5/25 Almanac

On Tuesday, May 25: Metro-area home prices, consumer confidence.

There are 25 days before the June options expire, 53 the July and 88 the August.

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


Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session down 1.3% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 1.6% high to low in a net move down of 0.8%.

Thursday's extremes: Open $108.52, high $109.39, low $107.61, close $107.71.

SPY traded entirely within the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $106.77-$108.55.

In total, 5.4 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 1.2 billion more than on the prior trading day. Volume unavailable, but I'm guessing the low side.


Econ reports:

The Case-Shiller home price index will be out at 9 a.m. Eastern. This is the one that has figures by metro area, an especially useful point of view since real-estate is the most local of products.

Consumer confidence follows at 10 a.m., the usual are we confident enough to spend ourselves to prosperity? Speaking for myself, No.

Fedheads: St. Louis Fed Pres. James Bullard speaks at 11:15 a.m.



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, August single calls or puts. Shares, of course, are good anytime.


Good trading!

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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.

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