economic reports. Nearly everyone (happily!) resisted the urge to tie market performance to the release of the Obama budget. Federal budgets are generally surprise free, since it's customary to leak like crazy prior to the release date.

Reuters noted that AMZN, the online bookseller, fell nearly 7 percent because of disputes with publishers over how to price books for its eReader the Kindle.  AMZN closed within the range set three trading days ago. No animals were harmed. No support or resistance levels were broken in the making of this closing price.

In total, 3.3 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges. That's nearly 30 percent fewer than on Friday.

Good trading.

New to Private Trader? Check out the Reader's Guide.

New to private trading? Here's a look at How to Become a Private Trader.

Topics:
S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, Toyota automobiles, General Motors, Amazon, CVS, pharmacies, drugs, Electronic Arts games, Moodys bond rating, Palm smartphone Pixi Pri.