3/30 Almanac

Home prices: Rising or not, cold or hot? Consumers: Confident or scared, or just struggling too hard to care?

On Tuesday, March 30, there are 18 trading days left before April options expire, 53 the May and 81 the June.

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

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session at $116.32, up 0.06% from the prior close. On Monday they were down 0.06% from Friday; so far this week is a wash.

SPY closed within today's DeMark pivot points but traded above by 53¢ during the day. The next DeMark pivots are $117.01/$117.85.

In total, 2.8 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, down 15.8% from the prior day.

Mediawatch:  A divergence in the narrative. Stephen Bernard and Tim Paradis of AP credit the stock market's miniscule rise to the personal income and spending report. Spending was up by 0.3%, exactly what was expected. Income was flat. AP asserts this produced more confidence in the economy. A question: If spending is rising faster than income, how sustainable is that? How confident can anyone really be in such a trend? Right. Ellis Mnyandu for Reuters credited rises in the gold and oil sectors, none of them of any magnitude greater than what has been seen in the past few weeks. Personally, I think a stock market index that stands only 0.145% above its opening hasn't moved at all. I mean, it's not even marching in place. It's basically twitching its big toe.

A veteran of the markets, writing with the serious trader in mind, details a proven approach to analyzing market behavior, identifying profitable trade setups, and executing and managing trades–from entry to exit.

Econ reports:

• The Case-Shiller home price index will be released at 9 a.m. It's a key measure of how the economy is faring. Home prices brought capitalist finance to the bring; and they'll play a leading role in bringing the capitalist economy back to what we could all wish was normality.
• The Government's consumer confidence report will be out at 10 a.m. Will you spend your way to bring us back to prosperity? If home prices are rising in your area, maybe you will.

My rules as the calendar transitions from April options to May options allow trades in unhedged call and put option purchases that expire in June or later. No option spreads or anything fancy.

My portfolio consists of . . .

April expiry:

• XLE, iron condor, p55/-p56/-c59/c60
• MCO, covered call, -c29
• MGM, iron condor, p9/-p10/-c12/c13 

Dividend shares: AOD, JNK, NLY
 
Zombie shares: PALM.

Good trading!

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