Any Gas Left?

Dow 14k is in the air, and it's all the pundits seem to want to talk about. I've already mentioned here that my 'upper limit' is 14,100 on the Dow based on its breakout. Even though the Dow was up today to yet another lifetime high, the broader indexes were down, and my overall portfolio climbed by 5%.


When I showed the "mother of all double tops" by way of the S&P 500 graph, many people remarked that the S&P was cheap since profits have doubled on the S&P 500 since the prior high in 2000.

That may be true, but the logic is flawed. That's the equivalent of a Republican declaring the White House could be won in 2008 if only they could find a candidate twice as popular as George Bush. Just because something is double something else doesn't mean the opposite result will take place. If the P/E in 2000 was 500, would a P/E of 250 make it a bargain? Of course, those weren't the real P/Es, but hopefully you can see my point.


The daily chart of the Dow 30 helps illustrate how this market is in the toppermost of the poppermost. I see a fall ahead.


On an intraday basis, it's clear to see how strong the price movement has been since the breakout. I've tinted in the target zone. We have moved through most of the pain already.


A daily chart of the NDX - which I've been avoiding for many months - suggests this graph could be running out of gas too.


My favorite, the Russell 2000, edged down nicely today.


Even though the Gold and Silver index ($XAU) broke above its channel, recently history indicates the RSI has been a reliable bearish indicator; note the areas I've tinted and the subsequent price action.


Akamai (AKAM) looks like a potential bearish play; note the series of lower highs.


ALB also looks nice for a short.


I bought puts on Colgate (CL) today.


I continue to hold onto my CROX puts, which are doing OK.


I also bought puts on CVX this morning. So far, so good.


And I shorted DST (a busy day.....)


I mentioned puts on FXI last week. These look better than ever.


JC Penney has been a favorite of mine recently. My puts on this stock edged higher today due to the stock's weakness.

Melt-Up

Well, it finally happened. We broke out of the consolidation that's been grinding along for six weeks now. The action was just bizarre. I suppose shorts were getting squeezed left and right, and bulls were jumping in with both feet. It was like an orgy of buying.


Based on traditional technical measures, the target for the Dow at this point would be 14,100. I'm not saying it will necessarily get there, but this has been a really clean consolidation, and it seems a sensible conclusion. Particularly given the strong psychological import of the Big Round Number 14,000.


My index-of-choice for puts, $RUT, wasn't as strong as the other indexes, and luckily I was kicked out of my puts the moment the market opened (sparing me most of the day's strength). The high price of 856.39 is awfully close.


Looking at a long-term S&P 500 chart, you can see the index is approaching its lifetime high reached nearly eight years ago.


Now, a moment about the comments section. I totally expected the bulls to rip off their bras and swing them over their heads today - - that's fine, because I would be just as obnoxious if the Dow was down 283 points. There's one particularly poster who doesn't crawl out from under his rock very often, but when he does, his posts are little more than hate and vitriol (he is hiding behind a screen name, but his name is Ryan and he lives in Phoenix). I look forward to being on a new blog platform where I can block sub-humans like this.

In the middle of 1999, Newsweek proved once again the "cultural saturation" rule by having the cover below. The market still had six more months of climbing before it started eroding (not going into full bear mode for another six months after that), but it definitely was a signal of a looming top.


A new best-seller reminds me of the same cultural phenomenon. I actually picked up this book a few days ago and am looking forward to reading it. I guess I'm a frustrated sociologist.


The $VIX has been beaten back into submission again. I'm surprised how cheap puts are these days. I am seeing lots of November puts that are priced no higher than August puts - - - time premium seems to be about zero for some stocks. In most cases, I am seeing in-the-money puts that are barely higher priced than their intrinsic value. So they're basically giving them away.


Apache (APA) is a pretty promising bullish pattern.


And Blockbuster (BBI), which I've mentioned before, also looks bullish.


I think JC Penney (JCP) is at or near its full retracement today. I'm ready to jump into puts on this one again.


There are three stocks that look surprising flaccid given today's action. The first is Baidu (BIDU), which is part of beanie's bombast.


