2/3 Almanac

Wednesday, Feb. 3, is 16 days before the February options expire, 44 days the March and 72 days the April.

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

Call it an up up up sort of day. . . .

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. It's a pretty slow day for events. These economic reports will be released:  An employment report produced by two private-sector companies at 8:15 a.m. Eastern. It's a preview of the government employment report that will be released on Friday.  Petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m. The main impact is on energy stocks.

In yesterday's almanac I asked whether Toyota's safety problems would set up a Mothra vs. Godzilla scenario for auto sales on Tuesday. The sales didn't disappoint. Rather than Godzilla stomping Detroit, Mothra wreaked havoc in Tokyo.

Toyota's sales fell by 16 percent, Ford's rose by 25 percent, and even GM, a ward of the state, improved sales by 14 percent.
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 $110.38, up 1.2 percent from the prior day's close. The price closed at the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement level, a significant location in the fall from the Jan. 20 high.

Mediawatch: AP ties the market performance to higher home sales. TheStreet.com credits earnings and the decline in the dollar, but also, very strangely, in the first few grafs juxtaposes the market with Senate appearances by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.

In total, 3.7 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges. That's nearly 12.1 percent more than on Friday.

Good trading.

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