8/11 Almanac

On Wednesday, Aug. 11: International trade. Have you bought something from China today?

There are 10 days before the August options expire, 38 the September and 66 the October.

On the jump, market stats, econ reports, trading calendar and a good book...

Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session down 0.5% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 1.5% low to high in a net move up of 0.3%.

The day's extremes: Open $112.03, high $112.98, low $111.37, close $112.38.

SPY closed below the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $111.88-$113.49.

In total, 3 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 28% more than on the prior trading day.


Econ reports:

The international trade figures are out at 5:30 a.m. Eastern. This is the report that shows much more money we're sending to China than China is sending to us. Oh, and other countries, also. But it's China that makes the paranoia kick in.

Also, petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m., potentially a market mover for the energy sector, and the Treasury budget at 2 p.m.: How big is our deficit today?

Small fry: Mortgage Bankers purchase applications, a leading indicator of the housing market.


Trading Calendar:

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


Good trading!

The Great Reflation: How Investors Can Profit From the New World of Money
OK. The credit bubble burst. Housing, burst. Shockwaves reverberated. Markets collapsed. What lies ahead as we remerge from the wreckage.

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Abbreviations:

• psar - Parabolic Stop and Reverse
• adx - Average Directional Index
• pps - Person's Proprietary Signal
• ma20 - 20-day moving average
• macd - Moving Average Convergence-Divergence
• sto - Fast Stochastic

About the glance: The colors indicate the state of each signal.

• trend: Determined by the 5-day moving average, green for up, red for down, yellow for sideways
• adx: orange for above 30-up, blue for 20-down, purple for in the middle. Red is most prone to whipsaws
• psar, pps, macd: green for bull mode, red for bear
• sto: green for overbought, red for oversold, yellow for the neutral zone.