The second is CROX - - I admit, I see the shoes everywhere (ahem - I only wear Eccos, in case you were going to send me some shoes) but I still think it's a fad stock.


And finally, Google (GOOG). For a stock like Google to go up 0.16% on a day like this is pretty lame.


Today's rally was supposedly prompted by strong consumer spending. For a real view of American Consumerism, enjoy this clip from George Carlin - - the portion on consumers starts at the 4:00 minute mark.

Lying in Wait

If you read yesterday's post, today's action would have come as no surprise at all. Luckily, I sold my puts promptly shortly after the opening this morning. I wasn't slick enough to buy calls - and shame on me for not doing so - but I'm at least glad to have exited. In the meantime, here's a live Webcam of me waiting for the push upward to exhaust itself.


The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) - a widely respected organization - recently issued a report citing the distinct possibility of not just a recession, but a worldwide economic depression. Here's a snippet from an article about the report:

The BIS, the ultimate bank of central bankers, pointed to a confluence a worrying signs, citing mass issuance of new-fangled credit instruments, soaring levels of household debt, extreme appetite for risk shown by investors, and entrenched imbalances in the world currency system.

This isn't some weird crackpot organization (or a crackpot blog writer). This is a fairly sober group of individuals. Take note.

The $VIX, as expected, absolutely plunged today. I'm not sure - no one is - what the market's reaction to tomorrow's forthcoming GDP report and Fed Announcement is going to be - - but it's possible that all the excess in the $VIX got squeezed out today. For myself, I think I'm going to keep most of the powder dry until well after the Fed announcement, which always throws the market into a bizarre spasm.


I've tried to emphasize in the chart below the pivot points of the Russell 2000. Just to be clear, the fact that today's is circled doesn't necessarily mean I think the buying is over. But it's a help visual aid in any case.


As you probably know by now, the Russell is my favorite index for option purchases. It was especially strong today. At this point, I'd say 840.02 is a good stop-loss level.


The S&P 500 also had a good day for the bulls. I've drawn the downward-sloping pennant that I believe is confining the market action these days.


Now it just wouldn't feel right if I didn't offer my JCP chart of the day. One reader commented I should get out of those puts. Well, earlier today, I did. I don't think the fall has exhausted itself, but I'd rather take profits now and re-enter the puts after a retracement. If this stock pushes its way back to the neckline, I'm going in big-time again.


I'm long Micron (MU) now. It won't be a long-term hold, I don't think. But this is a nice little bullish chart for now.


Let's enjoy a little George. See you tomorrow.

When It Seems Easy, Feel Queasy...

I began this blog over two years ago, and I think that it has made me a better trader. Having to step up to the podium each day and offer up opinions (which are subject to scrutiny, disparagement, and future review) makes me think long and hard about the market. And the occasional public floggings I have received have imbued with me a healthy dose of humility that I think is essential to profitable trading.

Trading profitably has become far too easy recently for my liking. If bearish trades start becoming like shooting fish in a barrel, I know it's time to take profits. There have been times in the past.......and this is very common among traders.... when easy profits encourage more trading. And the tide starts to turn against you. So you pile on more. And the losses start to pile on. And, before you know it, all your fantastic profits from the last downturn are M.I.A. I really don't want to go through that again.

So as the trading day ended, I was kicking myself for having such a substantial position of puts on the Russell 2000 in place. There are some areas in my life where "irresponsibly large" is welcome, but options positions is not one of them. Let's just say I hope I don't wake up to a huge gap-up in the indexes. It could happen.


The basis for my nervousness.......besides my own angst........is the $VIX. Just take a look as this multi-year graph. For ease of viewing, I have circled peaks and troughs. We have certainly had $VIX levels higher than the present one, but let's face it, this is pretty peak-y. As I said: I'm nervous.


The Russell 2000 is below its supporting trendline, but this trendline isn't horribly significant. In other words, I don't put a heck of a lot of weight into the fact that it is broken. I'm glad it's broken, to be sure, but there's still a fair amount of support at these price levels.


