Thursday, April 22, 2010

4/23 Almanac

On Friday, April 23: Durable goods, new homes.

There are 29 days before the May options expire, 57 the June and 85 the July.

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

Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session up 0.3% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 1.7% low to high in a net move up intraday of 1.1%.

Today's extremes: Open $119.81, high $121.17, low  $119.12, close $121.02.

SPY closed above the range of the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $120.07/$122.12.

In total, 4 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, up 200 million from the prior trading day.

Mediawatch


AP brings back the Greeks! Yay, Greeks! Worries over Greek debt caused the stock market to decline. Except wait, it didn't. Stocks are up a bit as of this writing (3:13 p.m. Eastern). Oh well. Go away, Greek debtors!

Reuters does a triple dip ice cream cone: Flat blue chips, higher NASDAQ, Greek debtors. It's like watching jugglers at Cirque du Soleil!

This isn't to say that the Greek debt isn't real. Moody's downgraded Greek bonds today. What I dispute is whether  Greek worries caused today tiny market moves. It's not plausible.


Technical analyst Martin Pring reveals the secrets of the craft. No trader should be without this book.

Econ reports

The durable goods orders report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. This is an old industrial economy sort of indicator. It covers new orders for factories producing expensive things -- not services but things, like cars, computers, televisions, airplanes, the stuff we all think of when hear the word "industry". Orders today translate into production tomorrow, and production means jobs. So it's leading indicator.

New home sales, out at 10 a.m. If a home has a buyer who is committed to go through with the purchase, then it counts as a new home sale. A measure of the health of the real-estate sector and building trades.


My Holdings

By my rules, at this point in the cycle I can trade May covered calls. Also, diagonal, butterfly, vertical and calendar spreads. And also, July single calls or puts. Shares, of course, are good anytime.

May expiry:
  • BBY, bull call spread, c44/-c45 
  • EEM  bear put spread, -p43/p44
  • GE, bull call spread, c18/-c19
  • QQQQ, bull call spread, c49/-c50

Dividend shares: AOD, JNK, NLY

Special situation: PALM

Zombie shares: MCO

Good trading!

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