Tuesday, April 27, 2010

4/28 Almanac

On Wednesday, April 28: FOMC Statement

There are 24 days before the last trading day for May options, 52 the June and 80 the July.

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



Options as a Strategic Investment

Options as a Strategic Investment is a one-stop source of practical information, clearly presented, about the the trader's most important tool for managing risk. This book occupies an important place on my desk.


Stats


Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session down 2.4% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 2.5% high to low in a net move down intraday of 1.8%.

Today's extremes: Open $120.65, high $121.27, low  $118.25, close $118.48.

SPY closed below the range of the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $1116.86/$119.88.

In total, 4.6 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 1 billion more than the prior trading day.


Econ reports:

The Federal Open Market Committee meets. Statement at 2:15 p.m. Eastern, prompting the usual tea-leaf reading to elucidate the meaning of each comma and semi-colon.

Petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m.

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 
  • CIEN, bull call spread, c18/-c19
  • GE, bull call spread, c18/-c19
  • QQQQ, bull call spread, c49/-c50

Dividend shares: JNK, NLY

Special situation: PALM

Zombie shares: MCO

Good trading!


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