Tim Bovee, Private Trader: 5/11 Almanac

Monday, May 10, 2010

5/11 Almanac

On Tuesday, May 11: Minor retail sales reports, wholesale trade

There are 11 days before the last trading day for May options, 39 the June and 67 the July.

On the jump, market stats, econ reports, rules, my holdings and a good book...

Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session up 4.4% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 1.5% low to high in a net move up of 0.3%.

Today's extremes: Open $115.81, high $116.65, low $114.91, close $116.16.

SPY traded entirely above the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $115.54-$117.28.

In total, 4.6 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 1.9 billion fewer than in the prior trading day.

Econ reports:

ICSC-Goldman comparable retail stores sales reported at 7:45 a.m. Eastern, followed by the Redbook retail report at 8:55 a.m. and wholesale trade at 10 a.m.

None of these are major market movers, but it is a slowish econ week, and the markets have been hairtrigger, so who knows?

Atlanta Fed Pres Dennis Lockhart gives at speech at 1:15 p.m. The subject is structured finance.

Rules:

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

My Holdings

May expiry:

CIEN, bull call spread, c18/-c19
GE, bull call spread, c18/-c19
QQQQ, bull call spread, c49/-c50
UNP, bull call spread, c75/-c80

Dividend shares: AOD, JNK, NLY

Special situation: PALM

Zombie shares: MCO

Good trading!

The Investor's Guide to Active Asset Allocation: Using Technical Analysis and ETFs to Trade the Markets

Martin Pring's detailed deconstruction of the economic cycle: What sorts stocks to look for at each stage of the recovery. A masterful analysis.