One way to look at the market is that, for the past month or so, we've been caught in a trading range, and we are at the bottom of that range now. I've highlighted the range area on the S&P 500 daily graph here. I do not think we would break into new highs from here, but we might wind up with a triple top or at least partially retrace our way back up near the former highs.


One could look at the market another way........it is pretty easy to lay out a massive rounding top. Just look at the intraday chart of the S&P 500, where I've embellished it with probably one of the worst arcs drawn in human history. (I am not much of an artist).


Returning to the $VIX, however, the zoom upward has been swift. And if the market settles down and starts marching upward again, the premium values built into options are going to shrivel up faster than Strom Thurmond's johnson on a chilly southern evening.


OK, a few stocks. Stocks like CROX! I have, as I've mentioned before, lost some cash on buying CROX puts before. Fool that I am, I gave it another go today. My puts are slightly profitable. I was inspired by an article this week in Barron's. They say that easily 20% of this stock's value could be blown away just by right-sizing it to its industry. Plus, I think it's a fad.


One similar shoe fad which is already "post-bust" is Heelys (HLYS), those obnoxious shoes that kids wear with the wheel on the heel. As you can see, the stock is doing poorly.


I hate to mention JC Penney every day, but this continues to do beautifully. I've highlighted my price target. The puts I bought on this are up huge.


Vulcan Materials (VMC) has a plainly defined range which seems to be breaking down. I'm short this, and it's got a nice ways to fall to the trendline.

Oh, Baby...........

I'm feeling a terrific sense of control over this market (at last). Recently, I've been doing extremely well. Even with intraday trading, I'll buy calls at just about the bottom, sell them at just about the top, then buy puts, and then ride those all the way down. I'm rarely this "in synch" with the market, but it's been a good feeling.


I noticed that Barron's this week features Blackstone's CEO on the cover, pointing out that a massive public offering of the largest private equity partnership clearly signals the peak of these beasts. I couldn't agree more. Oh, let's check in to see how the public's investment in the two-day old Blackstone has been faring.......


Of course, the big news today is that today's bounce from last week's downside action completely evaporated. The Dow surged 120 points higher (and I profitably closed out some calls I bought earlier in the day, then gobbled up a huge number of puts), then the entire gain by blown to smithereens. As you can see from the Russell, the medium-term trendline is now broken.


About half an hour before the close, I sold all my puts (DIA and $RUT), since I felt the selling was - - at least very short term - - overdone. Here's the S&P 500.....


In a broad sense, I think things have changed. It's been horrible awaiting the change, but I think it is finally here. In the broadest view, I think we have witnessed the passing of the Mother of All Double Tops.


This is not to say I'm speculating on outright collapse from here. On the contrary, I think we're probably due for another bounce up. But - as with today's - I may well decide that the bounce has exhausted itself just a couple of hours into a single trading day. My portfolios are devoid of any index positions right now, and consist of carefully-selected equity shorts, equity puts, and a couple of longs (DXD and BBI).

If you're just dying for a bullish stock, AutoDesk (ADSK) looks interesting:


Real estate has been in a freefall for months. I was thinking it would stabilize. But we might be in for some more downside action. Apartment Investments (AIV) has an impressive head and shoulders pattern.


My short in BEAS had a good day. I've put the clearly defined support and resistance horizontal lines here.


Bear Stearns was the "culprit" behind today's fall. I've been mentioning this as a short (or put purchase) for a long time. You can plainly see how, after its fall from its ultimate high, it tried to retrace........but the jig is up, and it's been falling ever since.


Looking at a broader chart, you can see a major, major supporting trendline has been shattered.


Goldman Sachs - employer of the hottie pictured at the top of today's entry - is suffering as well, although not to the same degree. My puts in this are up, and there's plenty of downside left on the stock, tinted here.


Another set of puts that's doing great is JC Penney (JCP). I've illustrated a potential target. Thank you, polyester! Thank you, leisure suits! Thank you, lawnmower care supplies!


Massey (MEE) is sporting a monstrous, gorgeous head and shoulders, and I think the retracement is complete now.


A bunch of people have written me asking to explain some options trading basics. I'll do it on a quieter day when the market is up half a point or something. I've had enough. I'm going for a swim........